Archive
Interview: Houston Metal Band Venomous Maximus — “If you want to be the best, you must go crazy.”
(Disclaimer: I have a very ambivalent relationship with my hometown.)
You might say Houston owes the world a metal debt. Two years ago, M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, the number one cancer research and treatment hospital in the world, couldn’t save Ronnie James Dio. After the loss of the man who gave us the “devil horns”, it seems fitting that an “occult doom” band should make its way out of the mire of the Bayou City.
Houston is as rich in Southern eccentricity as it is in things complain to about. Dominated by oil, gas, and energy empires, sprawling suburbia, yuppie wealth, and megachurches on the one hand; littered with drug trafficking, a murder rate over 1.5 times that of New York or Los Angeles, restaurants run like organized crime, and the distinction of being one of the drunkest cities in America on the other; it’s a difficult place for artists to thrive.
The arts in Houston flourish primarily in an ivory tower funded by (and therefore catering to the more traditional tastes of) the conservative elite. There are patches of bohemia in neighborhoods like Montrose and The Heights, but the general population’s lack of interest in being challenged by anything other than a sermon drives artists out of the city — or into Narcotics Anonymous — while, paradoxically, major performing arts venues like Houston Grand Opera continue to import their talent.
Houston is also a difficult place to get out of, as the job market is irritatingly great compared to that of the rest of the country, and the cost of living is cheap (so why leave?). This, and electing Annise Parker as mayor, seem to have added something to the city’s alleged “cool” factor, but we’re talking marginally “cool” in a metaphorical sense because the weather is usually fucking miserable.*
In popular music, artists who have worked their way out of Houston to national attention have included people like Beyonce, Paul Wall, and Slim Thug. In short, you don’t see much metal coming out of H-town.
And so, I was thrilled to discover that, from out of the depths of the pollen-coated swamp had crawled Venomous Maximus.
Like the moisture in the air that oppresses the soul under unforgiving Houston heat, the music of Venomous Maximus looms dense with foreboding gloom — the kind that drives one to mania. Singer and guitarist Gregg Higgins has that sort of doubly-ironic, winking-but-actually-serious sense of humor that you find in Houston outposts like Lola’s (where “We drink all we can and sell the rest” is both a t-shirt slogan and, most likely, true). Higgins delights in flipping off the audience and issuing forth formal calls to action. (In July at Santos Party House in NYC, he proclaimed, “I ask one thing: you must fist pump. That’s some Texas shit.”)
Also on guitar is Christian Larson, who plays with an endearing expression of reverence as well as a mop of hair on his face. Bassist Trevi Biles headbangs in earnest while Bongo (on drums, of course) keeps stoic time to rumbling tunes. They are a very tattooed assortment with distinct personalities welded into a mighty, cohesive mass of solid metal.
In recent months, VM has been gaining momentum. They completed their first national tour, and they won Best Metal Band at the Houston Press music awards for the second year running. Their video for the single “Give Up the Witch” premiered on Noisecreep last month, and they’re putting the finishing touches on a new album. (Check out the newest single “Moonchild” after the interview, below.)
Here is my point. Houston can be a stifling place to live — especially if you’re an artist whose work isn’t displayed in galleries, museums, or major performance venues. Much of the city doesn’t care about local music, and the rest of the country barely notices what’s happening down there. It’s easy to get discouraged, and it takes a lot of toughness to stick it out.
I’m no soothsayer, but, if it were up to me, I’d say: Venomous Maximus, y’all are gonna make it. Your music certainly deserves to, and Houston should be proud of you. \m/
***
Gregg Higgins responded to questions via Christian Larson’s email address. (Not sure how that works, but I’ll take it!)
OH: I don’t know much about your band’s story. How and when did you get together?
GH: Me and Bongo met a while back when he was getting tattooed at my shop. He seemed to fancy the tunes I was spinning. So we decided to jam. I had the concept for the [band]…Just waiting for the right time and people.
