Susie’s Kitchen Band was just one of many groups that transformed appliances into musical instruments

This is Susie’s Kitchen Band, circa February 1925. Susie’s band sprang from the Ladies’ Aid committee of Oak Hill Presbyterian Church and played “tunes from the manipulation of ordinary kitchen utensils,” though some of these look, um, extraordinary. One of their first gigs was a benefit in their church auditorium for Holy Innocents’ Episcopal. Soon the band was playing all over town, including a party for nursing school graduates and a charity show in Emmaus Auditorium. Believe it or not, this photo’s not unusual: Between 1920 and 1940, newspapers published stories about kitchen bands all over the country. The fad then seemed to fade—before making a return in the ’80s. The story’s protagonists were often senior citizens, maybe some of the kitchen bandleaders who made headlines 50 years earlier. There was a twist, though: Rather than host charity shows, they were entering battles of the bands, playing state fairs, and chucking quaint old names in favor of such monikers as the Blair Jazzy Cats. It just goes to show that sometimes the punkest people in the room are the ones with progressive lenses and metal in their joints.