Wednesday, April 23, 2014

RuPaul’s family affair: 'Drag Race' comes to Headliners



“RuPaul’s Drag Race” has proven to be much more than just another reality TV show. In six seasons, it’s become a groundbreaking platform, introducing people from all walks of life to what goes into becoming a drag queen and what goes on behind the scenes, as well as introducing the real and varied people who go into drag as a performing art.

The show’s popularity has also defined its cable home, Logo, and raised the profiles and fortunes of dozens of its queens along the way. On Sunday, some of them stop by Headliners for a touring version of the show. The Louisville stop will include Sharon Needles, Jinkx Monsoon, Ivy Winters, Carmen Carerra, Pandora Boxx, Phi Phi O’Hara and Mimi Imfurst.

For host RuPaul — who became famous in the early 1990s but saw the culture change back on him during the Bush years — its success has been doubly satisfying, as issues like gay marriage concurrently become mainstream.

“Even though I’m a former contestant and winner, I’m still the world’s biggest fan of this damn game show,” says Needles. All of the backstage knowledge leaves when he tunes in, he says, adding with characteristic sass, “I believe it’s just 42 minutes of live competition! Not 36 hours, two days, 40 cameras and a lot of editing!”

One straight friend RuPaul brought along on his journey is sidekick Michelle Visage, a former pop singer who’s now a married mother of two and a judge on the series. The host of the live show, Visage reveals that life on tour is less exciting than fans might hope. Traveling on their compact tour bus, “Most of us are so tired, most of the queens are sleeping or working on their computers, editing their videos or music for their numbers. So it’s really quiet. It’s not like the sing-along bus you’d think it would be.”

For Visage, whose dream is to perform on Broadway, the “Drag Race” live show is a chance for her to sing again. She says the production is different than seeing a show at a club like The Connection or Play. “There are theatrical elements you don’t usually get in a bar. It’s a video-incorporated show; it’s seamless, the way it runs from queen to queen.”

Visage and Needles agree that the “Drag Race” experience gives all queens, from pageant-style beauties to more creative, personality-driven types, a chance to show their best and let the audience decide which style they prefer. Both also note that the pageant-style queens are less comfortable speaking on stage, and aren’t expected to on tour. Visage and Needles were inspired by punk rock-type icons from Divine to Joan Jett and Jayne County. “You were so impressed by their personalities that you couldn’t help but see the beauty in them,” Needles says.

“If you look like the Western standard of consumeristic beauty — sure, you’re gorgeous, but ain’t nobody gonna remember yo’ ass,” he adds.

Needles notes that what makes RuPaul special is that, “While he has a very classic beauty, he can use that juxtaposition of being extremely witty and also very inspiring … RuPaul was a club kid punk. And then I think she realized that she wanted to be the first drag queen that could push beyond the nightclub and into every home, and make a niche in the pop culture.”

The live show gives some queens chances to show more than TV time allows. “We want to change the perception some people have that drag’s not an art form, that these are just boys dressing up as girls,” Visage says. “They don’t give enough credit to these amazingly gifted, talented performers.”

Visage remembers one amazing performance that happened here in 1990. “I haven’t been in Louisville since (her group Seduction) opened up for Milli Vanilli … It was amazing, it was their opening night. I’m excited to be back! I can’t believe it’s been that long.”

She also can’t believe she’s talking to a straight man about her show. “It’s like talking to my husband. There are some out there … it’s great when I get emails or Facebooks from them. It’s wonderful that they’re a part of it. Some, they watch as a family, the kids love it — it’s fantastic. RuPaul’s bringing families together.”

‘RuPaul’s Drag Race: Battle of the Seasons’
Sunday, April 27
Headliners Music Hall
1386 Lexington Road
headlinerslouisville.com
$30; 10 p.m.


Here
c. 2014 LEO Weekly

Mono: The LEO interview



Beautifully rocking around the world for 15 years now, Japan’s Mono has earned many fans, especially for their live performances. Mono plays Headliners Music Hall on Friday, and LEO asked leader/guitarist Takaakira Goto a few questions:

LEO: You play an average of 150 shows a year – so how do you balance time for family, friends, and other interests?

