The Negro Problem return to their roots: touring
Kevin Bronson on
3
A lot of musical traffic has coursed down Silver Lake Boulevard since that band with the confrontational name – the Negro Problem – held down the very first monthly residency*** at Spaceland in September, 1996.
In the middle part of last decade, the beloved L.A. band anchored by Stew (born Mark Stewart) and Heidi Rodewald rode off to New York City. There, they became, as they call it, “show folk,” collaborating on the Tony-winning musical “Passing Strange,” which also became a Spike Lee-directed movie. Now they are dusting off old material and debuting some new – a collection called “Making It” – on their first tour in six years.
- ||| Read: My story “Welcome Black: After conquering Broadway, “little Silver Lake band” the Negro Problem returns to L.A.” in today’s edition of LA Weekly.
- ||| Listen: To a three-song sampler of the Negro Problem and Stew solo material.
Stew doesn’t have to look far to see how the music world has changed since TNP has been on the shelf. “I think there are 80 million bands now,” he says, also noting how he believes the Internet has devalued the impact of live performances:
“I was trying to get my 18-year-old daughter to explain this to me. If you really like a band and want to expose them, why would you publish something they did that you recorded on a microphone the size of a gnat’s ass? … I remember when we were playing gigs, it was a big deal if one person would hold up a phone. Certainly you wouldn’t expect to go home and find a YouTube video of your gig.
“A lot of what I do live has always been stream-of-consciousness. I consider myself a nightclub performer, and not everything is for mass public consumption. I frequently make comments I would like to stay in the room.”
That said, Stew and Rodewald are eager to get their band back on tour (which includes two upcoming L.A. dates). “Theater is great – it’s a giant luxury to always be writing and never have to perform,” Rodewald says. “But I miss the feeling of playing live. Thank God I’m in a band where every night is different, where every night people will go home saying, ‘Stew did this,’ or ‘Stew said that.'”
||| Live: The Negro Problem performs Saturday at the Harold M. Williams Auditorium at the Getty Museum and Tuesday at the Echoplex.
*** This historical claim is in dispute, but my source for it is Jennifer Tefft, a then-music fan/L.A. newbie who attended every TNP night, and went on to become a talent buyer for Spaceland and now the Fold. She says she still has the show diaries she kept in those days.
What a nice article, well done Mr Bronson. It is as usual quite informative and well composed. When you like a band, you do them proud. The Negro Problem are brilliant.
Really refreshing reading this
As the last thing I read in the Times was all about Stew’s lyric about lining his Birdcage
I possess a flier from April of 1995, right after Spaceland’s opening, that advertises the Abe Lincoln Story as playing “Every Monday night” which to me gives them the claim to first residency. Don’t think Jennifer made it to L.A. until ’96 so her history may be incomplete.