Strange Boutique

I was back on break from flight school in Florida in 1987 when I found a flyer on my car advertising a Strange Boutique show at the Dome, which was a club built underground around 21st and M streets. I drove on over, and SB was GREAT. I was so happy to find such a cool band in the midst of alternative music wannabes. They did a great cover of "In the Evening" by Led Zeppelin and after the show Monica had a piece of paper and was taking names for a mailing list. I got on it and started getting little postcards about upcoming shows. They went on to be one of the best and most original bands out there. The music wasn't the only thing. Monica and the band would always take time to talk to people before and after shows. Fred was just too cool. He had his own fan base that would yell "Freak!" at him all the time. I made it a point to see as many shows as I could when I was home from school. One show I remember was at DC Space, which was a totally cool place to see a concert. It had a bathroom that made the 930 Club bathroom look like a luxury suite. There were missing cinder blocks in the wall so people could see in that were constantly getting stuffed with trash and old paper from inside the bathroom. The Blue Sky Puppet Theatre opened the show and they were hilarious. They were little pig puppets who did a routine about a homeless vegetarian wolf. SB cranked an awesome set in a place about as big as a good-sized living room. During one of the encores, Fred took off down the street to get
something and had to be retrieved. - Joe Della Barba

Every time they played, I couldn't wait. They were local, but it seemed like they were some big out of town band. 930 Club was always packed to the gills and they smoked out the place before they came on. Fred was always running and jumping off stage, and Monica, who can ever forget her???? I really miss those days. - Peter Summer

I found Strange Boutique in a dusty music store in college. Monica Richards' gorgeous, fluid voice, and the sharp, intelligent music, left such an impression upon me that I was sorry not to have found them sooner. Fred Smith's polished guitar
and Steve Willet's rhythmic bass were unlike anything I'd ever heard before. My favorite album, “The Kindest Worlds”, came at a moment in my life where I felt a certain growth within me. The music helped me deal with the changes in my life, and today it remains a memory bank of happier, easier days. I used to walk the streets in DC with Strange Boutique playing in my CD player. To me, the city had a soundtrack. A sound. Strange Boutique is definitely the best band DC ever saw. - A.C. Riedel

At one “Charm”-era gig at old 9:30 club, the band performed a rendition of Happy Birthday, Wanda June that will always be with me. The club was packed and Monica was at the very edge of the stage, slowly swirling her arms as though she was casting a spell. The sea of Goths, old punks, and don’t-call-me-Goths were clearly bewitched. Teenagers in black eyeliner seemed to be hanging from the walls as if pinned there by the chorus of “Sha-boom, Sha-boom”. When the song finished, the audience exploded in applause, which gradually died down. Suddenly this silence was pierced by something like a cross between the mating call of a moose and the death rattle of a dying walrus. Judging from the shocked looks I got from both audience and stage, it seemed to have come from me. I’m not sure why I chose to express my appreciation for the band this way, but continued to do so at every concert afterward. For some reason Monica and Fred still talk to me despite this. - Michael Nottingham

I will never forget the feeling of watching Strange Boutique perform. They never got their due, plain and simple. These guys were larger than life when they hit the stage, and the thing was, they were the strangest looking bunch, a real eccentric mix of styles visually, but somehow they clicked together the moment the first note hit the air, like a four-piece that could call up an entire orchestra of sound and emotion, head- banging, the music swirling about them, almost like summoning something unreal. - Jeff Mahoney

Strange Boutique was playing “Heroes” by Bowie; we heard them from outside, at which point Rozz instantly hated them, because anybody who is playing Bowie in his book is really bad. When we came in and saw the band, he actually took a real liking to them after a very short amount of time. - William Faith

Fred Smith was a complete original. He’s the Godfather of the Punk/Funk/Metal sound. When he was in Beefeater, he used no effects at all and his sound was raw, incredible. Completely unique. After a bunch of gigs with Bad Brains, we could tell the influence he had on them when they put their next album out. In Strange Boutique, he began to use effects and it was like watching a blind man see - there was no stopping him. - Ray T.

I think of Strange Boutique and I remember my youth, my college days, probably the best times of my life. Thank you for keeping this music alive. - No Name

The audience had crammed themselves up to the front and side of the stage, and Monica had to come to the stage on the shoulders of this gigantic roadie, because she couldn't find any other way up there. I think she kissed him after he put her down. - Mike Wallis

Let me say a little something about every member of the band, please. Monica was one of the very first female singers to front a DC punk band, she was theatrical, mysterious, brash, an alluring powerhouse on stage. Freddy: the guitarist's guitarist, a punk rock virtuoso, I never saw another guitarist scream and sing into his guitar for such a cool effect. His main sound was this wall of harmonic noise, but he could pick an acoustic guitar like a harp. Steve: one of the ultimate bass players. He showed a pure sense of bass structure, from a low psychadelic drone into a complicated line that could have been played on guitar. Rand was a human drum machine, a total monster. - Jim Goldman

I think the first time I ever saw Strange Boutique was @ The Metro in Richmond, VA back in the early 90's when I was going to VCU. I remember seeing one of their LPs in a record store in Georgetown in D.C. earlier when I was in high school and being very intrigued, but I didn't buy it. So when I saw that they were playing in Richmond I knew I had to go. Needless to say, they utterly seduced me, and I have been a Strange Boutique disciple ever since. I was always praising them to my friends, and I still am. That night they played their last show @ the Black Cat was a difficult one. I didn't want it to end. I'm happy that I got to know them, to be so touched by them. And to now have the chance to see them play together once again. - Steph

I remember Monica from Hate From Ignorance. They opened for Circle Jerks back in '81, I believe. Here it was ten years later and there was all this buzz about this band Strange Boutique. The place was packed and there, lo and behold was Freddy from Beefeater. The band really blew my mind. I didn't find out until later that the Femme Fatale on stage was Monica, she transformed from a spikey-haired punk rock girl into, well, a siren. And now I read the drummer I saw was Danny from Untouchables and Youth Brigade. Talk about a punk rock pedigree. - Tom (no last name)

Strange Booty (as we affectionately called them) going into "Ears to the Ground", the crowd rolling like some infernal ocean in a gale. A sight never to be forgotten. Fred Smith (guitars) bouncing all over the stage like the marvelous madman he is, off the stage, through the crowd, hanging around at the back bar, still playing away (love those wireless amp pickups)... Steve Willett, always aloof with long shirt and long hair, ceaselessly carrying the rhythmic grinding twisting sliding depth of bass... Danny, then Rand, shining sleek with sweat from drumming 2-3 encores... I always wondered how they kept all those different rhythms going at once... And Monica of course, leaning out over the crowd, singing, dancing, having a good time, inviting us in, drawing us into the music. Remember DC Space, remember old 930, remember... Adam Shaw