"It's 1970. 1969 is toast," and Jonathan Richman just wants to form a band back in Boston. "The Man Who Was Too Loud," an ingenious hybrid of stage and song, documents the formation of one of rock's most important and unappreciated bands, The Modern Lovers, and is currently playing in Austin.
The "Rock-U-Drama," is the creation of writer/producer Josh Frank, the "Austin born, N.Y. theater bred" artistic director of Theaterless Theater. The idea of it is to give the audience a concert, play, and documentary into a single production.
As the story goes, it is the end of the '60s, the world is chaotic to say the least, and while traveling, Jonathan Richman has an epiphany: He needs to form a band. From this point on, the actors and musicians deliver an all out assault of Modern Lover tracks, a band that spawned keyboardist Jerry Harrison of Talking Heads fame, David Robinson (the future drummer for The Cars), as well as the eccentric, yet intelligent mind of Jonathan Richman. Hippies were passé and this was the infancy of garage rock and the birth of punk rock.
Filling in these rolls are Frank, portraying Richman, as well as some of Austin's most talented musicians. Drummer for the bands Brown Whornet and Adult Rodeo, Phillip White, is one of these.
"We've learned how to play music that this guy helped create," White said before pointing out, "We're kind of the result of him."
To prepare for the show, the group played a handful of gigs in local clubs to hammer out the music. But don't me mistaken: This performance isn't just a concert. In addition to the musicians, there are actors and video.
"It's really hard to define it," White said. He continued, "I see it more as a live rock show with a theme, that tells a story.
Frank, who in the past produced "Stroszek," a film by German director Warner Herzog, first came up with the idea while working with the Nederlanders (of "Rent" fame), opening an off Broadway show "Love, Janis," about Janis Joplin.
From there Frank began to think about which band would define his generation as a rock musical. Immediately it came to him, but it was not The Modern Lovers.
"Then it kind of hit me, fuckin' A, the Pixies, the birth of alternative rock," Frank said. And while "The Man Who Was Too Loud" is a work in progress, which by no means takes anything away from it, the Pixies project is his large-scale masterpiece. It is currently in development and is scheduled for a 2004 release.
It was his relationship with Frank Black and the other members of the Pixies that helped persuade Richman, who has spent most of his time out of the light of mainstream, to agree to the show.
"At first he [Richman] was very unsure - he didn't know who I was," Frank explained.
One of the best parts of seeing this innovation of theater is parallel to what Frank is doing and what those who he writes about did. "The general theme in all these [his Rock-U-Drama's] is kid has an epiphany and goes out in a DIY nature and stirs shit up," Frank said.
Rather the audience is filled with people who have never heard of the Modern Lovers, die hards or those who just enjoy theater, it is hard not to appreciate the creativity of what is put in front of them.
"In the end this is for me as an artist going to show where me and my generation got our soul from," Frank said.
"The Man Who Was Too Loud" will be playing Thursday through Saturday at 8 p.m. at the New Ruta Maya on South Congress before ending it at Club de Ville, Wednesday, Oct. 8 at 10 p.m. Student tickets are $8.
Be the first to comment on this article!