August 2–9, 2001

naked city

First Look

Tritone

When the Bob and Barbara dynasty, after 40-odd years of tight-packed existence, extended itself into a neighboring space, B&B’s owners unleashed the lease on its cross-street lounge, Bennie’s, giving it over (well, selling it) to Black Hole booking bartender Rick D. and his buying partner David Rogers. Sounds simple. It is. When the ’60s-lamp-light-littered, black-lacquer ’n’ burnt-sienna colored (this is where Crayolas come in handy) Bennie’s opened in 2000, it was dedicated to perf-art (for the likes of Ira A and Psydde Delicious Hard Luck Theatrics), kitsch, extravagant music (Bros. Suggarillo, Gentleman 4), avant jazz (à la Jim Meneses, Elliot Levin) and down-home-soul DJ Phil Sumpter, a.k.a. PS3. These things will still be Tritone. But something was missing: a rococo juke joint element that could be so perfect at 15th and South, a marvelously dilapidated block. So that’s what Rick added. That musical interval of three whole steps that matches the name; a sonic debris, made from Rick’s own "record collection and eclectic booking experience," he says. (He’s booked for Pontiac and Fergie’s.) So there’s Bob Willis, Tom Waits, Buzzcocks and Leonard Cohen emanating from Tritone’s jukebox. There’s elegantly avant-garde gigs booked with locals Odean Pope (Aug. 15) and Bobby Zankel and Ben Schachter teamed with Jamaaladeen Tacuma (Aug 16). And there’s The Dictators eating at a corner table. Wha? Yes indeed. Though they played at Rick D’s Pontiac-booked show that night (last Saturday), the New York City punk progenitors were munching on what Dave Rogers calls an "international small-plate pub food" menu prepared by TattooFlyGuy (award-winning quiche maker/chef Bill Ricks), listening to Cramps records under low, low tangerine lighting and red candle ambience. Don’t let the mellow, the munchies or the gaslight fool you. Tritone is prepped, at a moments’ notice, to get louder than live, (well, weird live anyway) what with Rocktits DJ Joel (of Via Bicycle) spinning his Hawkwind/Pink Fairies-heavy record collection to odd-musical aficionados. Like Rick and Dave.

—A.D. Amorosi