Beatles-Stones Showdown at The Baird

A time traveler from the 1960s or '70s would have felt perfectly at home at the Baird on Friday night, when over 100 people—toddlers, teens and parents—turned out for the Rock The House homage to The Beatles and The Rolling Stones. The program ranged from The Beatles' "Revolution," which was played first, to the last song of the evening, The Rolling Stones' "You Can't Always Get What You Want."

Deena Shoshkes, of the bands The Cucumbers and Deena and the Laughing Boys was performing, but was pressed into double-duty—taking admission at the door. "There are so many musicians in town," she said. "The bands are great. I'm looking forward to hearing everyone."

According to Test Patterns' Alex Silberman, "The Rock The House core (Billy Fishkin, Dawn Botti, David Gomberg, Tarquin Learned and myself) were deciding what to do for a (first) anniversary blowout, when the idea came to do an evening of Beatles songs. We were stoked at that, and then it occurred to us to revive that age-old debate of which was the better band and turn the show into a smackdown with audience voting, prizes and British Invasion themes. This raised our game to a completely different level, and we've run with that all along."

Rock the House was born out of the bad economy. Local venues were shutting down right and left (goodbye Dancing Goat, farewell Café Meow, so-long Here's to the Arts). The closing of the cafes left a void, and local musicians formed RTH to create their own venues.

Silberman is the founder of RTH and a driving force for the musical collective. "RTH is a labor of love of the five of us," he said.

He continued, "I can think of no better example of community and collective. Tonight's proceeds will go to the Maplewood and South Orange Community Gardens. (By the end of the evening, $687 was collected at the door, HK Community Fund rounded the amount up to $800, which was then split evenly between the two Community Gardens.)

Billy Fishkin, the unofficial spokesperson for the event, told Patch that instead of specific bands performing, a "revolving door" of musicians joined a "core" comprised of members of Felt and 3rd Gear. Both bassist Jim Robertson (a member of both core bands) and guitarist Mark Loughney (3rd Gear) were instrumental in keeping all the various players on track.

Mixing the sound was a key part of the evening's success. Every song had main vocals as well as instruments, and everything was mic'ed. There were horns, guitars, drums, a sitar and keyboards to manage, sound-wise. This was a complicated process. For example, on "Get Back" there were three vocalists, four guitar players, a drummer and a keyboardist, and all needed to shine while not drowning out the others. Dave Gomberg and Larry Hardie kept the sound running smoothly. Hardie said, "I'm having a great time, it's a lot of work, but it's fun seeing it come together."

Felt's Matthew Hauser told Patch, "I love the fact that so many musicians brought friends along, it's standing room only. It's feeling like spring outside and this is a happy celebration."

Tarquin Learned joked, "Everyone in the audience is going to be coming up on stage to play." And while that seemed like it could be true, "civilians" outnumbered the performers by about 2 to 1. According to Ned Lindsey of Test Patterns, who wasn't playing but came out to support his bandmates and friends, "I'm guessing that it's more than 65 percent non-band related people here."

According to Fishkin, "At one point in the evening, the audience "voted" for the better band—Beatles or Stones—via informal applause; the Beatles received a slightly louder applause. However, Stones songs 'Sympathy For The Devil,' 'Bitch' and 'You Can't Always Get What You Want' were arguably the audience favorites of the night."

Forty-two musicians participated: Adam Laboz, Alan Kaplan, Alex Silberman, Bill Pearsal, Billy Fishkin, Chris Mooney, Chuck Mahoney, Dave Gomberg, Dawn Botti, Deena Shoshkes, Ed Melee, Gary Shippy, Gary Szczecina, Ian Smit, Jamie Kole, Jay Dougherty, Jim Robertson, Joanna Feinman, Joe LaPalerma, Judy Starger, Larry Hardie, Laura Delano Duncan, Marc Stern, Marina Stern, Mark Loughney, Mark Madonna, Matt Hauser, Matt Mathews, Mike Epstein, Mike Quick, Nathaniel Knight, Patrick Cerria, Ray Leone, Rebecca Kaplan, Rebecca Turner, Rich Maloof, Sam Gomberg, Steve Feldman, Sue Ellen Leys, Tarquin Learned, Tore Claesson and Zoe Madonna.