BEHIND THE MUSIC

  Long ago in a land far away, I was a confirmed card-carrying rock and roll chick.  Before I started belly  dancing professionally, I was one of the original punks on the scene in Los Angeles; I fronted three bands that put out records and toured all over the place, I was also a music journalist and club booker for years. But then my life got taken over so thoroughly by belly dance that my music career sort of ceased to exist. I made a 360-degree turn in what seemed like an instant, with Om Kalthoum replacing Elvis and   Hakim taking the place of The Cramps. Once in a while, I even felt guilty for my new allegiance- it felt like I was “cheating” on rock ‘n’ roll because  nothing I listened to had lyrics in English!

 I had long since become fully reconciled to my new lifestyle, but then an odd coincidence occurred.  In 2006, I was asked to headline at the Majma Festival in England, where I’ll actually be returning next month.  It was my first major belly dance gig in a foreign country, and I was super- excited!    Just after   accepting that gig, my music publisher contacted me and said that the well-known   UK dirty house deejays   Peace Division wanted to sample   some of my spoken word vocals for a new track they were working on. I said yes, and we signed the papers. Shortly after, I was contacted again and told that my samples had now turned into the lead vocal and the track would be released the week I was heading to Majma.  The song came out as “ “Blacklite Sleaze” by Peace Division, Featuring Pleasant Gehman…and the moment I touched down   at Heathrow Airport, it entered the British Pop Charts.  You can listen to it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=goZ41xzs3_o

 Ironically, the moment I’d switched my focus from music to dance, I suddenly had a legion of new fans who wanted to hear my audio recordings, but my dance career kept growing, and I didn’t find the time to do any more recording.  After a while, I began to miss being in the recording studio, as opposed to the dance studio.  I wanted to make a track or track   the melded my   two favorite things- writing and belly dance, but it didn’t seem possible.  

Enter Karim Nagi.

If you are a belly dancer or a fan of cool rhythmic mixes, undoubtedly you already know Karim’s work, released under his own name as well as his moniker Turbo Tabla. But on the off chance that you don’t, Karim   is a multi-faceted artist: musician, deejay, dancer, instructor and orator, who is extremely knowledgeable about the traditions of Arabic music and dance… but he’s also a forward-thinking risk-taker artistically, and ridiculously talented and funny to boot!    In addition to his own  compositions, he’s made “Arabized” cover  versions of everything from Vivaldi to  the 1970’s hit “Low Rider”! In fact, he’s probably the only person on earth who can sing a tongue-in-cheek acoustic version of   the Queen hit “Bohemian Rhapsody” (in Arabic, no less!) accompanying himself on the tabla!  Though this epic bit of clashing cultures will probably never be documented for posterity ( ok, it was an impromptu  dressing room performance after a belly dance show)  I realized at that very moment that I  had finally found my dream collaborator!

  

 Though Karim and I are each infused with the culture of our native countries, we love, admire and are immersed in the culture of our adopted countries as well. Together we created   “Heart Full Of Cairo” a crazy ethno-soundscape that we conceptualized together.

 I wrote the words and did the vocals; Karim did the music and produced it, putting it all together.  The project came about organically, and of course the idea was spawned at belly dance festivals where we were both working.  We started discussing it at Cairo Caravan in June 2012, and by the time the Las Vegas Belly Dance Intensive rolled around in September 2012, we were onto something. We decided that whatever we did had to be Oriental, but not traditional.  I have done many vocal and spoken word recordings in the past, but I never combined my recorded work with belly dancing- I kind of inadvertently kept those two areas of my life compartmentalized.

Many of you readers may remember my posts about Egypt during the revolution as well as my reports from the Ahlan Wa Sahlan festival in 2011, post-revolution Cairo.  I was nervous about my Egyptian and ex-pat friends during the protests, concerned for their safety. I was also a little apprehensive about the future of a country I loved so much; afraid I might not ever get to return. Cairo is definitely my favorite place on the globe.  The moment I stepped off the plane on my first trip to Egypt, I started to weep, I was so happy to be there, and my feelings for it never change. I get giddy every time I go there; it’s a sensory overload of the very best kind. Karim is from Cairo, so   undoubtedly he has a different “relationship” to the city than I do, and understands it in a way I never will.

 But we both have a profound love for the city often known as Masr, or Al-Qahirah … so,  just in time for Valentine's Day, here’s the audio love letter  to Cairo from Karim and me… Enjoy!

