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The term “variety show” might evoke images of saccharin aesthetics. The genre is certainly ingrained in American pop culture. The Ed Sullivan Show paved the way for future late-night talk shows and opened the doors for iconic comedy ensemble programs such as Saturday Night Live. Some may picture the flowery backgrounds of 1970s shows and smiling, cheerful, colorfully dressed, bell-bottomed, family-friendly acts with a varied spectrum of talents that families watched after dinner for a healthy dose of wholesomeness.
Star Search, a 1990s show where amateur acts competed for a chance at a Hollywood contract, began to bring some edgier content to the variety show format. In Living Color pushed the envelope with satire that many considered offensive at the time. America’s Got Talent, which has become a worldwide franchise, brings a bit of shock value to the mainstream. But variety shows and dark subject matter rarely go together.
Babelshack, a Santa Fe-based band, is bringing a different flavor of variety show to Burque June 28 — pairing gritty music with edgy comedy.
Babelshack Variety Show’s co-creator — and frontman for the band Babelshack — Barnaby Hazen says the event is less of a variety show and more of an opportunity to unite other musical acts that wouldn’t usually share a bill.
“I’m using the term [variety show] loosely,” Hazen says. “I admit it was something of a marketing thing.”
Although the event doesn’t necessarily follow a classic variety show format, the musical acts are instrumentally diverse, as are the themes and topics explored in the acts’ lyrical content. Hazen says he started thinking about adding an extra element to the show while he was booking acts.
“I thought,” Hazen says, “‘Wouldn’t it be cool if we had a comic act to go along with it and MC [it]?’”
The show is hosted by AJ Matthews, a local comedian with dark takes on Albuquerque. Babelshack (the band) plays mostly grungy, post-punk tunes while also incorporating a number of other elements from various genres. Hazen, who says his band plays “hard-edged rock,” cites The Pixies as an influence.
Hazen says the band’s beginnings started in a dark place, both literally and figuratively.
“We were practicing under a liquor store in Los Angeles,” he says. “It was [by] an alley, and there was a lot of activity in that alley, let’s just put it that way.”
Hazen says he wanted to use the concept of the Tower of Babel when he was coming up with the band’s name.
“When you’re building art, you’re building towards transcendence,” he says. “You want to evoke great beauty and, in this case, we’re doing it from somewhere very gritty.”
Contrasting themes are an important part of the band’s subject matter and lyrical content. Babelshack’s music is both pretty and ugly, sexy and grungy, sad and hopeful — often simultaneously. But its message is one of finding something meaningful from negative experiences.
Hazen cites works from Jean-Paul Sartre, Albert Camus, Franz Kafka, and especially Fyodor Dostoevsky as some of his influences and says he’s “gone on great benders into existential authors.” He warns potential audiences that some of his lyrics draw from negative moods and human emotions, difficult personal experiences and even triggering subjects like suicide.
While Hazen says he finds inspiration in the macabre parts of life, he’s trying to quit.
“I would like to get to a point where I’m challenging myself to write from a perspective of positive messages — overcoming the darker aspects of life,” Hazen says. “I think that’s a really beautiful thing to do. There have been times in my life when I’ve been able to produce that, but where I tend to go, for whatever reason, is towards darker themes.”
Fittingly, Matthews finds humor in some pretty unusual and sometimes unpleasant places. Hazen says he asked Matthews to serve as the event’s master of ceremonies to keep the night of entertainment on track and serve as a palate cleanser, cutting the heavy subject matter with laughter.
The Babelshack Variety Show also features local duo Ihsan and Albuquerque’s “always provocative” Thurst Trap.
“I think there’s just something different about each of these [bands’] sounds and I’m really excited about it,” Hazen says.
Babelshack Variety Show
7 p.m. Friday, June 28
Echoes
$10
21+