Pitchfork

Photos by Matt Jordan, text by Eric Harvey

Bonnie "Prince" Billy-- playing his classic 1999 album I See A Darkness in its entirety-- opening for Blowfly, a 62-year-old Redd Foxx-as-George Clinton who performs in a mask and cape? "Saturday Night Live" star/indie rock gadabout (and onetime Pitchfork contributor) Fred Armisen, performing an ironic drum solo in character for four minutes before both of them?

This event must be sponsored by a local video store specializing in obscure, campy exploitation films, right? Right.

Louisville, Kentucky's Wild and Wooly Video staged Sunday night's sold-out event at Headliner's Music Hall, both to celebrate its 10th year of satiating the Ohio Valley's need for Roger Corman and Dario Argento films, and to support Kosair Charities, a local not-for profit that provides low-cost medical care for children. The highly entertaining evening exposed the connections between the realms of indie rock and paracinema, both of which exist on the margins of the entertainment mainstream, through appeal to small segments of entertainment consumers.

Fred Armisen's set, which was entirely too short, blended two of his popular music-related characters from "SNL"-- timbale-playing stand-up Ferecito and batshit Norwegian interior decorator Noony Schöener-- into someone named Jens Hanneman. Jens explained the theoretical concept behind his loony free-jazz drum solo and then played it with over-expressive glee (and, it should be noted, a high degree of competence).

However, the crowd was there for Louisville native Will Oldham, and the floor filled as he and his seven-piece band (including former Superwolf collaborator and Chavez/Zwan member Matt Sweeney) took the stage, clad in homemade Wild and Wooly t-shirts. The irony of performing a record as sparse and elegaic as Darkness as a celebratory gesture may or may not have been included in the plans for the show, but it didn't matter once the band launched into a ramped-up, expansive version of "A Minor Place".

The set significantly reworked the original songs, as could be expected from the notoriously shape-shifting Oldham. The biggest beneficiaries were the wonderful "Madeleine-Mary", which swelled the original into an electrifying romp, and "Death to Everyone", which turned into the most ominous of audience sing-alongs. Louisville indie legend David Pajo showed up to contribute guitar to "Song for the New Breed", and "Black" hewed most closely to the original version, eschewing all band members save Oldham and his violinist.

While Oldham and company's wonderful performance of Darkness proved that revelry and mourning are but two spots on the same performative continuum, headliner Blowfly tested the true gonzo-ness of the mostly beardo-austere indie crowd. He poured on his signature Dolomite-esque misogyny, wearing a loose-fitting, sequined superhero suit while reworking funk standards into the most basic of puns. Thus, "Freddie's Dead" becomes "Freddie's Dick is Dead," the refrain from Bobby Womack's "Across 110th Street" is rhymed with "beat your meat," and so forth. Only the 'sploitation diehards stuck around (approximately 40% of Oldham's audience), but Blowfly's performance—a hybrid of nasty comedy, performance art, and music—was a fitting capper to the evening.

FRED ARMISEN:

BLOWFLY: