“Covers for Cover II” was a worthwhile and sporadically entertaining musical charity event which took place at Lincoln Hall on Wednesday, December 23. The profits went directly to benefit Connections for Abused Women and their Children, an organization that helps provide shelter for battered women and their children.
The mostly female performers did more than competent cover versions of songs by some of their favorite artists including David Bowie, The Breeders, Sippie Wallace, the Gossip, and even Kiss. The diverse musical styles included jazz/cabaret (Yoko Noge), power pop/new wave (Double Life), glam rock (the Maybenauts), dance music/alternative (Dressed in Black) and bubble gum/glam metal (Slutter).
The show started off with the accomplished Japanese born singer/pianist, Yoko Noge, who played a soulful set that paid tribute to the Canadian born singer, Sippie Wallace, who was known for her shouting blues vocal style. Yoko’s rendition of Wallace’s “Don’t Advertize Your Man,” used her husky vocal style to good effect, and the improvised unnamed closing number featured some very hot soprano sax playing. http://www.jazzmebluesmusic.com/
The Maybenauts’s David Bowie set included a melodic version of “Moonlight Daydream,” a rather ironic rendition of “Boys Keep Swinging (which featured a female singing from the perspective of a gay male) and a rocking version of the “Modern Love.” But their best covers were the catchy “Rebel Rebel,” and the surreal, alienating, “John I’m only Dancing” which contained Vee Sonnets’ best guitar work. The talented lead vocalist, Leilani Frey was decked out like Bowie during his Aladdin Sane phase, and the bass player Ellie Emily, was in a pirate costume like Bowie wore in the early ‘70s.
Also impressive was Iris’s incendiary tribute to the Breeders, a band fronted by the Pixies’s Kim Deal. Iris (which features some members of Wanton Looks) delivered an appropriately noisy, debauched, and explosive set that included a killer version of “Hellbound.” The grungy song sung from beyond the grave, “Fortunately Gone” was so abrasive that it sounded more like no wave or Sonic Youth than the Breeders. The raw, punky music was perfectly complimented by Traci Trouble’s off kilter vocals and out of control stage antics.
Dressed in Black showed off their vocal and instrumental chops in a tasty set of Gossip songs which included a potent version of “Where the Girls Are.” Aloha Lives did a fine Hawaiian variation of folk music that somehow reminded me of Rodrigo and Maria, and Double Life did an admirable if somewhat mechanical job playing many of the Cars greatest hits.
For many in the audience, the Venom Lords/Handcuffs spin off band, “Slutter” (their name is a pun on the Kiss song, “Stutter”) was the highlight of the show. The drummer (doubling for Peter Criss) showed she can belt out a power ballad with the best of them with her version of “Beth.” The set and show closed with a ferocious version of the Kiss standard “Rock’ N Roll All Night” (with Cloe F. Orwell on vocals) which had much of the audience singing along.
