Boobies and Beer: Bender's Tavern Hosts Burlesque Hall of Fame Benefit

Forget about 5k's and telethons, bring on the bustiers and nylons! Last Thursday night Bender's Tavern hosted a naughty little affair when some of Colorado's most talented vixens of variety teamed up!  Their goal was to raise money to help send the legends of burlesque to the Burlesque Hall of Fame event in Las Vegas, NV. It is the only gathering of its kind, with the primary goal of preserving Burlesque as an American art form by immortalizing the daring women who embraced it.  Finally!  Strip tease artists are getting their due. What the hell took so long? (We Americans just can't seem to shake those aggravating Puritans who, while settling the country, indelibly set forth sexual conservatism to the extreme. It's astounding, really, that they managed grow the population.)

Cora Vette

The show was presented by Burlycute, a local troupe spearheaded by Miss Cora Vette. Sundry performers, from freshies to established minx types swizzled our sticks! And some gals even traveled several hours to do so. Thank you ladies - you were worth the wait, and we're sure your burlesque goddess-fairies will be appreciative.

Whoopsie Daisy

By the end of the night there was only one thing to say. "Oh baby, baby! We love the way these ladies raise money!" When they wiggle and grin, eyebrows raise... When the audience can't wait another moment, skirts raise... When the dirty joke is a screamer, drinks raise! When it all happens at once - pow! It's sexy philanthropy at its best.

Honey Touche'

Scroll on to enjoy photos of many of the night's "thighlights". Saucy!  Alas, some of our favorite performers are not shown here, because the low light setting made our photos a bit swishy.  But suffice it to say they ALL delivered on the promise of great entertainment. Including three chanteuses who proved that a living, breathing, sexy woman who knows how to sing is still one of the mostly classically arousing performances out there. In fact, any breathy, glowing lass who struts her stuff on stage without apology is sexier than a magazine model or MTV pop star any day of the week.  At least in our opinion.  Which is the only opinion that counts here because this is Denver Subculture and we do what we want!

F$%# the mainstream!
   

Holly DeLite of the Cupcake Cabaret

Vivienne Vavoom

The Haute Toddies

Cholita Bang Bang

Lily D'Lovley

Fanny Fitztightlee

Midnite Martini

Bang Bang Von Loola of the Cupcake Cabaret

Veronica VanTassel

Ava L'amour of Peaks & Pasties

June and Rose
Show attendees &
Graduates of Vivienne Vavoom's School of Burlesque

 A fan of the show - dressed to the nines!

Preshow panache with Veronica, Honey and Fanny

2 of the treats from the Cupcake Cabaret

Luke - Ornery yet generous Bender's Mastermind who showed his
support by providing the stage for the crazy (nearly) naked ladies!
He's also part of the kickass band King Rat.
Check'em out - unless you're a sissy bitch.
This band has balls.

Mama - Gracious Head Mistress of Benders who showed
her support by providing the crazy (almost) naked ladies
with the perfect venue for their show.

Click here to gawk at Bender's Tavern event calendar.  And if you enjoyed this display of subculture at its sexiest, subscribe to the Denver Subculture feed and Like us on Facebook.  We'd love it if you shared this with your friends too!  When possible we've included links to the various web pages that are associated with these performers.  Click their names to be zipped away to their sites where you can learn more.

And if you stand out in a crowd in an ostentatious way - drop us a line at denversubculture@gmail.com.  We're always looking for people and passions to feature.

F$%# the mainstream!

Sofi Needs A -nother Show in Denver!

Sofia Toufa - Vocal Artist on 'Sofi Needs A Ladder'
Photo courtesy of:  thatchickelle.com

By: Kristine Condition
In my last post about the Denver Nail Lounge I made reference to a show I saw at Beta a few weeks ago.  Tommy Lee was in town that night, mixing it up with DJ Aero.  I was super enthusiastic about my first opportunity to see him in an electro environment.  Having met him and seen him perform at many Motley Crue concerts, I was certain of the good time I was about to have.

I’m a rocker at heart, but I also grew up dancing to a lot of techno.  It was HUGE when I was a teenager in the mid 90’s, and if you danced – you danced to techno.  You did it looking like David Bowie meets Tim Burton, and that was a highly unusual look at the time.  There was no Lady Gaga, no Rhiana, no one in popular culture making it okay to be oddly colorful and somewhat disconcerting.

Today’s teenagers view an avant garde personal appearance as admirable and desirable because modern media gives them the courage to do so.  Mainstream kids in my day, the cookie cutter mother fuckers, had no appreciation for the eccentricity that was central to the way my friends and I looked, dressed and lived our lives.  They were incapable of understanding our romance with theatrics and the underground, and we were frequently shunned.   Thank God, because that was the point.  Most important to this article is the fact that they did not ‘get it’ with regard to the long nights we spent dancing.

Sofia Toufa
Photo courtesy of: twitpic.com

When I dig past the inevitable painful memories of my teen years, I can find exquisite moments wherein I was dancing.  Moments when I was aloft in smoke and lights and music, feeling beautiful and at home on top of the highest speaker I could climb.  Sharing it with everyone in the room, yet blissfully alone in my pretty techno bubble.  Personal freedom came courtesy of those secret nightclubs and illegal raves and we consumed it ravenously.  Often without all the drugs people assume were part of the experience. The dancing was the drug.

Eventually the kids who kept the GAP in business got hooked on a couple of the techno anthems that were huge at the time.  One night I showed up at my prized underground dance club and every unoriginal fuck I hated in high school was standing in a line that had never before existed.  They were soon to be at the raves too, and the scene met its demise for a while.  C’est la vie.

In 2011 electro music is enjoying the good life again, flowing in the major artery of the mainstream.  As a result, though, the problem of posers is as real as ever.  Except they now try their damndest to look LIKE the subculture.  In short, it is now normal to be weird.  Because this is the case, it’s all the more difficult these days to discover artists and music that are engaging in an authentic way.  I’m always hunting for that raw, genuine edge that is detectable because it emanates from within its source – as opposed to being put on by someone trying to emulate it.

Tommy Lee and DJ Aero
Photo courtesy of: flickr.com

When I saw Sofia Toufa perform at Beta in Denver I surprisingly discovered that flavor of originality and verity that is so elusive.  Needless to say, I was thrilled.  As I said, I went to see Tommy and exploit the opportunity to revisit a strobe light induced oblivion.  Tommy, along with DJ Aero, did not disappoint.  As I danced and pushed drunken bimbos out of my way in the front row, I could see Sofi standing nearby.  I didn’t know that she had any relevance to the show beyond being Tommy’s girlfriend.  I’d encountered them backstage at a different show in the past and their fondness for each other was evident then.  Little did I know that she was about to