How to Fall Off the Beaten Path

Simone E Le Page performs at the Red Lotus Room

Go to an event with these directions: Behind an unmarked gray door (cut into a small roll-up gate)…wedged between a row of warehouses.

My Saturday night trip to the Red Lotus Room was an exotic exploration of sex and circus performers.  Low lighting and 20s and 30s style jazz from the Epistrophy Swing Band preshow transformed this huge space into a dream like state.  The Fellini inspired sound and décor took you back to the 1930s from within this hidden performance space.  

Human sized bird cages and real life pin-ups girls created a mysterious and sexual vibe. 

Voluption: A Starry Assemblage of Dance, Music & Performance held a lot of firsts for me including burlesque dancers and contortionists.  There were street performers and one-man (and woman) performances.  The Hungry March Band and other musicians put on a great show.  Every time a new act began, I didn’t know what to expect.  There was a child on stilts shooting a bow and arrow, clowns and a belly-dancer!  This variety show presented by Little Miss Big Mouth unquestionably gave me an evening out of the ordinary. 

My favorite part of the experience was Sweet Soubrette.  This duo sings dark and slightly morbid love songs accompanied by a ukulele (furthering my need to play the uke).  Their song City People felt a little too close to home, but I think that is the point of most of their songs, to walk on the edge of too personal.  Either way, they were awkwardly awesome!

The festivities ended with a huge dance party and an even bigger line for the bathrooms for me.  I asked someone wearing a top hat, fake eyelashes and vest for directions from this obscure place where people balance knives of fire on their head, and I followed them all the way home. 

For the night, I fell off the beaten path, but I got right back up.