Recently by Doug Rule

"Here he is!" Wanda Sykes said in a nelly voice as she swished across the stage at Strathmore last Friday night.

The popular lesbian comedian was impersonating a gay Navy Seals officer holding Osama bin Laden from a noose, in full limp-wrist fashion.

In fact, Sykes hypothesized from the stage that the American military's success in capturing and killing Osama bin Laden may have been directly linked to the ending of Don't Ask, Don't Tell. Gays in the military are really, truly all that they can be now that they don't have to hide, she suggested early on in a mostly new, hour-long stand-up routine. She offered no proof that openly gay, fey Seals were responsible for the death of bin Laden, of course. She simply made the correlation that bin Laden's death happened soon after DADT repeal. "Just saying," she said, as the crowd whooped and hollered at her theory.

Sykes attracted a predominately white, mostly older crowd to the gorgeous North Bethesda venue -- and the crowd appeared to be mostly straight to boot. That the show in the large, suburban venue sold out many weeks in advance is testament to her broad appeal, as well as to just how far queer comedy has come.

A stand-up sensation and popular screen sidekick for well over a decade, Sykes only came out as a lesbian a little over three years ago. But even now, her sharp, hilarious observations about everyday life, usually playing with stereotypes, are mostly not gay per se. Other than the military's gay advances, she noted the antigay stance of the Republicans running for president. But this was only as an aside to a longer exposition about hypocrisy: The candidates' names are every bit as unusual as "Barack Obama," and yet no one suggests they're not true, patriotic Americans as people still do the President.

Later, she talked about her struggles with giving up Chick-fil-A over the fast food joint's support of antigay politics. And she urged the straight men in the audience to "power-wash" their balls as a Valentine's Day gift to their beloveds. Encounters with "sour balls" are partly what turned her gay, she joked.

But that was mostly it regarding the gay. These days, the bulk of her humor is built around her experience raising white twins, Lucas and Olivia, with her French wife. "I say French because it sounds better than white," she teased. From the satisfaction she gets out of calling her children "my little monkeys," to her daughter's penchant for calling her "Mammy" instead of "Mommy," Sykes succeeds in finding new material to mine from that shopworn source of parenthood.

Yet it's not just what Sykes says or even how she says it, in her funny, pinched voice. She's such a hit with stand-up -- and I mean that literally and figuratively – because of her skill with physical comedy.  At Strathmore, Sykes demonstrated the "leg sweep," one way she jokes about keeping her daughter in line. I didn't get what she meant when she tried to explain this while sitting down on Chelsea Lately. But standing up at Strathmore, she kicked a wooden bar stool clear off the stage and into the crowd simply by sweeping her right leg as she turned around. She joked that it's her trick for getting Olivia to hold her hand when crossing the street: She knocks her down first, forcing her to grab her hand to get up.

It may not be at all funny in real life, but like so much of her routine, Sykes sure does make it sound funny -- hysterical even -- on stage

Follow @metroweekly

Get Spotlight in your inbox. Join our mailing list.

Is LMFAO a fad?

Well, if the dance-rap crew that goes by the Internet acronym doesn’t prove to have staying power, it’s at least taking full advantage of the moment, with sky-high popularity of its carnival-like, over-the-top antics. In concert, LMFAO comes across like the Black Eyed Peas on speed -- and not just because the group offers an even more hyper cover of BEP’s already hyper hit “Boom Boom Pow.”

Led by Redfoo (Stefan Kendal Gordy) and SkyBlue (Skyler Husten Gordy), LMFAO drew a boisterous, sold-out crowd to the Fillmore Silver Spring on Thursday, Nov. 17 -- a headline show after opening for Ke$ha on an arena tour over the summer. Radio station Hot 99.5 sponsored the concert, and its DJs spun before and after the LMFAO carnival, handing out glowsticks to concertgoers as they arrived.  Many in the crowd also bought crazy t-shirts and even crazier oversized glasses -- technically, just eyeglass rims, the kind that Redfoo sports in LFMAO’s popular videos.

Fad or not -- whatever you might say about LMFAO -- the self-described party-rockin’ guys are laughing their asses off all the way to the bank.

But they’re not just laughing -- they’re also showing their asses to the masses. For LMFAO’s Right Said Fred-channeling hit “Sexy And I Know It,” the whole male crew paraded around on stage in itty-bitty Speedos, just as in the uproarious video. “When I'm at the beach, I'm in a Speedo trying to tan my cheeks,” the duo raps -- and with that, they turned around to show ‘em. One band member with a rocking bod -- giving truth to the song’s shouted refrain “I work out!” -- even ended up face down on the floor, with his Speedos pulled down to show his curvaceous backside in all its glory. Did I mention this band member was wearing a large cardboard-style box over his head, with electronic light slits for eyes?

Yes, it was a wild and crazy night at the Fillmore, and the band lived up to its name and its fame. LMFAO performed its breakout club hit from a few years ago, “I’m in Miami Bitch” -- the first to coin a phrase. (It’s hard to spend time in Miami anymore without at least thinking of the song.) The group also performed one of this summer’s biggest hits, the “Party Rock Anthem,” with its popular refrain, “Everyday I’m shufflin’,” referring to the video’s bouncy, hodge-podge style of group choreography.

