Capital Fringe 2014 Review RagnaPOP (or She’s Got the Bomb)

(Best of the Capital Fringe)

Your Pal Pete is here to present RagnaPOP (or She’s Got the Bomb), the concert to end all concerts… And all time. He’s here with his band to perform a final review of his most famous songs and take the audience through his own journey as a musician, before he takes his final bows and blows the world to bits.

As the ironically named “Love Reactor” counts the earth’s minutes down in 2020, Pete Wright, Finely Martin, and Greg Gendron lead the audience through a history of music’s evolution from the 1980s on, as punk rolled into pop, and the history of Pete’s musical career and failed relationship with ‘Hurricane Lizzie’ in a rock opera/apocalypse party, hosted by Project F-bomb.

You have to hand it to Pete. Despite living in a perishing world where people have a tendency to kill each other with commonplace weapons of mass destruction, he manages to keep most of the concert light. There are no wails of devastation, no cries for salvation, no teary declarations of a world with no hope. Instead, the audience is simply regaled with the back stories of songs such as My First Fuzz Box, Smart-Assed Angel, and Be My Beyonce, as well as an explanation for Pete’s own accidental role in the apocalypse.

Although the instrumentals can occasionally overwhelm the vocals, the band graciously provides lyrics for the audience to use as a reference. The venue is suitable for an end of the world concert, providing an intimate space for total strangers to spend their last minutes.

The stage is sparse, however the lights are dazzling. The audience is treated not only to a sensory soiree, but also a vibrantly educational lecture here and there, that reminds the audience of how exactly the world’s end came about (in case there are any nuts out there who have been living under rocks since the early 2010s) as well as clearing up any confusion about what exactly Pete intended when he wrote about his fuzz box.

All in all, there aren’t too many better ways to enjoy the apocalypse than listening to Your Pal Pete’s Armageddon-ushering song, ‘She’s Got the Bomb’, and other classics.

Running Time: 60 minutes.

RagnaPOP (or She’s Got the Bomb) plays through July 26, 2014 at the Baldacchino Tent Bar- Fort Fringe- 607 New York Ave. NW, in Washington DC. For more information and to purchase tickets, check out their Capital Fringw page here.