MAJICAL CLOUDZ

August 16th – Edmonton – Brixx

                  The venue we played is inside a larger building that has a bigger venue on the upper floor called the Starlight Ballroom. On the upper floor they were hosting a loosely Elvis-themed burlesque performance, so after soundcheck we went upstairs to see it. I had never seen a burlesque performance before and I was entertained and impressed. I had a set of assumptions about burlesque that were invalidated by actually seeing it performed. It felt celebratory and rather than feeling voyeuristic, it felt collective. It made me feel happy and connected to people. I know very little about burlesque in general but that was my experience.

                  I have a lot of family in Edmonton. My dad grew up there, and all of the cousins that I have on his side of the family live there. Two of my cousins and their partners had told me they were coming to the show, which was good but stressful for some reason. I had not seen them in close to ten years and I always get freaked out about seeing people at shows that I haven’t seen in a long time.

After the burlesque show finished the upstairs venue turned into a massive, drunken dance party. The kick drums in the dubstep/dance tracks could be heard coming from the ceiling above our stage.

                  The show was also the least-attended show of the tour so far, so the room was slightly empty and awkward. Brixx is essentially a sports bar with a stage in the basement of a venue, so there were multiple TVs playing various things in the corners of the room.

                  This was an instance where I felt like something unusual needed to happen in order for the show to be interesting for everyone and to take control of the atmosphere of the venue (which was not very positive). So before we went out to perform I took off all my clothes except my underwear and my shoes. When we started playing I made sure to communicate to people with my body language that it was not a joke. I just wanted to do something unorthodox for the purpose of resetting the audience’s expectations of what was happening there that evening. We played the whole show like that, and it was a more serious set than usual.

                  In retrospect I was probably inspired to perform nearly nude due to just having seen a burlesque show, but strangely enough I wasn’t even aware of the connection until afterward.

                  My cousins were both incredibly positive about the performance and actually didn’t mention anything about the fact that I had performed in my underwear. I was hoping to psych them out a little bit but it didn’t end up that way. I guess I underestimated the extent to which we share an appreciation of the absurd.