OH: I’ve seen the word “occult” attached to descriptions of your music. What does that mean to you?
GH: All that word means to me is hidden or unknown. The music is not about everyday struggles with women or life. It’s more of the unknown, the not-talked-about, recurring dreams, deja vu, ghosts, reincarnation. The band gives me a chance to talk about things that aren’t normally shared or experienced.
OH: There are a lot of doom metal bands out there. What sets your music apart?
GH: I don’t think we are doom. I never have but can understand why we are called it. We don’t have anything in common with what everyone considers modern doom. Just mainly our art and our 70s record collections. Take Pentagram, for instance. There are two sides to that coin: the early 70s demos which are dark rock and then the 80s and 90s Dracula shit. The band name game can be fun, but if you’re gonna spit names, be clever about it, and get it right. I think we sound more like Dokken than any doom band.
OH: I read that your band name didn’t come from the G.I. Joe character. Where did it come from?
GH: I grew up in the country. We had satellite TV with like 500 channels. During the summer as a child I watched movies all night long. Apocalypse Now, The Shinning, and Full Metal Jacket have always stuck with me. The underlining theme I got from all of these movies is, if you want to be the best, you must go crazy. It is a special sacrifice that only a chosen few are born to do. They are the Venomous Maximus.
OH: What’s the metal scene like in Houston now? (Is there one?)
GH: Metal is fucking retarded. Death metal bands don’t like black metal bands, crust bands don’t like thrash bands. It’s all very childish. We are not trying to compete with anyone, and we are not trying to be a part of anyone’s group. We are the dudes that show up to your party, drink all your beer, have the most laughs, and DJ the best classic rock ‘n’ roll of all time!
***
*Don’t even start with me. The climate is humid subtropical. Houstonites will argue that this isn’t enough of a drawback to justify writing off an entire city as unlivable, and a population over 4 million proves them right. But then they’ll turn around and, perversely, both bemoan and brag about how awful it is because no other major U.S. city can boast of such a wretched climate. It is perhaps the city’s only superlative quality.
Who You Should See at SXSW 2012
I am not going to the SXSW music festival this year. I cannot tell you how relieved I am not to be going. The pressure to be hip, to be in five places at once, and to drink free beer before it runs out is not something I’m going to miss. Austin is not equipped to accommodate the drunken clusterfuck that the SXSW music festival has become. So I’ll gladly be skipping town after SXSW Interactive.
To all you folks who will descend on Austin the day I’ll be leaving, I can only say…good luck, suckas. Wouldn’t wanna be ya, but if I were ya, here’s who I’d go see.
If you see only one band at SXSW, see this one.
The Black Angels
Black Cobra*
Black Tusk
Buxton
Carolyn Wonderland
Corrosion of Conformity*
The Cult
Dixie Witch
Eve 6
Fiona Apple
Girl in a Coma
Gossip
High on Fire
Holy Grail
Howlin’ Rain
Justin Townes Earle
Lo-Pan
Shiny Toy Guns
Skrillex
The Sword
Sxip Shirey
Suzanna Choffel
The Ting Tings
Trixie Whitley
YACHT
Zoroaster*
*If you see no other show, see this one: Zoroaster, A Storm of Light, Rwake, Saviours, Black Cobra, Corrosion of Conformity, Wednesday 3/14 7:30 p.m. Dirty Dog Bar. Do not miss Zoroaster.
OH’s Favorite Metal Albums of 2011
I won’t call this list the “Best Metal Albums of 2011″ because I haven’t listened to every single metal album released this year. But I have listened to a lot of them. These are the ones I liked the best.
