Scene makers

P Squared is jumpstarting the local circuit

by Michael Caito

Michelle, Cara, and Renee

A shared love of music first brought together the three promoters who comprise the brandy-new P Squared. But while music was the glue, the magnet which keeps Renee Bessette, Cara Hyde and Michelle Marchese around is their collective opinion that while Providence has a lot to offer, much work needs to be done to revitalize what some say is a mystifying, yet eternally promising rock scene, with a range of rooms, big and small, from the Met to the Living Room to the Safari to Studio 159.

All three eventually arrived in Rhode Island from various Eastern US locales, with Marchese having settled here first, in the eighth grade. After a stint at George Washington University in DC she moved back and teamed with Cara Hyde, a Williamsport, Pennsylvania native who moved here four years ago from the Ithaca School of Music on the advice of friends in the band Difference Engine. V for Vendetta is the name of the Hyde-Marchese duo. Rochester native Bessette graduated from URI, and her experience at WRIU prompted her to create her record label, Brentwood Estates, less than two years ago.

We discussed the trio's observations, as well as clear delineations among band, label and the new P Squared, at the Providence Bookstore Cafe last week.

Q: What will you say to those who will see V for Vendetta playing an upcoming P Squared show?

Marchese:Actually we had that show before P Squared existed.

Bessette: People will say, "Oh you're doing this for your label, they're doing it for their band." We're not focusing on that [but rather on] the whole scene, bringing people together who might not otherwise play together. Getting people involved, getting people excited about playing. Just from being an outsider, one of the reasons Istarted my record label was because Ifreaked out when I got a job offer in New York -- at a Pavement show -- and felt really . . . sick. Irealizedthen that Ican do something here . . . from [my] knowing and talking to people. The label taken as a separate entity, Ithought, "What else do Iknow?" Well, bands in town and from out of town. So let's get them together.

Marchese: The thing is [Cara and I] have already been doing the same thing . . . getting shows, trying to get other bands to play with us. Originally we were going to try to do a three-day music festival. Then we realized we couldn't narrow it down to the less than 12 local bands we'd have to limit it to, even given a three-day festival and seven bands a night. So there was no way to have a national-level festival.

Bessette: It was also whether Providence has reputation enough out of town to get people to come in for something like that.

Hyde: And it doesn't any more.

Marchese: Wanting to do this came out of feeling that there are a lot of resources, but they're distributed very strangely in Providence, and [often] bands end up competing for these resources, literally using language like, "They're my biggest competition for this show." That's fundamentally wrong. In a scene this small you shouldn't have to feel you're competing to get a show.

Q: Does P Squared only associate with clubs amenable to their lineups?

Hyde: The biggest difference for ourselves is that we're not booking agents getting paid. For instance we're booking something at the Met, but we don't book the Met. It's a redistribution of resources. [We] want to be a bridge between people who want to do things and people who have the money to get guarantees and people who have the space to have a show. Our biggest focus is not on ourselves and not even on making sure that every local band has a show a month. We want to change the way people perceive Providence, those who live here and those who don't. Bands coming in don't understand how small it is, and why they're not going to have 200 people at their show, but forty. And 40 is good. Renee being someone who deals with her label and [Michelle and I] being in a band, it does help but it's not necessarily selfish.

Bessette: Brentwood Estates is not related at all, it's a totally different function. So far four singles are out, three from Providence bands and one from New Jersey, the next one is an EP from a Philadelphia band, then a split single with the Eyesores and the Iditarod, out in late spring. So Brentwood is entirely separate, but it helps in that I'll ask, say, the guy from Kindercore [Records] whether Kincaid are on tour, or that if anyone is touring to let us know now that we're doing this in Providence. It's certainly not that we're the only game in town. And there are things happening . . . look at Flydaddy Records moving here. Iwas psyched.

Marchese: Obviously, it's not like the only way to get a show at the Met is to ask P Squared. It will even up, sometimes we'll call bands, other times people will call us. One of the things we'd like to do is to at least try to bring these many, very small communities together. You don't see the same kids at hardcore and pop shows, whereas in DC you'd see Ian MacKaye whooping it up in the front row of a Heavenly show. When Purple Ivy Shadows did the Safari Lounge [a few months ago] for a month that was really great, because they brought so many kinds of bands in and you got to meet them all, even if every kind of music wasn't your favorite.

Aden, Stringbuilder and The Beauty Industry perform at P Squared's first show Wednesday at the Met.

STARS & BARS. Food? Check. Tunes? Check. Visual art? Check. So plan now for Veteran's Auditorium Arts & Cultural Center's Scene 99, next Thursday (March 25) from 6 to 10 p.m. Pendragon, Chris and Rachel Turner, Fuego Flamenco and Brass Attack will help work off the calories provided by a handful of area eateries. It's a good chance to check out that downstairs space at Vets.

Salley forth: which RI punk band is Neil Salley related to? Ask him at his Opening tonight (3.18) at AS220.

Congrats to Jack Smith & the Rockabilly Planet. Smith phoned to alert us that his band has inked a deal for a new record, which they've begun work on. More later.

Big Lupo's week:Violent Femmes are followed by Brit hitmakers 3 Colours Red, who in turn are followed the hip-hop/metal of Kid Rock (Shed open). All are followed by Placebo. But the sleeper of the bunch may be Flick, who go on before Placebo Tuesday. Medicine Ball's Evan Williams weighed in last week with a thumbs-up for the Missouri quartet, and a little hunt for The Perfect Kellulight (Columbia) proved him accurate. While CMJcalls 'em "disarming" I'd opt for the Fab Four meet the Push Kings in a pub. Flick, hailing from just outside Springfield (not Shelbyville), fire up their Britpop with much vim and little smirking. By the way, both Medicine Ball and V Majestic are recording again.

Guitarist Sharon Isbin at the Philharmonic was predictably exotic, with the gentle jungle music of Paraguay tossed into her impromptu encore and the rarish instance of a guest soloist actually speaking to the audience. Better still was the closing Dvorak symphony, with buoyant strings and colorful themes from the Czech master. Confident ensemble work, though the final movement -- as it also did when Zuohuang Chen ruled the podium in its last performance in 1994 -- was sent headlong into the gusty closing in a way that seemed rushed. The weirder thing was I'd scribbled the exact same thing (about the ending) on a program from five years ago. Go figure.

Later Amy Allison sounded more like Dolly Parton than any of the other singers folks hanker to liken Mose's daughter to. Her Maudlins trio was super at AS220.