Lina LecaroSaturday at the Echoplex offered an explosive evening of pocket rockets, piccolo peters, hot snakes, and (eye) poppers … and there wasn't a firework to be seen. Yes, we're talking about another kind of banger all together, friends. It was Trannyshack LA after all, the cross-dresser messaround from San Francisco known for its raunchy and elaborate stage shows. Saturday included Teletubbies on ecstacy, a bit on border relations complete with chain link fence frickiness, the decapitation of Sarah Palin and at least three fake(?) phalluses.
Rhea Litre is an Americano Girl.; Credit: Lina Lecaro
Not for the faint of heart, skits at The Shack (brought to LA by promoter Cody Bayne and Frisco femme Heklina) always transcends the lip-synching fe-male formula, either with elaborate choreography and costume, wild props, or saucy subtext, usually all three. Sunday, Rhea Litre offered the former: a red, white and blue dance extravaganza performed to Lady Gaga's “Americano” (a song which we still think sounds like Liza Minelli at a Quincenera), while a white trashed-up Fade-Dra Phey went a wackier route, re-interpreting Katy Perry's “Alien” as an interacial love story (she seduced a Mexican hotdog cart guy). The skit was a weiner, all right.
Fade-dra pushes love over the borderline.; Credit: Lina Lecaro
Speaking of intrepretation, Willam Belli showed off her vocal chops (and other, um, oral skill) on a voracious mash-up of “The Honey Badger” viral video hit (this one, not this one) and an Adele song. This one had a buff boy playing the snake. No venom, just honey, honey.
Tubby rub.; Credit: Lina Lecaro
The drag portion of show ended–how else?– climactically, with SF's Lady Bear picking a young tattoo'd fellow out of the crowd and giving him a lapdance of sorts that ended with one of the aforementioned faux appendages spewing liquid (probably milk) on the flabbergasted (saying something for this crowd) audience.
After some serious stage clean up, NYC's Cazwell took the stage to perform some material old and new, including the new single, “Get My Money Back” and viral hit “I Seen Beyonce at Burger King,” with special guest Johnny Makeup. (Ahh, so that's why Mark the Cobrasnake was there in drag). We got to chat with Caz after his set, and though he “likes to party a lot” and was still coming down from the performance, we found him charming and quite smart. He may claim his raps “ain't that deep,” but in fact, they kinda are. “Beyonce” can be looked upon as a statement on tabloid culture's incursion into our daily lives and how it fits into our Fast Food Nation (maybe?). The single he told us, is about nightlife in New York and how the economy has changed it, or hurt it, actually.
Johnny Makeup and Cazwell serve Burger King.; Credit: Lina Lecaro
You can learn more about Cazwell on Moheak.com when our radio comrade Paul V interviews the artist tonight at 7 p.m. (Cazzy will be deejaying at Mr. Black at Bardot tonight following the appearance). Speaking of V, his Bootie LA party Saturday night packed the Plex as well, and even RuPaul sashayed — rather squeezed — in.
Yup, Echo Park definitely showed its spark(s) this past weekend. Part Time Punks' David Bowie night upstairs at the Echo (also Sunday) had hundreds of “Young Americans” partying all night too. Pics from both E.P. bashes in our slideshow here.
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