Who would win in a fight: Natalie Merchant or Bettie Page?
Sure, Merchant’s got pipes, but the safe money’s on Page, the patron saint of bad girls everywhere. (For the record, the pin-up icon turns 84 on April 22.)
Tonight, the Femme Fatale 2 show at the Oriental Theater (4335 W. 44th Ave.) hopes to be the Bettie Page of women’s art shows. It’s a tough-as-nails answer to the flowing- skirted estro-fests that leap to mind at the words “all-female art collective.”
“We wanted to put something together that was completely different from the usual,” says Dre Williams, one of the event’s organizers. “People have tried to get us to say stuff about empowerment and the whole goddess thing, but we want it to be a little more avant garde.”
“It’s our personal tastes,” she says. “It isn’t what you would completely expect from an all-woman event.”
The show’s tag line, “A woman is as bad as she dares,” is the first hint that Femme Fatale isn’t a miniature Lilith Fair. Another is the lineup of local female DJs – Mimi, Lola and Beretta – instead of a parade of earnest acoustic acts.
“DJ Beretta does underground and hip- hop, like mellower hip-hop,” says Williams. “She does a lot of mixing with ’80s and freestyle, jazz and R&B. Lola does a variety of stuff, with techno and house – (but) it’s not going to be loud techno in your face. We’re going to make sure it’s pretty mellow and pretty conducive to the event.”
While the DJs spin and bartenders sling drinks, guests are invited to peruse artworks by more than 30 female artists on display.
At 9 p.m., the first of two hour-long fashion shows begins, featuring designs by Colorado clothiers Mademoiselle Modiste, SKB, Buffalo Exchange, Alve Beretta and The Fabric Lab.
The second fashion show begins at midnight, but the stage won’t be empty in between. First, watch out for the Bad Mama Jamaz, a crew of b-girls (that’s “b” for “breakdancing”). Then there’s a performance by Fannie Spankings and Vivienne VaVoom of Burlesque as It Was.
After the second fashion show, the Burlesque as It Was ladies shimmy back onstage to cap off the evening.
Femme Fatale started as an art collective in Fort Collins, home of its founder, Mariah Baretta (a.k.a. DJ Beretta). Baretta held the first Femme Fatale show last fall.
“We did it at The Vault, which is a cute little bar here in Fort Collins,” says Williams, whose Solid Art Collective also participated. “It was originally an art exhibit with a couple of DJs. It was a pretty cool event, but it was a very small venue. We had an overwhelming response to it.”
Femme Fatale 2 demonstrates the special friendship between the Mile High City and its college-town neighbor to the north. “The opportunity to work with all these people – like Fabric Lab – it’s really opened a door for us and we hope we’ll be able to have a strong relationship with these people in Denver.”
And that’s just nice, especially for bad girls.
Femme Fatale 2 begins at 7 tonight. Tickets are $10 at the door.
“Nightlife” returns
Denver’s electronic music fans have something to celebrate Saturday. It’s the sixth birthday of Ryan Dykstra Nightlife, and he’s throwing a bash that’s hard to beat this weekend or any weekend.
The party’s called “Nation: Return of the Massive,” and it features huge national acts like techno DJ Frankie Bones and L.A.’s Deepsky alongside U.K. DJ Adam F and Sweden’s Materia.
With nearly 60 DJs spread out through the Palladium Events Center (1300 W. 62nd Ave.) all night long, “Nation” will resemble a small country, indeed. General-admission tickets are $30, gold-level VIP tickets are $65 and platinum level VIP, $90. All tickets are available through groovetickets.com. Doors open at 6 p.m.
Kathleen St. John is writing about night life in 7Days while Kat Valentine is on maternity leave. Reach her at kathleenstjohn@gmail.com or at 303-954-1568.
