BY ALYSON GRAUER
There are some who might argue that steampunk was a literary genre first and an aesthetic movement second. I happen to agree, but by no means does that mean the case is closed. Not only has steampunk spread its coiling, copper-wire roots out into the artistic stratosphere in literature, film, television, art, and fashion, but music, too, has fallen under the siren spell of theatricality, fun and alternative society.
Recently, I had the opportunity to attend an evening of music at the Wise Fools Pub in Chicago. As part of the Steamstock tour—a Steampunk music event traversing the nation—three musical acts under a steampunk influence performed on an otherwise perfectly ordinary Tuesday night in Lincoln Park.
This Way To The Egress, The Cog is Dead, and Frenchy & The Punk took over the already charmingly-antiqued Wise Fools Pub and gave Chicagoland steampunks a wild night of foot-stomping fun. Egress played a great deal of swing-influenced, carnival-esque, gypsy punk, which made for excellent dancing.
Cog had more of an alternative or rock feel, with blues undertones, which meant a break from the wild choreography, and Frenchy was more European folk-punk, but the entire night was a wall of sound that none would soon forget.
Many of the attendees of this Steamstock event were fully dressed to the steamy nines: goggles and corsets and silver-topped canes and spats. Some were more casual, with a simple pair of suspenders and a waistcoat or a bustle skirt over leggings. The bands themselves wore a hodgepodge of styles, mixing circus stripes with cowboy chaps or fishnet gloves and military caps.
Aesthetically speaking, the whole affair was very incongruous and highly irregular—and a great deal of fun for the imagination.
The first in-person Steampunk event I ever attended was TeslaCon II, in Madison, Wisconsin, back in 2011. The minute my friend and I walked through the door, we were swept away on a highly imaginative, highly immersive journey where the con’s employees maintained the characters they portrayed throughout even the panels, and perhaps more amazingly, the attendees of the con did so as well!
This kind of grown-up make-believe at Steampunk events is not always the same, but there is usually that spark of playfulness about meeting other alternate-history folks bearing gears and gadgets that in turn kindles the imagination.
Of course you don’t need to have an alter-ego or persona to go to an event like Steamstock or even TeslaCon. But it’s fun, and as a writer and an actor, I find it highly rewarding in both categories. It’s great fun to play and improv with strangers as a character, but it lingers in the imagination for future writing projects as well.
And there’s just something about coming home from the day job on a Tuesday, lacing up a corset and doing one’s hair in a fancy way, and setting out to dance like a heathen at a bar in the middle of the city. I can’t quite put my finger on it, but there’s definitely something. It made me wish there were more reasons to get dolled up and get out of the house more, at least in a steampunk context.
Till then, though, there’s always the words on the page, and circus-punk-swing music to write by.
Originally from Wisconsin, Alyson Grauer lives, works, plays, acts, and role-plays in Chicago. Her short story, “Lavenza, or the Modern Galatea”, was featured in Mechanized Masterpieces: a Steampunk Anthology, released in April, 2013. When she’s not supporting her local Renaissance fair, she’s working on her current project, an expansion of The Tempest by William Shakespear, slated for released by The X in 2014.
Follow Alyson on Twitter and her blog, Comma Chameleon.
Fellow MMSA author, Aaron J. Sikes, writes about Steamstock in California in his blog post here.
