What’s a Jew to do? December can be the cruelest month. Friends host “Christmas parties,” co-workers foist throwaway gifts wrapped in red and green on anyone and everyone, the politically correct offer up “Happy Holidays” greetings long after Hanukkah has passed, and one more rendition of Barbara Streisand singing “White Christmas” or Kenny G. playing “The Christmas Song” leaves you pondering the possibility of a kosher reindeer dinner for New Year’s Eve.
This year, take a break from it all. Spend a few hours partaking in what musician and comedian Rob Tannenbaum calls “defending ourselves during the holidays.” Tannenbaum and his “Good for the Jews” concert are one of three Hanukkah week performances that can allow respite from jolly elves, wise men on camels and the inevitable kvetching about holiday décor in public places.
The fun begins on Tuesday, Dec. 4 when Jewmongous, aka Sean Altman, comes to Jazzbones in Tacoma. Promoting his debut album Taller than Jesus, Altman will take to the stage, electric guitar strapped over his shoulders, to belt out tunes such as “What the Hell is Simchas Torah?” an irreverent search for the meaning of that particular holiday that manages to invoke the names of Sammy Davis, Jr., Moshe Dayan, Golda Meir, Adam and Eve, Abraham, and an image of David and Goliath that will sear one’s mind for the ages — all in the same verse. Suffice it to say that hero worship is not a part of this particular song. Altman pretty much puts an exclamation point on that when asked if his work is a direct descendant of the humor of Stan Frieberg or Alan Sherman.
“I prefer to think of myself as more of a descendant of Lenny Bruce,” Altman replies.
On Sat., Dec. 8, an act with Seattle connections, the Trachtenberg Family Slideshow Players, and the band Golem will perform at the Crocodile Cafe as part of a worldwide event that also features performances by a multitude of groups on the same night in Boston, Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, San Francisco, Moscow, Mumbai, Sydney and Tel Aviv. Organized by Jdub Records and Taglit-birthright israel, the event is collectively called “The Eight,” and is a celebration of Hanukkah, including a menorah lighting. The event, which began as Jewltide, has a slightly more reverent approach to Jewish culture, albeit non-traditional in style and nature.
The Trachtenberg Family Slideshow is a performance art family. But the Trachtenbergs, while a real-life family, are not the Partridge Family. With dad Jason singing while 13-year old daughter Rachel keeps the beat on the drums, mom and wife Tina runs the projector that flashes slides the family has found at garage sales and in secondhand stores.
The genesis for the concept that has gone as far as to become an off-Broadway production in New York began when Tina came home from a Seattle garage sale in 2000 with a box of slides. The pictures, filled with unknown people on vacation and celebrating various milestones became the fodder for musical subject matter. Off-stage, the Trachtenbergs travel the nation eschewing meat and cell phones, they present themselves on stage as a campy version of a typical nuclear family of the days of “Leave It to Beaver.”
Golem is a band that bills itself as “where eastern Europe meets the Lower East Side.” Taking traditional songs of Slavic, Gypsy and pan-European origin, the music is rearranged and performed in a punk rock idiom. The lyrics remain intact and are sung in Russian, Yiddish, Polish or other language of origin. Fronted by singer and accordionist Annette Ezikiel, the six-piece band gathers its music in the summer in Europe and rewrites and edits it in the winter in the bagel shops and delicatessens of New York’s Lower East Side.
The ribald humor returns on Mon., Dec. 10 when Rob Tannenbaum comes to Seattle’s Triple Door with “Good for the Jews” a collaboration with performer David Fagin. Part of a “Putting the “˜Ha’ in Hanukkah” tour, Tannenbaum and Fagin will mix new material with favorites from Tannenbaum’s last collaboration with the now-solo Altman. Altman and Tannenbaum parted ways about 18 months ago after their collaboration, “What I Like About Jew.”
With the signature tune of “It’s Good to Be a Jew at Christmas” sure to set the tone for the evening, Tannenbaum is quick to point out that the assault of Christmas on the non-Christians in the community is insidious.
“It used to be that Jews went out for Chinese food on Christmas and then home to watch a movie,” Tannenbaum says. “But how many times can you yell out “No, Uncle Billy, don’t leave the money on the counter” before the surprise wears off?”
Tannenbaum encourages rounding up the Christians in your crowd and sharing the non-Christmas fun with them.
“Jewish culture is well understood these days and 25 or 30 percent of our audience is non-Jewish,” he says. “People who watched Seinfeld or Larry David know words like putz and schmuck. We don’t do anything that is so “˜inside’ that most won’t get it. If they don’t seem to be getting the jokes, I just tell them to ask the person sitting next to them, the one with the higher SAT score.”
The real Hanukkah party
