My weekend ended up being a pretty nice, if somewhat unusual.
Saturday night I went to the Baltimore Museum of Art for the 2005 Annual Recital for the Daughters of Rhea, a loose-knit collective of sorts of belly-dance performers. There was quite a wide range of, from beginning level dancers to real veteran performers. There were dancers with veils and dancers with canes. Dancers with swords and dancers behind screens. Some stayed true to the older traditions of the dance, while others worked in small threads of R&B, performance art, and even heavy metal. The highlighted performers were Piper, who dances with a sword balanced on her head, Lotus, who brought a high level of sass and sultriness to the stage. How she struts and dances like she does in high heels, I'll never know. I admittedly mainly went to support Miss Anonymous L and the rest of the Blue Orchid Dancers, but still enjoyed myself.
Afterwards, we enjoyed some post-show eats with some of the other performers at the nearby Paper Moon Diner. One of the other performers teaches dance and sells belly dance costumes and gear out of her husbands comic book store in Baltimore. The other is a dancer and pianist with a degree in anthropology, and she's apparently won some Maryland awards for her Ragtime Piano playing. The whole evening was, in a phrase, very Baltimore.
The fun of the weekend continued into Sunday night with the Fatomas show at the 9:30 Club in downtown D.C. Fantomas, for lack of a better description, is melodic hardcore. This supergroup, fronted by Mike Patton of Faith No More/Mr. Bungle fame, features musicians from groups like the Melvins and Slayer. Most of their music is instrumental, and come highly influenced by movie themes and cartoon music (they do a wicked-evil cover of the the theme from the Omen). With the thundering double-bass drums, the near-grating guitar and bass, it was a very loud, energetic, and near-violent show. Patton brought in most of the melodies with his unique vocal gymnastics. It had been awhile since I'd seen live music quite like theirs, and I had a great time.
But now, unfortunately, it's tax time. And I've procrastinated enough. Time to break out the adding machine.
Excelsior.
6 comments:
Wow, sounds very cool. Fantomas sounds really awesome. I've been jonesing for some new music...
They are a fun band. And Patton's moved on a bit from his heavy metal, swallowing his own bodily fluids on stage days. Much to the chagrin of some of the fans.
Sounds like a great weekend. We were at the Baltimore Museum two weeks ago--did you make it to the sculpture gardens? Wendi
I strolled through there, yes. They have a great sculpture garden. Still haven't made it to the Slideshow exhibit, though.
SEE the slideshow exhibit. it's incredible. even my hard to contain kids were enthralled. I don't know how far away you live, but its certainly worth the trip!
Miss Anonymous L, my main squeeze, resides in lovely Charm City. So I'm there pretty frequently. So I really have no excuse for not seeing it.
Post a Comment