 TURBO TABLA (KARIM NAGI) FEATURING PLEASANT GEHMAN (AKA PRINCESS FARHANA)   “HEART FULL OF CAIRO”

https://soundcloud.com/karimnagi/heartfullofcairo

   Karim and me  backstage at Cairo Caravan 2012,  posing as Egyptian Golden Age movie stars

 Photo of Princess Farhana on  "Heart Full Of Cairo" cover by Andre Elbing

VAGABOND CHICK: MY LIFE... ON THE ROAD

  You know how  everyone makes New Year's Resolutions...and then breaks them?  At the  end of  last year, I promised myself that  I was going to really and truly try to stay put a little more. 

 "This  next year will be for me,"  I said earnestly to myself. 

 " In 2012,  I'm gonna  take more classes than I teach...get back to cooking instead of eating  road food... maybe start a garden. Hell,  maybe  I'll even go on a vacation!".

  Yeah, right!  I'm kinda stunned that it's October already, the year is almost over. It's already  time for The Holidays... that is, if you count Halloween as part of them, the way I do! Anyway, so much for my resolution... I'm finishing out the year the way  I started it- on tour.  And  lots of  my 2013  travel is already  booked  and confirmed- just the way I like it.  

 Might as well face the facts, I'm a damn vagabond- I love  being on the road!

 Which leads me to this: 

 In January 2013 , the Los Angeles-based Punk Hostage Press  will be  publishing a  new book ( under my given name, Pleasant Gehman) that I've written, titled Lady Don't Be Panic!    

 The book is all memoir- true stories  featuring  some of my craziest on-the-rod road incidents, from my days touring with my all girl rock bands  in the 1980's to  more recent  global  shenanigans  from my dance career.   If you'll be in Los Angeles on Sunday, October 14, I'll be previewing some of the  material in a re free reading at Stories Books  & Cafe, along with Punk Hostage authors  Iris Berry and A. Razor. 

 Details are here: https://www.facebook.com/events/281497675284289/

 And  if you want to check on the exact release date of   Lady Don't Be Panic, the publisher's  official website is here: http://punkhostagepress.com/

 If you don't  live in LA, then  I'll probably see you soon at a dance event! 

 Here's what else  I'm up to- at least for the near future.  Excited to see old friends, make new ones, dance up a storm, and  generally cause some  trouble!

OCTOBER 4-6 , 2012  OFFENBURG, GERMANY

  Black Forest  Tribal Festival

http://tribal-festival.jimdo.com/

OCTOBER 26-28, 2012 EL PASO, TX

Dangerous Beauties On Tour

 Info: snakecharmerthebellydancer@yahoo.com 

OCTOBER 30, 2012  HOLLYWOOD, CA

Tiara Tuesdays: Princess Farhana’s Belly  Dance Showcase

BELLY DANCE SPOOKTACULAR!!!

Moun Of Tunis Restaurant

7445 ½ Sunset ( at Gardener)

 Hollywood, CA 90046  Dinner: 7pm; Show; 8:00pm

(323) 874-3333

NOVEMBER  2 & 3, 2012  DECATUR, GA

Princess Farhana workshops & performance

Glamour Garage Intensive ( Sat)  Dance Workshops ( Sun)

