Review: LISA STEPHEN FRIDAY Leads A Rock Revolution at Joe's Pub

In the classic tradition of David Bowie, Bette Midler, Prince, and Joan Jett, Lisa Stephen Friday is a rock and roll artist set to make a mark on the industry and in the arts, and just like those four famous artist who have come before her, Lisa Stephen Friday is doing it all entirely her own way.  There is only one difference between Lisa Stephen Friday and the four aforementioned rock and roll trailblazers and groundbreakers: they are all superstars and Lisa Stephen Friday is a gig-working rock and roll singer/songwriter.  But that must change, and it must change as quickly as the world will allow because the world, the industry, the art form are ready for, are craving, are needing Lisa Stephen Friday.  Lisa Stephen Friday should be the first trans rock and roll superstar.  I don’t mean to say that there aren’t other trans rock singers, even rock stars, but we haven’t had the great good fortune to have a trans rock and roll artist rise to the level of visibility where the word superstar is applied.  And it’s time.  Indeed, there is no better time.

During her November 18th concert at Joe’s Pub, Lisa Stephen Friday talked a lot.  And a lot of what she talked about is being trans - being trans for her, being trans for others, being trans as a community.  Much of the audience on November 18th was made up of trans people but Lisa Stephen Friday did not talk just to them: she spoke to us all.  Lisa Stephen Friday spoke with her concert patter and she spoke with her art (the art, we will get to later) and her message couldn’t have been more crystal clear: we need community, we are community, we must remain community.  There’s no point in being coy about it: these are scary times in this country.  And while it is my personal mission to stay out of all political rhetoric in my life and in my writing, it cannot go without saying that these are scary times.  And one of the groups of people living in this country for whom life is, has been, and will be scary is our trans family (and if you are reading this and do not consider the trans members of society family, please take some time to meditate, pray, or journal and change yourself).  The trans community is under siege, and they are fighting for their lives, and any time they (and the people who support them) gather, it is an act of activism.  So the Lisa Stephen Friday show at Joe’s Pub wasn’t just a concert, it wasn’t just a night out, it wasn’t just a shared moment of joy brought on by exposure to art - it was a rally.  It was a revolution.  And Lisa Stephen Friday led it like a prophet, like a preacher, like a politician, with articulacy and intelligence, with passion and heart, and with an entire room of people in the palm of her hand.  It was a powerful evening with a powerful message speaking in favor of community.  And that is one of the main purposes of creating art: creating community.

Now, about the art (I told you we would get there).  

Lisa Stephen Friday and her band put on one heck of a rock show last week.  The songs (all originals) all begin and end with a solid (and solidly enjoyable) melodic line, and the lyrics are both poetic and purposeful.  Add onto that foundation exquisite musicianship and thrilling vocals and you’re in for ninety minutes of chair dancing, hand clapping, head bobbing, and feelings.  The lady and her set are eloquence personified, and the arrangement of the presentation could not have been mapped out with more precision.  Opening number “Fabulously Done” was the perfect way to kick off the evening, with Dena Tauriello’s drums and Friday’s guitar announcing, firmly, what the mood of the night would be before even one word was sung.  And then came the vocals, the eye-opening, eyebrow-raising, jaw-dropping vocals.  For newcomers to the Lisa Stephen Friday sound (raises hand), the effect was impressive.  Now, I have a confession to make:  I am partially deaf (many people know this, that is not the confession) and even though I wear hearing aids, at rock and roll shows, I am not always apt to catch all the lyrics - so the musicianship is extremely important to my enjoyment of the evening.  When huge guitar riffs are in the room, when loud beats are in the air, vocals can get stuck in the speakers, no matter how gifted a sound designer or how high-tech a sound system may be.  In the case of the LSF show and Joe’s Pub, I will admit that I was able to grab hold of about seventy percent of the lyrics.  The loss of words did not affect my evening because Lisa, Dena, and fellow musicians Adam J. Rineer (Keys and Musical Direction), and Vivi Rama (Bass) did their jobs.  They showed up.  They understood the assignment.  They made the music universally great and personally relatable, so that all of my emotions were accessible, even when lyrics were not, in the same way that one can still feel the story when taking in an opera in a foreign language.  Well done, Friday and co.; my deaf ears thank you, and so does my feeling heart.

For the duration of her rock show, Lisa took her audience (many of whom were so familiar with the work that the first four chords often drew cheers) through a range of material from some of her earliest works (a Bruce Hornsby-inspired “The Shade” was quite fun) to her latest single “Sober and Insane” (available on Spotify HERE) with side trips to trunk songs like the radio-ready “Thanksgiving Dinner” and work from the upcoming musical DOLL/GIRL (written with Joseph Ritsch).  Musical theater was, in fact, heavily featured on the 18th, as Friday outlined a budding relationship she has with The Public Theater that will yield A MUSICAL FOR HENRIETTA, from which she presented a delectable duet (“All Dressed Up”) with singer Jimmy Ray Bennett that bodes beautifully well for the new property.  Let us not forget, though, that Lisa Stephen Friday is a rock and roll artist, and once the IRL endorsement for her upcoming musical theater work was finished, it was back to the rock and roll with another evening highlight, the driving and exciting “Maria” - a number so incredible that it might, well, have served as show closer.  But no concert is complete until the artist has played their latest release, and that new release had its moment in the light as Lisa Stephen Friday brought the audience to a frenzy with back-to-back performances of “Sober and Insane” and the amazing “Object Representation.”  It was impossible to not get swept away on a frenzy of any and every musician's craft.

Listening to the evening’s musical program, from the theatrical works to the rock compositions, Friday’s variety is visible, with apparent influences in alt-rock, country, pop, punk, musical theater, and differing decades.  The lady has not cheated herself in her intake of musical styles and genres, and she has allowed herself the luxury of weaving a ribbon of those influences into an artistic voice that lives somewhere between her head and her heart, thus creating an aesthetic that is all her own, an aesthetic that she shares with her audience through her stories… and what stories they are.  For this writer, the strongest and most satisfying was the lush, heartbreaking “Phone Book,” which Friday made all the more resonant with a moving monologue about her gender journey that was, alone, worth buying a ticket and leaving the house.  It was a performance of purest perfection nestled smack dab in the middle of a right proper rock show with a right proper rock superstar on her way to the top, preferably sooner rather than later, where a seat at the table awaits her.

Visit the Lisa Stephen Friday website HERE.

Find great shows to see on the Joe’s Pub website HERE.

Photos by Stephen Mosher

 

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