1. Generation Why? – Diamond Plate
2. Invernal – Black Cobra
3. Lulu – Lou Reed and Metallica
4. Sasquanaut (Remixed & Remastered from 2009 release) – Lo-Pan
5. Gallows – Landmine Marathon
6. Set the Dial – Black Tusk
7. Jason…the Dragon – Weedeater
8. Welcome 2 My Nightmare – Alice Cooper
Album Review – Dreaming in Stereo 2, by Dreaming in Stereo
This review is way, way, way overdue. Back in March, Dreaming in Stereo invited me to cover their show at SXSW. I missed the show, unfortunately, but they were kind enough to send me their new album, Dreaming in Stereo 2, to review. Lo these many months later, I can say that, having listened to the album, if I ever get another chance to see this band live, I will go without hesitation. I certainly regret missing that show in Austin.
The album is gorgeous from start to finish. Truly a delight. The progressive pop music is cinematic, deliciously layered vocals floating over dreamy string arrangements. The songs have an unhurried quality, capturing what one might imagine a sunny Saturday in the band’s hometown of Miami Beach, Florida, would feel like. It’s tempting to escape into the rich sonic landscape of the record, to indulge in a mini-vacation with every listen.
The man at the helm is Fernando Perdomo, an accomplished musician whose credits include playing lead guitar on a platinum-selling album (Amar Es) and international tour for Grammy-nominated Mexican pop singer Christian Castro. Perdomo writes and sings most of the songs on Dreaming in Stereo 2, with the exceptions of “Saturday Song” and “Without You”, by Marisol Garcia. Garcia’s vocals are stunning; her range extends from quiet intimations to soaring climactic power.
One thing the band seems to collectively understand is the significance of the musical dramatic arc. “Enough’s Enough” is but one example in which a pop melody swells into full orchestral glory and then returns to the original theme. This prog tactic owes much to Pink Floyd, who seem consciously referenced in songs like “Open the Door 2”, with its Syd Barrett-psychedelic lyrics and Dark Side of the Moon acid guitar solo with female vocals underneath. The Beatles also seem to be an influence, as in the vocal harmonies of “Part of Your Life”. Like the Beatles, Dreaming in Stereo writes songs that have an undercurrent of longing, a delicate sadness made beautiful by music. In effect, the experience of the album as a whole is a sort of journey, both inward into secret emotions and outward in an exploration of just how picturesque sound can be.
New Brilliance: Interview with Charlene Kaye
At the end of SXSW, Charlene Kaye, along with band member Megan Cox on violin, are playing El Mercado, an Austin Tex-Mex restaurant—and an appropriately ironic venue for Kaye to finish out the week. “I don’t think I can eat anymore Mexican food after this trip,” she laughs. “If I never see a taco again, it will be too soon.”
A 24-year-old Hawaii native with Singaporean parents, Kaye grew up in Singapore, Hong Kong, and Arizona before attending college as an English major at the University of Michigan. She moved to New York about a year and a half ago, immediately after college, with a number of musician friends from school, no money, and no place to live. Since then, she says she’s been “single-mindedly” pursuing a career in music.
“I really can’t see myself doing anything else. I almost don’t really feel like I have a choice.”
A few minutes of listening to Kaye’s jazzy vocals, poetic lyrics, and strong song arrangements will convince anyone that she’s chosen exactly the right profession. Her exotic beauty and effortless confidence onstage present a singer/songwriter who seems primed for success.
In fact, Kaye’s recent single “Dress and Tie” has already earned her an impressive amount of recognition for someone so relatively new to the music business. Recorded with fellow U. of M. alum and Glee cast member Darren Criss, the song made the top 150 downloaded songs the day it was released on iTunes. Not surprisingly, Kaye says this has significantly expanded her fan base. “I have a lot of all-ages fans, as in, under-21 fans, because the Glee demographic tends to be a younger crowd,” she explains. “Everywhere we’ve gone, I’ve gotten at least ten little girls who are like, ‘I love Darren, and I love you! I love you because Darren loves you!’”
While the Midas touch of the Glee association has increased Kaye’s popularity, the attention certainly isn’t undeserved. Keep an eye on this talented lady. She is going places.
***
OH: Where did your band name, Charlene Kaye & the Brilliant Eyes, come from?
