Director:

Katy Chevigny

Producer:

Katy Chevigny and Blue Chevigny

Co-Producer:

Beth Davenport

Camera:

Kirsten Johnson

The Dishes Screenings and News

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The Dishes

A verité documentary that follows a middle-American punk rock band as they juggle family, careers and survival in America’s cutthroat music industry.

From the belly of the Midwest’s music scene, stripped of the glamour of New York City and the glitz of Los Angeles, comes the Chicago-based band, The Dishes. In 2003, this verité documentary finds the band members, three women and one man, on the verge of their third record release with new label File 13 and an upcoming US tour.

The Dishes have a die-hard fan base and a certain momentum in the Midwest towns they tour most frequently: Detroit, Cincinnati, Milwaukee, Chicago. They are no household name, no stadium rockers, but are what most rock bands actually are: a motley group of people, no longer young and naïve, relying solely on their tenacity and love of music to continue to make rock and roll.

On the brink of “3“‘s release and heading for the road, the bighearted bassist Sharon Maloy breaks the news that she is unexpectedly pregnant. Between her day job, her marriage, and her new maternal responsibilities, she feels she must skip the upcoming tour, and leave the band.

The band, conflicted between well-wishes for Sharon’s “good news” and the undeniable sting of a broken commitment, are faced with the harsh task of finding a new bassist in record time.

Kiki Yablon, guitar and vocals, juggles her hectic career as Managing Editor of The Chicago Reader, the city’s alternative weekly, and being the driving force of The Dishes’ success. Kiki ran the band’s own label, No. 89, for two years and brought a knack for business to the task. She is the sometimes the bossy, pathologically reliable bandleader. Sarah Staskauskas is an aspiring fashion-designer, artist, and bartender, and the single mother of Emmett, her 11 year-old son. Sometimes struggling with the thought of “what she should’ve done”, getting a 9-to-5 job to fit the classic mother role, she is the enigmatic and provocative lead singer and guitarist of the band. A natural exhibitionist, her playful raunchy style comes out in her concert patter and off-stage antics. After years of hunting for a stable drummer, the band found Mike Tsoulos. Even-keeled and a precise percussionist, Mike quietly brings an air of dry reliability and hard-living rock-and-roll authenticity to the personality and sound of The Dishes.

The filmmakers follow this post-punk band from practice in Chicago to studio sessions for their third album in Benton Harbor, Michigan to the road — their tour of various Midwest and East Coast venues. Intimate and revealing of the tight quarters, sacrifices, smarts and troubles of the band members, this film asks the question: can you be over-thirty, have a complex personal and professional life, and still rock?

Through a close verité lens, vibrant concert footage and intimate interviews the filmmakers span two years with the band. This is not about The Rolling Stones or Beyoncé, or the cult of personality that governs superstardom. Instead, it’s the story of the hardships of indie rock on a human scale, of scraping for change in the tour van to pay for tolls and of climbing four-story walk-ups to store your gear. It is a story of large and small successes and the realities of three women (and a man) hanging together despite the obstacles presented by an industry designed to cater to the young and unattached.

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