Numbers + letters = good cents: Transperformance 18 takes place Tuesday

By Phoebe Mitchell
Staff Writer

Published on August 22, 2008

Performers at next week's Transperformance at Look Park's Pines Theater will be minding their Ps and Qs and, very likely, also putting two and two together.

Held for the 18th time this year, the event features area musicians - and Northampton Mayor Clare Higgins - dressed like and singing the songs of well-known performers. This year's theme is bands who have letters and numbers in their names. Think U2, NRBQ, the O'Jays and XTC.

The show takes place Tuesday from 4 to 9:30 p.m., and will include some two dozen performances by musicians, all who donate their time to the event, which benefits arts enrichment programs in Northampton's public schools and neighborhoods.

"It's really a great community event," said Bob Cilman, director of the Northampton Arts Council. "It's an end-of-the-summer thing and people see everybody they know."

This year also has a special focus: the event is dedicated to Buddy Rubbish, who died earlier this year. A regular on the Transperformance stage as host and performer, Rubbish, whose real name was Lou Roucher, appeared in the guise of luminaries from Yogi Berra to Joan Baez. A Turners Falls resident, he was well known throughout the Valley in the 1980s and '90s as a popular radio host on WRSI-FM and WRNX-FM.

Legendary for his ad-lib humor, Rubbish brought his particular polish to each Transperformance. As Ricky Nelson in 1993's event, for example, he said his preparation for singing the popular '60s crooner's hits "Hello, Mary Lou' and "Garden Party" included "gazing into space a lot."

"And I've been working to get just the right amount of nasality in my voice," he quipped. "Ricky was one of the early pioneers of singing through the nose.'

In the past, Transperformance has drawn its inspiration from groups composed of family members ("All in the Family"), bands with colors in their name ("Color by Numbers") and memorable bands from the 1950s and early '60s ("Dick Clark Look Park"). The event is a presentation of the Northampton Arts Council and the PTOs of Northampton's public schools.

Cilman attributed the event's continuing popularity, in large part, to the "incredible energy" contributed by the participating musicians.

"They put so much into it," he said. "They really think about it." Each year, he added, there are always moments that wow the crowd because bands have put an extra measure of creativity into their playing. "They either love the idea of taking somebody's music to a different place or they love just to nail it."

And some bands, he said, simply love to play before the 1,500 people who turn out for the concert. A testament to musicians' enthusiasm, said Cilman, is that a lot of discussion takes place backstage each year about what the theme for the next Transperformance will be.

Some of the groups stepping out on the Pines Theater stage this year are: Appalachian Still (BR5-49), Spouse (U2), The Primate Fiasco (Guns N' Roses), Winterpills (X), The Leah Randazzo Group (The Jackson 5), US (NRBQ), the O-Tones (The O'Jays), Unit-7 (P-Funk), The Florence Community Band (The BSO - The Boston Symphony Orchestra) and Mayor Clare "MC" Higgins & Co. (R.E.M.)

In a recent phone interview from her office in City Hall, Higgins said this will be her sixth or seventh time on the Transperformance stage. The event, she said, is a perennially popular end-of-the summer concert because the audience, including a large contingent of children, enjoys hearing the music outside in Pines Theater's grassy amphitheater.

Like Cilman, Higgins said the event always includes standout moments, such as last year's performance by Kim Zombik as James Brown.

"With the exception of me," Higgins added, laughing, "the music is great."