A disclaimer: though I am more than willing to admit my love of all things nerdcore, I have never been exposed to Star Trek, in all its weird and wonderful incarnations. I say this as a pre-emptive apology in case I screw up any Trek minutiae in this week’s column. I also say this because, despite never having had any interest in anything Star Trek–related, I’m disproportionately excited about the Trekzac Festicon this Saturday, Sept. 27 at the Tranzac (292 Brunswick). Now in its second year, the anti-convention is a blessed interplanetary union between independent arts culture and the unstoppable phenomenon of all things Trek.
Organizer Paul Banwatt (whom you may know as the non–Dan Werb half of Woodhands and a member of The Rural Alberta Advantage, both of whom are performing as part of the Festicon) dreamed up the event as a response to his own experiences as an out and proud Star Trek aficionado. A lifelong fan of the franchise, Banwatt finally “admitted [how much he] loved it” and started going to conventions in his early twenties.
“There were a lot of things I liked about them, but I also kept thinking about how I’d do things differently if I were in charge,” he explains. “What I don’t like about a lot of Star Trek conventions is that it’s all about going to see an actor talk, and getting into this obsessive fandom culture that I don’t want to be a part of. I feel like there’s a whole world of Star Trek, and there are tonnes of other ways to interact and engage with it — it’s something that works so well with independent arts.”
And thus, he created the Festicon, a multimedia mash-up of everything from comedians riffing on Trek culture to intellectual discussions on Trek-related themes (Trampoline Hall mastermind Misha Glouberman mediates a talk on whether technology’s turning us all into the Borg), from local bands playing songs inspired by Trek characters (Banwatt fondly recalls Jonny Dovercourt’s brilliant “Kirk, You Jerk,” about the heartbreaker captain’s many romantic trysts) to the Church of Craft creating Borg cubes and handmade Kirk wigs (the latter will be put to good use in a game of Pin The Toupée on the Shatner).
“People can come to interact and explore their love of this crazy thing,” says Banwatt. He thinks there are definite parallels between the culture of hardcore Trekkers and the cultish indie-rock community. “At a convention, you see a lot of people who are enjoying the fact that they’re not being judged for something they love, which I also find in indie-rock. There’s a lot of overlap between the two.”
“Big” Al Mousseau, the singer/bassist in Festicon participants Mackenzie King (formerly Ontario Power Generation) and an admitted Star Trek: The Next Generation fan, thinks both indie-rock fans and Trek aficionados grapple with a certain amount of stigmatization.
Mousseau and his band killed at last year’s Festicon with an insanely heavy prog-rock medley of the overtures from the themes to Star Trek II and VI, complete with Lenny Breau–worthy displays of guitar virtuosity. This year, he says, Mackenzie King don’t have tons of new stuff planned, though they’ve added music from Star Trek III and IV to the mix and are considering some sort of collaboration with Laura Barrett.
In Mousseau’s opinion, there’s often a certain amount of self-consciousness attached to being a member of either the Trekkie or indie community, though he sees both as safe havens for nerds.
“But there’s the question of irony and the role it plays,” he adds. “Whether people are celebrating something ironically, and if so, whether that’s an actual celebration. It’s like when [organizer] Dylan Reibling talks about Fake Prom — how can you have fun ironically? Wouldn’t that be not-fun? But in some ways, I think that there’s a certain amount of space for a hip-to-be-square thing.”