I'm a Little Bit Country and a Little Bit Punk: Mickey Avalon, Beardo, Ke$ha @ Slim's, 11/5/09

2 years and 8 months ago, a fledgling HRC wrote about her first Mickey Avalon show at Popscene. Since then, I’ve seen him three other times, with DJ AM (RIP), with Andre Legacy and Dirt Nasty, and with Beardo. I may be a mostly rock/metal/industrial chick, but truth be told I was raised in the heyday of gangsta rap, and part of me will always will always have a taste for that bass.

I enter Slim’s and make my way through the crowd of young girls and fratty dudes to the stage. The opening act, Ke$ha, came out and performed a quick set of girl pop rap. The female singer, presumably names Kesha, is in hot pants and oddly enough has the eyelashes of one eye drawn on, just like my Alex DeLarge Halloween costume. She is flanked by an uber hipster ‘guitarist’ and a DJ, both shirtless…and a girl with a keytar who looks like a cross between Lady Sovereign and Lady Gaga but is mysteriously called Lady Tampon. Or Laser Tampon. I couldn’t hear exactly what was said…..either way, it was pretty much my own personal hell. They were bathed in glitter and had dollar signs painted all over them, and sang a song about ‘old dudes who hit on young chicks called ‘Dinosaur’. Not. For. Me.

After a lengthy break, Beardo came out with DJ Mackey. In an impressive improvement from last year’s show, everyone knew the words….except me and my friend. His music is rap punk like Mickey, only he occasionally plays the guitar and has a pretty impressive mullet. He wears skin tight acid washed jeans and has the Grim Reaper tattooed on his arm and an AK-47 tattooed across his chest. His covers of ‘Paper Planes’ and ‘Fight for Your Right’ were fun but obvious choices. His attempt to be a little more rock than Mickey is lost on me, but the crowd seemed to enjoy it.

The swarm of girls start to push and shove as Mickey’s set draws closer. The lipstick is out, the hair is being fiddled with…..Mickey just has that affect on women. He comes out to the usual ‘Hey Mickey’ flanked by two scantily clad dancers, and opens with ‘Waiting to Die’, the first track off his first album. Oh how I love that album. The girl behind me screams and tells her friend, “I totally wanna fuck him…is that bad?”

The dancers do their thing alongside Mickey…they are never the same girls, but they always have the same vibe- mid tier strippers. Mickey’s brand of sleazy punk rap is always exciting to witness, and the girls just make it over the top. The beats are back to basic, stripped down bass lines- none of the poppy auto-tuned crap that has invaded all of the rap and hip hop genre.

The set contains a lot of his new songs that must be cued up for his yet to be released second album. I’m split- some of them sound great and in the same vein as his first; others have lyrics and beats that are much more light and poppy. This is surely a result in the change of lifestyle for Mickey Avalon- that first record was a product of years of hard living, while this one is born from his rise to fame.

I wouldn’t go as far as to say that this performance was mellow in comparison to past ones, but he did seem to be on good behavior. The shirt is usually off a song or two in, exposing that iconic ‘Thank You’ tattoo. Girls are screaming, “take your fucking shirt off!”, but he doesn’t listen until the final song. Must be hard to be a female sex symbol like that.

During ‘Hustler Hall of Fame’, Mickey starts going down the line of girls in the front row giving them kisses- something I had seen but never partaken in myself. I was at the far corner filming, so I handed my camera to my friend and had her capture the moment. I got a tiny peck on the cheek…..because I am a laydee….and I don’t need no H1N1 from any of those other chicks down the line.

Hustler Hall of Fame (over Whole Lotta Love) ~ with a very polite kiss on the cheek at the 1:45 mark

After the show, Mickey came out to sign stuff and take pictures at the merch booth. My friend and I queued up to get a picture towards the back of the line. I was fighting with my camera as the flash wouldn’t turn on, when I feel a hand on my back as someone is passing by. I look up, and Beardo is totally giving me the perv move as he walks by…we exchanged a few words and my friend and I start cracking up.

When we walked outside, I asked a guy standing out front to take a picture of me and my friend. I chose him because he looked the least harmless out there. After he took it, he proceeded to try to get us to go across the street with him to Butter– a ‘white trash bar’. We respectfully declined and scurried away….but it was somehow a perfect ending to the evening.

Fuckin’ ‘Em All

So Rich, So Pretty