Kinda Sexy

The Sky Could Fall
Overheard at the end of last night's show presented by S.Vestas (the fire dancers):

First guy in a trance-like state, "That was kinda sexy. Women and fire."
Second guy in a trance-like state simply responded, "Yeah."

Perhaps they were so subdued by the fire because that's all they could say before wandering off. But then, who hasn't been drawn in by watching fire in motion at some point in their lives? Staring into a bonfire, letting a match burn down until it almost reaches your fingers, using sparklers to write your name in air...fire can be powerful, scary, relaxing, seductive...it all depends on you.

(A note to parents: Fear not, for as Ron said earlier, the show is still definitely suitable for the young ones. For a more in depth review and an "obligatory crappy cell phone shot" see Ron's post below.)

S.Vestas did indeed hold their mayhem parade from Nickel City down Allen Street right into Day's Park before their show. There were probably around a dozen people (many of them in some sort of costume), but it seemed like more - mostly due to all the noise they were making. It was a happy noise though - my favorite was the five gallon bucket used as a drum. I was in front of Nietzsche's when they went by and everyone outside the bar stopped to feast their eyes on this delightful spectacle. If we're lucky, they'll parade again. You have three more chances to catch this enchanting show.

The fire dancers aren't the only women bringing heat to this year's festival...

Flawless Presents: Words and Music
As part of this Flawless Records performance, Annette Daniels Taylor simply steals the show. Last night at Nietzsche's was the second time I saw her perform as part of Words and Music. I've seen her perform solo twice before (both times in connection with Infringement) and every time I've seen her up on stage she has just blown me away. She has a lot of power in her voice, not just in the way she speaks and sings, but also in what she has to say. She does a beautiful spoken word piece in honor of her Grandma Cilla Mae, who has clearly been a huge influence in her life - that piece alone is worth coming out to see the show. Annette has an incredible stage presence and she knows how to work an audience. Before she was done, several people who were up front (waiting to see another band that was not part of Infringement) came to the back to hear her perform.

Of course, Annette doesn't do all this alone. She has a lot of help from DJ Reazon, JHeat, MODES and Aaron Piepzny. Flawless describes their show as a stylistic collaboration between musical beats and poetic lyricism. All of these performers do have a lot of style - the beats and the lyricism go down smooth. Be good to your ears and take in this show while you still can. Their last performance is tonight during Gusto at the Gallery at Albright Knox.

Saucebox
This group originally formed in 2001 as a forum for young women writers. Eventually they split up and went their separate ways, but two of it's founding members have regrouped with some new women artists. And just in time too...seven of these women are using their talents over the course of Infringement to celebrate and give voice to who they are and women everywhere, past and present.

When I saw this show early on in the festival, the line-up included four of the women. Katherine DuVall, a visual artist, brought several of her pieces to the show that were on display all around the room. It is well worth spending some time checking it out after the performance (the work she brings to the show is all for sale). The other three women were all spoken word artists: MC Vendetta, Kisha Patterson-Tanski and Robin Brox, founder of Saucebox and host for the evening.

If you've never heard MC Vendetta perform, you really should. She warmed up the crowd with a couple of her shorter poems before doing a longer piece from her other show Preserving Our American Way of Life (you can catch that show this Saturday and Sunday). She has a lot to say and does so with great passion, intensity and guts. Her words clearly invoked strong feelings in the audience and reached across the generations too - an older couple came in at the beginning of her Preserving piece and were so absolutely impressed by her words, that they immediately bought a cd and couldn't stop raving about her (even though Robin was already up on stage doing her thing).

Perhaps my favorite thing about this show was that each artist had such a different style. Robin and Kisha each performed in a quieter, calmer fashion. That is not to say they were any less passionate about spoken word or their own performances, they just delivered their words in a subtler way. Some of their poems were still pretty intense, but they also brought a lot of humor to this show.

My only regret is that I cannot see all of their performances. All four of these women appeared again last Sunday along with two new performers, Shayna Raichilson-Zadok and Elizabeth Mariani. While I did not see that show, I did hear something about dueling fiddles (?) from someone who did. I don't know about the specifics on that, but you can find out for yourself. The last Saucebox performance is tonight at Rust Belt Books and will include spoken word by six of the women, including a first appearance by Rebecca Stanievich, and on the night before her wedding no less.

Three More Days...
There are plenty of other shows to see too, but only three days of Infringment remain, so whatever you think you might want to see, just get out and see it while you still can.