Dirty Sanchez, Jeffree Starr and Luxxury
The Key Club
West Hollywood, California
November 1, 2006
By Victoria– Luxxury and Jeffree Star
By Andy Keown – Dirty Sanchez
It’s the “Day After” on the Sunset Strip. Yesterday was Halloween and we got Woodstock-ed with half a million hippies clogging our streets. It was crowded and boring. Kevin Federline performed on Santa Monica Boulevard. I’m not kidding.
We needed a quick fix of something really loud and nasty! And my Rock and Roll Fairy Godmother heard my prayers and with the help of the Key Club hit me with her wand THREE TIMES! Bam! Bam! Bam! Tonight we are getting wigs, false eyelashes, ripped fishnets, super duper platform boots, pink petticoats, samples, synth beats and the dirtiest lyrics we’ve heard since Millie Jackson at Sunset Junction.
First up, from San Francisco, Luxxury. A pretty threesome of bouffed out Glam Disco with a splashes of that old time Bay Area Punk Religion. Rico on drums, Baron von Luxxury plays guitars and sings and Sha plays bass and sings too. Reminding us a lot of Human League ‘cause of the sad and sweet voice of the Baron’s. Loved those striped pants, by the way. Drummer Rico slashes cymbals and gives their sound a celestial viciousness. Dreamy and sharp.
Promoting their latest release “Rock and Roll is Evil,” the Luxx’s started their set with “Drunk” with a request to the soundman “we like it loud.” We like too. “I know who you are, Sable Starr” was a very cool one, kinda Velvet-y Underground-ish. Closer was “Vanity Affair” even cooler.
“Hello, bitches!” Oh that Jeffree Star! Does he know how to start a set or what? Joined by keyboardist, pretty girl singer and even prettier boy dancer, Jeffree puts on quite a show. “Straight Boys” was a enchanting and new song “Ice Cream” was a show stopper. We loved the Make Up Break. “This is my stylist,” Jeffree cooed and then “You look like my maid” to a Latino heckler. Skitzy and perfect eye makeup. “I Love My Louie” was an ode to luggage, Louis Vuitton. Makes ya proud to be an American.
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Dirty Sanchez – the insanely naughty electro rock trio comprised of sexy bad boy Mario Diaz, uber-glam drag diva Jackie Beat, and evil-genius-slash-man-of-mystery Barbeau – played at the Key Club at midnight last night to an enthusiastic, if slightly weary, crowd of devoted fans defying their Halloween hangovers.
While performing their trademark numbers, including the delightfully devious “Really Rich Italian Satanists” and the culturally prescient “Youth in Asia” (which beat Gwen Stefani to the Harajuku lovefest by a long shot) Dirty Sanchez again had the audience begging, to paraphrase a line from “Satanists,” where’s the next party and can I go?
I first saw Dirty Sanchez a few years back at Miss Kitty’s Friday night club at Dragon Fly. It was my first visit to the venue, and I had absolutely no expectations for the group, so when Mario took the stage looking kind of sleazy in a 70s-era brown leisure suit and brown bowler hat, it barely registered. Then, within moments, the pounding dance beat fired up and Mario’s hips began to gyrate. Soon after, as the hat, suit jacket and shirt were disposed of to reveal the lithe muscles below, I fell in lust. Then, backed by Barbeau’s musical ingenuity, Jackie Beat’s charismatic, larger-than-life presence joined the stage, and I fell in love.
I have subsequently seen Mario several times at his Thursday night club at Fubar, demurely titled Big Fat Dick, and Jackie Beat at her Thursday night gig hosting karaoke at Hamburger Mary’s, but had not had the pleasure of seeing them perform together again, with Barbeau, as Dirty Sanchez until tonight. And those delicious sensory perceptions came flooding back, as Jackie Beat’s alternately glowering and smirking drag persona played the perfect foil to Mario’s wild-haired, cod-pieced macho-boy schtick. All of this deviance comes across in a lighthearted, pleasantly self-mocking way, not heavy-handed or darkly self-involved (the depressing opening act, Jeffrey Star, should take note. Jackie made me melt when she forced one of Jeffrey’s hangers-on off the stage after he/she/it jumped onstage uninvited. “Honey,” Jackie bellowed, “I’ve worked too hard to share my stage with some kid with a MySpace page.” It was brilliant.)
The visual theme of the evening was jungle-chic, characterized by Tarzan-and-Jane meets 80s-glam costumes and gorgeous dancers in loin-cloths. My friend Fred caught one the dancer’s sweaty towels and I made him tear it in half for me… swoon!
So, I guess I haven’t really said much about the music, but describing music is not my strength, so I’ll just say theirs is catchy, clever, raunchy, stylish and highly danceable. It covers the classic themes of the ages, from sex with transsexuals, to hosting a lovely dinner party, to enjoying a nice evening with a partner on a dance floor, to the pleasures of asymmetry. (You can check it out for yourself on iTunes.)
Here’s the lowdown: Dirty Sanchez is a group of talented and worthy entertainers who last night put on a thoroughly hilarious, raunchy and strangely (dare I say it?) charming performance. Can’t wait to see them again.
http://www.myspace.com/luxxury
http://www.myspace.com/jeffreestar