It’s that time of the year again – time for the Afterglow Festival and this year it’s chock full of great performers. Hosted by Starsky + Cox, Afterglow, which runs from September 11-15, will feature Joey Arias, Dan Fishback, Carol Lipnik, Anne Stott, The Illustrious Blacks, Enid Ellen, Ruby Rose Fox, John Jarboe & Bearded Ladies Cabaret, Martha Graham Cracker and Tammy Faye Starlite.
Tammy Faye Starlite will present Nico: Evening of Light with guitarist Richard Ferdun. There was nothing simple about Andy Warhol’s muse, Nico — even before she met Warhol, she had her own bohemian legacy. The model-actress-musician had acted in Federico Fellini’s film “La Dolce Vita,” and then — because of Warhol — sang on the iconic 1967 album “The Velvet Underground and Nico,” wrote and performed her own songs, was a famous junkie, and slept with some of the coolest guys around. When actress-singer-writer T.D. Lang read about Nico in 1983, it was five years before a stroke would cause the hipster idol to fall off a bicycle and die. Lang became transfixed. And now Lang, in the guise of her alter ego, Tammy Faye Starlite, will perform Nico: Evening of Light, when you think the night has seen your mind. – Wed, Sept. 12 @ 7pm
A fixture of New York City’s vibrant downtown performance scene for 30-plus years, Joey Arias is a bona fide NYC icon. It was no surprise
when Arias was tapped by Cirque du Soleil to originate the role of the emcee in their Las Vegas spectacular Zumanity, for which he co-wrote 3 songs. After 6 years in that role, Arias returned to New York where he became star and co-creator of Arias With a Twist with master puppeteer Basil Twist. The show was a critical and commercial hit and extended repeatedly for a total of 8 months at HERE Arts Center. Arias has performed worldwide at venues including Carnegie Hall, The Freedom Theatre in London and on a transatlantic world tour into the cabaret clubs of Paris, Tokyo, Moscow, Germany, Finland, Estonia, Canada and England. On film, he has appeared in Mondo New York, Big Top Pee Wee, Elvira, Mistress of the Dark, Wigstock – The Movie, Flawless and To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar. Television credits include the infamous “Saturday Night Live” episode with David Bowie and Klaus Nomi, Ann Magnuson’s “Vandemonium” (Cinemax), “Elvira’s MTV Halloween Special,” HBOs “Dragtime,” HBO’s “Real Sex” and “Gayer Than Gay” on VH1, along with numerous appearances on a wide variety of talk shows and programs. Additionally, Arias has produced several of his own recordings including Arias on Holiday, Strange Fruit, Jazzo Lozo, God Shave the Queen and live recordings of StarLust in Berlin, Arias with a Twist and Bar D’o in New York. On a personal note, I had the privilege of working with Joey in Christmas with the Crawfords, where his uncanny performance as Joan Crawford was something to behold! – Wed, Sept 12 @ 9:30pm
Dan Fishback writes tiny songs and enormous plays. His musical The Material World was called one of the Top Ten Plays of 2012 by Time
Out New York. His play You Will Experience Silence was called “sassier and more fun than Angels in America” by the Village Voice. Fishback has released several albums and toured Europe and North America, both solo and with his band Cheese On Bread, which just released The One Who Wanted More, their first album in a decade. Cheese On Bread’s music video Bad Friend was directed by filmmaker Stephen Winter and features Justin Vivian Bond. In 2017, a reading of Fishback’s play Rubble Rubble at the American Jewish Historical Society was canceled over his advocacy for Palestinian human rights. The backlash in support of Fishback was covered by The New York Times and the reading was rescheduled at New World Stages on the heels of -a successful crowdfunding campaign. Fishback is a proud member of the Jewish Voice for Peace Artist Council. – Thurs, Sept. 13 @ 7pm
Carol Lipnik, the spellbinding, wistfully-humorous singer and songwriter called an “ethereal vocal phenomenon” by The New York Times
and hailed by The Village Voice as an “alt-cabaret star whose phenomenal four-octave range conveys everything from dark and delusional Alice in Wonderland mushroom fantasies to face-in-the-sidewalk security-state concerns” is the artist in residence at the East Village Boîte Pangea, where she and her pianist/collaborator Matt Kanelos have enjoyed an unprecedented three year-long run. They also perform frequently at Joe’s Pub at The Public Theater. The inimitable Coney Island native who blends folk music, operatic flourish and art song with the classic nightclub tradition, has released seven CDs on her Mermaid Alley Music label, most recently the acclaimed Almost Back To Normal, which was funded through a grant from the Peter S. Reed Foundation. Carol was the winner of the 2015 BroadwayWorld New York Cabaret Award for best Alternative Cabaret Show. In 2016, she was an artist in residence at The Philadelphia Kimmel Center (Theater Residency Program in conjunction with The Public Theater), in 2017, was a performance artist in residence at Yaddo and has also appeared at The Afterglow Festival, The Rose Theater at Lincoln Center, The Spiegeltent at Bard, The Ancram Opera House, The Abrons Art Center, The Fringe Festival at La Peg and composed music with performance artist John Kelly for his show The Escape Artist, his debut CD Beauty Kills Me, and Michelle Handelman’s 2018 video installation Hustlers and Empires at The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. – Thurs, Sept 13 @ 9:30pm