CK: It came from a dream that I had. The more I thought about it, the more I started to conceive it as the people around me, my bandmates and others that inspire me, who help me realize the musical ideas I have and flesh out my vision. It was also kind of inspired by the feeling of looking out into the crowd the second right before I start to sing and seeing all these eyes looking back in anticipation.
I feel like performing is kind of like having a conversation with somebody. If you feel like they’re giving something back, then you want to give more back.
OH: How long have you been playing music?
CK: I was trained in classical piano since the age of five, and I took piano lessons until I was sixteen. And then when I got into middle school and high school, I kind of dropped the piano and got really into Elliot Smith and Blink-182 and Good Charlotte and Goldfinger. I went through a big punk stage and learned like every song in drop-D possible. The first guitar I ever played was my mom’s classical, nylon strings, and I was playing Blink-182 on that. I just got frustrated with the formal training because it was nothing that I was listening to at the time, and once I discovered how to play songs I actually liked, I got really excited. And that was sort of the portal into discovering how much I loved music, when it didn’t feel like a homework assignment.
OH: I noticed Megan, your violinist, was playing and singing at the same time. I’ve never seen anyone do that before.
CK: Megan was a prodigy classical pianist. By age ten she was playing these really advanced sonatas, winning regional competitions and beating her older brothers. And then she was like, actually, I want to learn how to play violin. And so she became a badass at violin, and then she was like, actually, I think I want to be a classical voice major! So she majored in that in college, and now she’s a monster. The perfect triple threat.
OH: Did you take any voice lessons?
CK: Here and there. I took one class in college with this huge opera singer that was amazing in his own way, but I don’t really feel like I took anything from it because I’m more like a soul/rock vocalist, or at least I aspire to be. And he wanted me to sing in a traditional style. It didn’t really resonate. So I just sing however it feels good. I’ve been known to take Mariah Carey karaoke tracks and just practice with that because she’s so all over the place that anything you sing after that feels so easy—especially my stuff that has very defined melodies. I don’t riff that much. So, if I have to warm up, I’ll run through a Mariah Carey song! (laughs)
OH: How would you describe your sound?
CK: My first album [Things I Will Need in the Past] I would describe as indie-folk-pop. All the instruments on the album are real acoustic instruments—cellos, lots of strings, real drums, lots of ambient percussion like woodwinds and chimes and glockenspiel and stuff like that. My EP [Charlene Kaye & the Brilliant Eyes] I would describe as more alternative rock. There’s one song that’s inspired by old soul songs…I’m so blatantly influenced by everything that I hear.
The new album is going to be much more personal and more intense. I’ve had a lot of life experiences since the release of my first album, and I think that though the voice that emerges is still me, it’s a more mature one, one that’s moved past writing about her first heartbreak or imaginary fictional scenarios. Musically, I want to say it’s stranger and more ambitious than the easy-listening pop stuff that’s characterized my sound in the past, but I hesitate because in some ways it actually does lean towards a more pop sound – a good handful of the songs from the new batch sound like singles to me, which I guess is a good thing. My inspirations are all over the place, from Blondie to M. Ward to the Yeah Yeah Yeahs to of Montreal.
OH: Is this your first time at SXSW?
CK: Yes.
OH: What’s your experience been so far?
CK: Oh, man. I’ve had a blast. I cannot wait for next year. It’s been like margaritas nonstop!
***
Charlene Kaye & the Brilliant Eyes play Don Hill’s in NYC with Shoot the Freak and Hank & the Cupcakes on April 24 at 7:00 p.m.
Viggie & Vika Thaw Iceland with Scorching Metal, Part 2: Interview with Vika Yermolyeva
Vika Yermolyeva is surprisingly soft-spoken. Talking from Reykjavik, Iceland, via Skype, she seems more demure than what one would expect from musician who can hammer out a Motörhead song with intimidating ferocity. Her metal covers on piano have gotten hundreds of thousands of hits on YouTube, and she now makes a living from her sheet music transcriptions, which she sells online for donations.
