PANSY DIVISION, with The Ritchie White Orchestra, Panic Problem and Braceface
Doors Open: 7:00 PM
There have been gay musicians hidden throughout rock music history,
but Pansy Division when began in 1991 in San Francisco, they were the first
to be so boldly open about it. Founded by guitarist/singer Jon Ginoli and soon
joined by bassist/vocalist Chris Freeman, with the intent of forming a gay rock
band, Pansy Division blew the closet doors open.
Raised on a diet of 60s pop and 70s punk, their sound was suitably crunchy
and catchy as hell. They wrote in-your-face lyrics, but did it with a sense of humor.
Not only did their music and stance defy stereotypical norms of rock musicians
being openly gay, they also broke gay cultural stereotypes that rock
wouldn’t interest gay people.
With album titles like Undressed and Deflowered,
and song titles like “Bill & Ted’s Homosexual Adventure,” their
bluntness and humor stood out amidst the ’90s alterna-rock scene. Says
Chris Freeman, “there was a lot of gay culture we couldn’t relate to, so
we tried to invent a place for ourselves in it, an alternative for
other queer misfits.” Having had the experience of being ostracized by
other musicians for being gay and by other gays for being into rock, “we
tried to turn our alienation into something positive,” says Ginoli.
“Instead of being depressed about it, we tried to make music that would
make us—and our audience—happy. We could laugh about it, so we put that
joy into the music.”
Beginning in 1993, they put out an album a year for six years on Lookout Records.
Their music caught the attention of former Lookout labelmates Green Day, who took
Pansy Division on tour for a couple of months in 1994 at the height of
the mania surrounding their breakthrough album Dookie. Says
Ginoli, ”When we started our band we thought we’d be playing our music
to people in their 20s & 30s who were gay or gay-friendly. Suddenly
we faced thousands of high school kids each night, an amazing
opportunity we never expected to have.” The response was decidedly
mixed, but their popularity soared.
Pansy Division toured and recorded almost non-stop during the 1990s, a
long the way recruiting a permanent drummer (Luis Illades) and a lead
guitarist (first Patrick Goodwin, now Joel Reader).
1998’s Absurd Pop Song Romance was a departure from their earlier work,
a more serious album both lyrically and sonically. The followup album Total Entertainment!
(for a new label, Alternative Tentacles) found a happy medium between
the broad humor of the early records and the more (dare we say it?)
mature approach of the previous album. In 2006, they released a 30-song
career overview titled The Essential Pansy Division, including a DVD of videos
and concert footage.
To date PD has played 976 shows. The band’s goal is to get to 1000, so if you want to see us live,
don’t wait till next time, because there’s a good chance this will be the last time around.