New Orleans Street Beat: October 2000

As the month of October dawned in the Crescent City with a lovely respite from five months of oppressive, swamp like heat, a veritable cornucopia of music demanded the attention of local music fans, even those as riddled with ennui as New Orleanians. Inaugurating the month was the staging of the Who's quintessential rock opera "Tommy" by Random Cats Productions, a loosely organized group of local New Orleans musicians."Tommy" was staged over a three day period from 10/5-10/7 at the Mid City Rock n' Bowl, and its cast was a virtual "who's who" of New Orleans music. In an interesting twist, Tommy was played by female folk musician Myshkin, with members of local bands All That and Royal Fingerbowl playing the remaining roles and the back up band. The ever-versatile Sista Teedy, valiantly rebounding from thyroid surgery a mere three weeks prior, offered a striking performance as the Acid Queen, in her psychedelic catsuit and funky stage presence; and relative newcomer Debbie Davis played the role of Mrs. Walker, Tommy's mother. "Tommy" is the latest in a series of collaborative efforts done by local musicians. DJ Davis Rogan, lead singer of local funk band All That and WWOZ DJ, spearheaded the production of "Tommy" and past productions, which have included a jazz funk version of "Peter and The Wolf", and tributes to legendary groups such as the Coasters, the Rolling Stones, the Ramones, and Huey Piano Smith.

This inspired, lively production of "Tommy" had originally debuted at the Mermaid Lounge during the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival in the spring of 2000. In a There1 interview, DJ Davis described the process of their selection of "Tommy" as the collaborative effort for this year. I had the date at the Mermaid between JazzFest weekends this year, and we were going to do something, cause last year we did 'Peter And the Wolf' and the year before that we did the Coasters tribute. So it was kinda like 'What is it gonna be this time?' I wanted to do 'Jesus Christ Superstar' but I got outvoted, so 'Tommy' it became". Rogan and his fellow collaborators decided to stage "Tommy" again as "it was such a hell of a show, [we] had to bring it back, at least once". Though the group had the ambitious goal of staging the production over the course of five days, for "purposes of sanity", they elected to do three shows over a period of three days. From Myshkin, with her petite frame and closely cropped hair in the role of the "deaf, dumb, blind boy", to the frightening, crazed looking Carlo Nuccio (of Royal Fingerbowl) as the predatory Uncle Ernie, the roles of "Tommy" were well cast and energetically performed. Pete Townshend's lyrics, "Listening to you I get the music/Gazing at you I get the heat/Following you I climb the mountain/ I get excitement at your feet!" captured the experience of the audience members: our hearts were with the poor, much abused "boy" with the supple wrist, and the moment of Tommy's awakening was a joyous one in which we "felt the excitement" of both Townshend's timeless hero and the rawness of the Who's rock classic as rendered by New Orleans funk masters. Indeed, as my fellow concert goers and I were contemplating how to spend the remainder of the evening (what to see next-Kermit Ruffins? Bobby Blue Bland? Rockin' Dopsie? Egg Yolk Jubilee?), my friend Stacey exclaimed, "Let's see Tommy again!!"