Takaakira Goto: It is complicated, but everyone you mention – friends and family – they understand how much music means to each of us, and how this is our passion. Because of this, they are forgiving and generous about the time we must spend away. When we are home, we don’t have other jobs. So we are able to spend as much time as possible then with family and friends.

LEO: How do people in different countries define, or talk about, your music? Does it vary based on which country or continent you are in?

TG: It seems that fans in most places are similar when talking about music. We have a wider audience elsewhere in the world, as does most music. In Europe, for example, it would not be uncommon for older people (50+) to be at a show, and possibly be people who simply read an article about the band and decided to come hear it. American audiences seem to be less adventurous than that, and we are mostly playing to people who know about the band.

LEO: What is your favorite way to compose music? Solo, together, at home, on the road?

TG: I write the music solo, and mostly at home alone. Sometimes I have the time during soundcheck to work on ideas or play through them late at night in the hotel, but mostly tour is too busy to accomplish much.

LEO: You plan to record a new album again this fall. Is this an especially productive time for the band, or a normal pace?

TG: We will record immediately following this tour in late May. We recorded our last album almost 2.5 years before that, but the album before that was three years. It’s sort of a normal schedule for us. When we first started as a band, we put out albums every two years, but now the touring involved is longer, which makes less time for writing new music, taking a break, etc. So it seems like regular pace now.

LEO: Your American label, Temporary Residence Ltd., is run by Jeremy DeVine, who is from my hometown, Louisville, Kentucky. What is your relationship like with him and his crew? Do you have a favorite TRL band (besides yours)?

TG: We’ve worked together with Jeremy and TRL for about 13 years. He is my hero, and also a part of our family. I feel we’ve been growing together all this time, and I am always telling him we will be releasing new albums on TRL even when we are 80-year-old rock guys. There are many great bands and artists on TRL who are long-time friends, especially Explosions in the Sky, Envy, Bellini, The Drift, Eluvium, Tarentel, Majeure and Maserati.

Here
c. 2014 LEO Weekly

Partially famous



It sounds like a movie, but with a Kentucky twist: Four guys who played together in the 1970s went their separate ways; one became a star. Now, decades later, they got the band back together.

Harry Bickel (banjo, vocals), Harry “Sparky” Sparks (guitar, vocals) and Doc Hamilton (fiddle, mandolin) were the core of the Buzzard Rock String Band in 1975. They were all in their 30s; the Harrys had careers. But Bickel had bought a 12-room Victorian in Cherokee Triangle, and it also became home to an instrument repair shop, a practice space, Hamilton and the 18-year-old guitarist from Oklahoma who had just joined the band the Bluegrass Alliance — Vince Gill.

The 1960s and ’70s were a vibrant time for old-time, bluegrass and newgrass music in Louisville, and Bickel’s house, “The Bluegrass Hotel,” became its center. Soon, though, Gill left for California. By 1980, Sparks and Hamilton had also moved away. New members joined Bickel; an album, I’ve Got the Blues for My Kentucky Home, was released in 1988 by June Appal Records. The Buzzards were soon comatose.

The four friends stayed friends. In 2012, 55-year-old Gill and his now-retired former bandmates met up at Gill’s home studio in Nashville. For two days, the men, augmented by bassist Charlie Cushman and accompanied by Gill’s dog Chester, laid down the tracks that would make up Nobody Special, their new album.

In the album’s liner notes, Bickel writes, “It is really good that the four of us did this now. Sparky and Doc are both in their seventies. Of the original band, I’m the youngster in my late sixties. Vince, of course, is still just a kid to us. One day, one of us will be gone and the four of us will never have this opportunity again. We’re just glad that we had the opportunity at all.”

Several current and former members play Sunday, April 27, at 5 p.m. in the U of L Red Barn. Will Gill be one of the performers?

Here
c. 2014 LEO Weekly