Published: Friday, March 11, 2011, 1:35 PM ��� Updated: Friday, March 11, 2011, 1:45 PM
Stuart Wexler has a mission: He wants everyone to remember what a great time he had in the Nineties.More specifically, Wexler has devoted himself in recent years to chronicling and, whenever possible, recreating the excitement, talent, and camaraderie he experienced as a young man in the New Brunswick music scene. To that end, he will be presenting the third and final show tied to his documentary-in-progress ?Cruel But Fair? tomorrow night at Maxwell?s in Hoboken.
The show features something of a ?who?s who? of New Brunswick scenesters from the era when the Hub City enjoyed a true musical renaissance, and long-gone clubs and bars like the Melody, the Roxy, Plum Street Pub, Budapest Caf�, and others combined with the still-surviving Court Tavern to host original live music every weekend.
?If you were around in New Brunswick in the Nineties, you know the people who are playing this show tomorrow,? said Wexler, ?even if you don?t recognize the names of their bands.? That?s because the lineup features only one group that actually played together ten years ago, Prosolar Mechanics. Blithe (Doll) features James and Lisa Woodley, formerly of 3 To 6 Inches, who will be joined by Stephen Bumgarner, guitarist of Skyline Rodeo. ?Neo Noir is essentially the band Kilsy, but it also includes Dan Roorda from Buzzkill,? Wexler explained. ?And the Shin Shu is Mark Segal from Boss Jim Gettys, Albie Connelly from the Stuntcocks, and Mike Polilli from Buzzkill.?
The first two Cruel But Fair concerts (the name comes from a banner that hung over the stage at the Court Tavern) featured reunions by Brunfuss bands like Buzzkill, Boss Jim Gettys, Bionic Rhoda, 3 To 6 Inches, the Stuntcocks, and Prosolar Mechanics, all videotaped for the documentary. ?I have about 180 hours of video that has to be looked at, uploaded to my computer, and then edited, and I?m only about a third of the way through it so far,? said Wexler. ?And then I?ll be adding footage from this show. So while I?m really looking forward to seeing all the bands, I?m not looking forward to all of the work that?s ahead of me.?
?What happened with the first two shows is that people who had stopped playing realized how much they missed it and started playing again,? Wexler noted. ?Mark Segal hadn?t been doing anything, he had to get all new equipment to play the Boss Jim Gettys reunion because he had sold all of his guitars and amplifiers. But once he did the show, he realized that he wanted to start a new band. The same thing happened with James and Lisa from 3 To 6 Inches.?
Besides the live footage, Wexler has also interviewed many of the participants from the Nineties New Brunswick scene, from artists to club owners to journalists. ?I didn?t really know some of these people that well before I started to interview them,? Wexler admitted. ?But now that I?ve learned their back stories, it?s really become fascinating. Really what the documentary will be about is why these people wanted to be in bands in the first place, how far they wanted to take (their careers,) and then why they stopped. But since we?ve all been involved in this project, I do think it?s been really nice for all of us to come together again . All of the bands that reunited really seemed to enjoy playing again, even the ones that seemed to have the most drama involved when they originally broke up.?
Wexler adds that the ?Cruel But Fair? project is at its heart a very personal affair, and isn?t meant to suggest that this time period or this group of musicians represented some sort of golden age of indie rock. ?I really loved this music and that?s what this is all about, but honestly, some bands put in a lot of effort and some bands didn?t,? he noted. ?And there were reasons for that, which you?ll find out in the documentary. The original idea wasn?t even to make a movie, it was just to get all these bands together again and do a couple of shows and maybe shoot them and throw it up on Youtube. But then a friend of mine suggested that we interview them too, so it became a bigger project? and then my friend dropped out and I ended up falling into doing this myself. But I think when we?re finished, this movie is going to be about these people and what their aspirations were, and what they wanted to do with their music then, and what they want to do with their music now. The point of this show tomorrow night at Maxwell?s is to say, we?re not going to be rock stars, but the music is still important and we still want to make it. And I think the really nice thing is that so many of them have found the music again.
?When all of this footage is finally put together and edited, it?s going to tell a story,? Wexler summarized. ?And the story is going to be about the bands, the camaraderie of the scene, and the fact that maybe none of this went anywhere, maybe none of these people got rich or famous. But the music was still worth making, and it was worth hearing. And it?s important to find a way to express yourself, and that?s what these people are still doing.?
The final Cruel But Fair concert with Neo Noir, The Shin Shu, Prosolar Mechanics, and Blithe (Doll) will take place on Saturday, March 12 at Maxwell?s (1039 Washington Street, Hoboken.) Showtime is 8 pm and admission is $8. For more information about the film, visit www.facebook.com/cruelbutfairmovie.
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