http://www.dalloua.com/

 DECEMBER 7-9, 2012, SAN LUIS OBISPO, CA

 Tribal Fusion Faire

Princess Farhana workshops & performance

Madonna Expo Center at The Madonna Inn

http://tribalfusionfaire.com/

 DECEMBER 11, 2012,  NORTH HOLLYWOOD, CA

 Holiday Raks-travaganza  Show

Skinny’s   Lounge 4923 Lankershim, NoHo, Ca

(818) 763-6581

2013

 FEBRUARY 2, 2013   LEMOORE, CA

Princess Farhana’s Glamour Garage

Santa Rosa Rancheria Community Gym

16085 Jersey Avenue

Lemoore, CA 93245

Info: Crystal: the_dancing_raven@yahoo.com

http://tinyurl.com/8bfvutt

FEBRUARY 15-17, 2013

Belly Dancer  Of The Universe 2013

http://www.bellydanceroftheuniverse.com/bduc2013.htm

MARCH 1-3,  2013 GLASTONBURY, UK

MAJMA Dance Festival

http://www.majmadance.co.uk/

MARCH 14-17, 2013  ADELAIDE, AUSTRALIA

https://www.facebook.com/events/109258845892089/?fref=ts

info: Kylea: tribevibebellydance@hotmail.com

 MARCH  21-24, MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA

https://www.facebook.com/events/115134731971987/?fref=ts

info: Alia  info@dancewithalia.com

 March 30 , 2013  HONOLULU, HAWAII

Info: R@reneearnold.com

APRIL  20 & 21,  ATLANTA, GA

  Gems Of The South Competttion

Info: http://www.dalloua.com/Gems-of-the-South.html

 MAY 14-19, 2013  SEBASTOPOL, CA

 Tribal Fest 13

http://www.tribalfest.org

  MAY 31-JUNE 2, 2013, LONG BEACH, CA

 Cairo Caravan  on board The Queen Mary

http://www.mecda.org

JUNE 7--19, 2013 DENVER, COLORADO

Shimmy 2 B Free

http://www.shimmy2bfree.com/

JULY 27 & 28, 2013  MEXICO CITY, MEXICO

ESTRELLAS DE BELLY DANCE

http://www.steveneggers.com/Steven_Eggers_Belly_Dance/Estrellas_de_Bellydance.html

 OCTOBER 3-7, 2013, NEWPORT BEACH, CA

  MECDA  PRO DANCE CONFERENCE & REREAT

http://www.mecda.org

DANCERS BACKSTAGE RITUALS PART SEVEN: KAJIRA DJOUMAHNA

This is Part Seven in an on-going series of articles I am posting, which shares the ways that well known- and in some cases, wildly famous- dancers prepare for their shows.

Everyone I spoke with had a highly personal take on getting ready for taking the stage.

For most of you, Kajira Djoumahna needs no introduction. She is one of the queens of Tribal Belly dance, an innovator with an illustrious career that has been spanned over two decades and shows no signs of slowing down. Kajira’s the founder, creator and “Chief Imagineer” of The BlackSheep BellyDance format, and along with her husband Chuck, is the producer of Tribal Fest, the largest and longest-running Tribal belly dance festival in the world, which takes place every May in the beautiful Northern California town of Sebastopol. She is a writer, with a regular column for the belly dance magazine “Zaghareet”, but more importantly, she is the author of the definitive book on Tribal style belly dance, “The Tribal Bible”. As of 2010, “The Tribal Bible” has been through six printed editions. Kajira has many instructional and performance DVDs on the market, and teaches and performs all over the world.

Kajira and I have known each other pretty much since the beginning of both of our careers, at the dawn of the 1990’s. We met in a really crazy way, and became fast friends. Happily, the craziness never stopped.

Before I started belly dancing, I was a wild rock ‘n’ roll chick… some people in the dance community think I’m wild now… but suffice to say, they didn’t know me before! I was a Hollywood punk rock fixture. I recorded albums and toured all over with my all-girl band, The Screaming Sirens, I booked clubs in Los Angeles, and under my given name, Pleasant Gehman, wrote extensively about rock ‘n’ roll for many national and international publications. There was a little bit of crossover time between my two careers before I began devoting all my time to dancing.

So, how does this relate to Kajira?

About twenty or so years ago, I’d written a profile of Iggy Pop for a well-known rock magazine, and when the editor asked me for a photo for the Contributors Page, I sent a picture of myself in my belly dance costume. Weeks later, on one of my visits to the office, the editor told me the magazine had published a Letter To The Editor that a reader had sent in.

Handing me the original letter, he said with a somewhat perturbed look on his face,

“I’m not sure what “AIWA!” means…. but I think it’s good.”

Upon hearing the Arabic word for “yes” I was highly intrigued, and grabbed the letter, which was from…. you guessed it- Kajira!

I wish I still had that letter, but sadly, I don’t, so I’ll paraphrase it. Basically, it went something like this:

“ A big “AIWA!” on the Iggy Pop story- I can’t BELIEVE there is another belly dancer out there who is a writer, and who also loves rock and roll!”

Well, at this point I started hyperventilating- because I also couldn’t believe there was another belly dancer out there who loved rock ‘n’roll in general and specifically Iggy Pop!

You must remember that this was pre- internet, and before cell phones. At that time, most of the women that I met who were into belly dancing were doing it as a hobby, and were, like, suburban housewives- I knew I loved this dance and was already obsessed with it, but I didn’t have jack in common with the dancers I was meeting.

Also, a in those days, most of the places that were featuring belly dancing were Arabic clubs and restaurants- I had to cut off my dreads and dye my hair from punky rainbow stripes back to it’s original color, and hide my tattoos in order to be able to get dance work…as well as borrow “normal” clothes from my mother because I only owned stuff like leather mini-skirts and ripped fishnets, and you couldn’t wear that stuff to Arabic clubs!

