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Fans Remember Strange Boutique
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I Remember

First saw them at Back Alley Cafe in D.C where I worked as a bartender/doorman. What a wonderful group, I seem to recall them being Madhouse back then. Just before they changed there name to Strange Boutique or Strange Buttcheeks as I use to say. Never failed when they played at 9:30, I had to work at the Alley! I still have the Madhouse record that Danny or Fred gave me (memory failing argggg). I love the song 'Quicksand Minds' to this day from The Loved One CD. To Fred, ok I now believe you. Your last name is Smith! - Aaron

Thanks for the Memories

Strange Boutique will live in my heart forever. I had the wonderful pleasure of knowing each member personally. My boyfriend at the time was an old friend of Steve Willet's. My first encounter with them was at the 9:30 Club, of course. Let me just say it was a spiritual movement for me. ;Monica's ;voice was like an angel singing just for me. I've never been so captivated by a band. I think about all the fun we had hanging out chilling after each gig, always munching on PIZZA & BREW;You guys are a part of my life and history I'll never forget. I've met so many great people thru you guys. learned a lot, defiantly experienced somethings I never would have coming out of the BURBS... I will love you guys forever!! Thanks for the memories. - C. McCarthy

My Strange Boutique

Let me say a little something about every member of the band, please. Monica was one of the very first female singers to front a DC punk band, she was theatrical, mysterious, brash, an alluring powerhouse on stage. Freddy: the guitarist's guitarist, a punk rock virtuoso, I never saw another guitarist scream and sing into his guitar for such a cool effect. His main sound was a wall of harmonic noise, but he could pick an acoustic guitar like a harp. Steve: one of the ultimate bass players. He showed a pure sense of bass structure, he went from a low psychadelic drone into a complicated line that could have been played on guitar. Rand was a human drum machine, a total monster. - Jim Goldman

For the CD

I found Strange Boutique in a dusty music store in college. Monica Richards's gorgeous, fluid voice, and the sharp, intelligent music, left such an impression upon me that I was sorry not to have found them sooner. Fred Smith's polished guitar and Steve Willet's rhythmic bass were unlike anything I'd ever heard before. My favorite album, “The Kindest Worlds”, came at a moment in my life where I felt a certain growth within me. The music helped me deal with the changes in my life, and today it remains a memory bank of happier, easier days. I used to walk the streets in DC with Strange Boutique playing in my CD player. To me, the city had a soundtrack. A sound. Strange Boutique is definitely the best band DC ever saw. - A.C. Riedel

Fred...

Fred Smith was a complete original. He’s the Godfather of the Punk/Funk/Metal sound. When he was in Beefeater, he used no effects at all and his sound was raw, incredible. Completely unique. After a bunch of gigs with Bad Brains, we could tell the influence he had on them when they put their next album out. In Strange Boutiqe, he began to use effects and it was like watching a blind man see - there was no stopping him. - Ray T.

Memory Lane

I think the first time I ever saw Strange Boutique was @ The Metro in Richmond, VA back in the early 90's when I was going to VCU. I remember seeing one of their LPs in a record store in Georgetown in D.C. earlier when I was in high school and being very intrigued, but I didn't buy it. So when I saw that they were playing in Richmond I knew I had to go. Needless to say, they utterly seduced me, and I have been a Strange Boutique disciple ever since. I was always praising them to my friends, and I still am. That night they played their last show @ the Black Cat was a difficult one. I didn't want it to end. I'm happy that I got to know them, to be so touched by them. And to now have the chance to see them play together once again. - Steph

Thanks for this Page

I remember Monica from Hate From Ignorance. They opened for Circle Jerks back in '81. Here it was ten years later and there was all this buzz about this band Strange Boutique. The place was packed and there, lo and behold was Freddy from Beefeater. They really blew my mind. I didn't find out until later that the Femme Fatale on stage was Monica, she transformed from a spikey-haired punk rock girl into, well, a siren. And now I read the drummer I saw was none other than Danny from Untouchables and Youth Brigade. Talk about a punk rock pedigree. - Tom (no last name)

SB Memories

I remember the first time that my guitarist and I saw Strange Boutique at The Bayou before Steve or Rand had joined the band. It was amazing! I just remember that we didn't speak for at least a half hour afterward. When we did speak, the first thing I said was "F@#&! We suck!" Our musical direction was never the same. I don't think I missed another show they played in the area. It only got better when Steve and Rand came into the picture. It was amazing to watch this band grow and develop. It made me realize that there is much more to music than what the major labels were giving us. And the best thing about this band is that they were approachable. They made you feel like you were a part of the show. Definitely not a common thing in the DC area at that time. It was hard to watch that last show at The Black Cat. It felt too much like growing up. It was also something I'll never forget. Thanks for making some great music! - Flip/etherpool

