Go-Going to Extremes
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It was double the fun on Sunday night. A holiday weekend two-fer had me at the DNA Lounge for the Bootie Pirate Prom - where the usual mash-up goodness was seasoned with a high-seas theme and numerous patrons in full-on buccaneer or wench costumes. Then, I ambled a few blocks away to the Cat Club for a summit that brought together the weekly ‘80s dance music party Club Gossip and the insanely funny, über-hip drag show Trannyshack – with special guests Jane Wiedlin and Gina Schock of the Go-Go’s.Hitting the DNA, I swilled a goblet of grog, caught a good dose of musical piracy from the Bootie house band Smash-Up Derby and the event’s resident DJs, and cheered the crowning of the Pirate Prom King and Queen. Fun? You betcha, but I could not shake the allure of seeing the real Jane and Gina judge a Go-Go’s lookalike lip-syncing contest.For the uninitiated, Trannyshack usually goes down on Tuesday nights at the Stud bar in the same south of Market area where you’ll find the DNA and the Cat Club, and features a rotating group of performers who pay tribute to different musical genres, artists, holidays, and so forth each week. I still marvel at the legendary Pat Benatar Night, especially the “Hell Is for Children” routine performed by a braided-and-infuriated “schoolgirl” brandishing a plastic hand grenade. But I digress.The Cat Club has a front room with a bar, a DJ booth and a small dance floor - and a larger back bar with a more spacious dance floor and a small stage. To accommodate the Trannyshack gang, statuesque m.c. Heklina took over the back room. After the standard musical intro (“The Muppet Show” theme – Ha!), (s)he introduced a randy, trash-talking Jane in top hat and quasi-tux and the amiable, more casually garbed-and-androgynous Gina to pass judgment on the parade of wannabe rock “queens.”As Jane and Gina belted back the drinks and looked on, the jammed-up-and-jelly-tight crowd was treated to (or terrified by) interpretations of Go-Go’s favorites - from “This Town” (done after a grotesque trio mouthed dialogue from the soundtrack of John Waters’ film “Desperate Living”) to “Bikini Beach” as performed by a not-so-Little Orphan Annie clone while her pet dog Sandy did unspeakable things to her leg. “We’ve Got the Beat,” “Cool Jerk,” and my own numero uno “Head Over Heels” were all lovingly desecrated. A few contestants even mimicked what Jane referred to as the Belinda Dance – the incessant, ever-so-goofy, arm-waving on-stage dance moves of Go-Go’s lead singer Belinda Carlisle.The first-place winners were three bathing “beauties” (beauty is, after all, in the eye of the beholder) who amazingly and amusingly reproduced the water-skiing sequence from the video for the jaunty, summery pop hit “Vacation.”Sarcasm was rampant – from Heklina, the contestants, and, of course, Jane and Gina. It was all wildly entertaining, but it made my subsequent return to a sweaty DNA full of drunken pirates seem rather tame.In the spirit of the antics at the Cat Club, here’s a peek at a gender-bent romp by the Go-Go’s themselves - the 1984 video for “Turn to You,” including a cameo appearance by a young Rob Lowe:
Comments (17)
In fact, here's a photo of Belinda I took in 1978.
probably she wants to forget that look....
Jane, on the other hand, and Gina as well, have always been consistent.