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Out
Panties, bellydancing, bangers & mash
BY WILL SPITZ

The ultimate rock tribute — flying panties — greeted Cracktorch last Friday at Great Scott in Allston as the band celebrated the release of their new Tonight the City with a roomful of friends and fans. "Thanks for giving me back my underwear," joked bass player Bob Maloney as he adorned his mike stand with a pair of sequin-star-spangled skivvies, one of the three that flew his way during the set. (One of these seemed to have come from the general direction of former bassist Stacey Fick, who later ended up on stage to help out with vocals.) As the night went on, ever-unpredictable singer/guitarist Marc Schleicher spent increasingly less time on the stage with a guitar in his hands and more time hugging and kissing audience members and writhing and shimmying about the floor in front of the stage.

There was also a whole lot of shaking going on the following night at the All Asia Café, albeit of a slightly different variety. Central Square has a long history of playing host to both bellydancers and rock (at the Middle East, they’re often going on side by side), but Saturday night’s "Rock the Casbah" put the pieces together: bellydancers doing their thing to rock songs on a Discman blasted over a PA. A rotating cast of dancers jiggled to Arabic-influenced tunes like Queen’s "Mustapha" as well as less Eastern-identified songs like Hendrix’s "Foxey Lady"; while shaking to a medley of Beatles songs, a dancer named Karina even broke into a bit of the swim. And Zelee, who used the Ramones’ "I Wanna Be Sedated" as her soundtrack, wore an amusingly appropriate combo of punk-rock duds and bellydancing garb: tight black jeans and Converse sneakers accessorized with a midriff-baring top and a hip scarf with dangling coins. It even felt like a rowdy rock show: at one point, a large drunken goon tried to join the fun by lifting up his shirt and shaking his rotunda of a gut. After being reprimanded by one of the dancers, he was dragged out by a female friend.

Doreen Marshall, a dancer who goes by the stage name Samarra, has been putting together themed bellydancing shows at the Central Square bar about every six weeks since February, including "Ya Salam, Elvis!" — an Elvis-themed bellydance show inspired by the King’s 1965 film Harum Scarum. "I have a wide variety of tastes (and a huge record collection), and I also make my own costumes," Marshall explained via e-mail after the gig. "The rock theme seemed to work well, and there is still so much music out there that would be great to bellydance to."

The flyer for Dave Virr & Oliver Mak’s inaugural "Bangers and Mash" night at ZuZu on December 1 promised "Crunk Britpop, Death Disco, and Thugged-Out Indie Rock." But visions of Lil’ John mashed up with Blur proved to be unfounded. Instead, Virr and Mak spun regular old (and new) Britpop, indie rock, and the like ranging from New Order to Bell Biv DeVoe to the Go Go's to Franz Ferdinand — in other words, mostly the kind of thing you’d expect from Virr, the host of the weekly WMFO (Tufts) radio show (and e-mail newsletter) British Accents. And though they were spinning dance music, the duo didn’t seem to be bothered by the lack of dancing. "We picked ZuZu because we wanted a small room that had more of a ‘hang-out’ kind of atmosphere, as opposed to a straight-up dance club," Virr said afterward. They’ll be back at ZuZu on January 6.

Will Spitz can be reached at wspitz[a]phx.com


Issue Date: December 10 - 16, 2004
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