I got to Debonair early at about 10:30pm and Angela Eve was already on stage teasing the crowd with their “Live Art”. I was anxious to see some boobies as I waited for the place to fill up for the anniversary of No-Tell Motel’s Wednesday night Burlesque party. At this point, Eve posed for photos, laying on the floor while taking a sharpie to herself and various scraps of paper. There was an art book open next to her with a large black caption that read, “One of the reasons artists have liked this place is that you can isolate yourself.” She was dressed in torn fish net stockings, a leopard safety pin skirt, and a generous cleavage-boasting vest. Susan Olmetti appeared on stage and worked on an octagon-shaped red, white, blue and black abstraction along the lines of a messy Pollock perhaps mixed with a subtle Jasper Johns type of American Flag.
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No Tell Motel: Featuring Eve’s Parlor with musical guest Scott Lucas and Cold Space
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Debonair Social Club
Chicago, IL
March 31, 2010
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Occasionally she took a break from painting to shoot Eve with a toy gun. I was thinking WTF (as I do with most performance art). I eventually came to the conclusion that No-Tell Motel seemed adamant, even stubborn in showing Burlesque as performance art. However, at this point in the night, I think they were just messing around, warming up for what was coming up!
The night flowed into a set with the band Scott Lucas and the Cold Space who played hard rock covers like Alice Cooper’s “18” or Talking Heads’, “Psycho Killer.” The band was powerful and proved to be experienced and comfortable as they worked the crowd. They had a vintage look, some with bow ties, vests, slacks, and clothes like out of a thrift store, stuff my dad would wear if he were white. Scott Lucas was a brilliant front man and his shouts and screams were surprisingly controlled and smooth. The band had a big and confident presence and they warmed up the crowd well.
By half past midnight, people crowded around the stage and I could barely move in the middle of it. Oosha Boom came forward to officially introduce the night, the proceeds of which would go to the organization Burlesque for Booze, which fights to help those with Breast Cancer including Eve’s mother.
A voluptuous nurse was the first dancer to wet our lips. She didn’t take off her clothes, which was really what everyone was waiting for, but perhaps No-Tell Motel was sure to make a statement then and there, that it was about much more than just that. The night went on with dancer after dancer, all with very distinct and different performances.
Like in a strip club (or in a good one) the performers were diverse, each giving the audience a different flavor making it easy to wonder what you’re into. One of the highlights included a mature woman named Eddy who showed a nude, vulnerable, and familiar side of herself. She dressed in a 60s outfit like out of “Austin Powers,” and posed for a fake Andy Warhol. I’m not sure the history of this relationship, but when Warhol loses interest in Eddy and walks off stage, the burlesque starts to happen. Piece by piece she takes off her clothes in a controlled rage with the look of pain on her face.
Other performances included a woman who covered herself in blue paint. Jenevive Vice came out with a plaid skirt with strands that each had writing on the back of them, Pretty, Ugly, Sex. She pinned them up to a manikin and took off one piece at a time revealing the words Sex written on the skin beside her G-string.
Miss PussyKatt dressed up like Jimi Hendrix. Her performance included flame eating moments and a fire-twirling dance. Lorraine Rose dressed up as an artsy French beat poet with a stripped tight shirt and bouree. So there was a little something for everyone. Flashy, thoughtful, intense, and emotional moments reached out to many of my emotions: arousal, disgust, empathy, hurt…
The night ended Kubrick style straight out of 2001: A Space Odyssey with a set by Angela Eve who started her performance as a monkey (outfit and all) and evolved into David Bowie ala Aladdin Sane. The beat suddenly picked up for part two of her performance when she strutted her way on top of the bar. Above her were ribbons. She hoisted herself onto them so she could dangle above the crowd by her limbs. It was very impressive, the smooth, but sometimes jerky, contorted, topless movements that she was able to make while hovering over the audience. It really took the Burlesque performance to a new level, and her heart came through in every movement, in every position. With a rock-star intensity she impressed us, she aroused us, she inspired us.
By the end of the night, the show made me think about the differences between one performer and the next and how it truly is an art form. How the tease builds and builds, and although much of the crowd I’m sure wanted to desperately see boobies, you could clearly see how ineffective it would have been if that’s all we would have gotten. Then it would have been merely a strip club. This was something much, much more! No Tell Motel wanted people to know that, and that there will be much more to come. The next show will be tonight April 14th, at Debonair with Oosha Boom again hosting. That will be a show you will not want to miss!
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Written by Guest on 2010-04-16 13:25:38
Yikes!
Edie (not Eddy) Sedgwick is hardly an arcane reference, but it seems like all Barmey Ung knows about Andy Warhol is that he heard his name before.
The poor spelling was really painful to decipher; I hope this fellow is not on the Lumino Magazine company payroll.
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Written by Guest on 2011-06-22 02:59:23
ThatÂ’s rlealy shrewd! Good to see the logic set out so well. |
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