VIDEO – Packed into a cramped basement room plastered with concert posters and featuring a mattress for makeshift acoustics, The Abbie Hoffman Society looks exactly like it sounds: messy, raucous, honestly amateur and, most of all, a whole lot of fun.
With two shows under its belt and a close-to-award-winning music video, the band that started out as an excuse for something to do on a Monday night is now making a name for itself and gaining a following. It might be the stickers, the band members admit jokingly, but it’s also the music and definitely the spirit that’s making things happen for the makeshift musicians.
Frustrated with the thought of everybody sitting at home watching television in the evenings, Laura Balducci and Jennye Vishek started the band in 2009 as the antidote to weekday doldrums. Suzan Roos said she invited herself to the party and, with another member who has since left, they started playing in Vishek’s basement, writing songs and learning how to play instruments as they went.
In need of a fourth the band invited Meghan Hildebrand to join last fall. Hildebrand said the fact that she didn’t play anything made her hesitate, but the other women soon convinced her. Hildebrand now plays drums and plays a little bass but primarily rocks out on the omnichord, an electronic autoharp-type instrument, and her staple, the melodica, a keyed harmonica of sorts.
As the unofficial leader of the group, Balducci plays the role of lead singer (or “screamer”), lyric writer, artistic driver and primary spokesperson. Roos learned to play some “cheater bar chords” to take on the lead guitar role but she also plays bass. As a former member of the Victoria-based Show Business Giants, Vishek brings musical experience to the group and plays drums, keyboard and guitar as needed. Karen Skadsheim is the “fifth Hoffman” as videographer and media liaison.
Together, the women write and bang out original songs in a style and spirit that is decidedly punk. The band’s name is a celebration of the political activist and member of the Chicago Eight who believed in living for free and even titled a book on the subject Steal this Book. The Hoffmans’ back-to-basics musical experiment comes from the same vein and the musicians like to see their music as an alternative to the empty but expensive noise of modern popular music. Hildebrand added in good humour that punk is also a great entry-level genre for a band learning to play instruments.
“People get a little too caught up in the whole affluenza style of living,” said Balducci. “People are angry, people are fed up, people are sick of it all and people are going to rebel out.”
Writing songs is an organic and multi-layered process for the Hoffmans. Typically they extend from a poem, or riff, that Balducci writes and brings back to the band, sometimes with tonal instructions, such as “dark and sharp,” and occasionally with a photograph to set the mood. From there the band builds a song around the words or puts them together with a riff somebody’s been playing around with and a Hoffman original is born.
The Hoffmans played their first gig back in December as a fundraiser for CJMP 90.1FM Powell River Community Radio, an organization in which all the band members are involved. With all but one playing on a stage for the first time nerves were high but soon replaced by exhilaration, according to the band.
“I couldn’t believe how much fun it was to be on stage,” said Hildebrand. “I loved looking out at the audience and they just looked totally amazed.”
They played again for Hildebrand’s birthday and both times they were overwhelmed by the positive response from their audiences and the enthusiasm that everyone expressed for their music. Balducci laughed about being nervous and flubbing it as they went along, but said it all adds to the experience.
“It’s never going to be the same twice so you might as well come to every show,” joked Balducci, “because we don’t know how to do that.”
The band agrees that the main reason for it to keep doing what it’s doing is still to leave the house and have some fun. Hildebrand said she’s amazed at the confidence the experience of being in the band has given her and Balducci agrees that being with friends and having tons of support has made the experiment work. The Hoffmans also feel that living in Powell River, with a lower cost of living and more laid-back lifestyle, has allowed them to take on the project, which if they were living in Vancouver, as some have previously, they simply wouldn’t have time for.
With plans to record in a studio this spring the Hoffmans are looking forward. They made their first music video for the song Welcome to Powell Riveria for the Powell River Film Festival’s 24-Hour Film Competition and came a close second for People’s Choice Award. The video, which cost all of $60 to make, features the band breaking into a condemned building wearing balaclavas and then making an environmentally-friendly getaway on bicycles, with Powell River-Sunshine Coast MLA Nicholas Simons lending a hand. They plan to make another video once they record some tracks.
The Hoffmans are finalizing plans to play some local festivals in the summer and are otherwise just taking what comes their way and not worrying about it. They still think of themselves as a “girls’ band” who like to come together on Mondays and have some fun; anything that comes from that is a bonus.
“We’re just having fun with it and whatever happens happens,” said Balducci. “Opportunities have come our way and what are we supposed to do? Just be a basement band or play with it for a while? So we’re going to play with it for a while. Whatever comes our way.”
The debut video from garage/punk band The Abbie Hoffman Society
