Crushing Krisis

Comic Books, Drag Race, & Life in New Zealand

performance

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The most shocking thing to me was that Rabi actually knew my songs from Trios, but i evened up the score because i knew the context of her poems from following her log. After a few requests, the set wound up as: Punk, Because, Unstrung, Colorblind, Under My Skin, Lost, All That’s True, Give, Never Say Goodbye. Trio has an interesting effect on how i make up a setlist when i’m playing for someone who actually listens to it … something i’ve never really had to deal with before. But, anyway, it was good excercise for me, and i think she really liked Never Say Goodbye cause she sorta just stared at my guitar while i played it. I could always ask her, but, erm, yeah. Maybe she’ll blog about it ;)

https://crushingkrisis.com/2001/05/3644067/

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Trying to recognize someone you’ve never met before is just a little tricky, but my guitar and mod-squad jacket were definitely a giveaway. She was a bit more obscure, but somewhere between the bright blue eyes and the bright purple kiddie band-aid on her finger i had it figured out.


I have to say that Rabi was a lot more effervescent than i pictured her (although, how many vegan astrophysicist rugby players do i really know to judge by?), and i can’t even begin to imagine what about me was suprising to her. Swarthmore would definitely turn me into the kind of metaphorical blogger that she’s become known as, because nothing i saw there translated literally the way things do in Philadelphia. We wound up getting right under the sun as if it was just a spotlight and trading poetry for songs (literally: she took home a demo and i took home my favourite of her poems), and finding things we had in common (bitten up fingers, music fetishes, and obviously obscure writing) and some differences (my fingers are just bit by my guitar and i can’t wear band-aids, my music fetish is slighty less rare and much less under control, and how taking the middle step out of word association makes it much more mysterious) . It felt just like talking to anyone, and i’m not sure if that’s because we know too much about each other’s thoughts and things or if it’s because we’re just two too friendly people. Except, this is all about my life and Wockjabby is all about her thoughts on life, so i think we almost swapped my thoughts for her life. Or something.


Three and a half hours later felt like a much longer time, though not long enough. I had more fun playing “Under My Skin” for her than i have for anyone since i recorded it. She read a poem she’d never read out loud before. Maybe i’ll see her again in the fall.

https://crushingkrisis.com/2001/05/3643985/

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Set from the Dyke Benefit: “Punk,” “Other Plans,” “Gravel,” “Under My Skin.” Break. “Relief,” “I Kissed a Girl.” Break. “Bridge.” (As opposed to the planned “Other Plans,” “Relief,” “Material Girl,” “Lost,” “Under My Skin,” “I Kissed a Girl.”)

https://crushingkrisis.com/2001/05/3606142/

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Somehow “I Kissed a Girl” gets slightly more ironic and tongue in cheek when i sing it to a room full of lesbians. First there’s the angle the song is meant from, and then there’s the hilarity of my singing it, and finally there’s the point where you just assume i’m the natural narrator and the song becomes about how i was supposed to marry Larry but instead i kissed a girl for the first time.

I had a good time playing for the Dyke Auction, and i sounded good. I had control over all of my own sound, so instead of flipping out about not getting my microphone to work on “Bridge” i just raised the whole song an octave so i could belt it out at the top of my lungs. Demos were to be had, and i might show my face at other dyke-y events billed as (of course) “Peter, the lesbian boy!”

https://crushingkrisis.com/2001/05/3605938/

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Yesterday i liberated a microphone and a stand from the Performing Arts Department and gave a little concert in my living room in preparation for my big event at the Benefit for the Philadelphia Dyke March tonight. While my setlist is still in flux, the covers i’ll be playing throughout the evening include “Material Girl,” Ani’s “Untouchable Face” & “Heartbreak Even,” Erin McKeown’s “How To Open My Heart In Four Easy Steps,” and (of course) Jill Sobule’s lesbo classic “I Kissed a Girl.” Given some extra time i was going to do “Least Complicated,” “I Touch Myself,” and “Girls Just Want to Have Fun” to round out the set, but even with these songs i’m going to have lyrics taped to the backs of my amps. What fun. But, anyway, it should be interesting because they’re nothing to fuck me up other than myself: i have all my own sound equipment, i’m playing by myself, i packed my equipment already, and i have backup batteries for everything. So, if this one goes as sour as the last one, i quit. But, it shouldn’t…

https://crushingkrisis.com/2001/05/3590958/