T.J. Greever sports a green tu-tu during his performance with the rest of The Communicators on the Bud Light Stage at Riverbend in this file photo.IF YOU GOWhat: The Communicators present "That '90s Show"; Glowing Bordis opens.When: 10 p.m. Saturday.Where: Rhythm & Brews, 221 Market St.Admission: $10.Phone: 267-4644.Website: www.rhythm-brews.com.
In 1994, an estimated 350,000 people crowded onto a farm in Saugerties, N.Y., to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Woodstock Festival.
The show, which was a glorified mud pit at the end of the three days, featured performances by artists such as Metallica, Melissa Etheridge and Radiohead.
Saturday, The Communicators, a collaborative ensemble of local artists, will perform "That '90s Show," a survey of these and other artists who lit up their airwaves during the Clinton years.
Previous Communicators shows have been album-centric affairs -- start-to-finish renditions of The Beastie Boys' "Ill Communication" (another 1994 release) and Beck's "Odelay" -- but Saturday's performance will pull from an entire decade of music.
"The idea was we could do rap to rock to ... whatever," said drummer Jonathan Susman of local rock trio Glowing Bordis.
Susman's group is one of several participating in The Communicators, which also includes members from Toneharm, Digital Butter and The Nim Nims.
"We had [albums] we wanted to do, but we couldn't agree on one," Susman continued, adding that the band almost settled on Red Hot Chili Peppers' "Blood Sugar Sex Magik." "I was diving and thought, 'Why not do a decade of stuff?'
"We want to celebrate that [music] and expose it to people who didn't get a chance to live in that time when it was big."
During the course of a set lasting about 90 minutes, Susman said, the band will cover music by Alanis Morissette, Cake, Rage Against the Machine, Faith No More, Pearl Jam and Nirvana.
The Communicators debuted "That '90s Show" during a set on the Bud Light Stage at Riverbend last month. Saturday's show will mark the first time they have done an encore performance.
Changes for the second round include adding members of Strung Like a Horse to the lineup as well as a few songs that couldn't be performed at an all-ages locale such as Riverbend.
Unlike Woodstock '94, Susman said he hopes Saturday will offer a chance to improve on their original performance.
"Mixing all those genres takes a lot of adjustment when it comes to rehearsal," he said. "I think we did fine and executed everything we wanted to, but ... this is an opportunity to do it right."