Lazerstarred?

There were no lazers and no stars needed the night Lazerstar, the one man local band consisting solely of Chase Capo, stole the night away from Nicky Click, America’s version of a slightly crass hipster feminist. He did it like the flip of the switch. He turned on the fun. She, it seemed, turned it off.

I have heard a lot about Lazerstar. I heard about the desire for sparkly things and the energetic, while slightly kitschy approach to the music. What I had not heard was actually any of Lazerstar’s music. So when Capo proceeded to take off his clothes, stripped down to nothing but metallic neon biker shorts and a yellow T-shirt, I was sure that all the rumors were true.

It was awesome. Not that I expected otherwise. It was sort of like a great book all your friends told you to read until you felt like you know it already, so you aren’t that excited about it. But then you finally read it and it really is one of the best books you’ve ever read. That is how I felt about Lazerstar. His energy was tangible and electric. The songs were light and energetic, but full of depth and connectivity. He played a guitar with a duct tape guitar strap. There was a guy, who we assumed to be either Capo’s biggest fan or very close friend, who was simultaneously both the most amazing dancer I had ever seen and also wildly out of control. And Capo made those neon blue biker shorts look almost fashionable.

However, my friend and I were really there for the Nicky Click show. I knew nothing about her, just that she had toured with a few bands I really enjoy and so I figured, by association, she would be good. Wrong. I listened to her songs on MySpace and I was less than impressed. Still, we showed up, ready to give it a shot.

When we arrived, there were Nicky Click music videos playing on the TV screens. The videos were ironic, I suppose, while hipster to the power of a gazillion. We found them extremely amusing.

Then we saw Nicky herself standing right behind me ordering some kind of adult beverage. I pointed at her and mouthed, “It’s her!” to my friend who had actually pointed her out to me, instead. When she came around a second time, looking for an ashtray, we decided to give her a matchbook with a cleverly written phrase scrawled on the inside flap. It read “Karaoke > Karate”.

We thought it was hysterical. That was until we found the matchbook discarded carelessly next to the abandoned ashtray. Uh-oh, had she found it offensive? Did she not understand that all the matchbooks had ridiculous fortunes written all over them? (I, in fact, took one home that read: if you are rendering matchbooks all night—you need to get laid.) Had she taken it personally, as in, “We think your music is glamorized karaoke”? Crap.

So later, after Lazerstar had put stars in our eyes, Nicky Click took to the stage, now donning a wig and an extremely short, ill-fitting French maid dress. After the excitement of Lazerstar, the energy and hilarity of the music that made us move, Nicky’s audience stood still. She reminded me of a cheap knock off version of the sexually expressive Peaches mixed into the larger than life Beth Ditto from The Gossip, both of which I love, but it just didn’t work. I felt bad for her. No one was dancing. In fact, people were leaving.

I am a fan of hers. She is very creative (we did love her music videos) and has a great persona. But it somehow did not translate into musical genius. Her music felt uninspired. Later, after sneaking away from the stage while Nicky wasn’t looking, my friend and I encountered Capo outside. After striking up a conversation we discovered that a) he loved both karaoke and karate b) needed to buy more neon metallic spandex and c) lived in a New York City Buddhist monestary for nearly three months. In fact, some of his music was written in reflection of his time there.

So there it is. Nicky Click is all attitude. She is so far into hipsterville that you can’t see the person inside the persona. And Lazerstar is all person that turns into a persona. And in the end you can’t be real good if you don’t got the real.