I couldn’t believe there was a kindred soul out there…someone who also loved rock ‘n’roll, writing and belly dancing- I was hearing angels sing because I Wasn’t Alone!

I began hounding my editor to find the envelope that the letter had come in, so I could get the return address and write a letter back to this woman who shared my passions. Finally, he did.

A couple of days after I’d written her a letter, Kajira called me, and we stayed on the phone for ages, talking about our favorite bands, writing, and, of course, belly dancing.


Kajira had just started studying with FatChanceBellyDance founder Carolena Nericcio and was making the transition from cabaret style to Tribal. Meanwhile, I had been studying with a woman who had been a student of Jamilla Salimpour, and a chorus girl in Bal Anat. I’d been learning Jamilla’s folk-based Ren Faire style, but after my first trip to Cairo, was starting to get heavily into classical Egyptian dance.

Kajira and I started corresponding through snail mail, writing lengthy letters and sending each other costume pieces. She'll probably kill me for mentioning this, but she sent me a pink lace and gold lame ruffled cabaret skirt that she was no longer using, and I sent her a hand-embroidered Bedouin vest that I’d gotten on my first trip to Egypt…which I, having “gone cabaret” was no longer wearing.

Soon, Kajira called me and excitedly told me that she would be down in Southern California to do a workshop with the legendary Morocco in Anaheim. I was rehearsing for a show and couldn’t make the class, but we made arrangements for her to come up and spend the night at my house after the workshop was over.


I wound up taking her to my favorite Hollywood dive bar, The Blacklite, a place that not only had a great jukebox, really cheap and exceedingly strong cocktails, but also was populated mostly by tranny hookers! We drank boatloads of margaritas and I dimly remember buying a bunch of studded belts for, like, a dollar a piece from a bag lady that had wandered into the bar.


The rest is history- we stayed in touch and kept track of each other’s personal dance –paths and career progress. In 2005, she asked me to teach at Tribal Fest for the first time; in 2006, beginning at the MAJMA festival in Glastonbury, England, we started meeting up with each other at various workshops and events all over the world.

But maybe the most insane dance festival experience we shared actually took place at her own event! A couple of years ago, we hung out in an equipment closet (cause it was quiet and private) in the back of the Main Hall, at Tribal Fest, while Amy Sigil of Unmata was teaching, and shot the breeze, while Kajira was being interviewed for the belly dance magazine “The Chronicles”...while simultaneously getting tattooed by artist Natasha Vetlugin. Yes, just a “normal” day in the life of Kajira Djoumahna!

Anyway, this is what my longtime friend - and globally acclaimed dance figure- Kajira has to say about the way she prepares for her shows:


“ As I put on my costume and makeup, I start my backstage process. Even if I'm still at home looking into my own mirror, I am now "backstage". If I hadn't become my stage name by now in all of my life, I would "become" it at this point; as I don my makeup I also don my persona. I become larger than life, I take on a new idea of myself as I transform my physical look.

At my destination (assuming I got ready at home or a hotel) I put on my finishing touches close to the time of my performance. These consist of my belt, lipstick, sometimes Paws or other dance shoes, and heavy tribal bracelets. Once fully adorned, I stretch and breathe and ready my finger cymbals for a quick put-on.

After my cymbals are on my hands and the time is even shorter, I always do a backstage centering meditation in the form of an East Indian pranam, or "puja for the stage". My personal pranam (also known as a prayer, moving meditation or centering exercise) is a variation of my teacher's. Everyone in my classes learn this as well, as it serves to set apart sacred time from mundane and it really works to help change focus and bring one into the "now".

My "prep" is still not over, whether I'm performing with BlackSheep BellyDance or solo! Once on stage, I almost always make a circle when I enter to help me "claim" my space and set it aside in my mind from anywhere else. If I cannot make a circuit because of my style or choreography that day, I do so in my mind to delineate my space from everyone else’s.

Now fully prepared, I lose myself in the moment and just dance!"

-KAJIRA DJOUMAHNA




Kajira & Black Sheep Belly Dance: http://www.blacksheepbellydance.com/home.html

Tribal Fest 12: The Year Of The Unicorn:
http://www.blacksheepbellydance.com/tf12/



PHOTOS: KAJIRA BY VICTORIA WEBB; KAJIRA, PRINCESS FARHANA & LEE ALI at BELLY DANCER OF THE UNIVERSE

TALES OF TOURING TERROR 1980'S STYLE

As a professional dancer who tours constantly, I've basically been living out of a suitcase for the past decade and a half, but I've actually been on the road for nearly thirty years. Before I was a dancer, I was in an all-girl band and we spent most of the 1980's and 1990's on tour, and boy... the stories I could tell.... so, here's one now!

