form ed the Saturday night of the festival
doing a sock hop to a woman-packed house
at the Neighbors of W oodcraft After their
success at this concert their friends
encouraged them to take themselves more
seriously, so they began to produce them
selves under the name Mixed Fruit Pro
ductions.
The performances of the Dyketones were
so sporadic in those early years that each
performance of the Dyketones was rumored
within the com m unity as their last, and play
ing on the rum or the Dyketones would al
ways announce that their "next final concert
would be a t__ ”
The fall of 1980 found the Dyketones leav
ing Portland on their first tour traveling to
Yosemite National Park for the West Coast
W omen’s Music Festival. From there they did
a stint performing at Ollie's in Oakland, CA.
Being days on the road caused some burn
out within the group and it was during this
period that the Dyketones disbanded for
eight months and didn’t regroup until Easter
of ’81 for a concert at Reed College themed
"the Dyketones Rise Again.”
The seven member band of the Dyketones
has made as many changes as the band has
costumes over the years of its existence. To
day, three of the original Dyketones are still a
part of the group, Chukki aka Cha Cha Lin-
guini; Skallopini (Skully) Tetrazini aka Rebel
aka Mama LaBoaca, aka Patsy DeCline; and
Frankie MacAroni. The other four members
of the group are Donna aka Donnie Delgato,
Renee Irenestein, Butchy Waxy Castanasty
and Patti O ’Fumiture aka Slick Licks. As you
can see, the Dyketones not only have a fetish
for food, they also are schizophrenic, chang-
Just Out O r 4 ? ° Ncv "
The Dyketones perform songs of the ’50s
with a twist changing the words to sonqs like
"My Boyfriend's Back" to “My Girlfriend s Back'
Back,” and “My Guy" to “My Dyke" with band
members holding up flash cards to prove it.
Rebel comes out wearing a pink and blonde
wig, a pl^iid skirt, and a yellow school jacket
with Bullpups embossed on the back, sing
ing "She’s a Rebel." Patsy DeCline drifts out
on stage wearinq qreen and blue boa chaps,
going a little bit country with, “ I Fall to Pieces,"
and a foot-stom ping "Hey, Good Looking."
Donna Delgato wears a poodle skirt
named Fifi, who is a butch little pup sporting
a choker chain. One of Donna’s costume
changes is into a green chiffon prom dress
that won her the title of Prom Queen at Sister
Tomato's Swing into Spring Prom last April.
Patti O ’Furniture most recently joined the
band. She wears her hair in curlers and tight
polyester pink pants. "When I look in the
m irror I see my mother,” she remarks.
One of the funnier bits performed by the
Dyketones is Mama LaBoaca, president of
the Dyke High PTA who speaks before the
assembly on the epidemic of teenage
pregnancy at Dyke High. She warns, "If
you’re in the back seat of a car with your
favorite dyke and she pulls out a turkey
baster, you’d better get the hell out of there!”
The saga of the turkey baster was devel
oped when Renee Irenestein returned to the
group after a year's absence and came on
stage as a pregnant bride singing (what
else?) Chapel of Love. They had to think of
something to explain the pregnancy.
From their extreme political roots in the
early part of their career, the Dyketones have
downplayed politics and concentrated more
on their music. Opinions vary among the
band members as to just how political they
should be, but Chukki points out that their
butch/fem m e role playing is certainly an is
sue in today’s gay community, and even their
name is a political statement.
As part of their early act band members
threw themselves down on the floor enacting
an air raid, throwing the audience back to the
'50s when air raids were commonplace. The
band stopped doing the bit because it was
straining on the audience to be thrust so low
after being so high and then having to come
back up again. The band is thinking of reviv
ing the bit, though, because a nuclear holo
caust is once again on everyone’s mind.
The Dyketones recently returned from
Provincetown where they spent six weeks
playing to standing-room only crowds. They
received rave reviews in all the local papers
and even received national attention from the
Gay Community News.
The Dyketones have plans to begin a tour
next spring, traveling across the states and
ending up in Provincetown to finish out the
summer.
The only contemporary tune sung by the
Dyketones is their theme song by Christen
Lems called "The '50s Sound." The song
expresses the relationship to songs of the
'50s and songs of the '80s.
Those olden days were not so golden you
know,
Girls who got in trouble they had nowhere to
go.
They couldn't take their lives into their own
hands,
Spent their time swooning over rock and roll
bands.
But Elvis and the others picked up all their
cues.
They made a m illion dollars singing white
boy blues.
Girls wore thick makeup. Boys wore thick
grease.
If you didn’t have a steady you were never at
ease.
Swearing and sex they were mortal sins.
Why the hell you think we brought the '60s
in?
Everybody looked and walked and thought
the same.
And learned all the details of the dating game.
Boys they were lettermen or else they were
queer.
If they were small or shy they lived inconstant
fear.
Wowowo ... They’re dancing to what op
pressed us thirty years ago.
Oppression is still prevalent today, as is
apparent by the fact that even though the
Dyketones have such an outspoken and
open name, they still decline to release their
true identities to the press.
It will be wonderful when the Dyketones no
longer have to worry about gay oppression,
because it will be nice to be able to introduce
the women behind the crazy stage personae.
In those days colored people knew their
place.
They didn’t try to barge into the human race.
7