the gay parade

Homo A Go Go didn't levitate, it didn't even get off the ground for me. Standing outside the Capitol Theater, I was amid a closed-off street full of high fashion queers, a sea of turned backs and brushed elbows to get inside, get outside, get by. Joy came from the stage, but not always, as people like Tracy (+ the Plastics) were hellbent on division - seeing her for the second time this year convinces me that her act tires even her and it should cancelled, and when she told a man he was 'taking up too much space with his…man' after he made some dumb audience comment, it was as if the open arms of the whole show quietly folded over in defense. Even the high and positive aggro-punk of Team Dresch seemed anachronistic in those final moments of the week which should have felt like a tired happy ending release instead feeling like thank god! it's over. To me, of course. I am not a dyke or a gay man, not from Olympia, not part of the scene, and so outside of the desired audience, but I felt it and wondered why.
And as always, my questions about dread identity politics rose to the fore. This was not a place for audience generated criticism - such spaces make themselves beyond critique in a way because they are organized not for aesthetics but for politics and networks, which is fine, but difficult when the performers do not share that inclusive community feeling. My friend Kate and I agreed that Olympia seems to exist by the sheer power of its own will, which is burning strong and amazing, but that for an outsider the city does not reveal itself – antithesis of the tourist town, the ugly small town stripmall with something magical underneath (itself the antithesis of the worn out boho loft haven with freak flags, our mid-century vision gone Pottery Barn under our not-so-Day-Glo noses)
My highlight was the SF band Willpower, starring Will from Imperial Teen as the post-toilet George Michael shaking serious vocoder-ass over beats and synths by a spry little guy named Tomo. And backup dancers, one of whom was half Robert Palmer's "Simply Irresistible" and half diner server bitch goddess. Have to go back and listen to Imperial Teen, I think I might have missed something there.