I think it was 1987, and my crazy, liquor-soaked, thrashin' all-girl "cowpunk” band The Screaming Sirens were on tour promoting our albums, "Fiesta" and "Voodoo". yep, that's me, second from the right in the photo- and yes, indeed I was a blonde cowgirl for most of the '80's! Anyway, The Screaming Sirens were gigging at a roadhouse called Rooster’s in Nashville, Tennessee when this entire chain of events occurred.

Living like full-on "Spinal Tap" style road-pigs, we were in the midst of a self-booked tour, playing every night and, if we were lucky, sleeping on stranger's floors. We traveled in an unheated old Winnebago-conversion van, whose ceiling was festooned with fishnet stockings, crepe paper streamers, bumper stickers, and our own lipstick graffiti. The windows on one side of the van were blocked off with torn-apart Tampax boxes, to block out the sun. This story unfolds on the eve of Sirens’ bassist Laura's birthday, on a chilly November night.

As twilight fell, I stepped outside the stage door of Rooster's, and as my eyes became accustomed to the dark, I couldn’t believe what I was seeing… a mossy Victorian-era gravestone, leaning up against the building in the weeds. There was new dirt and clumps of grass stuck to the bottom of the monument, and it looked to be freshly dug up. Even more amazing, the headstone was for a girl who had died at age twenty-four: the same age Laura was turning that very night. Not only that, the girl had died on Laura's birthday! Going inside to club to report my find, I asked if there was a graveyard anywhere in the nearby vicinity. Everyone I questioned assured me there was not.

Thinking that the headstone would make the ultimate birthday present, I borrowed a hand-truck from the club and cajoled some boys to help get the headstone to our dressing room, then blindfolded Laura and dragged her into the dressing room to see her present. Laura was a tough, hard-drinking, wisecracking punk chick, who, before joining the Sirens, had been in a band called Hard As Nails, Cheap As Dirt. She had a macabre sense of humor, and like the rest of us always appreciated a low-budget splatter flick, so the whole band assumed she’d be delighted with her present, especially since we were too broke to be able to afford anything else.

As her blindfold was removed, instead of the anticipated reaction of laughter, Laura turned white as a ghost (pun intended!) and whispered, her voice trembling audibly,

"Get that fucking thing out of here right now!"

Disappointed that our gift didn’t go over well, we scrambled to get the gravestone back outside, crashing into amps and drum-sets in the narrow hallway on the way outside.

The headstone seemed to put a curse on everything that happened after that.

Our gig that night was terrible- maybe the worst of the tour, plagued with more than our usual share of technical difficulties. The boys we were flirting with didn’t respond the way they usually did, the audience was a bunch of dullard cowboys, and we didn’t sell any merch.

As we loaded up the van in a dense fog, it began to drizzle. Laura's purse somehow disappeared from the parking lot. The whole band searched for ages both inside and outside the club (as well as in our van) but her purse had vanished without a trace. Then, dead tired and with no speed or even coffee, because it was so late even rural convenience marts and truck-stops weren’t open, Laura and I drove the van through pouring torrential rain for three and a half hours before discovering we'd gone in the wrong direction. Usually we chattered endlessly on our late-night drives, but tonight we were both quiet and grimly introspective. Practically crying, we finally figured out the right way to go.

Back on course, we were speeding through Kentucky at daybreak, desperately trying to get to St. Louis on time for our gig that night, and of course we got pulled over.

Laura was driving, and since her purse was missing, she had no license. We both looked completely terrifying- in our previous night’s sweat- caked stage make-up, remnants of glitter crusted around our eyes, we looked like carnival corpses from a cheap funhouse. Laura was wearing a decomposing vintage beaver fur coat over long-johns and I looked like a dead clown; orange hair with rags tied into it, a man's 1950’s pajama shirt, huge torn-up net petticoat, boxer shorts, striped stockings and turquoise Converse high-tops. Everyone else was passed out cold, and we were hoping the van wouldn't get searched, because if it did, we'd probably wind up on a rural chain gang!

The cop didn't even have to say, "Y' ain't from 'round heeere, are ya?"- You could see the diabolical in-bred glint in his eyes. But miraculously he didn’t seem to notice the scores of empty Budweiser cans that littered the floor, along with stray fishnet stockings, crumpled cigarette packs, No-Doz, rolling papers, battered cowboy boots and an empty bottle of Everclear.

