Phoenix, AZ— on February 28, 2024, the Van Buren was the scene for a night of eclectic and electric music that transcended many genres amid a gender-bending, provocative trio of performances. Dorian Electra rolled into town on their FanFare Tour, accompanied by atlgrandma and the Frost Children.
Liam Hall is the creative mind and frontman of atlgrandma. Hailing from Atlanta, GA, Hall’s musical talents encompass vocals and multiple instruments. At the Van Buren, he energetically bounced from the guitar to the synthesizer to the trumpet and back again, accompanied only by drummer Bryan De Leon. Hall’s influential repertoire reaches back to multiple genres of music: R&B, rock, funk, grunge, alternative, punk, and more; all the while, giving voice to his life of experiences and emotional journeys.
The atlgrandma set was performed primarily in the dark, lit periodically by floor-based strobe lights. I felt the intent was to let the audience process and enjoy the music without the sensory competition of fancy stage lighting. My favorite song of the set was “Thin Ice,” about not knowing where you stand with someone:
Well I’m on ice with you
Thin ice with you
But if there’s nothing better to do I’ll spend my life with you
I got this ambient ask I hope its not reaching
My bad I thought you were feeling
My heart and my crew
My heart and my crew
The Frost Children were the next act, and I could see the thematic progression leading up to Dorian Electra’s performance. Frost Children, comprised of siblings Angel and Lulu Prost and drummer Eden Pacheco, was energetic, vibrant, melodic, and emotive, with lyrics full of colorful imagery. Take their opening song, “Birdsong,” for example. Instrumentally it feels sweet and simple, a reminder of love in youthful times, and then the lyrics add the poetic touch with lines such as:
Now that the world’s slowed down
I think I’ll finally reverse my frown
And maybe soon I’ll take a lap around the lake
And get a whiff of the moonlight smog
You smell like sweet birdsong
The scent of dew on a sleeping frog
Sometimes I can’t relate to all the things you say
But I can whistle my way out of fog
The Prost twins group up watching their father, Brian Prost, play in his band, and their stage presence and connection with the audience showed they learned their lessons well. Each song was vastly different, but not contrived, and they kept the crowd rocking all through six songs.
Dorian Electra was a performance distinctly unique from the others. Part dance troupe, part hypo-pop, part EDM/rave vibe, part ire mixed with humor and snark, all spiced up with energetic and dramatic theatrics, Dorian Electra came to town to make a declaration about individuality, sexuality, and freedom.
The set itself was circus meets parade meets cabaret meets sideshow. My favorite performance of the night was after Electra simulated being beheaded, the next song brought out the accompanying dancers dressed in a very large, macabre puppet costume. The puppet, holding the mannequin head of Electra from the beheading, threw bloody hair strands out at the audience, while “Vesti La Giubba” from Ruggero Leoncavallo’s opera, Pagliacci, played.
Who does that? A statement maker, that’s who.
My second favorite song performance by Electra was “Career Boy.” Dressed in a black outfit, sitting at an electric piano, softly playing, it was a great chance to see a different facet of Electra’s personality and talent. The lyrics are reflective of what many of us face in the day-to-day world:
Career boy (career boy)
Working overtime (working overtime)
Career boy (I’m a career boy)
One thing on my mind (got one thing on my mind)
Cheap office coffee
Stays pumping through my veins (pumping through my veins now)
I work for the man, yeah
But you know I love the chains (I love the chains)
I can never fight the feeling, I stay up all night
Workin’ so hard after hours ’til I see the sunlight
Stuck up in the office tower, you know it’s pure joy
And that’s my superpower, I’m a career boy
And as quickly as “Career Boy” was sung, Electra was back into hypo-pop mode, having given the audience a short break, whipping them back into a frenzy. The entire night’s shows were uniquely creative, and the audience was quite obviously happy with the very diverse trio of acts.
