ACMF Show Review: Confessions of a Contra-dance Virgin
By Matthew Toledo - 8/23/2006
Whenever I hear the phrase "Contra-dance" I instantly envision a video game character from the 1980's Konami corporation arcade game "Contra" doing a victory dance. Or, it reminds me of the exact opposite of the "Safety Dance." Which reminds me of something else funny I heard the other day: "You don't need pants to do the victory dance!" Ok, where am I going with this? Oh, that's right!
Saturday August 19, 2006. The Hotpoint String Band is the headlining act booked at the Front Room for the 8th annual Athens Community Music Fest. They are the last band people will see before the Front Room closes and the crowds disperse to other venues participating in the day long festival. All the chairs and sofas at the venue are full. Everyone is watching intently, and an older gentleman to my left is jiggling in his seat to the beat so intensely, that I thought he was about to explode with delight. The room was primed for dancing, but no one would stand up and take the first steps. Athens, you missed out.
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As their name implies, the group is a string band that plays mainly acoustic old-time music. String bands were popular in the United States prior to the 1930's when trends in music switched to country music and bluegrass. There was a revival of interest in this type of music during the late 60's that coincided with the same folk movement that made artists like Bob Dylan famous. This type of music is still typically played at square dances and a type of folk dance called a contra-dance.
If you've attended a public school in North America, chances are you've done at least one square dance in your life during either gym class or cotillion class.
According to Gary Shapiro on the Santa Barbra Country Dance Society website, "Contra Dancing is not line dancing!" Although people do line up. It is, however, "a form of dance that thrusts a different person of the opposite sex into your arms every 30 seconds or so."
A contra-dance looks like something from an old-school Hollywood musical or period piece. The dance steps are based on a French royal court dance mixed with steps from 17th century English country dances. Typically, everyone lines up in two rows that run the length of the dance hall. All the ladies could be on one side, or they could be interspersed depending on the type of contra-dance. Dances typically last about three hours with an intermission that allows everyone to rest. Contra-dance festivals still occur throughout the western world.
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The Hotpoint String Band has played at dances and festivals throughout the entire United States and parts of Canada. The group is lead by local Shisha Café owners Mark Burhans on fiddle and Hillarie Burhans on banjo. Hotpoint's percussionist Mark Hellenberg is also the host of the local late-night WOUB radio show, Audiosyncrasies. Marlene Shostak plays piano and Nick Weiland plays the stand-up bass as well as the electric tropical shirt.
I took particular notice of Hillarie's picking style. She used the Clawhammer picking technique. That's when your hand hovers above the strings and looks like a claw. It is similar in appearance to the way a slap-n-pop bassist plays. I had only seen it used once before in person by guitarist Derek Trucks. Evidently, use of this technique among guitarists is rare, but it is quite commonplace on old-time banjo.
The band divided their performance into sets. Prior to each set, Mark would explain where the songs we were about to hear came from. A concert, it would seem, is part dance, part Discovery Channel. I learned from Mark, for instance, that a banjo is more of a drum than anything else. Some parts of their sets were covers of traditional songs that were so old, no one remembered who the authors were. A few were the original creations of the members of their band. A few other songs were borrowed from friend's bands--a practice that is evidently cool among string bands.
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One such song that was a hit with the room was by the Seattle, Washington based band, KGB. The song was one of the few of the performance that featured vocals. The chorus was in a minor key with all the members of the band singing "la's" as if they were drinking at a Russian pub deep in the country. The chorus would eventually resolve into a country major key.
Vocals are evidently rare in contra-dance. Yet, the band uses vocal cues to communicate when a turn-around is going to occur, when the end of a song is approaching, and who's turn it is to solo. Occasionally I would hear a short and loud "YIP!" or "AIEE!" from one of the band members as if they sat on a tack. It took me by surprise at first, but I eventually figured out the purpose of those seemingly spontaneous yelps.
Mark Hellenberg's drumming stood out among the songs. His drumming style reminded me of jungle beats, or Native American beats mixed in with some cowboy two-step. He played just about every part of his hybrid kit, including the sides of a djembe, his drums, and stands--anything that would make a noise. At times it seemed a bit, too much, but something tells me the room full of people at the Front Room who were tapping their feet would disagree with me.
While I'm no stranger to the Hotpoint String Band's music, (they are on the AMN sound clip page and they were included on the first AMN compilation), I had never seen them in person before. Performances in downtown Athens are rare. They typically play at the Dairy Barn, which may be good for country folk, but it's a bit of a walk for city pedestrians like myself. I was hoping to witness an actual contra-dance, but perhaps the superfluous amount of chairs and tables at the Front Room were too much of an obstacle for shy contra-dancers to overcome. Hopefully the band will make the journey to Court Street again sometime. If they do, I highly suggest you check them out.