Anne Stott is an actor, indie rock singer/songwriter and political instigator. Her latest album, Love Never Dies, was called “a stunner” and played on radio stations all over the country peaking at #19 on the Relix Magazine/Jambands radio chart. Stott has appeared in short films and theatrical productions including Jack/Ernest in The Importance of Being Earnest (Provincetown Theater, dir David Drake) and The Whore in Nevermore (Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater, dir Christopher Ostrom). She has self published a collection of poems, thoughts, and sketches entitled Everything is Different All Over Again, hosted Word on the Street, a TV show interviewing and performing with Provincetown street performers and was most recently, a presenter at the first TEDx Provincetown. – Fri, Sept 14 @ 7pm
In 2017, The Illustrious Blacks released their anticipated debut EP NeoAfroFuturisticPsychedelicSurealisticHippy on
Concierge Records. The EP features the high energy single “Blast Off,” the seductive “Red Light,” the thought provoking “Delusions of Grandeur” and the anthemic “Black Like Jesus.” In the same year, the dynamic duo also found time to work with producer Nickodemus on a remake of the 90s dance floor classic “Funk That!,” which spawned a popular music video. The acclaimed duo found even more praise for their epic live shows, which fuse music, dance, theatre & fashion as the ingredients to expand minds, shake bootys and save the world one beat at a time. Toward the end of summer 2017, The Illustrious Blacks landed their live show Hyperbolic for a three month residency at the legendary Joe’s Pub at The Public Theater. If their music and live shows are meant to elevate you into the stratosphere, then The Illustrious Blacks radio show, “On Air w/The Blacks,” is an opportunity to experience their inner space. The entertaining and often hilarious weekly series invites listeners onto the mothership of the charismatic couple, where they discuss the latest happenings in global pop culture on WBAI 99.5 FM in New York. Individually, Monstah Black and Manchildblack illuminate the galaxy with equal magnitude. Together, as The Illustrious Blacks, they have combined their powers and metamorphosed into supernovas, blazing through the Milky Way like a comet, with their own unique brand of cosmic freak nobility. – Fri, Sept 14 @ 9:30pm
Giving a voice to Mother Nature, Enid Ellen is David Mramor, a poet in platform boots and singer/songwriter Greg Potter. Together, they have enchanted audiences with their stimulating lyrics and soaring melodies. They have been featured in Billboard, Teen Vogue, World of Wonder, the debut issue of the UK magazine Out There and was named one of Next Magazine’s “What’s Next Now” artists. Their unique sound has been described as “Marilyn Manson singing Tori Amos” and both “eclectic” and “intense.” Making their mark on the New York City alternative music scene, Enid Ellen has performed at many of New York’s finest venues including Joe’s Pub, The Wild Project and The Duplex, as well as being a headlining artist at Earl Dax’s Pussy Faggot. They have been included in the Afterglow Festival in Provincetown, MA, La MaMa’s Queer New Music Series and Dixon Place’s HOT Festival, as well as Cheim & Read Gallery and Envoy Enterprises. Their sophomore album Beyond Reality was released in February 2018, on the new label FemmeKraft and they expect a June 2018 release for an EP of remixes from the album. Multiple music videos were released from Beyond Reality including videos for the songs “Pretty on the Sea,” “Orlando” and “Kiss You To The Top (of Love).” Sat, Sept 15 @7pm
Boston based artist Ruby Rose Fox is the perfect cultural messenger of our times. Her music is as sonically compelling as it is subversive,
packed with lyrics that reflect and challenge our current political state, from #metoo, to the mass shooting crisis. Part actress, director and writer, Fox has never shied away from new endeavors. In 2017, Ruby was awarded two consecutive grants from The Boston Foundation, and also started “Gifted,” a program that offers children voice lessons who could not otherwise afford them. 2016 saw the release of her debut album Domestic which reached as high as #8 on the Billboard Heatseeker charts. The Boston Herald described Ruby Rose Fox as “artsy, edgy rock ‘n’ roll that lets her be Lou Reed and Nico at the same time… [and seems] to come from another scene, another world.” Another world indeed. With vocals characterized by a soulful and mesmerizingly low contralto, Ruby’s vocal aesthetic is an otherworldly take on modern indie music, and her lyrics indict the failures of modern America while empowering those that need it. – Sat, Sept 15 @ 9:30pm
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The Art House (214 Commercial St. 508-487-9222)
