live music venues Archives

September 28, 2018

BPREVIEW: NOT NORMAL – NOT OK fundraising drinks reception & live music showcase from The Taboo Club + Liquid Cheeks, Lilac Noise @ The Victoria 29.09.18

Words by Ed King

**Final tickets remaining – to book your ticket for The Taboo Club live music showcase and NOT NORMAL – NOT OK drinks reception, click here for the special See Tickets link**

On Saturday 29^th September, The Taboo Club will be headlining a live music showcase with Birmingham Review at The Victoria on John Bright St – with support from Liquid Cheeks and Lilac Noise.

As part of the fundraising and awareness around the NOT NORMAL – NOT OK campaign, ‘to combat the culture of sexual assault and aggression – from dance floor to dressing room’, there will be a special drinks reception held at The Victoria before the gig.

Doors to the NOT NORMAL – NOT OK drinks reception open at 7/7:15pm, with tickets priced at £7 including entry to the gig afterwards. At the time of writing there are only a handful of tickets left available, but you can still buy online through a special See Tickets link by clicking here.

If you have already purchased a ticket to the gig and would like entry into the drinks reception, please contact ed@birminghamreview.net – or the band that you bought the ticket though.

The Taboo Club are a newly formed ensemble of longstanding local musicians, delivering a ‘heartbreakingly cathartic’ amalgamation of genres and influences. Led by rising waves of rhythm guitar, over an identifiable bass backbone, their sounds also embraces strong elements of saxophone and keys – all tinged with the sultry, low lit vibes of a ‘bourbon lit Harlem dive bar’. Read Sam Lambeth’s interview with The Taboo Club here.

On the bill as local support will be Liquid Cheeks, playing their first live set as the newly formed electro/garage two piece. Liquid Cheeks are made up of Ben Ollis Gibbs and Greg Christopher, from the erstwhile Byron Hare, and will be showcasing their current singles ‘He’s a Flower’ and ‘Serendipity’. Read Emily Doyle’s interview with Liquid Cheeks here.

Also appearing will be Lilac Noise, Stoke’s electro melodic four piece who have been building a maelstrom of momentum since May this year – coming to Birmingham for their first show in the city, and promoting their soon to be released debut single ‘Paradox’.

NOT NORMAL – NOT OK is a campaign to challenge sexual assault in live music venues that was set up in June 2018, by a collective of people who work within the local music scene. Many venues and gig goers across the city have already been supporting the campaign, wearing the NOT NORMAL – NOT OK stickers when they promote or attend live music events.

Later this year, NOT NORMAL – NOT OK will be increasing its outreach – working with regional support agencies, West Midlands Police, and venue operators across Birmingham to establish a stronger presence in live music venues – as well as providing further and clear avenues of support for the gig going public, and helping the venues deliver their existing duties of care.

All money raised from the NOT NORMAL – NOT OK drinks reception will be put directly back into the ongoing campaign. For more information on NOT NORMAL – NOT OK, visit www.notnormalnotok.com

Doors open upstairs at The Victoria for the NOT NORMAL – NOT OK drinks reception from 7/15pm, with entrance to The Taboo Club live music showcase from 8pm – on Saturday 29^th September.

Tickets are priced at £7 (adv) and £10 (otd), as presented by Birmingham Review – to buy online visit the special See Tickets link by clicking here.

For more information on The Taboo Club live music showcase, check out the Facebook Event Page by clicking here.

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For more on The Taboo Club, visit www.facebook.com/TheTabooClubUK

For more on Liquid Cheeks, visit www.facebook.com/liquidcheeks

For more on Lilac Noise, visit www.facebook.com/lilacnoiseuk

For more on The Victoria, including venue details and further event listings, visit www.thevictoriabirmingham.co.uk

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NOT NORMAL – NOT OK is a campaign to encourage safety and respect within live music venues, and to combat the culture of sexual assault and aggression – from dance floor to dressing room.

To sign up to NOT NORMAL – NOT OK, click here. To know more about the NOT NORMAL – NOT OK sticker campaign, click here.

