Index of Shows | Homepage | Write to me
It's the Ad Frank Awards at the Lizard Lounge tonight, and the anticipation is palpable. The very first event is the conveyance of the award for best bumbling, nerdy frontperson, and the winner is ... Ad Frank!!! Such an honor. Then, the first band get started. They are René Risqué and the Art Lovers. Holy shit, I am in love. The songs are total late-'70s glam-camp howlers, with hilarious, raunchy lyrics. This is the kind of schtick that can get really tired, really fast, if you don't have the talent to make it work. As it turns out, everyone in the band is really good, but the singers, René Risqué himself (looking awfully Hedwig tonight) and Luffa Barre, the Swedish chanteuse, are the real deal. They crank out these gorgeous, ridiculously powerful, sky-scraping harmonies with a wink and a leer. Oh, René, make me your love slave!
All of this makes me terribly sad for Mercury Charm Offensive, who have to follow them. They just play songs, you know? Initially, because of the sudden charisma nose-dive, I'm tempted to think they're not very good, but in fact, as I get used to them, I realize that they're just fine. The only real problem is the lead singer. He's a fine guitarist, mostly playing rhythm but taking one good lead near the end of the set, but he's not a great singer. His voice is a little pinched and rough, and his pitch is pretty poor. He has good screams, but they don't always work in the songs. However, the rest of the band all sing quite able backup, the guitar solos are fierce, and many of the bass lines are really nifty. It's kind of a solid 'B' performance, and it's just a shame that they have to go on right after such a show-stopper.
After some more awards (including the "Picayune Grammarian Award" for yours truly!) and a really hot onstage kiss between Ad Frank and Declan Buckley, the Fast, Easy Women start up for the main event. Mike Quinn is on keyboards, which I like. Initially, the sound is AWFUL, with way too much bass and no guitar whatsoever. The guitar proves to be a genuine oversight--no mic on the guitar amp--which is soon fixed, and the bass is gradually tamed over the course of the set, so that soon I can actually hear Ad sing. It's a rockin' set tonight; Sean's guitar sounds particularly guitar-like, and he even climbs up on a milk crate during one solo in an uncharacteristic display of rock 'n' roll machismo. Unfortunately, some of my attention is distracted by the Drunken Hoochie-Mama Meltdown occurring directly in front of me--it's not that I particularly want to spare her my attention, but it's hard to avoid when a) she staggers out on stage and grabs onto Ad Frank, or b) I must avoid her toppling onto me. But I particularly enjoy the gorgeous and devastating "Girls As Sharp As You Are Something Rare" and, of course, the set-closing "A Little Devotion." The Asia cover for the encore was perhaps not a great idea, but a small fraction of the crowd seem to really enjoy it, and do they not deserve their thrills too?
