2009 Addendum: All of the 2005-2007 blogs are copied and pasted from my myspace page. It has been a tedious process and I just don’t have the energy to fix all of these links (myspace kills them).
I’ve been getting some requests for an update re the September 27, 2006 Circus of PowerDrew Stone’s reunion, which for those of you who don’t know, was also a film release party for new film “Passion and Brotherhood”. Here’s my report, complete with enough links to keep you occupied for an hour or so:
Donna and I went up to Smash studios the night before the show to get in a little rehearsal time and check in with the boys. I’ve gotten to see Ricky Mahler a few times over the last 4 or 5 years: he comes in from LA to visit every once in a while and actually played with my good friend and ex-bf Jesse Malin for a small tour. And the wonderful Ryan Maher lives in NYC so we are always more than pleased to run into him when we can, the last time being our own CSFH reunion. But I haven’t seen Alex Mitchell in a good decade.
The entertaining and interesting thing to me about seeing old friends after a long hiatus is clocking how they have or haven’t changed. As soon as we got into the rehearsal space I felt like no time had passed at all. We all look a bit older, or at least different, but are essentially the exact same people: same dynamics between individuals, same connections, same modes of interaction. I find that comforting when it’s with people I like/love, it makes me feel like the things and people I care about will always be there, even if I don’t see them every day. So there was Ricky, cracking the same dicky jokes, Ryan being his usual dryly funny and sweet self, and Alex taking charge of the room as the ladies man show-pony he’s always been. It was really fun. As for the remaining members, Zowie has been unfortunately MIA some time so he was replaced by a very fun and appropriate guy named Marc Frappier, and Gary Sunshine has a baby very nearly on the way, so he was replaced by our good friend Daniel Rey.
Rehearsal was quick, entertaining, and simple, as Donna and I weren’t really required to sing anything that difficult. This is a good thing, because we aren’t nearly as vocally proficient as we are gorgeous. I could see the gears turning in Daniel Rey’s brain as he worked out what songs to give us that would cause the least amount of cacophony. So it was worked out pretty quickly, Drew filmed and coordinated details for the next night, we caught up a bit on what was going on in our lives, watched a couple of songs, and got out in time to catch up on beauty rest for the following night. There are some snaps of the rehearsal here, where photographic evidence proves that the actual act of CSFH vocalizing was kept to a minimum. 😉
The next night was highly entertaining, of course. Firstly, Donna and I were VERY psyched to get laminates. Lord knows it’s been a while since I’ve sported my own laminate. Of course, the need for this particular accoutrement at Don Hill’s is minimal, but still, it’s fun to wear one and pretend the security is high. In typical CSFH fashion we both forgot ours at home and spent the next half hour whining until new ones were produced by a lovely man acting as security and stage manager, appropriately named Havok. Havok also took the rehearsal photos and the main photo on the Circus of Power website.
Secondly, the one and only Dolly Dagger flew in for the week. Dolly was one of the original Cycle Sluts when we were a pseudo gang and had about 10 girls with jackets, and Donna and I haven’t seen her since well back into the CSFH era. In those days we would enter a club en masse, wearing our “colors”, thigh-high boots and cut-offs and swaggering like idiots while people stepped back fearfully to let us pass. I don’t miss the stupid aggression of those days but I do miss the camaraderie of the “gang” of girls. We were tough and cool and it was fun as hell. Every day was like starring in our own B movie.
And thirdly (or as one gorgeous but very dim biker said to Donna once: “Ya gotcha primary, ya secondary, and ya THIRDARY”), the majority of the audience was comprised of old friends, acquaintances, and people who were there the first time around. We got to hang with some friends who rarely come out, and there were two men from the latter category who followed us around all night taking photos and telling us we were beautiful. After hours of this, and when I’d had enough of having my photo snapped, I said, “Dude, please. You can’t possibly want or need any more pictures”. To which he just handed me a shot of tequila, told me I look the same as I did 15 years ago and snapped one more. I owe that guy a dinner or something. And then there were a few more who weren’t there the first time around who brought old posters and cd covers for us to autograph. So it was pretty much a quality ego-fest any way you cut it.
COP went on at a nice, appropriately rock and roll late hour (12:30?) in front of their fabulous old backdrop (which prompted Donna and I to scratch our heads and wonder where all of ours went) and totally rocked the house from the beginning. It’s hard to believe they only had a couple of days together to get the songs rehearsed, and it pleased me mightily to see a big crowd in front of the stage. They even got the old school whorey/hot biker chick in a tiny halter top and low cut jeans–beer in hand, grinding away on the riser. That totally warmed my ancient vampire heart because it reminded me of the Limelight/Cat Club shows where you couldn’t get to the stage because there’d be so many advertising groupies vying for prime position in the front. Back then it would throw me into a rage bc they’d be gunning for whatever rock boy of the moment I was dating–now it looks cute to me because hipster girls are so fucking boring and unsexy.
In the middle of the set Donna and I got up and sang backup on Motor, War Machine, and Needles. It was short, sweet and painless, and really just an excuse to have us as a part of the night. I did a lot of butt-shaking and a little bit of singing, and then before you could say “Morton Downey” it was back down to the bar to get loaded and watch the rest of the show, which was stellar from start to end and featured a guitar cameo by Phil Caivano, formerly of Blitzspeer and Monster Magnet. It really was a killer show and for those of you who whined via email that it was a school night or too late in the evening to go out, I thumb my nose at you. We may look like grown-ups now, but we are never too old or tired to ROCK, goddamnit! If you don’t come out there won’t be any shows, people!
So after that COP and the Sluts did some interviewing and photos with Ace and Huge from Reality Check TV, of which I have very little recollection due to afore-mentioned constantly flowing tequila shots from friends and fans, and then it was off to Three of Cups to finish off the obliviating. All in all it was one of the funnest nights I’ve had in a while, and I hail COP for their ability to still BRING THE ROCK and for being generous enough to want to share the stage with their friends. And it looks like the band is going to do a show in L.A. and maybe take it to Japan, so if you are in either one of those places, I highly recommend attending.
The one sour note that I should prob mention somewhere in this blog is that our brothers in Supervillain (two of whose members are also members of the very loosely reformed CSFH) were scheduled to play and then got yanked after spending quality time promoting. I won’t go into it here but it was a bummer and they were missed.
If you would like to see photos from the night, you can check out here and here. And below is a loosely edited Drew Stone video of Motor (featuring yours truly on butt-shaking duty) for his upcoming film “Got Motor? Swamp Boogie In The Big City”.
MISS ANTHROPE'S HOUSE OF HIGH DRAMA 