Photos courtesy of D’licious Chaos Photography.
The rainbow—though iconic and respected throughout the LGBTQ community—isn’t always a cup of tea for everyone in the community it claims to represent. For many, particularly queers, it often insinuates a mainstream idea of what it is to be LGBT: mostly pop, well-dressed, butch lesbian, effeminate gay, drag queen doing Britney… Rarely does it bring forth thoughts of punk, guitars, piercings, gender-mixing, or polyamorous fun.
Enter Cut&Paste Rock&Roll (CPRR), now in its fifth year of celebrating an all-ages, queerer underground pride that has—in the words of co-founder Annie Parkhurst—“no rainbows—just rock.”
For Parkhurst and her other founding partner and wife, Sylvia Rodemeyer, there was a space missing from the LGBT spectrum—something many a queers have been echoing since the 90s.
“CPRR was born out of disappointment,” Parkhurst said. “My Queercore band [Ask Alice] had applied to play at this huge San Francisco festival called Homo A Gogo—kinda like the Lollapalooza for gay people who love rock’n’roll.”
Homo A Gogo—which originated in Olympia, Washington starting in 2002—was created by trans activist and Queercore guru Ed Varga in the hopes of bringing a queer music revolution with acts like Gossip, Gravy Train!!!, Mirah, Girl in a Coma, Team Gina, and a then unknown Scissor Sisters.
“We were obviously very small at the time and didn’t get it—and it bummed us out,” Parkhurst said. “Y’know, it’s the only cool venue that exists for queer bands. Of course, you could apply to play Pride festivals and different stuff… Even at Long Beach Pride, it was like pulling teeth in order to get a punk band to play.”
Parkhurst and crew then knew they had something on their hands: in one, a huge queercore punk and queertronic scene and, in the other, no local place or space for these kids to gather like they have in Portland and Seattle. Even worse, if you’re in Long Beach with no ID: good luck, your bum will be perched in a coffeeshop.
“In Southern California, that scene was just entirely unheard of,” Parkhurst said. “I mean, you have Pride and the bars—and then that’s it. I wanted an all-ages queer music, queer art, queer performance, DIY crafters and vendors event and get together to not just party—but to meet one another. It’s so important that we all know each other, network with each other, create with one another.”
With that, CPRR was born.
CPRR started at DiPiazza’s to much success: over a hundred people showed up to Annie and Sylvia’s queer punk fest and raised over $2K. Parkhurst and Rodemeyer were overwhelmed by the amount of money that they knew they had to give it away, holding true to their mantra that the queer scene is about connectivity, not money. It was given to the (then small) queer youth group at The LGBTQ Center.
The following year proved just as fruitful, where the additional money was handed out in the form of scholarships at a ceremony held at the Art Theatre. Parkurst and Rodemeyer then created AMP—Parkhurst’s initials—a pseudo-non-profit (they lack the formal state recognition) that attends to queer youth and the queer community as a whole.
CPRR was also one of the staple stage for local Long Beach legends like Landon Cider and Wendy Ho, helping create and foster the personalities of the rich queer community.
Last year, over 400 people appeared at CPRR. With only 250 people able to fit inside the classic DiPiazza’s establishment—home to many queer performers, including Long Beach comedienne TJ Huberg—CPRR was forced to tackle a new venue.
“We want it to be comfortable for people,” Parkhurst said. “We want people to be able to sit and chill there. We want people to stick around because the show is so long and we have so much going on.”
Bring on Federal Bar’s new underground venue as CPRR’s new home.
CPRR co-founder Annie Parkhurst.
The downtown bar and eatery will host what Parkhurst calls CPRR’s best line-up yet: Glitterbang (Seattle), Jesika Von Rabbit (Joshua Tree), WASI (Los Angeles), The Chew Toys (Los Angeles), her own Ask Alice (Long Beach), Bearcoon (Long Beach), Butch Revival featuring Angie Evans (Long Beach), Myriam Gurba (Long Beach), The Roundettes (Los Angeles), Haley Hellcat + Bonanza Betty (Laguna Beach) and more.
And the crafters and vendors? A queergasm of craft and fashion assortments: Homo Attire by Vanessa Sew Gay, custom suits for LGBTQ bodies by Sharpe Suiting, Craft or Die table by Girls Rock Camp, Zines and Comics by MariNaomi & Carrie McNinch, Rock & Roll Coasters by Lorene Charles, and Faux Fur Hoods by Jacklyn.
In total: 6 hours of art and music—which can admittedly prove exhausting and, for Parkhurst, something that can’t last forever.
“I’m in my thirties now so I am getting less and less cool as each day goes by,” Parkhurst said. “How can I pass the torch onto this new generation of queer kids to create their own events, their own space? I don’t know if we’ll be doing this forever and this might very well be our last CPRR—so that’s why I wanted to make this a big party to raise as much money as possible: to pass the torch.”
Cut & Paste Rock & Roll will take over the Federal Underground, located in Downtown Long Beach at 102 Pine Avenue, on Saturday, March 22 from 4PM to 11PM. For more information visit www.cutandpasterockandroll.org.
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