Two Bands in One
Martini Nation & the Jaded Broads may sound like two groups, but actually it’s one, though you might think you have seen at least two by the end of the evening.
This is a very small musical, movable republic composed of a pair of sisters, Wendy and Gabrielle Childs, and a happy guy in between, Ware Cristiann. The band will bring its jazzy and bluesy Las Vegas-style theatrical performance to Wine Lovers in Ventura tonight. The cover is the ever-affordable free.
Wine Lovers is a comfortable venue designed to resemble someone’s living room. Couches and soft chairs are scattered around, and everyone inside is close to the band. An outdoor patio features tables under torch light and a darkened candle-lit kiosk.
Wine Lovers was, in fact, the setting for the first Martini Nation gig more than a year ago.
Before Martini Nation, the Childs sisters fronted Menage A Trois, an alternative band. Then based in New York, the band relocated to Redondo Beach and continued to commute back to New York. They are now based in Westlake Village.
All of the players in Martini Nation play several instruments. Gabrielle plays guitar most of the time, but she also plays mandolin and banjo. Wendy plays the drums and also guitar and mandolin. Ware Cristiann plays guitar and other things.
The women are easy to figure out, but Cristiann elicits more than his fair share of double takes from the audience. At first, it appears as if the band is playing along to a tape because as Cristiann plays guitar, one hears sax or piano coming from the speakers.
“It’s not a tape. I have this hookup that allows me to play all of these instruments through my guitar,” he said. “It may be a sampler, but I’m playing it all live right there. It’s great because I get to play all these different instruments.”
A Martini Nation gig--a very schizophrenic affair--starts off slow with lots of mellow lounge-lizard-type tunes that do not seriously affect the chitchat at the bar. As the evening progresses, the sisters gradually take on more of an attitude and Martini Nation metamorphoses into the Jaded Broads.
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“The metamorphosis to the Jaded Broads is really, really fun,” said the drummer. “In some venues, we change clothes behind a screen, or sometimes we don’t. We do different things every time, such as a Christmas show or ‘Let’s Get Married With the Jaded Broads Show.’ We have six different shows with over 25 original songs. All together, we probably know about 500 songs.”
The band plays almost every weekend in venues around the county but mostly in Ventura or Oxnard. No one has a day job, so everyone works at making the band a success. There is a definite specialization of labor. Gabrielle scouts for new venues, while Wendy handles the phone and Ware deals with computer issues such as the mailing list. Everyone writes, and the band is working on a CD and also a number of screenplays. And so far, so good, says Wendy.
“We try to target one area where they support live music, and I think this area definitely supports live music. We never play anywhere that has a cover. We’re just trying to make something special, and so far, we’ve built a nice following of dedicated people.
“So far, we’re paying our rent. We have a nice house with a fireplace and an herb garden. And Ventura gave us that.”
* Martini Nation & the Jaded Broads at Wine Lovers, 1067 E. Thompson Blvd., Ventura, tonight at 8. COST: Free. CALL: (805) 652-1810.
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The greatest club in Ventura in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s was unquestionably Charlie’s, located where California Street meets the parking structure and the Pacific. Charlie’s had local bands every night. It’s been six years since Charlie’s closed, to be replaced by Pineapples, a restaurant that sold Hawaiian shirts to tourists and piped in reggae Muzak.
These days the venue has resurfaced as the Banana Belt Cantina, and it has live music once again. This weekend it’s yet another L.A. band seeking fame and fortune up the coast, or maybe just sick of all that traffic.
In any case, this weekend, Painted Id will play its folk-flavored tunes at the seaside venue. The Santa Monica-based band, fronted by vocalist Tori Solomon, has a pair of CDs thus far, including a self-titled effort just released. Things start early at the Banana Belt Cantina, 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and there’s no cover.