"Corruption!" yelled Veronica, her tightly laced bodice sparkling, with her fist thrust in the air. The crowd screamed. It was a rallying cry at Emilie Autumn's show at the Beaumont last night: something that everyone -- from teenage girls with pink hair to their mothers in tennis shoes and sparkling teal tops -- could get behind.
After all, we were at an Emilie Autumn show: the vegan, bi-polar, asexual Victorian industrial, classically trained violinist, who has a tattoo on her arm of her cell-block number from her stay in the mental. Oh, and she's also obsessed with rats.
Unsurprisingly, freak behavior was at a premium at the Beaumont. Here are the top five disturbing moments that I witnessed last night.
1. The bum chasing the goth girl.
Incredibly, this happened before I even set foot in the venue. After parking my car and walking past Westport Coffee House, I passed a teenage girl in red fishnets with 10-pound goth boots, caked black eyeliner, and a bare midriff splattered with fake blood looking fearfully over her shoulder while she paced past me. Abruptly, a bum on a bicycle rolled up behind her, calling out: "I know yer skinny, but I love ya!" (Turns out, this guy was actually in the show and got kicked out. The cops were questioning him on the sidewalk across the street from the venue. Great.)
2. The creepers.
An upsetting number of bearded dudes with ponytails and leather jackets stood toward the back of the venue with their hands in their pockets, watching the stage -- and Emilie Autumn and her girls' playfully sexual stage antics -- with rapt attention. I got the feeling that most of them came alone. (Of course, some of them may have come along with the throngs of girls that crowded toward the stage in veils and black lace, many of whom looked like they idolized Helena Bonham Carter.)
3. The girl with the cane.
Sorry, I had to include it: One fan donned a top hat, around which she'd tied glittering red scarves and hung Mardi Gras beads. This wasn't out of the ordinary, until I realized that she was carrying a straight-up cane as an accessory. It was black, and it had a silver duck head. And she raised it to toast Emilie Autumn onstage, when she emerged in full mask, gloves and skirt, from behind her gigantic shadow clock on the night's first number.
4. Emilie Autumn's Bloody Crumpets.
In interviews, Autumn has referred to her stage show as "dinner theater," because she and her backup singers -- she calls them her "Bloody Crumpets" -- routinely hurl muffins and spit tea at the audience. Of course, the show is also indebted to the Rocky Horror Picture Show (duh) and a lot of the cheesy horror that one will find in the West Bottoms around October. The skits were actually wildly more entertaining than the music, much of which was pre-programmed, with Autumn singing over harsh electronic beats.
That is, besides when Autumn whipped out her violin, playing it with the showmanship of a rock star. Her snarling solos were nothing short of chilling and were far sexier than any of the prancing and preening she did onstage last night.
The interplay among the four women was absurdly theatrical enough to recall some of Bette Midler and Sarah Jessica Parker's witchy weirdness from Hocus Pocus. They contorted in garters and corsets with feathers, glitter and "whore-red" lipstick, spewing tea and spanking each other, among other sorts of semi-scandalous activities. But I've saved the most scandalous for last.
"You're all so dirty," Veronica said, flirting viciously with the crowd between songs.
"Is this what's been going on all along?" Autumn asked Veronica, acting with the faux authority of a dominatrix. Someone from the crowd yelled, "No! It's much worse!" Someone else hurled a bra onstage.
"You don't deserve this," said Autumn, holding the bra, to the cowering Veronica.
"I know the sickening thoughts that slither around in your head. You've been thinking of running your fingers up and down my ... harpischord."
Then, Veronica asked Autumn that if she played the harpischord really, really really well, if she could play the Rat Game. Autumn said she could, if she could play the harpischord really, really really well. (All while the two women are caressing each other onstage, inches from each other's faces.)
Of course, Veronica killed the harpischord on another tune ("Stretch your fingers, Veronica. They're not your primary instrument," joked Autumn), and Autumn slipped backstage. (First, Veronica trapped Autumn in a searing kiss.) "Did they actually leave me alone with you?" asked Veronica, purring into the microphone. "Since this show has started, I've been thinking about doing really dirty, perverted things to you that are probably illegal in four countries. You made me do it."
Thus began the Rat Game: where Veronica chooses one female crowd member who is over 18, "pure as the driven snow," and who has never kissed a girl but wants to kiss Veronica.
Veronica invited an 18-year-old girl with hot-pink hair onstage, who was wearing little cardboard rat ears. (She was carrying a handmade sign, which Veronica said was decorated with "glitter and her own blood.") Veronica even directly referenced Dr. Frankenfurter, asking if the crowd member was trembling with "antici...pation." After much titillating fanfare -- an eskimo kiss, a hair caress -- Veronica smooched the girl passionately, knocking off her cardboard rat ears.
"Another one corrupted!" Veronica screeched, triumphant; and the crowd went wild.
