When The Beer's Gone: The Midgetmen Throw a Party for the Old Folks
POSTED BY  Chase Hoffberger ON Nov 9, 2011

It's not that The Midgetmen are actually as old as advertised, it's just that they're too old to do it every night. 

"Find me another band where a guy in my situation is allowed to continue with this," says guitarist Alex Victoria. "It takes a massive amount of physical and emotional resilience." 

Like the other three members of Merge/Matador punk-pop revivalists The Midgetmen, bassist Marc Perlman, drummer Justin Petro and guitarist Jon Loyens, Victoria understands the limitations surrounding his band. A transplant from Pittsburgh eleven years ago, Victoria's now married with two kids and a career at Home Away. He's busy. He gets up before six. He spent the Friday night before our interview wrapping presents and preparing gift baskets for his oldest kid's second birthday. 

"Monday I take the two-year-old to a swim class," he says. "Tuesday the wife does something. The kids go to sleep at seven every night, and I don't usually get home until about five-thirty or six."

If these don't sound like the daily responsibilities of a typical Red River band, it's because The Midgetmen are not at all close to being a typical Red River band. But scan the list of venues under the foursome's belt and you'll see a slew of familiar names: Mohawk, Beerland and Emo's. The Midgetmen have played them all. The difference may lie in the way the band fills each room.

"Our first ever show was at Beerland," says Victoria, remembering ten years back. "We had this crowd of young professionals that we were friends with, and they all came, so nobody was wearing black that night."

Perlman interjects: "They were trying to order Heinekens at the bar, and mixed drinks — at Beerland. The cover was about three dollars at the start of the night, but people kept showing up and telling us that it was up to five bucks, ten bucks. I think it was fifteen dollars by the time my boss showed up."

Then a few lines of joking banter before Perlman, summing up: "We were too profitable for that bar." 

Flash back to a few months before that gig, and the four Midgetmen are camped out, spending their days at an apartment complex in Northwest Austin — a scene Perlman now refers to as "Nerdy Melrose Place, an L shaped complex with a bunch of out-of-towners, a pool and no girls." Largely unemployed, they started playing music together as a way to beat the doldrums of cramming fifteen techies into a room to watch people play Playstation 2.

It's hard to say when those sessions manifested into "a real thing" - maybe because it never really has turned into what a lot of musicians would consider "a real thing" - but The Midgetmen have done plenty to lead on that they're serious about their craft. They've released four albums (including May's Loud Enough, available here via Bandcamp) and put on fundraiser shows that pack houses and make good money for good causes (this Friday's show benefits Family Eldercare). They've even gone on a few national tours, probably the closest each member of The Midgetmen will get to experience what it's like to be a full-time musician. 

Says Victoria: "We'll go on these little tours, and compared to how you get treated in Austin, you'll go to a bar in some random city: they don't know your baggage. The reality is that we're just a tiny band that's looking to get drunk in a new city, but they see it, and they think, 'Oh, these guys are from Austin and have a van. They must be totally legit.' And they'll give us all the free beer that we want."

Though being seen as "totally legit" is hardly the goal. As Victoria says: "Being able to be in a sustainable band is about as much as you can aspire to, but that hustle never interested me." The Midgetmen understand that bands like The Strokes and Vampire Weekend - bands that come out of nowhere to achieve immediate fame and notoriety - are extremely rare, and each member's too occupied with the realities of growing up to throw caution to the wind. 

Instead, The Midgetmen practice twice a week and play shows when the timing's right. They all agree that now's the time when the band's become most important. Says Perlman: "We only have one hobby, but it's the best kind of hobby when you love it enough to make sure it stays active. It's their fantasy camp away from the stresses of daily life."

And sometimes, when worlds collide and miraculously nothing breaks, it makes for a pretty great show. Like that time last year when The Midgetmen went acoustic for Victoria's oldest kid's one-year birthday party. 

"Somehow we managed to play 'Who's Got The Crack?' by The Moldy Peaches," says Perlman. "I have no idea how that happened."

Says Victoria: "It's because we changed it to 'Who's Got the Snacks?' "

Switching out crack for snacks. If that's not rock and roll, what is?

[The Midgetmen host locals Teen Noir, The Distant Seconds and We'll Go Machete this Friday at Hole in the Wall for Old Men w/ Fuzz Pedals: A Benefit for Family Eldercare.]