September 26, 2018

BREVIEW: MK ULTRA @ The Patrick Centre 21.09.18

Words by Charlotte Heap / Pics by Brian Slater – courtesy of Rosie Kay Dance Company

It is eighteen months since I reviewed the world premiere of Rosie Kay’s MK ULTRA: we were ‘steeped in alternative facts’ then – and now? Some might say we are stewing in a surreal, post-fact society.

Kay, as artistic director, has spent time reshaping the narrative of this psychedelic trip: stripping out surplus conspiracies and focusing on her favourite: the seemingly far-fetched notion that the CIA’s brainwashing programme, for which the show is named, did not stop in the 1960s but continued covertly to create malfunctioning pop star puppets like Britney Spears and Justin Bieber.

Shining a searchlight on society’s obsession with symbolism, hypersexuality and the Illuminati, the show is starkly staged with a high gloss floor reflecting kaleidoscopic projections and the sinuous synchronicity of the dancers. An unsettling, blinking all-seeing eye watches over the audience as we are spun through the story of a star being conditioned, and battling against, a government programme of mind control. Kay’s combination of daring dance, slick visuals and pulsing beats pull us down the rabbit hole with her.

Rosie Kay Dance Company (RKCD) choreography is challenging for both dancer and audience. Familiar moves, such as Michael Jackson’s iconic crotch grab and the ubiquitous twerking of modern music videos, are distorted and developed. The dancers embody the torturous puppet-making process: from the frenetic and, at times, frantic to the sometimes grotesquely sexual, we are forced to confront the conspiracy head on.

The seven dancers, clad in butterfly colours and conspiracy symbols, achieve stunning synergy at times. The solos, almost MTV moments, are intimate and unsettling insights into a visceral struggle for free will. This is clever choreography: it is as hypnotising as it is uncomfortable to watch. Intercut with images of a fragile Britney Spears, it feels voyeuristic to the viewer. Here is the rise and demise of the pop star: like a car crash, it is impossible to look away.

The reworking of the original show has focused the narrative on an individual. Kay felt that as a society, we are now au fait with even far-fetched conspiracy theories, and this enabled her to explore more deeply the supposed collaboration between Walt Disney and the CIA. Symbols are sewn in to the fabric of the show (and costumes): subtlety is not the approach but it needn’t be. The show is stunning to watch but the conspiracy (to me, a cynic) is laughable. The original show cleverly intercut snippets of young Brummies discussing the Illuminati which acted as startling reminder of the prevalence, and passivity, of believers. This show is slicker, with a more defined story: split into the traditional acts of a play, with a documentary-style narrator, it seems to have lost some of its direct challenge to the audience.

MK ULTRA is the final, political episode in an RKCD trilogy – previous installments 5 Soldiers and There is Hope (covering war and religion respectively) demonstrate Kay’s commitment to creating dance that covers unusual but important ground. Societal shifts in the last 18 months (President Trump now makes an unwelcome appearance in the show’s visuals) provide a more sinister backdrop for the story. As a standalone show, it is impactful and impressive – a dark twisted fantasy.

Having seen the original iteration, however, I’m left lamenting the removal of some of the societal context which challenged the viewer to consider their own role in a post-truth world. The individual narrative gives the viewer the opportunity to distance themselves from the cautionary tale: we may be brainwashed, but we’ll never be pop stars. So why does it matter?

MK ULTRA (official trailer) – Rosie Kay Dance Company

Rosie Kay Dance Company are currently touring MK ULTRA across the UK, until their finale show at the LEAP Festival in Liverpool on 10^th November. For full tour details, visit www.mkultra.dance/tour-info

For more on MK Ultra, visit www.mkultra.dance

For more on Rosie Kay Dance Company, visit www.rosiekay.co.uk

For more from The Patrick Centre and the wider Hippodrome programme, visit www.birminghamhippodrome.com

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NOT NORMAL – NOT OK is a campaign to encourage safety and respect within live music venues, and to combat the culture of sexual assault and aggression – from dance floor to dressing room.

To sign up to NOT NORMAL – NOT OK, click here. To know more about the NOT NORMAL – NOT OK sticker campaign, click here.

