It’s not often a musical act makes its way to Triumvirate Theatre one night and Alice’s Champagne Palace in Homer the next. But that’s the schedule this weekend for No Small Children, a rock trio with a slightly different backstory, and slightly different day jobs.
No Small Children started from an idea on a playground in 2012, where guitarist Lisa Pimintel and drummer NickolaBerlinsky were on recess duty.
“And the balls were flying past our head and things were getting crazy and we just said to each other, you know what? We should start a rock band and call it No Small Children," Lisa says. "Because we were feeling just a little bit, you know….after the 3rd hit in the head with the ball...just kidding.”
It was no joke, though. Lisa had originally moved west to pursue a music career. Nickola had played in bands before. So they had a band name, some song titles though no songs, and some dresses, but no sound yet. After a few practice sessions, they decided to call in Lisa’s sister, Joanie, to play bass. Yes, she’s also a teacher.
“And then the magic just started to happen and we started saying yes and yes and yes and yes and then we had to start saying no, no, no after awhile. And here we are in Alaska," Lisa says.
They flew in this week after a string of dates on the east coast and this is the last bit of touring before they head back into the classroom.
The show Friday night at Triumvirate Theatre in Nikiski is also a fundraiser for local schools, which Nickola says is a nice way to bring the two paths the band travels together.
“Because normally they’re pretty separate. We’re very dedicated teachers, and then spring break, winter break, summer break, fly out dates on the weekend, we’re touring, but they haven’t quite merged in this way before so we were all about it.”
Bassist Joanie says maintaining both takes discipline and focus, qualities necessary in the classroom as well.
“We bring a lot of the lessons we learn from being on a stage playing live music into our classroom. That vulnerability you feel when you put yourself out there, we can talk to our kids about that because we ask them to do that every single day.”
And as the band name suggests, kids aren’t really the target audience, but sometimes the music carries a message for them, like in a tune called Dear Youth.
“It’s a certain audience," Lisa explains. "The truth is, people tell us this game is not for us. We’re older, we’re women, but it’s true everywhere we go and we’re in L.A. and it’s not a business set up for us. And a song like that is just kind of giving the middle finger to all those people that say that, that tell you you can’t do stuff because you can. We did and it’s awesome.”
But the one that's gotten them the most attention is a cover the Ray Parker Jr. classic from the 2016 remake of Ghostbusters. They played it once as a goof, but it made its way to the right people and is the band’s highest profile work so far, and it’s led to other gigs in TV. They’re proud of all their original songs, so, is it kind of a bummer that the breakout is a cover?
“However that break happens, we’re happy," Joanie says.
“But there is no break. Every single show you do is a break," Lisa adds. Nickola agrees.
“But if someone were to ask us to play that song today, we’d be like yeah, of course we’ll play it. That experience shot us out of a cannon, honestly, so we have nothing but gratitude for that. So however it comes, we’re psyched. We’re completely happy," Joanie says.
The Friday show is at 7 pm at Triumviratein North Kenai . Tickets are available online at Triumvirate theatre dot org. The Alaska leg of the tour wraps up Saturday night in Homer at 9 p.m. at Alice’s Champagne Palace.