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Beastie boys
Steer Roast, side of Apes; Jacque’s strange attractors
BY RYAN STEWART

It’s a shifty enough gig for an out-of-town band to play in a courtyard adjacent to a college dorm; when the dorm has a skull banner draped over it and many of those in attendance are wearing pirate hats, chain mail, and rabbit masks made from paper plates, it’s even weirder. But when the band’s set is really just an appetizer to tide partygoers over while they wait for a large hunk of animal flesh to roast over an open-air barbecue pit, then you’re getting into downright-surreal territory. Such was the scenario facing the organ-bass-drums DC quartet the Apes, who found themselves as one of the side dishes last Friday at MIT’s annual Steer Roast. Put on by a group of volunteers hailing from the university’s Senior House dorm, the weekend-long Steer Roast is one of MIT’s oldest traditions and one of the school’s largest gatherings of alumni. A steer is spitted and cooked over a fire pit for about 16 hours — long enough for everyone to get pickled — before being served on Saturday afternoon. The event has a reputation for "debauched nerdery," replete with mud wrestling, but to these eyes, it was pretty much held in check: attendees were carded on the way in, bartenders on loan from the on-campus bar the Thirsty Ear wouldn’t serve anyone without a wristband, and campus police kept an eye on the proceedings. Obvious displays of inebriation were muted, though the main action was going on inside the dorm: imagine your average house party times 10. About 100 people stayed outside long enough to rock out with the Apes, who knew what to expect (they also played last year) and got into the spirit by wearing Day-Glo ski masks and orange vests. When there’s a guy walking around carrying a big tube of goldfish, even Apes have to step up their game.

The four noise/metal bands playing last Saturday in a Theater District basement had something even more distracting than roast beast to contend with: cross-dressing cabaret. Jacque’s bills itself as "New England’s best bar for female impersonation entertainment," and every Friday and Saturday, Norell Gardner and five other "ladies" work the upstairs room, singing and making small talk with the crowd. The downstairs room has also hosted left-of-center rock gigs on and off for a decade, and that’s made for an interesting clash of crowds. On Saturday, about 25 people turned up for a bill including local grindcore bands Twodeadsluts, Onegoodfuck, and Suffering Bastard. As soon as a band’s set ended, the audience would repair en masse to catch the girls upstairs; but by some instinct they all seemed to drift back down to the basement just as the next act was about to go on. The effect was a little disconcerting for those preparing to rock. Metalux’s Jenny Graf Bibula almost didn’t bother playing her solo set: "Everyone downstairs needs to go upstairs. That is the real show," she announced, then walked away as if prepared to take her own advice. But, right on cue, the entire rock crowd migrated back downstairs to catch her performance, which involved wailing vocals, a guitar she played with her feet, and the filtering of these elements through different effects on a mixing board. When it was over, everyone retreated back up the stairs like clockwork to watch a drag queen named Destiny perform Beyoncé’s "Crazy in Love."

Ryan Stewart can be reached at rstewart[a]phx.com


Issue Date: May 6 - 12, 2005
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