September 26, 2018September 26, 2018

INTERVIEW: Liquid Cheeks

Words & by pic by Emily Doyle / Pics by Danny Holden

*Liquid Cheeks support The Taboo Club at The Victoria (John Bright St) on Saturday 29^th September – alongside Lilac Noise, as part of Birmingham Review’s live music showcase. For more direct info visit the Facebook event page here, or for online ticket sales click here*

Inside The Night Owl, the monthly art and music showcase Kaleidoscope is in full swing. Outside in the smoking area, Ben Ollis Gibbs and Greg Clarke of Liquid Cheeks are perched on one of the picnic tables. They’re big fans of the night – it’s where they chose to debut their latest single, ‘Serendipity’.

“I think the concept of art upstairs, music downstairs… it’s wicked,” says Ben. “I mean obviously, I sell my art as well.”

“It shows that Birmingham, it’s so much more than just the whole B-town thing,” he muses. “We’re not in the state of being hungover from a corporate explosion anymore, there’s far more to it and these people have always been around. I mean, coming from Redditch we haven’t always known that crowd, so getting to really see what’s going on is excellent.”

“There’s a lot of great bands as well,” Greg interjects, “so it’s just nice that they’re all together and everyone gets to know each other.”

Ben and Greg are no strangers to the Midland’s live music scene. Most would recognise them from the now defunct Byron Hare, who were championed by BBC Introducing and played Birmingham Town Hall in their final months. They’ve brought the Byron Hare song ‘Serendipity’ with them into Liquid Cheeks. I ask the boys else how they’re carrying on the narrative.

“It takes it back to the start really,” Ben explains. “It was me, Greg and Jodie, and we’d go to the pub over the road to Greg’s Dad’s house, then we’d go back to Greg’s Dad’s house after he’d gone to work, and we’d just write music. That’s kind of what Byron Hare always was, until we realised that Jodie’s voice was far more than that in terms of a presence. That’s why we became a rock band. So it’s nice to go back to just writing and kind of not having any inhibitions about it.”

This ethos is evident in Liquid Cheek’s first release, ‘He’s A Flower’; three minutes of softly spoken indie rock, it rails against toxic masculinity. BBC WM Introducing gave it a spin, describing the band as ‘very pink’.

“With a lot of our imagery we want to be kind of touchy feely, and a little bit provocative in that sense,” tells Ben. “We’re men, we’re heterosexual men – but it’s fine to be a bit effeminate. Especially coming from a town like Redditch, all of my life I’ve had to deal with people throwing shit at me like, ‘So what are you, gay?’ and it’s like firstly, that’s not an insult, and secondly…no? So we wanna push that a little bit. What is it to be a man? Is there a place for this kind of alpha anymore?”

Greg nods along. Liquid Cheeks will be making their live debut alongside The Taboo Club and Lilac Noise at The Victoria (John Bright St) on Saturday 29^th September . I ask them how preparations are going.

“It’s all been very slapdash ’cause we were offered the gig before we even thought we could do a gig,” admits Greg. “Like, way before we thought we could do a gig.”

“It was the last Kaleidoscope!” Ben remembers suddenly. “We were here when we were offered the gig, and we went to The Crown and we had a drink and we said ‘I don’t think we can do it. It’s a shame because we really want to but I don’t think we’re gonna be able to,’ and then we finished the drink and then by the end we were on the phone to Ed at Birmingham Review and we were saying ‘yeah yeah no we’re happy to do it. Yeah, we’ll play it,’ and then we hung up and we were like ‘ah fuck…shall we book a practice next week?’”

“It’s good though,” adds Greg, “because when you’ve got stuff like that it forces you to fucking get on with it because as a writer or whatever you can just dwindle on things and be like, ‘Ah it’s not good enough yet,’ but when it has to be ready it fucking is.”

“Yeah definitely it’s good to have the boost up your bottom,” Ben agrees. It seems Liquid Cheeks like to work under pressure, as he goes on to tell of the band’s origin.

“In all honesty, we were at The Dark Horse, and we’d had a miscommunication, me and Greg. And Greg was telling people we were releasing music on Monday and I was like ‘…are we?’ This was on like a fucking Friday. And we didn’t have a band name, we didn’t have anything.”

