Three Imaginary Girls

Seattle's Indie-Pop Press – Music Reviews, Film Reviews, and Big Fun

Hoo boy. I wish I hadn't seen this. I don't even want to write about it, it was so awful and stupid. The Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players have been performing their audio/visual around Seattle for a number of years. We were excited to see their cute show at Victrola.

But did we see a cute show, Liz?

No. Well, the slides were pretty cute. But Jason Trachtenburg was such a freak! All he did was knock KEXP. I think he even referred to morning show DJ John Richards "The Devil" at one point… and he was intermittently whining all kinds of nonsense about Christianity and Judaism killing the world too… and how KEXP only plays Christian rock, and hillbilly music, or something. I don't know. It was like watching a crazy person. A very belligerent crazy person.

It was just awful! My ears are still ringing with repressed indignation after hearing the first few songs of this show (and this was all I could stand). I was really looking forward to seeing these guys, too. It sounded so charming! Dad plays songs, daughter plays drums, and wife projects vintage slides to accompany said songs… how could this be anything less than adorable?

Well, this wasn't a show — it was the saddest spectacle of an unwarranted and preposterous shit-smearing campaign I have ever witnessed, starring Jason Trachtenberg as the Master of Delusional Grandeurs. I presume he is all pissy towards KEXP because they aren't playing his band enough. Poor crybaby Trachtenburg. I couldn't stand it; I went so far as to heckle him before storming out. Hrmph!

I make an effort not to get mad at people just because their opinions are different than mine. Usually I can do this by reassuring myself that I am right and they are wrong (which, I imagine, is exactly what they are doing). In this case, the thing that bothered me most was that something as kitschy and out-of-the-ordinary as this would typically be a perfectly fun event for me. But, NO, he had to mistake this amusing "act" for something closer to ground-breaking "art" and then throw in hate and anger in attempt to attract even more attention.

I think the vintage slides put to basement keyboard lines it is a grand idea — but one that has its limits. Had he not been so annoying with his rants and mongo-ego, I would have stayed the entire show and told my grandkids about it. Now the only thing they will get to hear about from that evening's activities is the story about that fun game of ping-pong we had later that night. Whatever.

Totally – whatever. Seems that Daddy Trachtenburg is packing up the family into their van and moving to New York, because people in Seattle just don't appreciate them. That's solace. Move! I'm sure people will be far kinder in New York. That poor cute kid. She will grow up believing it's acceptable to blame others for your own shortcomings. I can see the therapy bills already…