Kevin Bronson on June 30th, 2011

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More than one participant – and even the attendees felt like participants – at Saturday night’s Tribute to the Movies likened the affair to an Irish wake. There were songs and drinks and tears and photos and video projections, and all of it was very good, if not cathartic. The Movies, beloved Silver Lakers whose uncompromising music (“post-punk on a new wave bender,” I wrote once) won plenty of fans and probably should have won more, are gone now, their mercurial lead singer Timothy James now ensconced on the other coast. But their irony-laden tunes lived on through the prism of 11 local acts who paraded to the Satellite stage on Saturday to perform two songs each. It’s notable that nobody mailed it in – in fact, some interpretations (like the harmony-dripping turn by Shadow Shadow Shade’s Brian Canning and Claire McKeown) were deeply moving and startlingly sophisticated. At the end, Movies bassist Jessica Gelt (performing with her current band, Wet & Reckless) showered everybody with profuse thanks. It was reciprocal.

Photos by Jeff Koga