“It was going to be Wet Face Society, wasn’t it?” Greg interjects.

“Wet Face Society after David Bowie in ‘Five Years’, he ‘cried so much his was wet,’” quotes Ben, “I liked that that painted such a graphic picture, but it also kind of touches on our generation just being sad about life because of how fucked we are. That’s something I can definitely relate to. So we wanted to go along that kind of graphic sort of line, but yeah Liquid Cheeks just ended up being what it was.”

Greg grins to himself, goes to speak, then hesitates. “Because… no, I shouldn’t… it sounds like diarrhea do you not think?” I’m glad someone said it. Moving swiftly on, I ask the pair what their audience can expect from their set at The Victoria on Saturday 29th September.

“Karaoke!” laughs Ben. Greg concurs. “It is glorified karaoke – for now anyway. It’s gonna become an actual band, but now it’s just glorified karaoke.”

“We want to put a show on,” says Ben. “We wanna really make it quite personal, quite one-to-one. It’s just going to be just us on the stage, so there’s not that backbone of support of musicians. It’s just me, Greg, and a room of people.”

‘Serendipity’ – Liquid Cheeks

Liquid Cheeks will be supporting The Taboo Club at The Victoria on Saturday 29th September, as part of Birmingham Review’s live music showcase. Joining them on the bill will also be Stoke’s melodic electro four piece, Lilac Noise – playing their debut Birmingham gig.

For more direct event info visit the Facebook event page here, or for online ticket sales click here.

For more on Liquid Cheeks, visit www.facebook.com/liquidcheeks

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NOT NORMAL – NOT OK is a campaign to encourage safety and respect within live music venues, and to combat the culture of sexual assault and aggression – from dance floor to dressing room.

To sign up to NOT NORMAL – NOT OK, click here. To know more about the NOT NORMAL – NOT OK sticker campaign, click here.

September 11, 2018

BREVIEW: The August Showcase with Lice, The Lizards, The Hungry Ghosts, Whitelight @ Hare & Hounds 12.08.18

Words by Ed King / Pics by Paul Reynolds

Urrgghh… a gig on a Sunday, who has the energy/serotonin left?

Apparently quite a few people, as I saunter (stumble) into the Hare & Hounds Room 2 alongside a very respectable crowd. Numberswise that is, they could all be slow boiling lost children at home for all I know. Or care. My Sunday roll call of compassion is often woefully one-sided. But a strong tail end of the weekend audience have turned out to support RDE and Setting Son’s August showcase – with local lads (and it is a bit of a sausage fest tonight) Whitelight, The Lizards, and The Hungry Ghosts all supporting Joe Talbot’s label champions, Lice.

Whitelight, a band I’ve not heard of before tonight but who I’m reliably told have come from the aftermath of Shaake, take up the first space on the bill – a stripped back twosome, guitar and drums, delivering a big room sound that far surpasses their square inches on stage.

Jokingly I said words to that effect would be my review, but adding ‘fuck me they rock’ probably sums it up quite nicely. There may be a few disjointed moments tonight, in set relying too heavily on the ‘break… and kick in’ rock power play, but the musicianship from this arena filling sound is a more than a little impressive. I could even use the word ‘Hendrix’ and not feel like too much of a fraud. But keep an eye on those listings and make your own addled mind up about them. Whitelight; you have been warned.

Next up are The Hungry Ghosts, a band I love to the core but feel compelled to judge with an extra stern eye. And ear. And gut. And all those things I need to be truthful. But having a replacement bass player on stage tonight – with Miles Cocker filling in for Emily Doyle over a few of the summer months – the most immediate of my knee jerk commentaries is ‘an overwhelming newness’ to their performance tonight.

It’s exciting, it’s rock and roll, but it’s also a little… The stage, for a start, feels too small, with the proficient wall of blues rock tumbling over the first song and smothering ‘Death Rattle Blues’ – the sophomore on the set list tonight. I’ve seen The Hungry Ghosts crammed into much tighter corners, but something is uncomfortably full tonight. And yet there is a… about it all. And as I wrestle with the ellipses that will no doubt be haunting my copy later on, I write ‘too much of something’, ‘this band just keep getting better’, before adding ‘I don’t know’ to my drunk spider scrawl.

