Better than: Most everything
Matty's on the Drive, a Wilton Manors staple, celebrated its fourth anniversary with chatter about acceptance, drag queens hanging around in street clothes, gays in baseball caps, and genuinely excited Lady Miss Kier superfans. The former Deee-Lite frontwoman brought a butt-ton of attitude, following up Saturday's DJ set with a live performance of Deee-Lite favorites and her own songs on a very tropical stormy Sunday night.
The show was moved inside thanks to the whipping winds of Isaac. Lady Kier was crowded, with her band, into the corner of the bar. Halfway through her set, it became completely clear that the nineties were about a million more times fun than the aughts. Much of that obnoxious nostalgia bred on the web is actually warranted.
Video filmed by artist Dylan Romer on his app Time Piles. Sound follows the same trippy chronology that the visuals do. Pick it up here.
Matty's is a video bar, so, before her performance, we caught up on the newest J.Lo, Chris Brown, Nicki Minaj, and Rihanna looks and songs. A Rihanna video elicited a piercing scream at one point. A song by Nadia Ali played on the TVs, and our companion and videographer for the evening artist Dylan Romer noted, "I don't know, but she reminds me of PJ Harvey a little bit." Oddly enough, it made sense.
A group of heavy duty Kier admirers arrived at 3:30 in the afternoon. It was at least four hours later that the Lady hit the stage. Matty stood before us and told us of the songstress' upcoming world tour, kicking off in Vegas in December. It took her a while to make her way to the stage through the fans' pawing. "Anticipation is such a long word," he said.
She was helped onto the stage, to screams of, "De gorgeous!" Kier has, as my friend said, "boobs and a a butt" highlighted by a magenta sequined bandeau under a silver body suit dripping with beads. Her crown resembled that of the Statue of Liberty. It was all you could hope Lady Kier would be wearing and more. She was even barefoot. Incredibly fab. Then she got funky.
She brought up twice, that we were going back 22 years with World Clique. Twenty-fucking-two years. Kier was backed by a bassist, a sax and keys man who performs with the P-Funk, a DJ, and two beautiful singers who came in with giant Afro wigs and church choir attire. Once their robes came off, it was like two glowing Dr. Seuss characters were jiving in our presence.
They kicked off with "ESP" and no one needed time to warm up. World Clique has some of the best dance songs ever, ever, ever on it, and this is one of them. Then, things got political. Kier pretended to receive a phone call from former Governor Charlie Crist. She acted like she was talking to the former Republican about his ex-wife, inquiring then about his ex-boyfriend. That's right. Outing Charlie Crist in Wilton Manors. Shit got real. Then she asked "Charlie Crist" on the "phone" for some gay rights. The room cheered, and somewhere in the universe, Charlie Crist blushed.
The diva started having trouble hearing the track during "Good Beat" and sang, "I just wanna hear my track" instead of, well, "I just wanna hear a good beat." This ended up being a repeated disruption throughout the set.
Two boas got passed around the front of the room. Lady Kier related a story to the crowd about moving to New York City at 17, looking for family, and finding it in clubs with, "misfits, outcasts, faggots, dykes, whores," adding, "and I fit right in." Crazed cheers. She said, "Love is thicker than water."
Closing out, Kier said unselfconsciously, "You've heard this song before, especially if you've been to a wedding or bar mitzvah." The band kicked off with a reggae style "Groove Is in the Heart." But eventually, the funky crew brought it back to the version we we're all used to. The crowd swarmed around her for photos, taking pictures even when she was putting on her sneakers. Not a demure group, but fun, definitely all fun.
Critic's Notebook
Personal Bias: World Clique is one of my top favorite albums of all time. Also, Dylan's app is truly a work of art.
Set List
"ESP:
"Call Me"
"Runaway"
"Try Me on... I'm Very You"
"Good Beat"
"I Won't Give Up"
"Power of Love"
"Bittersweet Lovin'"
"Deep-Ending"
"What Is Love?"
"Hurry to Go Easy"
"Groove Is in the Heart"
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