& the Evil Eyes
w/the Chromatics, the Black Lips, Tractor Sex Fatality
Sat March 27, Fun House, 9:30 pm, $5.
The last time Veronica Lipgloss & the Evil Eyes descended on Seattle, the rumor was that their show forever changed the sexual identities of a couple of different musician types in this city. How could it be any different, though, when the band members dress as though gender is a fashion accessory cluttering a closet full of thrift-store wedding veils, bathing-suit bottoms, and scuffed heels? Their costumes so blurred the distinctions between male and female that band members of both genders felt free to further smear their lipstick by pulling in members of the audience at random for a quick lesson in tongue gymnastics during the show.
That was the scene at Veronica Lipgloss' performance last September at the Monkey Pub, where a typical small-bar punk show became a showcase for overcharged libidos. Glam queen frontwoman Rhani Remedes, backed by the Evil Eyes, brought gyrating rhythms straight to the crotches of newly cemented fans, in a scene that felt so decadently indecent the owner kept threatening to pull the plug if one of the Eyes didn't keep his pants on.
In addition to this San Francisco band's deliciously trashy free-love philosophy, there's something innately sexy about the music, a neo-new-wave aesthetic that throbs disco beats like a busted strobe light, where guitar riffs get slimmer than a G-string or punch out like the Runaways junk-sick on PiL, and the pandemonium in the vocals can reach a climax even at a whisper. And that's even if they don't get to the track that may best sum up their music: "Deep Interactions on People's Lips."