‘Lazaro’ follows, with Joe (INSERT SURNAME HERE)’s vocals feeling well rounded for a weekend finale, before a bit of a swing/miss from new song ‘Jesus Fever’ and a somewhat lacking rendition of the tried and tested ‘Super King King’ – one of my longstanding favourites from this band’s slaughterhouse repertoire. But when you’re close to perfection it’s hard to stay consistent, and exciting ebbs and discouraging flows continue from ‘the ghosts’ set tonight – yet I am, once again, left both curious and eager. For all its ferocity and fallacy, it feels like something is brewing in The Hungry Ghosts’ set list tonight, with this Sunday showcase perhaps just first public introduction to an exciting evolution. But never fear; we’ll see/hear from The Hungry Ghosts soon enough, and ‘Shake the Devil’ will no doubt be in there somewhere near the start.

It is now that I must issue an honest, albeit rather unsatisfactory, apology, as I miss The Lizards’ set due to cider and an earth shatteringly endearing band I fell afoul of at the downstairs bar. But I shall leave you with two pearls of wisdom: 1) Orchard Pig cider is not as benign as it sounds, and 2) Liquid Cheeks. And I’ll bet my pension (currently about £32 and a first edition Roald Dahl) that in 18 months time you’ll not need an explanation for the latter.

Time… enough. Attack ships on fire introduce the headline act for tonight, the Bristolian barrage of fun that are Lice. Well documented for bad time keeping and guttural prose, both attributes close to my heart, it is the band’s frontman that I’m most keen to see in full swing. But an army of low thumped drums, distorted feedback, and restrained punk pretensions (if such a thing can exist in the realms beyond oxymoron) are soon taking my eyes across the rough edged four piece. Frontman, Alistair Shuttleworth, who has set the stage for such anarchic atrocities as Fat White Family, owns the Sunday night dwindling crowd from the off – delivering his trademark prose in a way that makes me sit up straight yet miss every word. A linguistic trick I almost love and hate him for in the same short, sharp intake of breath.

But they are commanding, even to a room that seems half empty from the last time I stood in it (The Lizards, cider, downstairs bar, shit journalist…) and I am quickly moving my shoulders in that way a middle aged man does when he wants to let go. Lice last played in Birmingham “on this stage, almost exactly a year ago” as part of the Killer Wave all day August band Holiday event in 2017, and it’s good to see them headline after such a well earned 12 months.

Oddly, even incongruously (if I were a devotee of Paul Dacre) polite, each song gets a stomach propelled “thank you” as Lice blast though their short songs and punchy set – delivering a well meant audio assault that makes me want to invite them, and their backline, to my next birthday party. Superb, SUPERB FUCKING PERCUSSION. But jumping from the tirade of an angry child to the wisdom of someone with something to say, Lice live up to their hype – as the Joe Talbot endorsed ‘fuck you we don’t care’ send out a set that shows this band mean business. And, even somewhat perversely, I believe them. If my mum were here she would probably file for adoption.

Sunday gigs are hard to promote, Lord knows I know – having spent over a year of my life doing it week in week out. But Setting Son and RDE have delivered this end of the weekend ensemble with fine fettle, setting a backbone of local luminaries against a visiting headline act who well deserve the attention. And, wonderfully, there was a good crowd to receive it. Even if the previous 48 hours have left the room’s frontal cortex a little bereft… well, mine at least.

Ha, and now to write a review about it (my ‘get it down as soon as you get home’ policy). But beyond ‘research Whitelight’, ‘The Hungry Ghosts’ new stuff’, ‘buy The Lizards a drink’ and ‘see Lice play on their home turf’, the South Park back catalogue is about all I have left. I bet Burroughs never had this problem. Possibly a bad comparison. Now, where’s that corkscrew and laptop power cable gone…

Lice @ Hare & Hounds 12.08.18 / Paul Reynolds

For more on Lice, visit www.facebook.com/licebristol

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The Lizards – supporting Lice @ Hare & Hounds 12.08.18 / Paul Reynolds

