A night out
Oct. 1st, 2004 10:14 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
quislibetSo a review of L. Crompton's Homosexuality and Civilization (2003) on the Bryn Mawr Classical Review list/site contains the phrase, "powerful pink polemic." Neat.
Last night I went to a show at the Middle East Upstairs in Cambridge, primarily to see Reverend Glasseye, a band I have been aware of for a couple of years but whom, until last night, my schedule did not ever permit seeing. I am pleased to report they were wicked cool, although the Rev. himself was not at all what I expected. He is a short man with a Poirot moustache and (last night, anyway) a white suit; his voice must be a dozen times larger than his body. He sang a duet with a woman that might as well have been chosen for contrast as well as her talent; she was a tall, thin, gothic-elf supermodel of a young woman with spikey white hair and a black mesh dress.
Opening acts can be risky, but the entire show was excellent. All the acts fit in with that whole "art-punk-burlesque/neo-vaudeville/cabaret/carnival/circus music that people who listen to Tom Waits, Nick Cave, and klezmer would probably like" thing. (The Dresden Dolls and World/Inferno Friendship Society were missing from the lineup -- this time, anyway.)
- The Sob Sisters: Three women dressed to evoke the 20s and 30s, two with cellos (painted with tribal tattoo patterns), one with a saw (whom I recognized from area burlesque shows), all of them friends of friends, although I do not know them. They played "Makin' Whoopie" and "I'm Looking Over..." and so forth, as well as an original composition, concerning how the sexiness of Massachusetts magician Le Grand David made a young wallflower lady turn to vamp, entitled, "He Made My Inhibitions Disappear."
- DJ Hazard: An imposing bald guy in his forties with a guitar, who did stand-up comedy - lots of really corny jokes that were nonetheless quite funny - and sang a blues song about being transgendered.
- Curtis Allen: A tall thin gentleman with a banjo, a moustache, and an
insane stare. He played strange and/or sinister music about snake-handling or how terrible the president is while standing on
one leg and/or running in circles around the audience, and said things
like, "This next song is in G Minor if you want to dance."
- One Ring Zero: a New York band that I am told has been on NPR.![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
mistresshellena, rojagato, and I decided that the best way to describe them is "if They Might Be Giants were a klezmer funk band with a theremin." I liked them a lot. I noticed this morning that their new album is featured prominently in the Harvard Coop, possibly for its literary qualities, possibly in support of mistresshellena's theory that they must all be Harvard alumni.
- Beat Circus: free-form circus jazz; the saw-player is also a member of this one. It was technically their CD release party, but this is the band that moved me the least. I did appreciate their musical virtuosity, and respected the fact that their accordion player used lots of distortion and feedback and that they were all clearly having a good time.
Y'all can google your way to the home pages of all these bands, I expect.
The crowd was understandably diverse; I will sum it up by saying that when people danced, some were doing the industrial stomp, some the Jitterbug, some the hora; others were skankin'.
Last night I went to a show at the Middle East Upstairs in Cambridge, primarily to see Reverend Glasseye, a band I have been aware of for a couple of years but whom, until last night, my schedule did not ever permit seeing. I am pleased to report they were wicked cool, although the Rev. himself was not at all what I expected. He is a short man with a Poirot moustache and (last night, anyway) a white suit; his voice must be a dozen times larger than his body. He sang a duet with a woman that might as well have been chosen for contrast as well as her talent; she was a tall, thin, gothic-elf supermodel of a young woman with spikey white hair and a black mesh dress.
Opening acts can be risky, but the entire show was excellent. All the acts fit in with that whole "art-punk-burlesque/neo-vaudeville/cabaret/carnival/circus music that people who listen to Tom Waits, Nick Cave, and klezmer would probably like" thing. (The Dresden Dolls and World/Inferno Friendship Society were missing from the lineup -- this time, anyway.)
- The Sob Sisters: Three women dressed to evoke the 20s and 30s, two with cellos (painted with tribal tattoo patterns), one with a saw (whom I recognized from area burlesque shows), all of them friends of friends, although I do not know them. They played "Makin' Whoopie" and "I'm Looking Over..." and so forth, as well as an original composition, concerning how the sexiness of Massachusetts magician Le Grand David made a young wallflower lady turn to vamp, entitled, "He Made My Inhibitions Disappear."
- DJ Hazard: An imposing bald guy in his forties with a guitar, who did stand-up comedy - lots of really corny jokes that were nonetheless quite funny - and sang a blues song about being transgendered.
- Curtis Allen: A tall thin gentleman with a banjo, a moustache, and an
insane stare. He played strange and/or sinister music about snake-handling or how terrible the president is while standing on
one leg and/or running in circles around the audience, and said things
like, "This next song is in G Minor if you want to dance."
- One Ring Zero: a New York band that I am told has been on NPR.
mistresshellena, rojagato, and I decided that the best way to describe them is "if They Might Be Giants were a klezmer funk band with a theremin." I liked them a lot. I noticed this morning that their new album is featured prominently in the Harvard Coop, possibly for its literary qualities, possibly in support of mistresshellena's theory that they must all be Harvard alumni.- Beat Circus: free-form circus jazz; the saw-player is also a member of this one. It was technically their CD release party, but this is the band that moved me the least. I did appreciate their musical virtuosity, and respected the fact that their accordion player used lots of distortion and feedback and that they were all clearly having a good time.
Y'all can google your way to the home pages of all these bands, I expect.
The crowd was understandably diverse; I will sum it up by saying that when people danced, some were doing the industrial stomp, some the Jitterbug, some the hora; others were skankin'.