Originally from Ukraine, Yermolyeva began taking piano lessons when she was four years old. She attended music school in Kiev, studied in Germany and Italy, and completed two post-graduate studies, one of which was at the highly regarded Rotterdam Conservatory in the Netherlands.
And, on Saturday, she’s performing her first heavy metal concert, accompanied by drummer Brian Viglione. “I think he’s quite a different person from me,” she says, “because he’s very fun and outspoken. I’m more calm.”
x
Calm, yes. Until she utterly annihilates “Master of Puppets” on the piano.
***
Original Hipster: I’d like to hear your side of the story of how you and Brian met.
Vika Yermolyeva: It was evening. I was home, and then I got an email on Facebook from a guy that was just excited about my work. And he wanted to talk to me or something. I just remember that it said Brian from The Dresden Dolls, and I was like, “What??” (laughs) So, I checked to know for sure that it was actually him, and then I Googled to know for sure that it was actually his name, and I was like, “Oh my God!” And I wrote him back immediately. And then he wrote back, and then I went for a walk because I was too excited.
OH: Do you think it will be challenging for you to adjust to playing with a drummer?
VY: I think I’ll be able to do that, and I think it’s, in a way, easier because he keeps the rhythm. As long as I can hear it very well, it’s easier than if I were trying to keep it myself, inside.
OH: How long have you been interested in heavy metal?
VY: Many years. I even liked to dress a little bit heavy metal. I always wanted some cool jacket with heavy metal stuff on it. It started just with dancing and dressing up. And then I thought I wanted to play bass guitar, and of course I can play piano much better than I can play bass guitar. So, finally, I decided, ok, let’s try to play some on a piano. And I started with Metallica.
OH: What was the first metal song or album that really grabbed you?
VY: I think it was, again, Metallica. Many years ago. I’m not sure about the albums. Usually I just pick out songs that I like. I don’t have particular albums that I love entirely.
OH: What was the first metal concert that you went to?
VY: Chimaira, I think. And also Opeth. But I didn’t go to many concerts. Sometimes it’s too loud for me.
OH: When did you first start playing metal songs on the piano?
VY: When Metallica’s single showed up—“The Day That Never Comes” [in 2008]. At the beginning, I skipped the entire hard part of “The Day That Never Comes” and just finished, so it was sort of like a nice ballad, basically. (laughs) But after that I decided not to skip and just actually play everything. It was tricky.
OH: How do you transcribe the songs?
VY: I just write down what I hear from the record, and then I start playing, and the arrangements just kind of happen. I play, and I change some things until I’m happy. So, it doesn’t take that much time, but I was always very good with writing down music that I hear. Also, in school we had lessons where somebody would play a song, and we had to write it down, and I was usually the best one. But I didn’t have any lessons on arrangement; it just happens—I think because I played so much classical music, which is really greatly arranged compositions for pianists. So it’s just easier for me.
OH: Say I played a Metallica song for you that you hadn’t worked on before. How long do you think it would take before you were happy with what you’d written down?
VY: A few hours. Usually Metallica is very straightforward. I mean, you just play what you hear and just add some octaves and make sure it’s in rhythm…Metallica, it’s very clear, usually.
OH: What would you find to be difficult to transcribe and arrange?
VY: Pink Floyd, maybe Radiohead. This kind of music. Something that’s difficult to catch its mood because…I can’t use any effects. It makes a lot of space. You create a lot of space like Pink Floyd does, and then it’s a simple sound, but with piano it’s very hard. I need to fill in the space with notes and still keep the atmosphere. That’s very difficult.
OH: Do you find that your covers are bringing metal to a new audience, maybe to people who prefer classical music?
VY: Yes…I also think maybe some metalheads will start to appreciate piano more because of my covers. I think they have sometimes the idea that piano is not interesting, not cool…When you sing, it’s easy to show your emotions, or, like with guitar, maybe it’s a little bit easier. To actually pull your emotions on the piano and make people feel something, that’s very difficult. Guitar really reacts to touch so much, and you can change the sound while you’re already pressing it, while you’re playing it, so it’s close to how you sing. But with piano, you press it once: it’s starting to die. You have to really connect all the sounds to make it sing and speak. This is a hard job.