For more on The Lizards, visit www.soundcloud.com/allyourfriendsarelizards

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The Hungry Ghosts – supporting Lice @ Hare & Hounds 12.08.18 / Paul Reynolds

For more on The Hungry Ghosts, visit www.thehungryghosts.co.uk

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Whitelight – supporting Lice @ Hare & Hounds 12.08.18 / Paul Reynolds

For more on Whitelight, visit www.officialwhitelight.com

For more from Setting Son, including further event listings and online ticket sales, visit www.facebook.com/settingsonrecords

For more on the Hare & Hounds, including venue details and further event listings, visit www.hareandhoundskingsheath.co.uk

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NOT NORMAL – NOT OK is a campaign to encourage safety and respect within live music venues, and to combat the culture of sexual assault and aggression – from dance floor to dressing room.

To sign up to NOT NORMAL – NOT OK, click here. To know more about the NOT NORMAL – NOT OK sticker campaign, click here.

September 10, 2018September 10, 2018

BREVIEW: Boulet Brothers’ Dragula @ The Nightingale Club 07.09.18

Words & illustrations by Emily Doyle

The freaks and geeks of Birmingham’s drag scene have arrived at The Nightingale Club in their droves to welcome the Boulet Brothers on their first UK Tour. Dragula has finally made it to the UK, and it’s about time.

For the uninitiated, Dragula is to Ru Paul’s Drag Race what I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out of Here is to Pop Idol. The show started life as a live talent show on the LA and San Francisco nightlife scene, before becoming a straight-to-YouTube TV show with a cult audience. It’s since been picked up by Canadian cable channel OutTV, and with its third season in the works it shows no signs of slowing down.

The Boulet Brothers emerge to the strains of the show’s growling theme music. They are bathed in red light. Making no assumptions about their audience’s familiarity with the show, the brothers Dracmorda and Swanthula brief the crowd on Dragula’s aim to, “locate, articulate and elevate alternative forms of drag.” They make no bones about their stance on inclusivity, throwing only a little bit of shade at the Drag Race model when they declare that it, “doesn’t matter what’s between your legs” in drag.

Once the formalities are out the way, the Boulet Brothers introduce the first act of the evening: “Birmingham, put those filthy hands together, and welcome to the stage, Vander Von Odd!”

Resplendent in a Batwing cape and winged eyeliner sharp enough to cut a man, Vander Von Odd sets the tone for the evening. Crowned the ‘World’s First Drag Supermonster’ at the conclusion of Dragula’s first season, Odd has a lot to answer for. Her first performance is an impassioned lip sync routine to some euphoric electropop from Sweden’s iamamiwhoami. It’s triumphant, and culminates in an in-your-face nude illusion reveal. When Odd returns to the stage later in the evening, however, she’s upped her game – stumbling out into the spotlight, an umbilical cord of red silk tied around her waist, and disappearing behind the curtains. She wears a white latex ballerina outfit and picks her way across the stage en pointe to the strains of ‘Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow’. It’s fragile, arresting, and heartbreaking.

Not all of Dragula’s performers are pitching quite such high brow acts. Season 2 runner up, James Majesty, treats us to two salacious performances, spraying the crowd with beer and slapping the faces of the front row. A provocative routine to glam rockers Semi Precious Weapons sees Majesty fully nude by the end of the song – there’s no illusion here. Alongside her drag, Majesty has been both a sex worker and educator; her shameless attitude is contagious.

Season 1’s Meatball injects a little more humour into the evening with her performances. Strutting on stage with an old McDonald’s advert playing on the screen behind her, she adjusts her yellow bodysuit and produces a paper bag. Her wig is bright red, yellow highlights at the front mirroring the golden arches on the screen behind her. Her lipsync drips with attitude, cutting between Ke$ha’s ‘Woman’ and a monologue ripped straight from YouTube about a woman being denied an extra McRib at a drive-thru (if you’re as clueless as I was, search for ‘tell ‘em Carla sent you’ and all will be revealed). By the end she is tossing room temperature hamburgers (mercifully still wrapped) from the paper bag into the audience. The gentleman behind me catches one and eats it with vigour.

