Boston Globe: April 30, 1999
The Church of the Subgenius won't be meeting tonight. It's not because the music and performance collaborative doesn't have religion about making a Boston appearance; rather, it's feeling the impact of a stupid joke. One of the members of the national Subgenius Foundation made a crack during an appearance on NPR about being aligned with the Trenchcoat Mafia -- the group associated with the Colorado school shootings. The church felt immediate fallout. The reference included a pitch for tonight's scheduled show at the Middle East in Cambridge and abotu a dozen people called the club to protest, obviously not getting the joke. One of the owners of the Middle East canceled the show but couldn't be reached for comment. That leaves local Subgenius promoter and artist Friday Jones without a venue and a lot of expenses. The event could be called weird but not dangerous, said Jones. It's a combination of humorous preaching, a "rant off," and music. "If those two boys had been part of the Subgenius, they wouldn't have done what they did," said Jones.