Twerk: to dance to popular music with the body bent low and the hips moving forwards and backwards
Big Freedia left me speechless the last time I saw her at P.O.S’s The Fucking Best Show Ever festival over the summer. She did it again last night only last night, I was a bit more prepared for what was going to happen… or at least I thought I was. That’s when I realized… you are never ready for a Big Freedia show and that’s part of the charm.
*Spoiler Alert* Before you get confused. Big Freedia is a gay man who wears women’s hair and carries around purses. She is not transgender and goes by either he or she (but she does prefer “she”, or so I hear). I will call her a she out of respect for her art and because she is nothing short of a queen diva in my mind.
Big Freedia is first and foremost an entertainer. Although she doesn’t play music that I frequently listen to or call myself a fan of, I love her live shows and will continue going to see her everytime she is in town.
She makes you want to move and you can’t help but smile from the first second you lay eyes on her. The crowd erupted as soon as they got a glance of the diva. Freedia, born Frederick Ross, was shuffled through the crowd before her set. Fans were trying to snap any picture they could of the larger than life musician. The hootin’ and hollerin’ didn’t end until Freedia got up on stage with her four dancers and DJ. Then that hootin’ and hollerin’ turned into a giant dance party full of some extremely happy people.
Big Freedia played song after song while the crowd jumped, danced and sang with smiles all around. You can’t help but smile when watching Big Freedia and her dancers on stage. There’s constantly something to watch whether you’re mesmerized by the dancing skills of the dancers, or watching Freedia command the crowd while flinging her dark, long, shiny hair around.
Freedia’s dancers are beasts. Just watching them makes me absolutely exhausted and makes my legs hurt. They twerk like I have never seen twerking done before. Miley Cyrus, hell, any other pop star out there, has nothing on these dancers and Big Freedia. These performers can twerk as if their life depended on it. There was even one point when one of the female dancers found her way up to the balcony and was twerking while hanging off the side of said balcony. It was definitely a sight to see.
Another sight to see was the “twerk off” that Big Freedia hosted up on stage. She brought around 15 audience members onto the stage to show off their twerking talents. It was hard to watch it all because of how many people there were on stage with their different “twerking styles” but through it all, Big Freedia was there, being Big Freedia, and making everyone dance, laugh, and smile whether you were on the stage or in the crowd.
As if Big Freedia wasn’t enough amusement for one night, Boyfriend was opening for her. Boyfriend is a female rapper from New Orleans (also home to Big Freedia). Boyfriend was nothing short of entertaining to watch. Boyfriend was joined onstage by two local scantily clad burlesque dancers. Boyfriend’s lyrics are vivid and inappropriate but also honest.
Her stage presence, much like that of Big Freedia’s, is larger than life. She had the crowd eating out of the palm of her hand and I mean more than just eating the candy she kept throwing out into the crowd. She kept the crowd mesmerized but her one woman show. Her outfits kept on changing as did the songs but her energy never changed. You couldn’t help but laugh at some of the lyrics and every female in the room instantly wanted to be her. She made it look so effortless and perfect.
Last night was a bit out of my realm of shows but it was probably one of the most entertaining shows I’ve been to in awhile.
Big Freedia left me speechless yet again.
Line Up:
Venue- Varsity Theater
Sausage Fest Meter- 0 out of 10
Broken Bones/ Injuries- None
Average Age- 30
Found in the Pit- Lost dancing Shoes
Crowd Surfers- None
Stage Divers- None
Overall Score- 7 out of 10
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