By: David de Young
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| Nate Dungan of Trailer Trash (center) leads the festivities at Lee's. |
To say that Trailer Trash's Trashy Little Christmas is a lot of fun is an understatement. The only way I could have had more fun is if I'd been able to forget that I was trying to capture some usable and representative photographs (check the gallery to see if I succeeded.) To their credit, and without serving me a single drink themselves, Trailer Trash helped install my first good hangover of the holiday season. (Thanks guys!)
A Trashy Little Christmas is an alternative holiday event in the truest sense of the word "alternative." Way too much fun to be reverent, even TT's renditions of holiday standards are so infused with honk-tonkin' rock and roll spirit they are stripped clean of any remnant of syrupy, holiday sap. A Trashy Little Christmas is cool, uproarious and sexy. Watching a seemingly endless parade of cute girls double-teaming the Jingle Stick (pictured) is worth the price of admission all by itself. (For one song, one of my neighbors actually got me up on stage with the Jingle Stick, and I must say that thing has a way of bringing out the ham in even the shyest of us. As I pounded it into the floor and swiveled my hips I was surprised to see young women in the front row with cameras aimed right at me, your fearless reviewer, snapping photographs.)
I asked Dungan of Trailer Trash how the famous "Jingle Stick" originated, and this is the response I got:
David, I'm so glad you asked!
The Jingle Stick originated around 984 B.C., in the land of Canaan. Abraham, the father of Judeo-Islamic-Christianity, first developed it for use at a his annual holiday party. The pharoahs got hold of the idea, and the concept of the Jingle Stick soon spread throughout the Ancient World. A Jingle Stick was used at the Battle of Jericho to make the walls come a-tumblin' down, although the Bible only mentions a trumpet. Santa Claus himself kept one at the North Pole, and used it on practice sleigh rides to keep his reindeer in step. The Druids of Olde England had a Jingle Stick, but they decorated it with skulls and magic symbols, a practice that fell out of favor until resurrected by the band Spinal Tap on their world tour in 1985.
The TRAILER TRASH Jingle Stick is actually a Ford hubcap, attached to a broom handle, and decorated with bells, paint and red tape. I found the hubcap one summer day as I was mowing the yard. It must been a prophecy, because all of a sudden, (and this IS the truth) the heavens parted and Abraham himself appeared unto me in all his glory. He came down on a cloud, carrying a double-barreled shotgun and he said, "Son, you are gonna make a Jingle Stick outta that hubcap, so all my children can boogie-woogie at Christmas time!" And ka-boom-- he fired off both barrels, and I blacked out! When I came to, I knew I had a job to do. So I got down to business at my workbench, and the rest is history.
That probably explains why it has such mystical powers- it can transform even the most timid nightclub-goer into a Christmas freak. It can make the room spin. It can make a super-hero out of a Scrooge. It can even make a rock star out of a housewife!
The annual event is also over the top in its festiveness. The band and bar were decorated down to the shoelaces in holiday gear: Keyboard player Jon Duncan even sported jingle bells on his sneakers. Vocalist and guitar player Dan Gaardner was dressed as a somewhat crazed but jolly Santa. Tinsel and holiday lights adorned instruments; Andy Olson's stand up bass was covered in Budweiser lights. Vocalist and guitar player Nate Dungan's outfit was kind of western combination of Santa Claus and Johnny Cash in red long johns and with "HO HO HO" boxer shorts and motor cycle boots.)
Energetic and fun, as they always are, the band worked through two long sets of music; I never heard a song repeated the whole time I was there. According to Dungan, Trailer Trash now has a holiday reportoire of about 65 songs, although they only have time to do about 50 in an average night. A version of "Hava Nagila" was so raucous I couldn't help but head bang along. "Daddy, Please Don't Get Drunk on Christmas," in the second set, and "Hard Candy Christmas" near the end of the night was a highlight. Regular carols with reworked and warped lyrics were scattered throughout.
Oh, and one must not forget the elves! They may have been promo people from Jim Beam, but nevertheless elves were crawling the place by midnight, and you can never have enough elves. Simply put, elves make a good party great! I ran into one in the men's room and we spoke briefly as he shared the urinal next to mine. I said it was really good to have the elves on the premises for the festivities, and very sincerely, he replied (as he did the traditional elven after pee shake), "Why thank you, it's always good to be welcome. The elves feel very welcome here at Lee's."
The only thing that could have made the night more festive would have been a blowup Santa Claus crowd surfer. Wait! They had one! (See photo gallery.)
This is an event you should just plain go to. Like a more serious holiday events the point of shows like this is to get people out of their houses on these long, dark days so they can gather together in a spirit of light and fun. A Trashy Little Christmas brings out the best of the true spirits of the holiday season.
Photo gallery from this show: Click here
Band members this show:
Nate Dungan - Guitar, vocals
Location Info:
Lee's Liquor Lounge
Artist Info: Trailer Trash
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