Not playing it straight

Three Indianapolis bands will attempt to subvert the conventional notions of entertainment in this town by holding a rock and roll show at one of the city’s leading gay-oriented bars, Talbott Street.

Jade Gortley (front) of The Jabs, performs while The Slurs’ Justin Allen plays guitar.

The Friday night show at 2145 N. Talbott St. will not only feature the music of The Relatives, The Slurs and The Jabs, but will also feature a drag queen show and progressive house music from DJ Logan.

The evening will be hosted by famed drag queen Vicki St. James and will feature custom fashions by designer Steve Garstang and hairstyles by Emmett Cooper to fill the glam-rock theme of the evening.

The show was conceived by Brent Eskew of The Relatives after a trip to New York. “I was hanging out in the East Village and it was awesome,” he says.

“Then flying back into Indy was just depressing. Nothing against Indy, but it just seemed flat. I wanted to try and do something that was cool and would shake things up.”

After talking with The Jabs and The Slurs, Eskew’s first idea was to play a stripper bar, which will happen later this spring. Then the idea of playing Talbott Street was considered.

Booking the show takes some extra sensitivity on both sides. Rock fans will have to attend a show on unfamiliar turf, while Talbott Street will have to prepare for new visitors.

“We aren’t trying to empty out Talbott and turn it to the Patio for one night,” Eskew says. “We want to play and have some metro integration for once. There are maybe going to be some guys who are apprehensive about going. But the integration will work both ways, because Talbott Street isn’t the center of rock and roll. It should be fun.”

Garstang, who’s worked extensively for MTV and musicians in the past, says he’s excited about helping style the show. “I’ve always wanted to do a rock and roll show at a gay bar,” he says. “It’s more of a special event than a regular show. Nobody dresses anymore. We’re so casual here that we forget that it’s possible to even be glam.”

He wants to keep the fashion ideas a secret until the show, though. “It could be sports, with a dirty jock, tube socks and old Chucks. Maybe a little glitter, too.”
For his part, Justin Allen, lead singer of The Slurs, is happy about the blending of two cultures.

“Rock and roll is sex,” he says. “When you look out at a crowd, it doesn’t matter if they’re gay or straight or alien. They’re getting off on the rock and roll any way they can, whether it’s tapping their feet, bobbing their head or standing around like a sixth-grade jerk-off in a Korn T-shirt. It’s all the same.”

He adds, “If there are people who won’t go to the show because of the venue, then they need to grow up.”

Andy Fark of The Jabs agrees. “I was on the show from the get-go,” he says. “I was like, I don’t care when the show is or where it is. I will be play that just for the fact that it’s something different, it’s going to be packed to the gills and it will rock.”

He says, “The majority of people I’ve talked with are very excited about seeing this show. People have been telling me they’ve had a sitter reserved for a month.”

“It’s a great idea,” says Jim Kuczkowski, guitarist and musical director of The Slurs. “Hopefully, it will turn some heads. It almost seems like we’re making a political statement by playing the show, but it wasn’t our intention. I don’t mind being on that side of the political spectrum, though.”

The theme for the night will be glam rock, which will suit The Slurs quite well, although the band had been scaling back its glam side for a while now. “There will be one production number where some of the drag queens join us on stage,” Kuczkowski says. “We’ve got a couple of tricks up our sleeves, but people will just have to come see the show to find out about them. We’re not going to do the same kind of show anywhere else.”

For The Relatives, the show will be one of their first after a relatively long layoff. The group was the winner of the first Patio/Benchmark Battle of the Bands in 2001 then seemed to disappear shortly after that.

“What happened was, the Battle of the Bands finals was our fourth show,” Eskew says. “Then I think we played some crappy shows because we were unrehearsed. So we didn’t intentionally take a break, it just came out that way. We didn’t want to play shows until we were ready.”

The show will kick off a period of increased activity for the band, he says. “I hope people will really enjoy this show,” Eskew says. “It’s not the kind of show that happens every day, especially in Indianapolis.”