Skate or Die

I am married to a future rock star!

My wife Greta made her onstage debut tonight playing with her sister’s band The Soft Complex at an event party for DC Pulse Magazine at Club Five.

The show went off smashingly. Since my sister-in-law Alexia is in the band, I have been able to watch The Soft Complex evolve since they started playing area clubs about 6 months ago. Tonight’s performance was a fiery display of confidence in their material. They just came off recording their first album down in Richmond, VA and tonight’s set really showed how that process has tightened them up as a unit. Tonight their music had an extra kick, an energy and thickness of sound that promises great things for their first performance at DC’s holy temple of rock, the 930 Club, this Friday.

The setting of The Soft Complex show was…interesting. Club Five is a pretty sweet night club spot, altho a little too trendy/pricey for my tastes ($5 for a Bud Lite on special!). That said, it was cool to have an excuse to go hang there, I dig the decor. And it is fun to sit there and cast memory-holograms over the current decor and remember it as The Roxy, a shit-hole run in the same space which I frequented in the early 90’s because they ran a great Industrial/Goth nights for about 6 years.

The event was a “Benefit” for DC Pulse, “The magazine for urban arts and culture in DC.” I don’t know what was a benefit about the event, it seemed more like an announcement party as Pulse puts out its third issue. There were gift bags and free issues of Pulse floating around. And an odd mix of a crowd.

What was most “interesting” was that DC Pulse had constructed a skating half-pipe on the dance floor and had continuous skating while the band played. Which made it a little difficult to see the band. There were about 15 skate-punks trying to do tricks while the band was tearing through their set. I guess this was inspired by the Warp Tour, or maybe that Social Distortion/Skate tour last year, I don’t know. But what I do know is that the tiny Club Five dance floor is no MCI Center and there is very little room to skate and have a band play simultaneously.

It was funny to watch one end of the half-pipe share the stage with the band. I felt bad for Greta, who was making her first onstage appearance, nervous as all get-out, having to contend with skateboards flying up inches from her face every five seconds. That goes for the whole band really. At one point a skater wiped-out on stage and knocked the microphone into the lead-singer’s teeth. A few other times, skate-boards shot out from under their riders to assail the drummer like they were Scud missles and he was Tel Aviv circa 1991.

Anyway, it as a huge testament to the talent of The Soft Complex that they played such a great show under the Skate-or-Die onslaught. They are playing again this Friday at the 930 Club (with Greta!) and they promise their will be no runaway skateboards.

Originally published on June 16, 2005.