February
7, 2003
'Zine
queen lights up scene
BY
ROBIN VAUGHN
"I
don't know where all these jaded people come from, saying
the Boston music scene is dead. It is so not!"
says Lexi Kahn, between sets at the Lizard Lounge on Tuesday
night. "The way I see it, everyone's so
enthusiastic. It's like a family."
That
warm description certainly applies to Lexi, at least. She
wasn't named No. 1 female personality on the scene in this
month's Noise poll for nothing. Within seconds of
meeting you, this bright, fast-talking young fanzine writer
in black lace and jack boots is squeezing your shoulder
like a sister, calling you "dude" and making you
laugh out loud, for the sheer pleasure of being around someone
so lit up and funny and positive. Even when she's
talking about something like buying new footwear, it seems,
she's fun to listen to - her personal blog (junglesweetjungle.com)
gets 70 hits a day. People she doesn't know walk up
to her in clubs to ask, "Are those the boots?"
Kahn,
who booked this month's Tuesday residency with All the Queen's
Men at the Lizard, has been excited about the local scene
since 1996, when she moved to Boston from New York and saw
her first show at the Middle East, with Betty Goo and the
Shods. ("Everybody was friendly and having fun.
I was, like, this music scene rules!") She
started writing for the Noise and other local 'zines a couple
of months later, and booked her first shows as an independent
promoter last summer.
She
calls her booking company Low Budget Superheroes, using
a line from "Mystery Men," one of her all-time
favorite dumb movies, as her motto: "We're not
your classic superheroes, we're not your favorites, we're
the other guys."
What
she wants to promote most in the Boston scene - besides
All the Queen's Men, whom she agreed to manage last week
- is symbiosis. As she puts it: "I want
my middle name to be 'crossover fan base.' That's
the only thing that really keeps a scene together."
The
Queen's residency, which she arranged as a hometown
going-away party before the band heads to Europe for its
first tour next month, carries her point. The crowd
is light for this first night of the series, but the crossover
bill is loaded with energy. Valerie Forgione of Mistle
Thrush opens, followed by an intimate acoustic set by singer/songwriter
Jonathan Spottiswoode, a Brit based in New York.
Although
the sound man had earlier expressed some concern about Spottiswoode's
diva potential ("I'm afraid someone's going to flush
the toilet and tick him off"), the Englishman has no
trouble getting the audience's full attention with his stunningly
well-phrased lyrics and seasoned, expressive voice. He
sings like Richard Butler of the Psychedelic Furs, with
the confessional romanticism of Leonard Cohen and Billy
Bragg-like wit and clever narrative details.
The
songs are about painful relationships, getting older and
still struggling as a musician ("they say you're looking
well, but there's a stain on your lapel"), women he's
attracted to - "Farmers' daughters, engineers' wives,
girls who throw parties, girls who throw knives, spinsters
who've made the most of their lives." The whole
lot, basically.
All
the Queen's Men, a rocktronica outfit with three women and
a male bassist, is completely different and equally engaging.
The first two weeks of the residency are acoustic;
for the last two, the band will switch into electronica
mode. Fronted by Swiss beauty Christine Zuffery, the
band fuses guitar rock, 80's Europop and high-energy grooves.
Its
members look like they're having fun when they play, and
it comes through in the spirited arrangements. Zuffery
recalls singers from Siouxsie Sioux and Sinead O'Connor
to Martha Davis of the Motels; guitarist Catherine Capozzi
sounds like her mentor, Reeves Gabrels; drummer Tamora Gooding
never lets up on the beat.
Kahn
has nothing but praise for the new bassist, but his name's
hard to catch through the music (sorry, dude).
Tuesday
promises more idiosyncratic alchemy, with sets by art-rock
band Bourbon Princess and the pop-cabaret Shelley Winters
Project.
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