All photos by Rae Votta
Ed. note: We dispatched Out.com photographer Rae Votta out into the wilds of New York City with one simple directive: Bring back the greatest and gayest musical finds from the CMJ Music Marathon, the annual set of college rock showcases and panels that have helped catapult Vampire Weekend, Black Kids and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah into the mainstream. This is her report.
CMJ is a great destination vacation -- dozens of shows each night, afterparties that run well into the morning hours -- but if you live and work a day job (or two) in New York, it's mostly a battle of survival and a test of your stamina and planning skills.
I attempted to kick my gay week off last Wednesday at a Heloise & the Savoir Faire show. The only downside was a midnight start time, but the band came highly recommended and I had missed them two nights before at The Syndicate kickoff where it was simply too overcrowded to move, let alone enjoy the free sno-cones and flavored water. [Read Heloise and bandmate Joe interviewing each other at Out.com.] So I went home from work, changed into suitable party clothes and headed back to Manhattan to dance. But nothing at CMJ goes as planned and no one ever plays on time.
Get more of Out.com's CMJ wrap-up, including Charlotte Sometimes, Yo Majesty, Semi Precious Weapons and Lady GaGa after the jump...
Apparently Heloise played early. I walked into a room filled with no more than 20 people and just one boy on stage, playing both guitar and drum machine and singing way gay techno music. I took notes on my phone: "This is the gayest shit ever. Lyrics sound like 'Money doesn’t talk, it sweats' and 'I don't care about sexes, two people in love are good enough for us.' AMAZING." I am not sure how true those lyrics are, or what the boy's actual name was (he wasn't on the schedule), plus he was Swedish and his accent blurred things. I do know that the 20 people in the room were having the best time ever, dancing like no one was watching and screaming for him. When he finished they demanded encores. I slipped out the door at 1:30 a.m.
Thursday I had planned a relatively tame night -- just a party and one showcase. The party wasn't inherently gay, except for being at Out cover boy Pete Wentz's bar, Angels & Kings. His label threw a party with free booze (although I ordered the wrong booze, so mine wasn't free) and performances from Charlotte Sometimes and Butch Walker. Charlotte, who manages to write songs both happy and dark at the same time, is charming and pixie-like, but the bar was too crowded and she was too short to get a good look. Butch Walker's rootsy-indie rock is amazing -- plus he's over 6 feet tall, so I could actually see him. I really loved the new tracks he played. He's one of those artists who I forget how much I adore until I see a show.
Next I ran over to Knitting Factory (again) to catch the packed 3oh!3 set. (Full disclosure: one of my two jobs involves these boys.) 3oh!3 are a duo of white boy rappers from Colorado, and despite their songs being about girls, there's an awful lot of draping themselves on each other and synchronized dancing. An afterparty they DJed later that night also featured a lot of shirtless dudes.
Then came Friday, the gayest night of the week, since Perez Hilton was throwing a showcase at Highline Ballroom. Plus it didn't start until midnight, so I had to break my no energy drink rule and start gulping them once I got there so I didn't end up asleep in a corner before Semi Precious Weapons and Lady GaGa performed.
But before that was Yo Majesty, the Tampa-based lesbian rappers whose stripped-down stage show is infamous.
As amazing as the ladies were on the mic, I couldn't keep my eyes off their male go-go dancers, who were dressed like some warped form of superheroes. Occasionally they would meet in the middle and grind a bit. Rocking out in the front row I spotted Marc Jacobs' ex-beau Jason Preston and Lady Bunny, who were having way more fun than any of the stiffs up in VIP. (From this point on my celebrity spotting went out the window, because nothing in the crowd beat what happened on stage.)
I had been told by everyone I know that Semi Precious Weapons put on a killer show, but nothing prepared me for their sheer awesomeness. Everything wonderful and dirty about rock and roll, but more queer. I can't wear a pair of stilettos like lead singer Justin Tranter can, and I definitely could never get a crowd in the palm of my hand like he did. [Read Out.com's Q&A with Justin here.] The rest of the band is just as captivating, especially their bassist, who even kept his instrument wailing while Justin attempted to disrobe him. Lady Bunny pulled off her wig and swung it in the air, offering up her fake boobies when Justin called for a show of titties. The cast from the currently filming season of The Real World were up front, singing along into the mic when Justin offered it.
After they finished I chased down Justin, who happily posed for some "totally dirty" pictures just for Out.
The night was edging on 2:30 already and the crew was still setting up Lady GaGa's moving video screens. [Read Out.com's Q&A with her here.] No one in the audience seemed to care about the hour, as the show had transformed into a dance party, which seamlessly transitioned when Lady Gaga did take the stage. If you left before this, you made a huge mistake. It was everything you want out of true pop music -- fluid, bright, flashy and sexy.
Her dancers carried her, adorned her with items and, of course, shook their asses. Lady GaGa made costume changes seamlessly, kept the crowd moving and sounded wonderful as she sang her hit "Just Dance." The set was short, but Perez kicked off a Madonnathon directly after and we kept up until our drinks ran out and we went in search of a 24-hour diner.
I woke up Saturday and promptly threw out my festival schedule. While there were still events all day, nothing was going to surpass the night before. I'm sure there could have been some more queer gems hidden among the hundred of bands playing all over the city last week, but I was happy to have avoided fatigue and liver failure, and to have walked away in love with a few new bands.
-- RAE VOTTA
See more of Rae's photos at Flickr.
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