Wearing a men's dress shirt, a pair of tight black leather
trousers and sporting a Buddy Holly quiff and glasses, Lea DeLaria
opened the show with a deadpan version of "I enjoy being a girl".
The song has lyrics about frocks, pretty hair accessories and long
eyelashes. These are all things I'd bet she'd appreciate on her
lovers but the likelihood of seeing them on Lea is about as likely
as me voting for the BNP.
Once I'd wiped the wee from under my seat, I composed myself and
turned my attention to the virtuoso supporting tuneage courtesy of
pianist Janette Mason and double bass player Simon Little. Mason is
Lea's partner as well has her musical director and I'm sure they
make sweet music together off as well as on stage. But enough smut.
Lea is perfectly capable of filling the auditoria she plays in with
her own. In fact she swore about five times and then sang us a song
about her wet pussy (oh alright, it's about a cat who fell into a
well - see the video below for her 2010 Pizza Express
rendition).
This was all much to the delight of her mature Hampstead and
Highgate fans who probably had the good fortune (and taste) to see
her play at the Lauderdale the last time she played there which,
she seemed to recall was sometime round the 60s. An evening with
Lea is like a double helping of deluxe cheesy nachos - serving us
up enough jokes and aural jazz nourishment to fill an entire
evening. Indeed, we were treated to just over two hours of prime
Lea cuts, which included a brilliant re-working of Ella
Fitzgerald's "Night and Day", a boogaloo version of Chicago's "All
that Jazz", an inspired improvisation (by Mason and Little) of The
Eurythmics' "Sweet Dreams" and an unforgettable rendition of Sweeny
Todd's "The Demon Barber of Fleet Street." Topping it off with a
"This is your life" story of how she got to where she is today, she
reminded us that she has swung and smoked eye-wateringly potent
weed with the finest (Joan Jett) and perfomed at the best venues
(Carnegie Hall), she left us all a little bit in awe and deeply
happy.
Click these links for more information about Lea DeLaria and Janette Mason
