No, listening to their albums is not a transcendental rock-n-roll experience. No, the lyrics don't make any sense. But the beauty of the Slideshow Players does not lie in their music, when taken by itself. They are not a rock band, they're a musical, live act that plays guitar. To truly enjoy them, one must see them live. Live, Jason, the dad/singer/instrumentalist and Rachel, the kid daughter/drummer, play slightly bizarre rock songs that are written to go with slideshows that are projected with an old-fashioned slide projector onto a screen behind or next to them. The mom, Tina, creates their campy and well-thought out stage outfits and works on collecting, organizing and projecting the slides, which are collected from various garage sales, ebay hunts, etc. Many of them are from the 70's and earlier, all the way back to the 40's when the first color slides came out. This provides a sort of retro effect that perhaps enhances the weirdness of the whole thing.

The slides, when combined with the music, create an incredibly entertaining, and sometimes very thought provoking (as in their song, 'European Boys'), dream-like confusion of images and sound. This is where their strength is: in creating a collage between two types of art that are usuallytaken in seperately: sound and images. Much like how a comic can do things that a book and a drawing can't, their live shows ca conjure up ideas and environments like just a rock show or a visual presentation can never match.

Live, with a couple of open-minded, artsy friends, is how they must be enjoyed, and if you have the opportunity, cancel seeing whatever other band is playing the same night and catch the experience that is the Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players. You won't regret it.