When Bob Ostertag takes the stage at the SF Eagle on Friday May 27, he brings with him a resum� that many performers could envy.
From the very beginnings of his career in the 1970s and '80s, he worked with innovators like Fred Frith (now on the faculty of Mills College) and John Zorn. A planned collaboration with David Wojnarowicz became a collaboration with Kronos Quartet, "Bob Ostertag: All the Rage" which included sound from a riot which occurred in San Francisco after Pete Wilson vetoed AB101 (a bill that would have made discrimination against lesbians and gay men illegal in California).
In 1999, he collaborated with Justin Bond and Tokyo composer Otomo Yoshihide with the group Pantychrist, and recorded an album which Allmusic said, "seethes with anger and sociopathic content" (the reviewer is praising the album, which was given a three out of five-stars review). The work can also be seen as ironically humorous, with Justin Bond musing about Westerns and John Wayne on "Giddy Up Cowboy."
It's not surprising that Ostertag's work may be seen as "seething with anger," however, as he is an intensely political artist. He was sufficiently involved and interested in the politics of Central America to go on hiatus from the music industry in 1982 and move to El Salvador for several years.
He has also published writings on the World Trade Organization, labor politics and a book about independent political writing entitled "People's Movements, People's Press: The Journalism of Social Justice Movements."
Besides anger, the overwhelming notion one gets from his writing is compassion, however. In his essay, "Lonely and Scary Times for Sexual Diversity in Indonesia," he talks about the situation of queer Indonesians which he witnessed on his tour earlier this year. He informs the reader:
"Indonesia has used not laws but state-incited violence to maintain their desired level of social control. The current campaign against the queer community falls squarely within this tradition."
The entire essay is worth reading to give a broader perspective on human rights for sexual minorities in the world and can be found on this website, www.bobostertag.wordpress.com.
I spoke with Ostertag about his upcoming concert to ask if he was performing something new or a recorded work. Given the breadth of his music pieces, I wondered what we could expect at the Eagle.
"I will be performing live improvisations in which I control a synthesizer with a game-pad," said Ostertag. "I'm just back from a one-year-plus tour where I did that all over the world."
He referred me to a recording of material similar to what he will be performing, on his music website, www.bobostertag.bandcamp.com.
A quote on his website from The New York Times says, "Bob Ostertag's improvisations on various non-keyboard synthesizers are about as far removed from the electronic music clich�s of the past as can be imagined."
After having listened to music from that link, I agree (and look forward to the concert).
Ostertag's tour took him from Mexico and El Salvador to Europe, Lebanon, China, Southeast Asia, South America and back to the U.S. I asked what the highlights of the tour had been.
"The Strozzi Palace in Florence and the Teatro Col-n in Buenos Aires were pretty special," he said. "Presenting the world premiere of my new ensemble at Teatro Col-n was especially nice. The Jogja Noise Festival in Java was one of the most punk rock things I have ever participated in. And returning to El Salvador after almost 30 years to share a bill with a band whose members had grown up in refugee camps during the war is something I will never forget."
Asked how he chooses artists for collaborations (such as Pantychrist or his work with David Wojarowicz), Ostertag mentioned that his book Creative Life tells the stories of PantryChrist and the collaboration with David Wojnarowicz in detail.
"In general, I look long and hard and far and wide for my collaborators. I have to resonate with their work pretty deeply. David Wojnarowicz and Justin Vivian Bond are two wonderful examples of collaborators whose work really touched me."
The story of the collaboration with Bond in Creative Life is in equal parts touching and hilarious. In it, Ostertag recounts how they went onstage at the Great American Music Hall and improvised, with Mike Patton (from Faith No More) doing vocals on one set and (with no warning to the assembled fans of Faith No More) Bond doing vocals in the second set. Without revealing too much (you should really get the book), this captures how unique the evening was:
"Justin came onstage in a one-piece ladies' swimsuit with a jar of indoor tanning lotion and announced he wanted to have a perfect tan before the end of the set. I think the audience was simply stunned. When we got back to the dressing room, Otomo, Justin and I looked at each other and asked, 'What was that? Was that pretty good or the worst thing we have ever done?' At that moment, for the only time in my life, a man from a record company burst in, beside himself with how great our show had been and gushing about how we had to make a record for his label right away. Thus was born PantyChrist. Or PC, for short."
While Ostertag will not have any copies of his books for sale at the Eagle, if you are a fan of his writing, you should be aware that he has a new book, "Sex Science Self: Rethinking Identity and Activism in the Pharmaceutical Age," which has been released by the University of Massachusetts press this month.
A complete list of his writings is available on his website.
The concert looks to be a unique and wonderful event - for both the Loaded series and the Eagle. Ostertag takes to the stage at 11pm for what the website calls "an entire evening of music, projections, and the highest of spirits."
Bob Ostertag and DJs Dugg, Bobby Please, and C-Pap play at Loaded, Friday May 27 at the SF Eagle, 398 12th St. at Harrison. $3. 8pm-2am. www.sf-eagle.com