Our review as posted at Filter Magazine:
Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players
September 17, 2006
The Entry, Minneapolis, MN

It all started with a dusty slide projector and a sleeve of vacation slides purchased at an estate sale.

With his then 6 year-old daughter playing drums (she’s 12 now), vocalist/guitarist/keyboardist Jason Trachtenburg — formerly well known in the Seattle lo-fi scene for his quirky tunes and PotUSA collabs — arranged the slides in a narrative order and wrote the song “Mountain Trip to Japan, 1959,” which features yes, vacation photos from a 1959 mountain trip to Japan set to a quirky, yet well-crafted tune.

Band concept: Mom runs the slide projector, Dad plays keyboards and little daughter plays drums. Viola! A family art-rock band.

And since 2000, the Vaudeville-carnies-meet-Patridge-Family act known as the Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players became so popular, they were the first unsigned act to play a set on Late Night With Conan O’Brien.

With only one CD out since 2003, Vintage Slide Collections From Seattle, Vol. 1, I was thrilled to review their stellar new DVD, On and Off Broadway, which chronicles the first chapter of they group as they perform in and around New York. But this was only a taste of the group’s live performance.

Outside First Avenue’s 7th Street Entry in Minneapolis last night, a throng of hundreds of reggae fans stood waiting to pile into the main room for bass-thumpin, Jamaican hook-up tuneage.

Inside the smaller Entry, a myriad of hipsters, geeks and curious slideshow aficionados sat cross-legged on the venue floor like kindergarteners at story time. The pre-show buzz was insatiable.

Prior to the show, Jason told me this would be the “best night of the tour. I can tell you already. Just look at the crowd loving Baby Gramps.” Indeed, the aging didgeridoo-voiced pirate miner known as Baby Gramps had the crowd worked up with his worn out steel guitar, foot stompin’ clap-along tunes.’

Next, Jason came on stage to set up the projector and a hush fell over the restless audience. Pulling each slide tray from his bag like newfound treasures, Jason held each one up like a proud papa showing off a newborn son. And there were a LOT of slides.

In an interview last month, Jason told me, “I normally carry 6-8 reels of slides. Each reel has 60 slides each, so we’re talking 240-365 slides.”

Tina (mom) and Rachel (daughter) take the stage at this point holding a small dog. As the dialogue continues (the music is still 20 minutes out), the audience quickly discovers that this was the show. We learn the dog’s name is Emma, and an audience member offers to hold the 17 year-old pooch (her bed had not yet arrived).

When the music does eventually begin, the group kicks off with “The World’s Best Friend,” a rock number chronicling the journey from cradle to grave in 3 minutes 29 seconds. Upon finishing the song, Jason turns the show over to his keyboard player. Himself.

Over the course of the next hour, we hear 8 songs with Jason interspersing the short musical numbers with humorously informed tirades about 9/11 conspiracies, the Nirvanization of indie rock, JFK assassination and “everything my publicist told me I shouldn’t be talking about…I should be promoting the DVD.”

Jason’s like your smartass great uncle who can’t stop with the lame puns or his opinions on everything from sell-out rockstars to denim. It’s classic.

He also schooled a heckler, talked about being a vegetarian (he actually hates animals too much to eat them) and explained tricks to buying clothes at rummage sales. Note: the group sells homemade hot pads and various DAV finds next to their CDs and new DVD at the merch booth. The special of the night was “official Trachtenburg aprons” made by Grandma Trachtenburg.

Of the 8 songs played, the group did play its hits: the politically-charged “Eggs,” the story of two women who it turns out are married (to men) “Look at Me,” and they closed with the song that started it all, “Mountain Trip to Japan, 1959.” Each song was punctuated with engaging narrative slides while Jason’s clever lyrical soundtrack brought the audience close to tears more than once.

When the laughs died down, slides were boxed up and the incredibly small setlist was cached, the audience — still sitting cross legged on the floor — craved more. The Trachtenburg Family is an open book. They had freely shared their thoughts on travel experiences, mailing boxes at the UPS Store and even Ronald Reagan’s rigged electoral victory with us like they’d known us forever. Every single one of us was an honorary Trachtenburg that night, and we didn’t want the family reunion to end.

But just like any normal family get-together, our feelings were inevitably hurt as we made our way home. No encore was to be had, and as we filed out past the ongoing reggae fest, I had only my pictures as memories.

Let’s just hope someone puts them to music in 40 years.

Full Jason Trachtenburg interview HERE. More photos HERE. More videos HERE.