Local musicians are over the moon about an upcoming space-themed benefit concert in Northampton.
Transformance, previously known as Transperformance, will return this year to the Pines Theater at Look Park in Florence on Tuesday, Aug. 18, from 4:30 to 9:30 p.m. The show features local musicians performing 10-minute sets as well-known artists.
Transformance raises money for Northampton Public Schools. All of the food vendors will donate at least $300 from their profits to funds that are earmarked for those schools’ arts enrichment programs. Similarly, ticket proceeds fund grants for which local public school arts teachers can apply.
This year’s theme is “Moonage Daydream — A Look to Space,” the title of which comes from a song by the late music icon David Bowie song and posthumous documentary of the same name. Steve Sanderson, arts events producer at the Northampton Arts Council, chose the theme not only because he was fascinated and inspired by NASA’s Artemis II mission, which took place in April, but also because he’s always wanted to connect the festival’s theme to Bowie in some way.
“I think he’s the greatest artist of all time,” Sanderson said.
All selected performers chose a band or artist whose name or work ties to space.
This year’s lineup is The Friendship Band as Dark Star Orchestra; Ian St. George Band as David Bowie’s Berlin era; Soul Magnets as Parliament-Funkadelic; Indë, with Hyla Bido as Erykah Badu; RADIO The Band as Bowie’s persona Ziggy Stardust; A Beautiful Future Band as Bruno Mars; Wishbone Zoë as Big Star; BUNNIES as Mazzy Star; King Radio performing songs from “Guardians of the Galaxy”; Rival Galaxies as LCD Soundsystem; The Brass as Future Islands; gundy and Magic Carpet Band as Pink Floyd; The Colony Motel as The Bottle Rockets; Biggerstars as Love and Rockets; Wildcat O’Halloran as Bill Haley & His Comets; Our Three as Angel Olsen; The Greys and Jake Buddy Band as Freddie Mercury; and Edy, Morgan, Aurelia, Adrien as Sun Kil Moon.
“Ask any musician. They’ll say that this is one of their favorite concerts … and they spend so much time rehearsing and working on costumes to recreate these artists. That’s why the show is so beautiful. People are thrilled by it every year. You get to go see 20 of your favorite bands, perhaps performing as 20 of your [favorite] more-famous bands,” Sanderson said with a laugh.
“I think he’s the greatest artist of all time.”
Steve Sanderson,
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The Friendship Band is a musical group whose members are students and staff at Milestones, the program for adults and older teens at Whole Children, an organization in Northampton that serves people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. They’ll be returning for their third year, this time performing as the Grateful Dead tribute act Dark Star Orchestra, but they’ll be opening the show with “Dancing in the Street” by Martha and the Vandellas. As instructor, bassist and vocalist Eddy Hougen put it, they’ll be “pretending to be a band pretending to be another band playing a cover song.”
“It’s a whole bunch of pretending there,” Hougen said with a laugh. “But the end result actually is us being very much ourselves.” For his group, doing a tribute act comes with “a lot of embedded lessons,” he said, like listening closely to others.
When asked what audiences can expect to see at the Friendship Band’s set, Hougen said, “You can expect to see a group of musicians who’ve worked really hard and are hitting their stride right now as a band. They can expect to see people you don’t always see on stage at events like this, ripping it up and having fun.”
Also back for their third year is Indë Francis, known mononymously as Indë, paying tribute to singer and songwriter Erykah Badu. Badu’s heavily Afrofuturist style blends elements of Afro-punk, Afro-surrealism and neo-soul.
“Through all of that, her spirituality has been really at the forefront, and when I say spirituality, I don’t mean a particular doctrine or prescribed faith. She really is an Afro-mystic,” Francis said. “Her ability to transcend the everyday and to bring this sort of galactic wisdom down to the surface of Earth is what makes her the type of artist that fits into [the theme].”
While Francis performs in the background, Lyric Dixon will take the spotlight as Badu, performing under the drag persona Hyla Bido. Francis noted that the narrative-driven set will feel “like a tiny play.”
“It’s a story about being weighed down by the baggage of being a Black woman in America and finding really spiritual guidance and letting yourself be in love with the world, which is a big to-do,” Francis said.
Francis is also working on exploring their own spirituality and connection with the Earth. “I’m looking forward to channeling some of that exploration into the performance and hopefully having fun with the audience and getting them to see above some of the turmoil here on the surface,” they said.
For Hadley-based indie dance-punk band Rival Galaxies, paying tribute to LCD Soundsystem made perfect sense, because the group heavily influenced their own musical style.
“I’ve always had a fascination with synthesizers and synthesizer music, and then I went and saw LCD Soundsystem live and that solidified, ‘Oh, wait, I could do the rock thing with synthesizers, be super fun and dance-y,’” said Mike Fucilli, frontman of Rival Galaxies.
Fucilli didn’t want to give specific details about what his band’s set will entail, but he did say there will be synthesizers and a lot of energy. “We always bring a bullhorn to the party, so there will be a lot of shouting,” he said.
Ironically, one of Sanderson’s favorite parts of Transformance is the exact opposite of that high-energy shouting. He loves walking into the performance area early in the morning just as his crew begins loading in the equipment. “I stand on the stage. It’s perfectly empty. It’s quiet,” Sanderson said. “It’s always a perfectly sunny day with a light breeze, and I think about what’s going to happen over the next 12 hours.”
“That is my favorite moment, before anything even happens, because I’ve got so many memories from all the years we’ve been producing this,” he continued. “It’s the beautiful weight of all those memories and how amazing the shows are every year. I’m filled with that, with a nostalgia, with a love for the event.”
Tickets are $10 via zeffy.com/en-US/ticketing/transformance–36 or at the Pines Theater box office the day of the show starting at 3:30 p.m. EBT, WIC and ConnectorCare cardholders can get free admission by entering the code “Card2Culture” at checkout and presenting their card when they arrive.
