music The Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players (TFSP) are, literally, well, a family of slideshow players: Jason, the father, plays guitar and keyboards and sings, daughter Rachel beats the drums and mom Tina Piña adds vocals while she directs the slideshow. The TFSP website contains a succinct description: “We take vintage slide collections we’ve found at estate sales, garage sales and thrift stores, and turn the lives of anonymous strangers into pop-rock musical exposés based on their slides.” On Friday night at Starr Hill, TFSP took the ambitious concept
one step further.
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“TFSP on Ice” was the sixth annual version of their holiday show, and, on a subfreezing night, the Family was nattily dressed all in white, characters in their own “Winter Wonderland.” A three-part play of sorts—where the three sat around a table and delivered lines—added to the kitschy artifice. After Jason delivered many of his lines, a laugh track ensued and sparked real cackles from the small audience.
“That canned laughter sounds like a hockey game,” Tina said after one such incident. “When are we gonna get a real laugh track?” “At least I get all the laughs,” Jason replied, to more giggles both artificial and genuine.
The hilarity also translated to the musical performances, where Jason was prone to long, comical introductions and even a mid-song break. “I’m peaking. Seriously folks I’m peaking, like Peking Duck,” he said as the crowd guffawed. “I should use that as our laugh track,” he responded.
The music fit neatly into the feel of the evening. Jason is a veteran of the anti-folk scene of early 1990s New York (that also featured Beck at one point), and, with only scant augmentation (Rachel bangs out the most basic percussion), songs like “Military Open-Mic Night” and “Beautiful Dandelion” had a decidedly lo-fi feel. “We’re not different from anyone and neither are any of the other bands,” Jason said. Projected on a screen behind them, the slides—many of them snapshots from moments in random people’s lives—contributed to the homespun aesthetic.
We could’ve easily been sitting in someone’s living room listening to them deliver droll descriptions of their vacation, but thankfully we were not; the charming musical vignettes provided both entertainment and amusement. “Every word of this song is true, and thanks for coming out tonight,” Jason said, before delivering the night’s final tune, “You’re All Right with Us.” TFSP were all right with us, too.
