Michelle Mayne: December 2008

Ladyhawk

Ever since I saw Ladyhawk performing at Transmission at the Biltmore last week I haven't been able to stop listening to them. One of the best bands to showcase the festival, they're a refreshing dose of rock in an otherwise rock-and-roll-less music scene. Read Quinn Omori's review of the show over here.

Hooliganship

Peter Burr of Hooliganship at the Cinémathèque Monday night, part of their Cartune Xprez: 2008 AMRCAN Fall Tour. They'll be back in Vancouver at the end of January for a "3-D" performance.

Decades of Deviance

Madame Mae I helped Jen Brooks with her makeup backstage while Diamond Minx took it (almost) all off at Girls on Top's "Decades of Deviance" performance at Celebrities last Thursday night. All net proceeds of the burlesque night went to WISH, WAVAW, and PACE, to help women who have suffered abuse or sexual assault, and survival sex trade workers.

Mission of Burma

Mission of Burma performed the entirety of "Signals, Calls and Marches" at their Vancouver show at the Plaza September 30.
Shot for Discorder; read Alex Smith's review of the night here.

Basketball

A wayward flash turned Basketball and their audience into a pack of zombies during their last Vancouver show at the Victory Square Block party.

NO KIDS

No Kids, no-kidding it up at the Victory Square Block Party; Labour Day.

Malaika Mud

I've been to a handful of beguiling burlesque shows in Vancouver in the past few years, but there was something special about the Fight Club Cabaret that transformed the Wise Hall into a gritty underground parlour of hedonistic voyeurism on this hot August night. The special ingredient: mud. It was an epic evening of burlesque performances and slippery mud-soaked bodies engaged in competition, and/or pleasure. The show was put on to raise funds for Malaika Millions' impending expatriation to Los Angeles. She will be missed from the Vancouver scene, but one can only hope that the mud wrestling will live on in her absence.