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I'm sure many rumors started because of my goofy Rooter stage antics. A few examples:
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The roadies brought a small footlocker on stage with me inside,
compacted into the yoga "child" pose. I
"unfolded" myself and popped out as the band began playing.
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Before the show started, I lay on the dance floor, feigning
unconsciousness. Two roadies carried me onstage by my arms and legs.
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With the help of friends, I blew up 200 balloons and
let them fill a small club. During the show, I ran into the crowd and popped
them with my nails.
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I jumped offstage during a show to run among audience members and throw chocolate kisses.
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Dressed as a bride, I rolled all over the stage and onto the
dance floor, accompanied by my punk "groom."
— Reesa of The Rooters
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1982
Reesa, the lead
singer of Reesa and the Rooters, has calmed down since the days when she went
wild on stage and off. Now she just goes bananas when it's a righteous part of
the act.
By Jack
Lloyd
Inquirer Entertainment Writer
Reesa, of Reesa and
the Rooters, says she's calmed down quite a bit: recently. There were times in
the past when Reesa and the Rooters were performing when it was difficult to
determine whether Reesa was part of the act or a stray crazy who had ambled in
from the street.
Back then, Reesa spent
more time on all fours — crawling around the stage like someone in search
of a missing contact lens — than on her feet. And when she was on her
feet, the chances were pretty, good that you wouldn't find her on the stage.
Reesa was more likely to be running around the bar — or some other remote region
of a club.
"I would get in
trouble a few times doing that," Reesa noted. "The club owner would
ask the band what happened to the lead singer. I don't do that as much now. At
the time I was feeling very physical, I guess. I was exercising regularly and
doing yoga. I was feeling very limber, and I just let my body do what it wanted
to."
Now, Reesa noted, she
confines her stage crawling and other antics to special numbers in the Reesa and
the Rooters act.
Reesa and the Rooters
is one of the busiest local rock acts around, working anywhere from two to five
shows a week. There is a performance at the Bijou Cafe Wednesday night.
Strangely enough,
Reesa and the Rooters have a larger following in the Baltimore-Washington area
than in Philadelphia's environs. "And our record gets more air play down there
than in Philadelphia," she added.
Reesa — the last name
is Laskey — has been performing since the age of 7. "That's when I was first paid
to perform," she said. "If you can call a candy bar payment. It was some kind of
talent show in Philadelphia. I didn't win, but I was given a candy bar. That
encouraged me to go on, I guess."
Back then, Reesa was
concentrating on the classical side of music, studying piano and violin. "I
picked it up rather quickly," she said. "I guess my parents were pretty
influential. My mother sang at a club in Philadelphia called .the Click. She was
known as Edith Lewis then. But she stopped singing professionally after getting
married. And my father loved to play classical piano. But I always leaned toward
pop music."
While attending Cherry
Hill High School, Reesa became part of an all-girl folk band. Later, she went
solo and played the local coffeehouse circuit.
"Then I went to
California for a while and played with a rock band, but that didn't last long. I
returned to the Philadelphia, area. I was with three rock bands here
and worked solo in between. It was real easy and pretty profitable."
Reesa and the Rooters
began taking shape three years ago when Reesa was working solo at Shippen’s. Her
brother, Larry Laskey, joined her on guitar, taking a folk-pop approach to their
music.
"Finally we added
Cherie Rumbol on bass, and a drummer," Reesa said. "The drummer calls himself
just Z. I was playing organ and a little guitar, and we weren't too sure about
the music at first. We finally realized we had to decide if we were going to be
a rock band or a folk band. And so we became a rock band."
Reesa and the Rooters
recently released their first single on the Music for Moderns label, "Ultra Man
in Surf Villa," backed with "T.M.I." "Most of the music we play is original,"
Reesa pointed out. "Larry does most of the writing. We also do a few '60s
numbers and some of the more obscure contemporary stuff. There's one song we do
by a Japanese group called the Sadistic Mika Band. That's pretty obscure."
Reesa and the Rooters
are generally placed in the "new wave" bag, although Reesa is not certain that
the label applies. "We were just starting out when the new wave thing
began, and so we were categorized as that. I guess it helped establish the
band."
Reesa's
wild woman routine had more than a little to do with establishing the group's
identity, also. So obviously, Reesa isn't abandoning the routine completely
"Yeah, things still get a little crazy," Reesa admitted.
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