In these trying times in America, art, music, puppies, and more can often serve as a tonic. If you’re looking to blow off some steam-rage, Jalopy Theater and School of Music might have just the night for you: Dump Trump Night, a musical revue of satirical songs that strive to exorcise the demon that is the tiny-handed, orange-tinted, distinctly-American nightmare of Donald J. Trump.
The original premise for the night was a summertime revival of Filthy Song Night, a raunchy song and spoken word showcase Jalopy puts on in late December every year. The organizer of the event, Feral Foster, a NYC-based songwriter who hosts the free Roots and Ruckus show every Wednesday at Jalopy, says he was inspired to put this show together now to provide a much-needed musical outlet for folks to express their frustrations about our political situation today.
“We noticed not a lot of people were hosting musical events about this,” he told Brokelyn. “People need to come together and rally against the racist, xenophobic, sexist things Trump says — not only to commiserate about it, but to blow off steam, because it’s really bothering a lot of people, and they need a way to vent a little.”
The show, held this Friday night, will feature musicians in the Jalopy community, such as Noah Harley of The Horse-Eyed Men, DK and the Joy Machine, and Feral Foster himself, many of whom have played in past Filthy Song Nights. It’ll be a bit of a variety show: Dina Seiden will do a set of stand-up comedy, and the performers are likely to call up musicians from the crowd to sit in.
They’ll be given free rein to address the theme, whether debuting brand-new songs that serve as musical diatribes against Trump, adding new Trump-themed lyrics to past compositions, and surely making up some of it on a whim (in any given moment, feelings about Trump are on the tip of the majority of Americans’ tongues, easily even more forthcoming from seasoned troubadours). With past Filthy Song Nights plus dirty Donald as inspiration, things are sure to get a little nasty.
The $5 cover will go towards Make the Road New York, a grassroots organization that advocates for low-income and immigrant New Yorkers—a little bonus fuck you, Trump. Also that night: a screening of the Kickstarter video from The Quiet American, a Queens fine arts newspaper that’s headed out to the RNC and plans to release a special issue covering it.
If you need any more convincing, Foster tells us they’ll be raffling off a roll of toilet paper with Donald Trump’s face printed on it, and a Trump pinata. When you tally up this event with past Brooklyn Trump-themed events (essentially, efforts at both levity and therapy), like the massage therapy deal to relieve Trump anxiety, Experiment Comedy Gallery’s Muslim discount, and the $15/hour gig handing out Trump dog poop bags, we may finally have one positive thing to say about him: at least he’s stimulating the local creative economy.