***
Read Part 1: Interview with Brian Viglione here. Watch rehearsal footage of Viggie & Vika here. And keep your eyes and ears open for the live recording of their show!
It’s That Time of Year Again: OH’s Top 10 Albums of 2010
Yes, it’s that time of year again. Your presents have been opened. Your waistline has been expanded. Your Christmas has been thoroughly celebrated. Unless you’re me, in which case your presents remain unopened, halfway across the country; your waistline is shrinking as you prove the effectiveness of The Poverty Diet; your Christmas was celebrated with two Jewish guys at a bar. And now you’re snowed in.
What better time to commence that all-important year-end activity — the listing of the Top 10 Best Albums of the year? In fact, there is no better time. The time is now.
Please join me in toasting with a half-drunk mug of this morning’s coffee the following albums:
10. The Black Keys — Brothers (notwithstanding the T. Rex ripoff that is the opening riff)
9. Massive Attack — Heligoland
8. Gorillaz — Plastic Beach
7. Robyn — Body Talk (Pt. 1, 2, and 3)
6. The Dead Weather — Sea of Cowards
5. Kanye West — My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
4. Big Boi — Sir Lucious Left Foot: The Son of Chico Dusty
3. Kylesa — Spiral Shadow
2. The Ruby Suns — Flight Softly
1. M.I.A. — MAYA
Last Night: The Dresden Dolls – Halloween at Irving Plaza NYC
Some things can’t be adequately described in words. Last night was one of them. 
On the tenth anniversary of the fateful Halloween party in Boston where Amanda Palmer met Brian Viglione, The Dresden Dolls reunited after a two-year hiatus for a sold out show at Irving Plaza. The significance of their first meeting ten years ago was clearer than ever: these two belong together.
Having seen them perform one of their last pre-breakup shows in 2008 and having seen them play separately since (Amanda at the Spiegeltent in NYC in ’08 and Brian with World/Inferno at Hallowmas that same year), and seeing them now together again, I can say with certainty that each are strong musicians and great performers but that something indefinable happens when they take the stage together. Their musical chemistry is electric; the crowd feeds off it, gives it back; the Dolls bounce it right back to the crowd. And what happens is bigger than two people onstage, bigger even than a jam-packed venue of loving fans. For lack of a better word, it’s magic.
As with so many bands whose live show is superior to their (already great) records, you have to see the Dolls perform to fully appreciate what all the fuss is about. Take my word for it. There’s something genius in the simplicity of two percussionists (the piano is a percussion instrument, after all) playing off of each other’s musical cues and body language in a sort of rhythmic dialogue. Brian and Amanda are like twins who anticipate what the other is going to say. And they’re even more in sync now than they were two years ago — it seems the break has left them supercharged.
The Legendary Pink Dots, who Amanda has always cited as her favorite band and number one musical influence, kicked off the show. After their set, a giant screen hid the stage and showed a Halloween-themed movie clip montage while an equally appropriate soundtrack played over the P.A. When “Sweet Transvestite” came on, the audience sang along, complete with Rocky Horror inside-joke callouts (“Say it!!”). It foreshadowed the singing to come.
Overheard:
Girl: I wonder if a lot of Rocky Horror fans are Dolls fans?
Guy: I’m pretty sure there’s some overlap.
When the Dolls appeared, the house erupted. Brian appeared sans Halloween costume (but later revived the Dolls’ trademark bowler hat); Amanda wore something resembling a caped Checkpoint Charlie uniform, the jacket of which was of course eventually ditched in favor of a black lace bra. The duo kissed, the message obvious to those who knew the high tension that split up the band two years ago.
