Starting on a High Note

Last Friday night, the Black Lily Film and Musical Festival's Opening Concert stayed good from the second it started. The evening was hosted by Ryva, of Decibel Live, and just as Decibel Live lets no one stay on stage at Mill Creek's First Tuesday event if they're not performing well, or have gone over their time limit, she kept the pace moving and the crowd energized and entertained all night. The evening was filled with performances by artists who've been in the area and performing through Black Lily for years, and others who were in the country for the first time ever.

Highlights of the evening included, of course, the Jazzyfatnastees, as without them, there would be no Black Lily. I'd be lying if I said the crowd rallied to sing, dance, and generally get close to the stage more for any other artist than they did when the Jazzyfatnastees came on. Slanty Eyed Mama, a group who describes themselves as "David Byrne meets Timbaland meets Laurie Anderson meets Missy Elliot meets the Velvet Underground. Badassed political hip hop. Alternative flow. Crazy asianatrixes gone wild," performed a few songs earlier in the evening. Their material deals with their experiences as Asian women in America, dealing with the variety of stereotypes the public places upon them, and their own reactions to such twisted expectations.

My favorite performer discovery of the evening, Liza Garza, who recently released her self-produced first album, performed a set that felt shorter than it should have been, because her songs were just that good and that moving. At the beginning of her set, she played "My Everything," a song that starts out with the words "They said we would become victims to the streets/as if the concrete could creep up and catch us/in the midst of walking/catch up and grab up/cock back and slap up/and we believed them," and from that point on, I was hooked to every word and note that came through the sound system.

Image via World Cafe Live.