HARK!
I hear…the hissing snake of ssssssexism…
One of the great things about local music: No one cares what you look like.
Sadly, once acts “make it big,” it soon becomes all-about-the-look.
Take the talented Billie Elish. How’s this for can’t win: People bash her when she dresses scruffy…then she really gets it when she glams up for a Vogue cover.
Headlines: “Billie Elish Ditches Her Blonde Bob for a Sleek New Brown Shag” and “Billie Eilish Said Her Experimental Vogue Cover Was Meant To Be 'A Specific Aesthetic For A Photo Shoot' And 'Not A New Style' After Critics Called Her Out For Wearing Lingerie And Form-Fitting Clothes.”
Ditto for the hyper-talented Adele: “Adele Has To Dye Her Eyebrows Or Else She Looks Like Voldemort.”
The above Getty Images photo shows Adele in a 2017 concert; OK, so she looks a little different, four years later....
Many publications are more interested in her “physical transformation” than the talent she bleeds into her new album, “30.”
My favorite lines from the sharply-written album:
“I hope I learn to get over myself
Stop trying to be someone else”
Billboard does a great breakdown of each song on the new album here.
But much of the publicity elsewhere has been around the singer’s “new look.”
As the New York Post shouted, “Adele: ‘It’s not my job’ to make fans feel better about my weight loss.”
The amateur critics lurking on the internet are even worse, “body shaming” the likes of Adele, Billie, Britney Spears, Taylor Swift, Amy Schumer….
Notice it’s always the women?
Ssssssexism lives…
On the national-pop level, that is.
On the local level: Who cares?
People come to bars and modest clubs to hear singers screaming their lungs out, drummers crushing the kit like it’s a mean boss, etc.
Take the “Sunday Songwriters” series at Pho Cao, a Scottsdale Vietnamese restaurant with an elegant vibe and love of live music.
This week, Dec. 5, Pho Cao on McDowell near Miller, a few blocks south of upscale Old Town, features the eclectic pop of Adam Smith with the Wild Banchees, a hippie-jam outfit with Orlando the Fiddler, Bill Ypsilanti blowing tenor sax, Shan Jam Crane swinging from vocals to guitar to flute, Bigfoot Hairy Larry strummin’ bass and Ken Elkind hitting the drums.
Smith is a neo-folk rocker with a quirky sense of humor.
There’s no cover with music starting at 7 p.m.
If you miss the show tonight, there are plenty more lined up.
The Sundays at Pho Cao schedule:
12-12 Earl Foote & Dylan
12-19 Chris Lewis
1-9 TBA
1-9 Alan Parry
1-16 Chris Lewis
1-23 Adam Smith
1-30 Lee Robert
The Wild Banchees groove out after guest artists do their sets every Sunday. For more on the band, click here.
Crane is the organizer of the night. “I routinely post videos of guest performers on my personal Facebook page."
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