"People don't look past the skin," said transsexual pioneer Lou Sullivan. I may be paraphrasing, but the sentiment resonated with me over and over as I attended three out of the four Fresh Meat Festival performances at Project Artaud in San Francisco this past weekend.
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Chatting with one of the board members at intermission on night 3, the affable Stacey, I was asked why I had been to three of the shows. I told him that I am a huge Deadlee fan and he rarely rarely plays in these parts and I was taking advantage of the opportunity to immerse myself in his live show. I had never seen him in person before and had heard he was great. Plus I had a list of questions in my wallet that I planned to ask him if he consented to be interviewed for this blog. But more on that later...
So Fresh Meat Festival is a yearly event, akin to an old school variety show, of the cream of the crop of queer and transgender perfomance. I really had no expectations beyond seeing Deadlee, and to my surprise and delight, my mind was blown by each of the ten acts showcased here. The Taiko Ren drummers opened the show on a fierce intense note, combining rhythm and athleticism and merging the two with pure joy. Zoe Balfour and Citabria Phillips seemed to lift off the floor in their frenetic ballroom dance stanza; the Barbary Coast Cloggers were exhilarating and exciting, even bringing Gwen Stefani and Pharrell into clogging bliss territory; Mind Over Matter Dance Company, which closed the show, had us cheering, laughing and seat-dancing throughout their too-brief set.
ryka aoki de la cruz was enchanting in her "Alternator Domme" piece, which began with a broken alternator on a drive up Highway 5, transitioned through searching for an auto mechanic, getting the money by doing a dungeon domme gig involving a feisty chihuaha, and ended with some sweet revelation, musical and otherwise. StormMiguel Flores sang two evocative and musically sophisticated songs he wrote that had me spellbound. Shawna Virago also sang two numbers.
The Sean Dorsey Dancers (Dorsey, Juan de la Rosa, Brian Fisher, Nol Simonse) did an excerpt from her suite, Lou, that transported me to a whole other place, putting the entire evening into a spiritual context for me. Yep, I said spiritual.
D'Lo, a Tamil Sri L.A.nkan-American, was almost my favorite of the evening, proving herself an astute social commentator and a consummate actor, emerging as her loving and conservative mother in full Sri Lankan dress, and morphing into her b-boi persona, dispensing mordant ruminations on the importance of friendship and connectedness in a world that is often hostile.
Of course, if you read this blog, you know my feet were barely touching the ground waiting to see Deadlee perform live. He began with an angry spoken word piece written during a college tour, and moved into two of my favorite Deadlee 2213 songs, the dance anthem, "Nasty" and the riveting and erotic "Carnival in My Mind." Deadlee was straight up ferocious! He not only exceeded my expectations and hopes, he proved himself a superb performer, able to bring the goods in any venue, gay or other, and left me hella hungry for more. Now I can't wait to see him mount a full show. Hell, I'd travel to see that one!
And the interview questions in my wallet I planned to ask him for this blog? After the first show, we met and clicked hard, talking for an hour, and hanging out post-show the next couple of nights. I did ask him plenty of questions, but it wasn't really interview mode. It was more like two gay men talking candidly about their lives and experiences, and getting to know a new friend. Man to man, artist to artist. Pulling stuff from the time we spent laughing and chopping it up doesn't feel appropriate. The interview will have to wait until another time. The questions are still in my wallet, though!
At intermission one night, I was chatting with the ASL person, Jenny, and enthusing about how much we dug Deadlee and wondering how she was going to sign some of his more explicit lyrics. It struck me then and there just how grateful I was to have followed Deadlee to this gig to encounter a whole world of thought, art and performance with transformative powers. Fresh Meat, I will be back!
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