Still know nothing, but may have learned something.
To protect the innocent as well as the guilty, I want to keep specifics to a minimum. I recently played a gig in support of a MAGA-aligned performer. That is, I was an uncredited backing musician. This individual has appeared with the president multiple times and seems to have had extensive contact with him in recent years. When it was offered, I had little problem accepting the job. After all, musicians and artists, in general, are whores; pay us, we'll play. Still, I know many who would turn this date down, or would have if it were offered to them. I get it. My sole concern in accepting the gig was whether playing it would mean that I am endorsing the performer’s POV. I quickly came to the conclusion that that would not be the case. At least any more than I do any statement from the leadership team at my day job. I did not anticipate nor was I asked to play or do anything I found morally, ethically, or politically objectionable. Over the course of the eight or so hours I was engaged on this job, opinions were expressed with which I disagree, sentiments were shared that I find problematic, and there was a general vibe that I interpreted to be thoroughly not progressive, or at least anti-Democratic Party / liberal. I’ve been to less welcoming holiday dinners.
The details of the job were all too typical for a musician of my current station; a not inconsiderable bit of travel time, a long rehearsal, no guarantee of parking at the venue, and no indication that there would be a meal provided. The total time commitment was long (with travel over 8 hours), and the money promised was not particularly great. Limited to zero workplace protections / benefits: no cartage, no dressing room for the orchestra, no health or pension contributions - a non-union job. And the repertoire less than interesting (but not without surprises.) I knew and accepted or expected all of this when taking it.
The rehearsal did not start off well. Our star was about 30 minutes late and we had no music. I found out later that the reason he was late was that he was getting the music out of his mother’s basement. This would also explain why he did not follow through with his promise of getting us the music the day before. Once he arrived we got things underway reasonably quickly and ran through the show. An additional singer came out to do some solos and duets. All was going along nicely for about 90 minutes, or so, when a break was called and our star disappeared again. The next time I looked at my watch, we had less than half an hour left in our allotted rehearsal time. (Beyond this, which would trigger an uncomfortable conversation about OT and further compensation.) Once we got going again, we skipped through some of the remaining pieces and thankfully wrapped up on time.
In the two hours between the end of rehearsal and the scheduled start of the show, the crew and the orchestra chilled a bit backstage. All us backing musicians were happy to see there was ample catering for us and the crew. I ducked into a restroom and changed into my concert kit. Half an hour before curtain, I set up my instruments and did some very light warming up. With about ten minutes to curtain, the orchestra got on stage and situated itself. Lights flashed in the house to signal show time. They continued to flash minutes past the scheduled start time. Lots of folks were still filtering in. Many seemed to enjoying one of the at least five (5!) bars in the venue. (Seriously, I’ve never seen a venue with more alcohol service stations. It was impressive in its own way. More impressive still, this was a crowd that either can handle its booze or knows how to pace itself. At no point was behavior boorish or inappropriate.)
Things got underway about twenty minutes late. Our star sang impressively, if a bit loudly. His pacing was good, if still a bit amateurish. His stage patter was amiable and pleasant, but circled back to his admiration and loyalty to the president and his movement a bit much for my personal taste. But not in an overbearing or heavy-handed way. And here is where it got fascinating to me. The crowd could not get enough of him and his anecdotes and first-person accounts of being Trump adjacent. His “red meat” lines about wholesome entertainment and not liking the city, besides Staten Island, or fellow Long Island celebrities, “those brothers from Massapequa,” all landed as intended: applause line, slightly smaller applause line, and crowd laugh-line. The fact that the couple of LI celebrities he mentioned by name are well-known liberals appeared to either not register or not matter. His impersonation of the current president was not particularly good, and if I did not know better, I would have thought he was mocking him in tone, delivery, and content. Later, it occurred to me that it could have been more about how I perceive the president and the crowd. But how they laughed struck me as peculiar. It seemed to me as if they felt they were all transgressing against the leader of their side, having a giggle at his expense because they are in on the joke.
It became clear that the show was going to go past the 2 hours we were contracted for. He went on singing his head off. Knowing the little I know about vocal pedagogy, I hope he is being well-coached and has no really bad habits. Otherwise, he is on track to do some real damage to his vocal chords. And this is another thing that stood out. He brought out a young lady that we’d seen playing piano throughout the afternoon. He explained she’d come from some distance and that they’d been associated with each other for some time now. In her immaculate, if a bit tight gown, she sat down to play what we’d heard her practicing on and off for the last few hours, a hyper-romanticized concert arrangement of “YMCA” full of the grand musical gestures one would hear in classical piano music like that of Liszt, Chopin, or maybe Tchaikovsky. (I explained the odd choice of source material to a couple of the other rather puzzled musicians.) She finished with a grand flourish and to rapturous applause (I left out the sing-along, at the choruses.) Exiting stage left, she mimicked the “Trump Dance.” The one that Bill Maher references almost weekly. This goosed the crowd response even more. Another thing I found astounding.
We finished not too long after. All told a half-hour beyond our contracted time. As I write this, payment for the originally agreed upon time has been received, but not the OT. I’m less than sanguine about that. It’s safe to say that the MAGA movement and US society in general is not exactly pro-union. And the sympathy folks have for musicians working OT probably even less so. Not the end of the world. But if I had the ear of our star, I would counsel him that stiffing us on the OT is not going to exactly make finding decent musicians in the future any easier for him.
I’ve known Trump people for a long time. While I never liked or bought into his thing, even while he was just a local NYC celebrity, I could always understand the appeal. But the way these folks venerated everything about him, drank in the vibe, the spirit of being part of a whole that magnified all things Trump was something like I’ve never really experienced. It was a feeling of consecrating their shared desire for a time of simpler values, or maybe values where they were less judged or under fire for holding them. This was not a crowd that was going to get into policy discussions or parse the finer points of culture. In another arena, it was something that may have been labeled as soulful. Not that I found much soul in the traditional sense, to the music itself. Though the riffing the singers did on “Beauty and the Beast” was surprisingly authentic to the style. It was a lot from the heart, with little about peace, love, understanding, or grace, and not much from the head.
As I told my wife when I got home, I cannot say it was wild. There was nothing that happened that would not have been entirely appropriate in 1958. While I do not believe that everything is fine now, I am certain I do not want to go back to then. I do not know what this all means or how to separate the cultural aspects from the political. They feed each other obviously, but I cannot begrudge that audience for enjoying what was an entirely wholesome and appealing show, for any age. Was this high culture, the sort of which would ever be presented at Lincoln Center or any of the other big-time institutions? Not likely. But that does not make it bad. The Second Viennese School is not for everyone. And it goes without saying, liking that stuff does not make you a superior person in any fashion.
Is it what I would spend my money on for a Saturday night’s entertainment? No. But that’s OK and not even the point. While I don’t begrudge, I don’t get the fealty and veneration. It may not be part of my DNA to place anyone on a pedestal like that, but the full-throated expression of it through a shoestring associate strikes me as just plain weird. It was weird under previous presidents, and it strikes me as weird now.
In the end, glad I got paid (almost in full) and I’ll continue to mull this one over for a while.