Attending a Team Robespierre show is more akin to going to a party than going to your typical arms-crossed club gig. For one thing, most of the band’s shows don’t take place in clubs—they happen in warehouses and lofts where people bring their own 40s, crowd surf and become just as much a part of the performance as the band itself. It’s all part of Team Robespierre’s goal of taking away any separation between artist and audience.
“We usually try to set stuff up on the floor and not play on the stage,” said Ty Kube, one of the band’s two keyboardist/singers. “We carry the guitar and bass into the audience. Whoever’s singing is down there. We sometimes put the keyboards onstage backwards, so we can play them while we’re standing on the floor.”
The power of Team Robespierre’s loft shows has put the band in a bit of a bind. As popularity builds (opening slots for The Teenagers, Artist to Watch props in Brooklyn’s culture bible L Magazine), the group is outgrowing these sweaty spaces which have served as the ideal backdrops to take in the synth-driven dance-punk, which features sing-shouted group vocals, pulsating beats and songs that rarely last more than two minutes. For the time being at least, these shows are just going to be more crowded, so be prepared to sweat out some Brooklyn Lager.
Kube talked about the band’s craziest onstage moments, growing pains and why they lied about having a history with Grandmaster Flash.
What’s the craziest thing that’s ever happened at a Team Robespierre gig?I once chipped my tooth, but our [other] singer, Tomasz, has hurt himself really bad. Our crowds go pretty crazy, jumping up and down and crowd-surfing. We were playing a show with Dan Deacon at CMJ and people went too crazy, jumping on Tomasz and trampling him. His ankle rolled over bad from someone stepping on it. Now he has to wear a big, ugly brace held together with pink duct tape.
You’ve had more than one show shut down by the cops. What happened?The last one we had shut down was at the Market Hotel. They were selling alcohol in there, and I guess that’s not allowed. We once played at this place in Bed-Stuy called The Chicken Hut. Someone threw a bottle off the roof, so the cops came and shut that down. At South by Southwest, we got shut down for playing too loud and too late.
Now, you’re going from playing small warehouse and loft parties to opening for The Teenagers. How do you create the same sweaty dance-party atmosphere in a big place like the Bowery Ballroom?We’ve thought a lot about that as band, and I don’t think we’ve figured it out yet. We played the Bowery once before, and the crowds definitely don’t go as wild. It’s hard because you’re up on stage and not as close to everyone. When you’re close, they’ll jump around if you jump around. And if they can touch you they’ll go crazy. New York is known for stagnant crowds that just stand there. In Brooklyn, even though it’s still New York, people go to loft parties and just go crazy.
Why do you think that is?The whole environment is different in Brooklyn because you can bring your own alcohol. It’s more like a party where there are no rules. In Manhattan, shows cost more money, there’s door guy, a bouncer and a real bar. That structured environment makes people not as loose.
Is it true that some of the band members used to play in a Grandmaster Flash cover band? No. That’s a lie.
Spin.com was going to make us their band of the day and they wanted an interesting fact. We didn’t have one and were on the spot, so one of the band members said we were in a Grandmaster Flash cover band. They put it up and it circulated around from there.
Your first album, “Everything’s Perfect”, is only 18 minutes long. Why so short? That’s just how long the songs are. We have 10 songs on there. I grew up listening to bands that had short songs and I felt like some punk bands would put too many songs on their albums. There’d be albums where I knew every song on Side A and never listened to Side B because Side A had 12 songs on it. When we play live, we only play 20 minutes, no matter what. I’d rather see something short I can remember. I’d rather have people know 10 songs, even if they’re short, than have the last six be filler or have people never even get that far.
Party promoter Todd P has been a big supporter of yours. How did you hook up with him?How do you get on a Todd P show? I don’t know. He probably gets 200 emails a day. We used to go to all of his shows. He knew us and knew we had a band, so he said, “Let’s see it.” That’s all that happened. But he’s helped us a lot. There are so many bands I see now playing the Bowery Ballroom that I would go see playing Todd’s shows. I remember seeing The Black Lips playing for Todd four years ago. Same with Deerhunter and No Age. People trust his taste, so it’s a big deal if he puts you on one of his shows.
Some people call you a dance-punk band, while others call you punk-dance. What comes first in your mind?Definitely punk. Obviously, our music is dance-y. Half our songs don’t have guitars, but we still consider ourselves a punk band. It’s more about the attitude than the sound. If someone sees our band play and sees how hard we play, that should prove it to them.
Where does the name Team Robespierre come from?We were sitting there and saw a book open to an article about Robespierre and that’s it. I wish we didn’t name the band that, honestly. The main reason is that it’s really hard to spell and say. It bums me out when people spend time making nice silkscreened fliers and they have our name spelled wrong. It’s not like The Ramones. That’s easy. Team Robespierre is weird.
Team Robespierre plays with The Teenagers on May 3 at the Music Hall of Williamsburg, May 5 at Bowery Ballroom and May 10 at Maxwell’s. Photo by Ryan Muir.
