Photo By John Anderson
Betty Blowtorch/Peaches
Emo's, August 14/August 16
As if summer wasn't hot enough already, last week it was a wonder the Austin Fire Department wasn't deployed to Emo's to hose down the rampaging libidos. "Licky licky, sucky sucky, can't nobody here say they don't want to fucky fucky," declaimed one-woman hormone factory Peaches. The 33-year old punkesse, who previously taught music to toddlers, demonstrated an admirable grasp of double negatives as well as a surprisingly fluid rhyming cadence; if Kraftwerk reunited to make a record with Miami's "baddest bitch" Trina, Peaches would be the result. Resembling Sheena Easton in her brown curly locks, aviator shades, and tearaway vinyl outfit, Peaches also broached the matter of breast size in "AA XXX," expressed her unflagging desire to "Fuck the Pain Away," and broadcast "This is a rock show! This ain't a fuckin' talk show!" It was though -- Jenny Jones by way of HBO's G-String Divas. Definitely too hot for TV. Truth be told, Peaches didn't need her own material to get everyone hot and bothered, as two of the show's numerous highlights were her flouncing around to Joan Jett's "Bad Reputation," and calling up fellow Canadian/opener World Provider -- whose exceedingly tight trousers left precious little to the imagination -- for a set-closing romp through Pat Benatar's "Hit Me With Your Best Shot." Whatever mental images that may conjure, they were hardly the only ones happily recycling the past. Two days before, Club DeVille hosted its singular brand of biweekly karaoke debauchery; an unfortunate miscalculation meant your correspondent was watching some of his fellow citizens demolish the B-52's "Love Shack" instead of the high-octane antics of L7s-come-lately Betty Blowtorch. Regretfully, that meant missing such titillating nuggets as "Size Queen," "Part-Time Hooker," and "Shut Up and Fuck," although he did make it back to Emo's in time to see the heavily tattooed quartet's closer "Hell on Wheels," which, in all honesty, was plenty. Though it was too late to determine if it was Blare N. Bitch or Sharon Needles doing the behind-the-back trick with her green guitar, the cones ejaculating sparks at either side of the stage said all that needed to be said. Namely, that in this long, hot summer, the best kind of heat is still good old-fashioned body heat.
