7 minute read
Music
38
MUSIC
[THROWBACK]
A Sweet Return
e Indie Rock Ice Cream Social brings “fuck yeah” energy back to O Broadway
Written by CARLOS MENDOZA
After a nine-year hiatus, the popular Indie Rock Ice Cream Social is returning to Off Broadway on Friday, August 12. The event features four indie rock bands and a free ice cream bar provided by Serendipity Homemade Ice Cream.
Michael Tomko, the show’s organizer, announced the event’s return on social media at the end of June. He was buoyed by the positive reception. “It’s nice to hear they remember this niche thing. It pushes me to keep going,” he says.
The last ice cream social was in 2013. Tomko started organizing the event in 2006 when he was the manager and guitarist/percussionist for the band Gentleman Auction House. He later played guitar for the band Via Dove, which performed at the social for multiple years. In 2007, Tomko also co-owned the Bluebird, later called the Firebird, a Midtown concert venue that is now closed.
“Originally, the events were to push my own club or band further, but after 2013, I didn’t have either of those things going on,” Tomko says. “Life changed and other pursuits caught my attention.” Tomko’s daughter was born in 2014, and his software-development job was getting more demanding.
Via Dove ultimately disbanded in 2015 and “my longest-running event, An Under Cover Weekend [an annual concert featuring local bands playing tribute sets], went on hiatus in 2019.” Tomko also organized the Tritone Expo, a 2016 music and tech expo at Cortex.
He’s excited to bring the ice cream social back, saying he draws energy from creating “elevated experiences for bands and fans.” Reflecting on his event-running past, he says, “While I don’t expect to come back to doing events full time again, I personally missed that energy in my life and realized that some of the things that I had prioritized over musical pursuits were ultimately not as fulfilling.
Can we expect more events to return in the future? “Maybe [the social] is a gateway to bringing back some other of my local faves of the past — like An Under Cover Weekend — and creating something new for a new generation of fans also sounds rather appealing.”
Starwolf, YOUPEOPL, Jesus Christ Supercar and Amberskies are all performing at this year’s social. Tomko says the event and four-band lineup brings a “fuckyeah energy” because it is happening in an intimate venue where the crowd and bands can feed off of each other.
The lineup is not homogeneous — rather, “there’s representation for different areas of St. Louis,” Tomko says. The lineup includes neo-soul, punk disco and psychedelic funk.
In the past, the social helped people discover bands they wouldn’t have known otherwise. “It takes a lot for people to spend money on a local artist; it’s a huge accomplishment for the band,” Tomko says.
The enticement of free ice cream doesn’t hurt. The iconic dessert speaks “a universal language which brings a whimsical but familiar feeling,” Tomko says. “It’s like when you walk into a party where you don’t know anyone but see that one person you recognize.”
Serendipity Homemade Ice Cream has been hosting the free ice cream bar since the beginning, serving an array of custom flavors and toppings. n years past, there were fancy flavors like Salty Caramel, Irish Cream and Bordeaux Cherry. This year, while the flavors are still being decided, with help from his eight-year-old daughter, Tomko mentions guests can expect a “few staples alongside a few more adventurous flavors Serendipity is known for.”
With the familiar treat in hand at a familiar event, Tomko is hoping that everything clicks. “When everyone’s off doing their own thing and having their own worries, this is the touchstone of familiarity that brings everyone home.” n
Bear Hive performed at the 2011 Indie Rock Ice Cream Social, which was at the Firebird. | JON GITCHOFF
e crowd at the fi h annual Indie Rock Ice Cream Social brought the energy. | JON GITCHOFF
Check out Indie Rock Ice Cream Social at Off Broadway (3509 Lemp Avenue, offbroadwaystl.com) on Friday, August 12. Doors open at 6 p.m., and the show starts at 7. Tickets are $15.
STAGE
39
[SHAKESPEARE]
An AfroFuturistic Midsummer
e St. Louis Shakespeare Festival’s park tour boasts an all-Black, local cast
Written by JESSICA ROGEN
Some are born to the stage. thers find their ways there by chance.
Tre’von riffith developed an interest in theater growing up in north city. t eight, he had his first professional role in the lack Rep’s production of Joe Turner’s Come and Gone. niversity ity’s randin aughn might have never found the industry. fashion designer and owner of a herokee treet store, randin aughn ollection, he got tapped for costume design for the lack Rep’s Spell No. 7 that ran in early before being cut off by the pandemic .
This summer, the two creatives, with their distinct paths, have come together for the production of t. ouis hakespeare estival’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, which will stop in area parks. The tour kicked off last week and runs through aturday, ugust . The free, -minute show starts at p.m. every Tuesday through unday.
The play follows preparations for the wedding of Theseus, uke of thens, to ippolyta, an ma on ueen. our lovers, including Theseus’ daughter, enter a forest and run afoul of a dispute between fairy royalty as well as the trickster fairy uck. ilarity ensues, but as the tale is one of the comedies, all ends in marriage. riffith, a musician and composer also known as Tre , serves as director, and aughn as the costume designer. The producing artistic director is Tom Ridgely.
The show has an all- lack company of local actors. That cast, the show’s accessibility and the way that theater has been a creative home for riffith and aughn are all related and feed into why each umped at the opportunity to take part. The cool thing is going into the different communities in t. ouis, engaging with them in ways that probably haven’t been done before, riffith says. lso, it’s about representation. oming up as a child, didn’t have a lack designer as a role model, aughn adds. That wasn’t there. o ’ll be the catalyst for that. f you dream it, you can do it.
To bring this dream to life, riffith decided on fro-futurist an aesthetic that imagines a future of lack e cellence through the use of technology and often includes sci-fi elements as the unifying concept. e says that it worked well for this show because so much time is spent in the dream world, a setting with plenty of creative room. want to be able to tell stories that are representative to the world that we live in now, he says.
That theme came out strongest in the costumes and the music. riffith drew from a variety of music styles, including R and gospel, and unifies them with a future synth aesthetic and a driving beat. or the costumes, aughn used colorful frican fabrics for the human characters to give the actors a vibrant pop on stage. Then for the fairies, he went full futuristic, creating helmets out of motherboards, floppy disks and piping. e focused on differentiating cast members and making sure the costumes wouldn’t smother the cast performing outside in t. ouis’ muggy heat. ome favorite pieces include a -panel puffer vest with a pleated cape wings on the back and a mirrored, asymmetrical corset with agged edges that reflects light across the stage. ostumes really help tell the story, aughn says. hakespeare’s Midsummer Night’s Dream is a story that we’ve seen over and over again. ut had the opportunity to show my vision of the story when read the script, and that’s the most important part to me.
Though riffith didn’t change anything about the te t of the play, he says that he also did a kind of interpretation to make everyone watching feel welcomed and able to digest the action on stage. That process began with digging into the te t itself, then creating mood boards and finally talking with the creative team about how to bring the vision to life. lot of times, when you say hakespeare, you don’t necessarily think it is for everyone, riffith says. nd it really is. t’s not only this team’s specific approach that makes this a show for anyone, riffith says. t’s inherent in the story, which features a character, ermia, who wishes to marry the man she loves rather than the man her father has picked. This generation, we believe in doing what’s right, going against those social norms, riffith says. veryone wanted her to marry this person and she wanted to follow her heart. n
e production has an all-Black, local cast. | COURTESY ST. LOUIS SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL
Tre’von Gri th serves as Midsummer’s director. | COURTESY ST. LOUIS SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL
Catch the next performance at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, August 11, at Shroeder Park (359 Old Meramec tation oad Manchester) or find future shows at stlshakes.org/production/midsummer-tour.
