By Annie Henderson and Anna Marden, News Staff
When an event flyer advertises live flapjack flipping, show-goers might envision some type of intense dance style. However, this description was entirely literal.
At Allston’s Wonder Bar March 2, there was a pancake griddle on the stage, manned by a horned-helmet wearing Northeastern student and a wizard with a light-up magnifying glass to inspect the finished products, which were passed out to the audience. Add to this scene eclectic music, hula hooping, live body and canvas painting, jewelry vendors, Scooby Doo and a large cast of various other characters and you get the record release party for Allston-based psychedelic-electronic act Supersillyus.
This strange-sounding mix of interactive silliness was part of a night of performances presented by The Brain Trust (TBT), a ten-month-old Boston-based event production company that also manages local music acts.
TBT produces events that primarily showcase electronic and hip-hop music in Boston venues – but they create atypical experiences at their shows, said William Gamble, a Brain Trust employee and senior history major.
The release party for Supersillyus’ new album Tesselations was a prime example of the eclectic atmosphere TBT creates at its events. Organizers said they were especially pleased with the turnout and crowd participation. Wonder Bar reached capacity that night with 200 attendees, Gamble said.
“That was probably my favorite show that we’ve ever done,” said Conor Loughman, co-owner of TBT and founder of Base Trip Records. “I mean we had live pancake flipping and costumes; what more could you want?”
Gamble said they decided to get “extra crazy” for the Supersillyus release party by going beyond the norm of interactivity and fun elements that usually occur at TBT shows – the special additions that night included a magician, the pancakes and the costume contest.
“We do a lot of that stuff at all of our shows but for this show we really went all out,” Gamble said. “Me and [Supersillyus] brainstormed about all sorts of silly things we could do for the show.”
The event was a collaborative effort with the electronic jam band Wobblesauce, which has held a Wednesday night residency at Wonder Bar for six months. Gamble said TBT occasionally teams up with Wobblesauce to book the lineup and plan the “Wobble Wednesdays” shows.
Jake Boynton, bassist of Wobblesauce and BU senior, said the “Wobble Wednesdays” organizers look for unique bands with different influences who aren’t afraid to bend the standard confines of music genres.
Supersillyus is one such act, incorporating elements of dub-step, psychedelic, blues, house and outlandish performance spectacles and projected video art.
“I’ve been really excited about this show,” said Allie Ward, a senior at BU who attended the record release party. “Supersillyus just keeps getting better. He’s turning into someone who changes genres and challenges the music norm.”
While many attendees of the show were loyal fans of Supersillyus, even those who had never heard of him or The Brain Trust had positive reactions to the music and the event as a whole.
“It’s a really unique atmosphere; a beautiful impulse of abnormality,” said Jacob Dinklage, 21, a first-time attendee at a TBT show.
The Brain Trust is a fairly new company that is still undergoing constant transformation, Loughman said. TBT just recently started managing all of the music acts signed to Loughman’s Boston-based label Base Trip Records, he said.
“This is a pretty good platform because we can put the artists we represent on the shows we throw,” he said.
TBT is co-owned by Loughman and his business partner Kyle Langan, both are 2010 BU graduates. They work with a large team of full-time staffers as well as part-time interns and various other collaborators who help the company run smoothly, Loughman said.
Before The Brain Trust company was born, Loughman and Langan, who met at school, worked in separate realms of the music industry – Loughman at a record label and Langan at an event production company. They realized their two different interests and talents might be able to cohesively fit together as a multi-purpose music production company, Loughman said. They officially founded TBT in May 2010.
Another planned venture for TBT is planning a new music branch called Metal Abduction, which Gamble is working on with two of his own part-time staff. He said they have been networking with local bands and venues to begin planning summer events for this project.
“I’d say our goal is to grow and not only be able to support ourselves full time doing music and doing what we love but also to be able to do it to a point where we can provide paid jobs for our staff,” Loughman said.
Gamble and Loughman agreed that getting paid depends on the investments they make. As an event production company, TBT is the middle-man, so the organizers have to rent venue rooms to host shows and hope they earn back at least what they put into it.
“We’re making little bets all the time. There’s a lot of risk and reward,” Loughman said. “We’re trying to help ourselves and our friends do music professionally. If I end up making a teacher’s salary doing music, which is what I love to do, then I’m going to consider my life a success.”
Having fun and keeping the audience happy are also important elements for TBT organizers, Gamble said. He said it’s important to reach out to the audience and find out whether people are having a good time.
“We’re an event production company, but at the same time, we really want to focus on entertaining people,” Gamble said. “Everyone goes to concerts, but you go to [our] show and it’s like ‘oh you remember that crazy kid with the horn helmet flipping pancakes on stage at that ridiculous show?’ We try to make it more of an experience, more than just a show.”