He screwed us up pretty good, anyway: we not only got a seventy-five dollar ticket (an astronomical amount in those days, especially for us) he held us up for almost forty minutes as he made a huge deal of having his dispatcher call LA to make sure Laura didn't have any arrest warrants. The fact that it was confirmed to be her birthday held no sway with him, and even though we explained our predicament- her stolen purse, being late for a gig, and the fact that the road we were speeding on was completely deserted, he still almost gleefully wrote us the ticket.

Finally arriving in St. Louis, we sent our entire band-fund back to LA by money order. Our reasoning was that because of the way things had been going, we were scared to keep a big amount of cash with us, in case it got lost or stolen. Plus, our gig that night had the largest guarantee of the tour, so we’d be flush in a matter of hours.

When we got to the club, the booking agent who’d hired us had apparently been fired recently and the new manager was like, "Screaming WHO?"

We sat in the parking lot forlornly, with grim reality setting in. We had only sixty-odd dollars left to share between seven people- counting our personal monetary stashes- and no gig for three days. As it began to snow, we made repeated attempts to contact the promoter of the next show, in Kansas City, by pay phone, but no dice. Boy, were we bummed.

Pretty soon, the guys in the Top Forty house band showed up for their gig that night. Somehow, they found out that we were a stranded all-girl band from LA, and, interest piqued, they smuggled beer and popcorn out to us. We shared our last shreds of pot and told them our tale of woe.

They excitedly told us that Supertramp was playing the coliseum down the street and that the after-party was being held here at the club...LIKE WE CARED! Supertramp? You must be kidding! We were so “alternative” that we had no idea what Supertramp’s hits were, and didn’t give a shit anyway.

But those Top Forty guys were being nice to us, so we were nice right back, acting suitably, charmingly impressed with this “amazing” news.

We borrowed a couple of bucks from them, promising sincerely to send it back from our next gig, and went out to a dismal Italian birthday dinner at The Spaghetti Factory, all of us sharing plates of food, drinking communally from the decanter of hellish cheap red wine. Laura blew out her one candle and we split a stale chocolate cup cake as though it was manna from heaven. We barely had enough to pay the bill, and left someone’s keychain and a punk rock badge as a tip.

We drove back to the club's parking lot (where else were we gonna go, after all?) and figured since it was really starting to blizzard by now, and we didn’t want to risk driving or running out of gas, in a snow storm, that we’d spend the night there in our unheated van.

On cue, Top Forty guys came out again with more beer and we joked around. Even though they were "normal" and we were punk rock scum, we were still chicks, and chick musicians, no less… which really was a novelty in those days. They were intrigued with us, because even though we were broke and stranded, we were living out a rock 'n' roll dream, and besides, we were from HOLLYWOOD!

The guys went inside and convinced the manager to let us play a set on their equipment, and were insanely delighted when we emerged from the bathroom, looking all fresh and newly made-up with our garish Ronnettes-style eyeliner and Wet ‘N’ Wild ninety-nine cent lipstick. I have to say that we always cleaned up very well, even on tour, with hangovers and no showers. The Top Forty guys kept bringing us pitchers of beer before we went on, and while they played, they announced to the entire club that it was Laura's birthday, and told our whole sad, crazy whole story onstage.

Pretty soon the entire club was singing "Happy Birthday" to Laura. We played a wild set, with audience members sending trays of shots up onto the stage. Construction workers in plaid shirts were jumping right up onto the stage to shake our hands, steal a kiss or do a shot with us. The audience was going crazy, they'd apparently never seen five girls in torn-up lingerie and biker jackets jumping around, sweating, cursing and playing well!

Right when we finished, the guys from Supertramp started congratulating us, buying us rounds of cocktails and giving us tons of blow in the dressing room, yelling in English accents about how “FAKKING GREHT!” we were… then they played, and in between songs, took up a collection from the audience so we could have gas money. We’d played with a wild assortment of bands in our career, from The Ramones to Roseanne Cash, but never thought we’d ever open for Supertramp!

By the end of the night, our roadie had gotten in touch with the promoter in Kansas City and he arranged a place for us to stay that night, which turned out to be his mom's house (soft beds, home-cooked meals, cable television, yeee-haw!) so our luck had completely turned around.
It’s been over twenty years, but to this day, if you mention the word "birthday" to Laura, she winces and pain and changes the subject right away.