They opened with “Sex Changes” and played for — are you ready for this? — two hours and thirty-five minutes, almost non-stop. The crowd knew every. single. word. of the set, comprising twenty-one songs (by my count), that included five covers:
– “Pirate Jenny” – by Bertolt Brecht/Kurt Weill (fromThe Threepenny Opera) – Amanda sang it in English
– “Pierre” – by Carole King – with Brian doing the “I don’t care”s
– “Double Rainbow” – from the YouTube phenomenon; it ended with a rainbow of balloons falling from the ceiling
– “Mein Herr” – from Cabaret – with Brian on acoustic guitar and Amanda, in a gold sequined bra, writhing on a platform, stage-right
– “War Pigs” – by Black Sabbath – and it sounded massive with Amanda on piano and Brian’s metal-influenced drumming at its best
They hit all the big Dolls tunes, most of them from the self-titled album and from Yes, Virginia, and they touched on “Glass Slipper” from A is for Accident and two from No, Virginia (“Ultima Esperanza”, “The Kill”). They kept up the theatrics that make watching them so much fun: Brian clowned as the perfect foil for Amanda’s slightly straighter-(wo)man (we use that word “straight” very loosely here). They recruited fans from the audience to sing backup on “The Jeep Song”. They paid tribute to their mutual friend Sean, who was in the audience and who brought Brian to Amanda’s Halloween party ten years ago. (The audience sent up cries of “Thank you, Sean!” to him on the balcony.) They received “boo”s when Amanda mentioned wrapping up the show. (“Don’t be idiotic,” she said. “We’re obviously going to do an encore.”)
And they played a five-song encore.
Only then was the audience reluctantly willing to let them go — and only because we know that, this time, it won’t be two years before we see them together again.
Tokyo Dancer/Horror Film Star Cay Izumi Slays at Lucky 13 Saloon – Brooklyn
Lucky 13 Saloon is always a sure bet for a great time. The jukebox and occasional DJ play the best of metal, both old and new. The walls and ceilings are plastered with band posters. The beer is $2. And the dancers never disappoint.
Last night was no exception — and even exceeded my expectations. The reason: Japanese pole dancer and horror film star Cay Izumi. Go-go-ers Kayce GoGo and Remy Viscious (of Coney Island fame) were terrific, too (I was particularly envious of Kayce’s absolutely perfect derriere). But Izumi, who says she’s been dancing for ten years, took the cake. 
Cay’s work on the pole is so intense that she can only sustain it for one or two songs at a time. We’re talking Olympic-strength athleticism, here. For the first third or so of her performances, she seduces the crowd with some provocative moves close to the ground — er, bar. Then she shimmies up the pole and stays there for the rest of the song. Executing trick after impossible trick, upside-down, sideways, and everything in between, she whips around so fast that people back away from the range of her heels. She actually gets very few tips while dancing because she’s at the ceiling and out of reach most of the time, and people seem either afraid to risk getting impaled by a stiletto or reluctant to interrupt her electrifying routine.
Erstwhile, on the TV screens in the corners of the bar, Japanese slasher flicks featured Izumi and other actresses covered in blood, dying ridiculously unfortunate deaths. (See Izumi’s film history here.) The plots are absurd, but the photography has some gorgeous moments even amongst the gore. And the borderline soft-core, girl-on-girl scenes have a sort of cheesy appeal, if you’re into that sort of thing. Most of the guys in the crowd seemed to be.
The funny thing about Izumi is that when she climbs down off the bar after her fierce routines, she’s cute as can be and a total sweetheart. Completely the opposite of the lethal sexpot who moments ago looked about as dangerous as the female killers in the films playing in the background. With the people who are only now able to get close enough to shower her with cash, she chats, sometimes with the help of a translator, and explains that she’s new to New York. She’s on a sort of tour with the gothic lolita performance troupe Tokyo Dolores, and she’s got some solo gigs coming up, too. Here’s the schedule. I highly recommend checking out the shows.
Spotify
Tip Jar
ORIGINAL HIPSTER by Linda Leseman is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
Based on a work at originalhipster.net.