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Disturbing? For some maybe yes, but that the meaning in it dum, dum... If you knew some background you wouldn't write this. I give you and advice. If you don't want to look like a dum, dum please do read some background of a person before you say anything a bought that person. And by the way what's asexual in this? Yea I know she's called to be asexual, but what is asexual in this post? I think you out walking on thin air. I grantee that you could find any person to criticize beacsue nobody is perfect and nobody can make a show to every bodies taste. With that said I still think Emilie is great, but if your NOT an open minded person to understand here properly you have to know some background. Get the background knowledge first then talk.... OK ?
lol wow you are really retarded. what exactly does feminism mean to you? does it mean not acting "girly" at all?
and what exactly does the desire for self expression through clothes and make up have anything to do with being a "dumb bimbo"? if you CLEARLY dont like being a "woman" (-as defined through your ignorant stereotyping)
then go have a sex change.
Rylie, such ignorance just spewed out of your mouth. I am neither classless, goth-obsessed, slutty, horny or idiotic...
I love art, I love Emilie Autumn, I am a fan of her creativity, she exudes art in every sense of the word...
Sit down, have a cup of tea and join us in this decade...
my ears are not cardboard..... >.>;;
best night of my life :D <3
Wow, not everybody has to like Emilie Autumn and her show. If the author of this article found certain aspects of the show disturbing, why not let her? She is in no way putting a stop to your fandom. Freedom of speech is a wonderful thing. Too bad it doesn't fit in with the hivemind of raging fangirls and fanboys...
And oh, before you attack me with petty remarks like 'You don't understand her ART! You don't even KNOW Emilie Autumn!': I've been a fan since 2006 and I have been to all her tours since 2007.
If you think things are disturbing at the show, don't fucking watch it!
oh yay, i love debating feminism with uptight kneejerkers who view attractive women as an affront to the feminist movement! yay!
...and the women's movement gets set back yet another decade. Thanks, ladies.
Classless garbage for goth-obsessed sluts and horny idiots.
Sorry, but this post is ridiculous. I always adore EA's shows, her music as a whole and of course the Bloody Crumpets.
For the record, I was one of those "creepers". I was the one with the beard, eyebrow ring, glasses, and black jacket. And I wasn't there alone. I was with the other bearded guy (this one with a pony tail) in the hoodie.
Just because a guy has a beard, likes Emilie Autumn, and didn't feel the need to fight the swarms of baby bats to get closer to the stage does not make us creepers. Frankly, I think it makes us less of creepers because we left you to do your thing, and you left us to do ours (which was enjoy our drinks, and watch one of the best live shows I've seen since GWAR).
Elke Mermis, I have no idea who you are, but I find your labeling us by our appearance alone completely uncalled for, and frankly a very un-plague rat thing to do. We're all individuals in our own way, after all.
I"m inclined to afree. The article is dripping witg sarcasm. I'd say the author was, at the very least, mildly amused by the antics.
dear hysterically defensive plague rats,
i think the author is being facetious in her remarks about the "disturbing" behavior in the show. you know, much how emilie and vv and the gang are very facetious in their girl-on-girl theatrics throughout the show... see how all of it goes together?
(i've seen them live, yes.)
that 'corrupted girl' is my granddaughter, and I was there also. That show is an excellent burlesque/circus show. I was disappointed there was no ribbon dance this time (I attended their show in Lawrence, Ks last year, which was my first time, and Glorious).
As for those ears, they were not cardboard. My granddaughter made them they are cloth and have gears and teapots and all sorts of beautiful things on them, a true work of PR art.
For those of you who only went into that performance because you had to for the press, this most likely was disturbing, for all the reasons you named.
But to her loyal fans, this was the norm. Emilie Autumn's shows are famously theatric. Some of the bloody crumpets come from a circus.
The whole show is meant to be something between a burlesque show and an victorian asylum.
The Bloody Crumpets all have strong personalities, and judging by their twitter pages, are very nice people to meet.
Emilie herself is also extremely nice, except when she's pissed off. Same goes for most people.
Veronica's cry of "Another one corrupted!" fits in with her personality as the Naughty Veronica.
The Rat Game is a fun part of the show, with two consenting adults. The girl is not forced in any way to take part.
You could have looked on youtube to get a feel of the shows before you went.
If you didn't like this, exactly why did you go?
Hey! Me and my friend are in two of those photographs! I was hit on by that creepy guy, but you know what? That happens to girls EVERYWHERE. I don't care how "disturbing" it may have been for you... Then why did you go? It was performance art. Period. Emilie Autumn is a fantastic musician, and herself along with her Bloody Crumpets are amazing, multi-talented professional performers. If that is enough to disturb you... I am happy for you, because it means that you have not been exposed to much (at all).
Hey! That's me with the bright red hair standing next to Shawna (The girl who Veronica kissed with the bright pink hair and the rat ears)! That show was INCREDIBLE! I love Emilie Autumn and her Bloody Crumpets! I don't care if you think it's disturbing.
Wow, if you knew anything whatsoever about Emilie Autumn, or read her book, you would understand that pretty much all of her show is sarcastic.
This article is ridiculous.
Despite all of the debauchery, Autumn famously claims that she's asexual.
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