The Boulet Brothers take some time out of the show to record a message from the crowd to Season 2’s Victoria Black, who’s had to pull out of the tour due to illness. In their words, however, her loss is our gain. Atlanta performer, Abhora, is here to take her place and presents what might be the most disarming performances of the night.

The word “Abhora” has barely left our host’s lips before the lights dim, and the crashing guitar of Marilyn Manson’s ‘Astonishing Panorama of the End Times’ fades in over the PA system. At the far end of the venue Abhora emerges, wading through the crowd on stilts. She’s draped in bin bags, looking like Disney’s Maleficent if Debbie Harry did her wardrobe. Perched atop her backcombed grey wig are a pair of Mickey Mouse ears. She throws herself against the room’s lit-up pillars, trusting audience members to get out of the way in time. As John 5’s revolting speed metal guitar solo kicks in, Abhora holds aloft a plush Donald Duck, strung up to a wooden crucifix like a marionette. She whirls it around as the crowd ducks to avoid being hit, before collapsing in a daring stage dive.

Perhaps the most hotly awaited performer of the evening is the winner of Dragula Season 2, Biqtch Puddin‘. She has a reputation for pushing the boundaries of weird, even in drag circles. Her first performance of the evening is centred around the unsolved homicide of child beauty queen JonBenét Ramsey, a theme clearly chosen for its tastelessness. However, it would probably be more provocative to an American audience – or at least one who weren’t mostly children themselves in 1996 when it played out in the US media.

Puddin’s second performance, however, is bang on the money. Dressed in a grubby boiler suit, her hair and makeup feel like a nod to Tim Curry’s Dr Frank-n-Furter. Her lipsync, an old school mix of Whitney Houston, Tiffany, and Berlin, tells the tale of a janitor’s forbidden love for her anthropomorphised cleaning supplies. It’s as surreal as it sounds, and comes to a head with Puddin’ smeared with an ominous brown fluid as she applies a plunger to her face. It’s stomach turning, and it’s exactly what the Dragula fans are here for.

Towards the end of the evening, Dracmorda and Swanthula take some time out of the proceedings for a quick Q&A with the crowd. They refuse to comment on the forthcoming third season, but are otherwise happy to talk about anything from the show’s origins to break-up advice. (“Be polite about it, OK, because you could make a good friend out of that person. Look at what you agree with them on, just make the best of it… otherwise, if they really are awful you could just run ‘em down with your car, that’s another option.”) Fans are clearly heartened to have the chance to put their questions straight to the Boulet Brothers; in a community where the only real mainstream representation of drag queens are Ru Paul’s VH1 vetted glamazons, Dragula represents a punk spirit at the heart of the art form. It’s a breath of fresh air, and a call to arms for would be performers. The brothers have time for one more question:

“Aside from filth, horror and glamour, what’s at the heart of a true monster?” muses Swanthula, before her brother interrupts – “Tenacity, tenacity, tenacity!” Dracmorda cries. “If you’re going to become the ‘World’s Drag Supermonster’, it is going to be difficult! It is not Ru Paul’s Drag Race-to-stardom! It is gonna kick your ass, you’re gonna have to perform in crazy places, but you know what? The fans are gonna be passionate, they’re gonna love you, and you’re gonna do fucking amazing.”

It’s on that note that the Boulet Brothers clear the stage for the night’s closing performance, and prepare for a meet and greet. There are smiles all round and the room is abuzz with speculation for the show’s next season. The brothers hint that some UK talent might make an appearance, but refuse to give any more away – it seems British fans will have to wait for it to air to see if they can spot any familiar faces…

For more on Boulet Brothers’ Dragula, visit www.bouletbrothersdragula.com

For more from Eat Sleep Drag Repeat, including further event listings and online ticket sales, visit www.esdrevents.co.uk

For more on The Nightingale Club, including venue details and further event listings, visit www.nightingaleclub.co.uk

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NOT NORMAL – NOT OK is a campaign to encourage safety and respect within live music venues, and to combat the culture of sexual assault and aggression – from dance floor to dressing room.

To sign up to NOT NORMAL – NOT OK, click here. To know more about the NOT NORMAL – NOT OK sticker campaign, click here.