The Tender Band – One Small Step
10.10.18 by Ryan Masteller

Oh yeah, synthesizer performance art about the Apollo 11 moon landing will go over well.

Sorry, that read a little sarcastic, didn’t it? I meant to be much more enthusiastic. Let’s try it again.

Oh yeah! Synthesizer performance art about the Apollo 11 moon landing? That’ll go over WELL!

If you’ve ever listened to music that Tabs Out recommends; if you’ve ever read anything I’ve ever written and figured out I’m a real sci-fi nut; if you’re even remotely interested in space exploration (I did NOT say Space Force), then you’re in luck with The Tender Band. The duo, New Yorkers Gavin Price and John Gasper, are “curious explorers navigating the mysterious and aromatic worlds of improvisation and collaboration,” and as such are perfect foils to capture the awe and wonder of mankind’s first journey to another celestial body. Their synthesizer trickery perfectly captures what I imagine NASA sounded like in 1969, bleeps and bloops and lights and transmissions from the astronauts themselves.

All this is seamlessly woven together with a stage performance put on by St. Fortune. Gavin Price himself is the director! Is there anything he can’t do?

(Wait – what do they mean by “aromatic worlds”? That seems – weird.)

As the path to discovery leads the performers to find something “that will change the course of alternate history forever” (moon people? A giant monolith? George Méliès?), we are perfectly capable of being changed simply by this cassette tape, since not everybody lives in New York and can simply hail a cab or a bus or a rover and pop off to Poughkeepsie. It’s a gorgeous piece of work, and fascinating from start to finish. As a companion artifact to the reimagining of the greatest soundstage stunt Stanley Kubrick ever pulled, it more than capably holds its own.

Ah … ha ha.

I uh …

Eeeh shh.

… Was I supposed to say that about Kubrick? You know, implying that the moon landing was staged, if you get my meaning? Anybody else in the know about that?

As I wait here for the authorities, I’ll point you in the direction of Dead Definition, which has these sparkly cassette tapes for sale! Edition of 60.