Robert Urban Wing Live Performance Review

"T'was the Hammer of the Goddesses"

Stonewall Society music review by Robert Urban

The TRANSGENDER ROCK EXPLOSION

starring LISA JACKSON & GIRL FRIDAY - VIBRALUX –

GEORGIE JESSUP - TEMPTRESS

musical host ROBERT URBAN

produced by Urban Productions for the 2005 Fresh Fruit Festival

Saturday, July 16, 10pm to 2am - Bowery Poetry Club, NYC

live-in-concert photos at: http://roberturban.com/transrockbowery.html

Well - a week has passed, but the glittered fallout of fan buzz & glorious ear-ringing has not yet abated here in NYC after last Saturday's truly THERMONUCLEAR Transgender Rock Explosion concert. 

The night of our show I arrived early at NYC's Bowery Poetry Club and at 8pm was treated to an intense and entertaining set of spoken word from lesbian & gay poets JEN ED of NYC, GOOSELOV from Northampton, MA and ANDREA GIBSON from Boulder, CO. Their set included accompaniment from the awesome ANGELA GOMEZ sitting in on guitar. These are fiece, cutting edge poets and musicians all, and take the live "poetry reading" experience to an all new high level.  Definitely worth checking out.

At 10pm the club filled to capacity as our TRANSGENDER ROCK EXPLOSION kicked off with the one and only GEORGIE JESSUP, who came up from Delaware just for our show.  Accompanied by yours truly on acoustic guitar and the talented CHRISTINA on electric guitar, GEORGIE treated the crowd to a full set of her powerful ballads & full-bodied brand of singing. She also played piano, guitar and electronic wind keys - offering the best of the best selections from her vast collection of gender & Native American themed songs. GEORGIE's set included a special cover song tribute (as Georgie said to the audience, "How could I play New York City, right across the street from CBGB's and NOT do this? - and we burst into the JAYNE COUNTY classic "Too Many Assholes" - with many in attendance singing along.)  A high point for me in GEORGIE'S set was her own bluesy DEVIL'S CHILD, a song about GLBT  discrimination  - in which she calls out the lyrics thru a bullhorn - to frightening effect -

Next up was the indescribably delicious TEMPTRESS, who, in her own words, had just been released from Bellevue psychiatric hospital to come and rock our stockings off.  And THAT she did.  Backed by her new all-girl,all-out-hardcore rock punk band, TEMPTRESS is how shall i put it... a true "diamond in the RUFF".  As her press kit says, she "looks like a model and sings like a sailor!"  Actually Her whole band kind of looks like female characters out of R. Crumb's old ZAP comics - (and I mean that in a good way!) They opened and closed their full-tilt, needle-in-the-red set with classic punkified covers from Rocky Horror Picture Show. It is to be noted that TEMPTRESS' brand new drummer ANDREA is one of the best I've ever heard.

A special TRANS ROCK moment for me came during TEMPTRESS' set was when I made my way over to members of the FRESH FRUIT FESTIVAL's Board of Directors, who were in attendance at our show. I wanted to get their reaction to their 3-week fest's only rock concert (all the other events in the fest are theatrical stage works).  LOL - They were all mesmerized, eyes agape and jaws-dropped at the sheer raw megawatt energy coming at them from this dolled-up, electric guitar wielding powerhouse in a 1950's party dress fronting twin stacks of Marshall 4x12 combos.  Needless to say - for those of you new to TEMPTRESS - do as her website commands "Get the dirt, pass it around, and remember to wash your hands!"

VIBRALUX  came all the way to our Emerald City from heartland Kansas - and when they were done slaying us no one in the house was in Kansas anymore!! Led by the stunning & iconoclastic rock tenorette MERCURY II (wearing pink crinoline petticoat, 6 inch high platform Frankenstein combat boots and sporting a sassy, gidget-like ponytail...), this ultra-ultra heavy rock band is, hands down, the new LED ZEPPELIN (with a slight transified costume nod to KISS). My god do these gurlz know their rock licks!  By the time VIBRALUX closed their glam-inspired set with their maximum power-anthem "PLAY WITH BALLS" - the entire packed room was standing in ovation - an equal mix of heteros, gorgeous transgenders and queers raised their fists and whooped in unison. I predict big things for this band and can't wait for them to return to the Big Apple.

At midnight the filled-to-capacity Bowery Poetry Club was so primed for star attraction LISA JACKSON & GIRL FRIDAY - the audience was calling for her and there was even a second crowd forming outside the club on the sidewalk.  Now, I've seen Lisa perform a good ten times or more, but I've have never heard her and her band crank with such ferocity as they did for our Trans Rock Explosion.  Perhaps they got a charge from the other high-power trans bands on the bill - perhaps it's the hard-rockin', uptempo nature of the songs on her new CD - but Lisa conquered all! Everybody fell out and fell in love with her.  The hunky guys of Girl Friday were literally bouncing off the walls and climbing the wings onstage as they played. Lisa appeared with red TransAm tee-shirt, black slacks, black converse sneakers - yet garnered with fabulous rhinestone giant hoop earrings and diamond cross necklace. Lisa rules.

I want to especially thank the Fresh Fruit Board of Directors for including Urban Productions' TRANS ROCK EXPLOSION in their 2005 arts festival.  They took a chance and let me run with the concept as I first pitched it to them - and they supported it all the way to its smashing finish.  Special thanks also to Drew Edwards of CELLARDOOR who led STEVEN and MISHA - together the best stage tech team ever - getting four major rock bands on and off stage in record time!  Thanks to Roger Kuhn for the great live-in-concert pics.  Thanks to all the glbt media who helped promote the event. Thanks to Bob Holman of BOWERY POETRY CLUB for opening his arms to our extraordinary type of performers and audience. Thanks to the very diverse crowd of trans-rock-fans who came out from everywhere to support this one-of-a-kind live music event. And thanks most of all to the talented gurlz of the TRANSGENDER ROCK EXPLOSION - who showed us all how it's done, and who reminded this ol' rock luver why he's spent his whole life in doin' it. 

robert urban

URBAN PRODUCTIONS, NYC

www.roberturban.com

Music and Arts reviews by Robert Urban 
URBAN PRODUCTIONS, NYC 
www.roberturban.com 

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