The Venomous Pinks, The Complainiacs, The Whorchatas at Cruisin' 7th 6-1-10

The Venomous Pinks, Phoenix‘s newest female punk power trio, made their debut Tuesday night at the Cruisin’ 7th lounge near downtown Phoenix. I was a little apprehensive about attending this show at first, as Cruisin’ 7th just happens to be a venerable Phoenix-area gay/transgender bar.. not my usual scene, but I felt that any new project featuring Sue Trainwreck and Drea Doll (ex-Janitors of Anarchy) was worth a look, and it also happened that I was downtown that night anyway, just a few blocks away at Macayo’s on Central Avenue, having dinner with Annie Venom of Green Lady Killers.



Annie Venom: Zombified.



Enchiladas and lively conversation with Ms.Venom made for a most pleasant evening, as we discussed our favorite monster movies and Anne’s recent evening of bar hopping--in zombie makeup-- after participating in last weekend’s downtown Phoenix Zombie Walk. Her bloody costume was so convincing that as she and fellow ghoul Theresa “Nacho” Montiel (of AZ Derby Dames) waited at a light-rail stop near the George & Dragon pub, an alarmed police officer pulled over and asked the two if they had just been assaulted!



Since Anne’s new job has been limiting her late-night adventures to weekends recently, I would have to go solo at the Venomous Pinks show at the nearby Cruisin’ 7th bar. Passing through the somewhat fruity-smelling front room bar, I arrived in the backroom stage area, with its rotating disco-style lights straight out of Lady Marmalade and witnessed the Venomous Pinks launching into their maiden performance. With plenty of local band experience behind them, they tore through a set that was noticeably tighter than most bands would be able to muster on their first night.





To a surprisingly full room of well-wishers that included Kyle Rose Stokes of The Love Me Nots and 602 Radio’s Eric “Molusk” DeWolf (whose band The Complainiacs were next on the bill that night), along with more than a few transvestites, The Pinks made an admirable ruckus that included such high-velocity furballs as “Katie Couric”, “Little Slut” (a souvineer from Sue Trainwreck‘s earlier band, Breakfast of Champions), and an amped-up take on the Laverne & Shirley theme “Makin' Our Dreams Come True”.

In the spirit of sexual expression, and with more than a little old-fashioned promiscuity, bassist Sue and drummer Julie both wore breast-baring ensembles (strategically placed pink duct tape kept it PG-13), while guitarist Drea remained virtuous and kept herself suitably covered.



The Venomous Pinks at Cruisin' 7th



Next up were The Complainiacs, who announced themselves as “Phoenix’s worst band”, and spent a good part of their set trying their darndest to live up to the billing. Most of their songs sound like rewrites of “Kick Out the Jams” played 50% faster, and it got a little repetitive after a while. The belly-dancing monkey girl was a nice touch though.





The evening’s finale was The Whorchatas, and to put it mildly, they were disgusting, offensive, awful, and annoying, but also were downright hilarious. Their up-the-ass humor, nearly nude bandmembers, and outrageous onstage antics (which included a kinky female assistant in a corset who pulled what appeared to be a turd out of frontman Richie Tovar’s rear end) threatened to clear the room, but those who stayed were evenly divided between those who were laughing uproariously and those who were turning an unnatural color. Even I had to turn away when the tatooed female assistant appeared to eat the piece of poo she had retrieved from the Tovar’s posterior (it was likely slight of hand involving a Twix bar, ala the infamous swimming pool scene in the movie Caddyshack). Throughout most of the set, Sue Trainwreck and I were laughing our heads off, while Julie and Drea apparently didn’t consider The Whorchatas’ behavior to be a laughing matter, as both of them had very unamused looks on their faces. They eventually had to excuse themselves. I must say The Whorchatas’ version of “Surfin’ Bird” was a hoot, and I briefly considered dubbing these jokers geniuses.

The Venomous Pinks will have another go-round with The Whorchatas at Connelly’s on July 10th.

--Karl Wentzel