You are standing in a sparsely gathered crowd of sparkle sweater-wearing, spandex pant-toting, big-haired individuals and somehow the sequin clip-on earring you wore to spice things up feel like a pretty lame excuse for flair. On Wednesday, Nikki, Kim and I went to see Stereo Total and Leslie and the Lys at the Wonder Ballroom. My first thought upon entering the building was that I wasn't wearing enough gold lammé. And I was relieved. Because when I had been writing up this show for the newspaper, the confluence of two French-German electro weirdos (Stereo Total) and a rapping overweight Midwestern dance diva (Leslie Hall) was ripe for a hipster showdown. But these fans were pretty earnest about their love for gem sweaters and tight stretch pants; some even presented a sense of modesty about their attire.
In any case, there was a large amount of awesomeness that provoked many laughter outbursts from yours truly. Françoise Cactus from Stereo Total played a lovely kazoo song, which was both jazzy and beach rocky. I think more people should play the kazoo. In fact, I want a kazoo so that I can write my very own kazoo diddies that will sound a million times better than my keyboard songs. But anyway, she was this totally calm, almost frumpish (she had Kermit-esque expression) opposite to Brezel Göring, who is the embodiment of that skinny, long-hair mohawked, off-the-wall crazy European man in tight pants. Plus my favorite part was that I had no idea what they were saying the entire time and they had quite a bit of banter. I'm going to say that it was because of their accents, but they might just be huge weridos.
Leslie and the Lys also provided some priceless moments, like when the Lys were suspended by harnesses in a small rolling wardrobe-like bar structure and then had to sing and dance while trying to maintain balance in this tiny little structure. They also proved to be very good at dancing with massive tiger-head hats, a feat that I one day hope to achieve. Leslie herself was fabulous in her mock-Britney circus onsey and had lots of high kicks for the audience. I also enjoyed her heavy breathing into her head mic and total disregard for those around her when she really got into the dancing. BUT, I have to say that Nikki said Leslie was the best show she'd ever seen and I have a few criticism to publicly air here:
1) I wished they had prepped the show better. I didn't want to see them pressing the spacebar on the computer to stop and start video clips while they were on stage. There was a crew person standing in the back the whole time who could have done this for them. It would have added some magic and wonder to the performance, that is lost when you see how it's all done. Plus it felt all frantic with the running across the stage to stop the iTunes and looking up files on iTunes and the abrupt stopping and starting of beats. And as Kim aptly put it, it suddenly made you realize what you were watching: and that is three girls in ridiculous outfits doing their mostly rehearsed choreographed dances to raps that are funny as hell but that probably were funnier when they were stoned in their living room making up this show. BURN!
Well, actually that is my only criticism. And I make it sound like it wasn't extraordinarily fun, which is not true because it was. But I saw their potential and I know they can do better. I think they were just resting on their laurels because they looked out, saw those gemmed audience members and knew that they were already loved. But Kim did buy a cd and we've been nodding along to it today as we waste time on the interweb. Ah, the joys.
No comments:
Post a Comment