Jam Session from left: Mona Schamess, Maia Cafri, Starr Hill, and Skye Ray, with coach Jeanni Centofanti at bottom. On Saturday, Aug. 16 the ladies of Jam Session stepped out under the blue and green lights of the 9:30 Club main stage and began their first performance by yelling out "We're Jam Session, and we love hamster!" Featuring frontwoman Skye Ray on vocals, Mona Schamess on guitar and vocals, Maia Cafri on bass, Starr Hill on drums, and Gigi Diaz on keys, the young women performed a complex piece that fused several tempos and styles and included some fancy beatboxing by Ray.
Like the other girls in the Girls Rock! DC inaugural showcase at the 930 Club in Washington, DC, the ladies in Jam Session met, formed a band, and wrote a song for the showcase all in the space of five days. Many of the girls in the showcase, including Cafri from Jam Session, picked up their instruments for the very first time that week.
I caught up with Schamess, Cafri, Hill, and Ray in the 930 Club's Moon Room after their song. I asked Hill about their fondness for hamsters, and she quickly explained that they didn't mean the small furry rodents pictured in their band art. They were referring to alternative hamster, a style of music that is "totally better than regular rock" because it includes "a little bit of everything." She said their band coach, local musician Jeanni Centofanti from the all-female punk band Mess Up The Mess, told them about it, and the band fell in love with it. Hill said the idea of alternative hamster inspired the band to include salsa, rock, and other styles in their song.
Ray told me that the best part of rock camp was making new friends, especially her band mates. The funniest? "In self defense (class), my friend accidentally kicked me in my back!"
Just before the young rockers made their way back upstairs to see their friends in the band Flaming X play, their coach, Centofanti, pointed out the glow-in-the-dark pinpoints decorating the ceiling and walls of the impromptu press room. A former 9:30 Club employee, Centofanti told her proteges that the Moon Room was painted to exactly match the sky on the night that the 9:30 Club was founded. The girls ogled the walls, then, armed with this insider knowledge, they ran up to join their friends in the performers-only balcony.
Skye Ray on vocals.
Maia Cafri on bass.
Mona Schamess on guitar and vocals.
Jam Session under the spotlights.
2 comments:
hey this is Dave We met when you wrote your article about the event at 14th and fairmont. YOu mentioned a picnic saturday. not sure if i can go yet, but if i can let me know what time and what part of the park.
david p oleary at g mail dot com all one word no spaces. keep on keepin' on
Hello peoples. I am Mona Schamess, the guitarist of Jam Session. No kidding! I still remember preforming at the 9:30 club. It was such an amazing experiance.
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