THANKS

I just wanted to thank/congratulate whoever put together the Strange Boutique section of the Mercyground. As a high school kid in DC in the early nineties I cherish my memories of the fabulous shows at the old 9:30 club, and remember with sadness the final show at the Black Cat. Spending some time with the pictures and text on the site was a welcome bittersweet experience. - Brendan Gray

My Memories

I will never forget the feeling of watching Strange Boutique perform. They never got their due, plain and simple. These guys were larger than life when they hit the stage, and the thing was, they were the strangest looking bunch, a real eccentric mix of styles visually, but somehow they clicked together the moment the first note hit the air, like a four-piece that could call up an entire orchestra of sound and emotion, head-banging, the music swirling about them, almost like summoning something unreal. - Jeff Mahoney

RAPE BENEFIT SHOW - SOME CATHOLIC HIGH SCHOOL

I was in Baltimore for some reason and drove about 80 miles to see SB play a benefit for a rape crisis center at a Catholic high school someplace in Montgomery County. The directions were really shitty and it was dark so I wandered all over some strange area looking for the concert. I finally found what I thought might be the location and also found another SB fan in the parking lot. We started looking around this large and mostly dark campus for a concert. After a little while we found a building and started looking in the windows until we got yelled at for being peeping Toms. Seems it was some kind of lodging for the Nuns. We finally found the right building in the far diagonal corner of the campus from the parking lot. When I walked in to buy my ticket some PTA mom started yelling at me for being late and said I should know school policy is that you are either on time or can't get in! I was pretty amazed by this - keep in mind at the time I was in my late 20s. After I explained that I had driven about 80 miles to get there and this was a publicly advertised event she very reluctantly let me in. The concert itself was pretty good with the absolutely classic "Fast Times at Ridgemont High" moment of a pizza being delivered mid-concert. - Joe Della Barba

MEMORIES

Strange Booty (as we affectionately called them) going into "Ears to the Ground", the fans at the old 930 Club blowing, the crowd rolling like some infernal ocean in a gale. A sight never to be forgotten. Fred Smith (guitars) bouncing all over the stage like the marvelous madman he is, off the stage (!), through the crowd, hanging around at the back bar, still playing away (love those wireless amp pickups)... turning his guitar over, you can see THE FRED LIVE stuck on the back... Steve Willett, always aloof with long shirt and long hair, ceaselessly carrying the rhythmic grinding twisting sliding depth of bass... Danny, then Rand, shining sleek with sweat from drumming 2-3 encores... I always wondered how they kept all those different rhythms going at once... And Monica of course, learning out over the crowd, singing, dancing, having a good time, inviting us in, drawing us into the music. Remember DC Space, remember old 930, remember... Adam Shaw

STRANGE BOUTIQUE LIVE SHOWS

Every time they played, I couldn't wait. They were local, but it always seemed like they were some big out of town band. 930 Club was always packed to the gills and they smoked out the place before they came on. Fred was always running and jumping off stage, and Monica, who can ever forget her???? I really miss those days. - Peter Summer

AIDS BENEFIT - PERRY'S IN ADAMS MORGAN, WASHINGTON D.C. - 1989?

Two things I remember from this show are someone who came as a roadie with SB getting out and dancing around in the middle of the fashion show. This guy made Fred look petite and definitely got more applause than the rest of the show. Then later on some idiotic person called Perry's and said we were making too much noise or something. Hello - you are in Adams Morgan next to a bar - did you think it was a quiet neighborhood??? - Joe Della Barba

930 CLUB SHOW - 1989

The audience had crammed themselves up to the front and side of the stage, and Monica had to come to the stage on the shoulders of this gigantic roadie, because she couldn't find any other way up there. I think she kissed him after he put her down. - Mike Wallis

MONICA

I remember meeting her and I was so nervous I wanted to throw up. She shook my hand and was so nice to me. I never forgot that. - Kate (no last name)

DC SPACE SHOW, WASHINGTON D.C. 1990

DC Space was a totally cool place to see a concert. It had a bathroom that made the 930 Club bathroom look like a luxury suite. There were missing cinder blocks in the wall so people could see in that were constantly getting stuffed with trash and old paper from inside the bathroom. The Blue Sky Puppet Theatre opened the show and they were hilarious. They were little pig puppets who did a routine about a homeless vegetarian wolf. [Strange Boutique went on and] this was one of their better concerts. I think they played "So Sweet", one of my favorite SB songs. During one of the encores either Steve or Fred took off down the street to get something and had to be retrieved. - Joe Della Barba

THE LIMELIGHT, NYC -1991

I'm from D.C. born and bred, and missed seeing SB when they played at 930 and DC Space after I left for college in NYC. Strange Boutique came up to play, and I couldn't believe it. This was one of the best shows I had ever seen them do, and I really felt happy for them. That English VJ from MTV was MCing the show, and I KNEW he had never heard of them, but Strange Boutique got called back for three encores!!! - Robert Gold

SOME GREAT COVERS:

They did a great "Dancing Barefoot" and a rocking version of Zepplin's "In the Evening". - Joe Della Barba

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