At the start of the show, the crew threw out a life-sized inflatable zebra for the crowd to surf. Later, the guys threw out a beach ball. And for the minor hit “Champagne Showers,” the crew popped corks and doused and splashed each other in bubbly, as well as those at the front of the stage. They also performed in unison a lewd gesture right to the beat of the song’s title, suggesting an activity that produces a whole other type of liquid eruption.

If it sounds crass, well, it was. But it was also enormously entertaining -- and the crew only performed for about an hour and 15 minutes, so the silliness was over before it grew tiresome. Respectively, Redfoo and SkyBlu are uncle and nephew, and a son and a grandson of Berry Gordy, Jr. LMFAO may be nothing like the acts that the Motown founder launched into the mainstream generations ago, but for a new, multi-cultural, mixed raced generation, the dance/rap, “half-black, half-white, domino” LMFAO is just right, for at least right now.

These days, we could all use a good laugh.

Follow @metroweekly

Vote for the 2011 Coverboy of the Year! Click Here!

David Weissman and Bill Weber's powerful, captivating and carefully crafted We Were Here -- having just screened at Reel Affirmations -- is so much more than simply the first documentary to reflect on the arrival and impact of AIDS in San Francisco. It's also one of the first documentaries about AIDS to focus more narrowly on the community itself, at ground level -- not taking a top-down approach, quoting experts or celebrities. It offers personal accounts of how the disease dramatically changed the lives of regular citizens. The end result is that We Were Here helps widen our understanding of the epidemic's full impact. The story of the fight against AIDS is more complete because of it. At the West End Cinema, 2301 M St. NW. Call 202-419-FILM or visit westendcinema.com.

Follow @metroweekly

Moby admitted to being a former raver at his concert at the Fillmore Silver Spring on Wednesday, Oct. 26. He said he was even one of those annoying kids with glowsticks.

There were no glowsticks in the packed house that night, but the 46-year-old wasn’t the only former raver present. He wasn’t even the oldest. In fact, the concert was striking in part because of the wide range in ages -- and especially the number of people clearly over 50 who were dancing up a storm to Moby’s bodyrockin’ beats. Let’s call them senior ravers.

This dance-hearty crowd was ready for Moby, who went on more than 30 minutes later than scheduled -- though 8:35 p.m. is still early for this kind of show. He proved well worth the wait. The dance music pioneer brought even his popular sample-driven tunes -- “Natural Blues,” “Porcelain,” “Why Does My Heart Feel So Bad” and “Honey” -- to life with the help of a four-piece backup band: an astonishingly great vocalist, guitarist, keyboardist and drummer. At one point he invited one young hunk from the crowd to show off his keyboard-improvising prowess.

Moby couldn’t make up his mind if he wanted to play bongos, drums or electric guitar -- so in addition to singing, he bounced around and played them all repeatedly. He played them all well, too. In particular, banging out beats on snare drums in unison with his drummer gave new meaning to the term “pounding rhythm.”

Vocalist Inyang Bassey, who first gained notice on Moby’s new album Destroyed, kicked off the concert singing one of Moby’s best songs, 2002’s “In My Heart.” (The focus of the concert was on his hits; Moby and co. performed only a few new tracks.) Bassey proceeded to steal the show time and time again as Moby’s featured singer. His many techno-blues hits were far more powerful live in large part thanks to Bassey. 

But far and away the highlight of the concert was her duet with Moby covering Led Zeppelin’s “Whole Lotta Love.” The two, along with the rest of the band, tore through that classic, which lost none of its blues ache or blistering hard rock heat. 

The crowd gave Moby and his crew, especially Bassey, a whole lotta love right back.

Follow @metroweekly

At the end of its concert at the 9:30 Club on Monday night, Oct. 24, the Brazilian dance-rock band CSS gave a Beastie Boys-esque rap-chant, wishing the crowd well and hoping they got their money’s worth.

Did they ever: The lead singer, who goes by the name of Lovefoxx, saw to that all her own. Throughout the show, she both rapped and sung, mostly in fluent English but a few lyrics in her native Portuguese. She accentuated her looks by dressing up and down, including wearing a short-bobbed black wig until the very last number, an affirming punk-rock song about taking pride in how you look no matter what the outside world says. And with that, she revealed her inner-Debbie Harry, uncovering shoulder-length blonde locks.

Lovefoxx also did the splits at the end of several songs, she started to limbo at one point, she bodysurfed, she even jumped down into the crowd and acted like an awestruck concertgoer -- “I know that girl!,” she said, pointing to a fellow band member.

Her energy could not be contained.

No wonder the six-piece band with several queer members has such a die-hard fan base. They’re full-on amusing at every turn, right down to the band’s name: CSS stands for Cansei de Ser Sexy, which is the Portuguese translation of a 2003 quote attributed to Beyonce, saying she’s “tired of being sexy.”

 Oh yes, they did.

At the 9:30 Club, for probably its sixth or seventh visit in the past few years -- Lovefoxx has lost count -- the band plowed through its repertoire of tunes with infectious rhythms and cute melodies. Some of the tunes were a bit wild, even weird -- but they never ceased to be entertaining. For one song, they even trotted out a cowbell on a special stand, which one female member proceeded to play in the most dramatic of fashion. All praise the cowbell.

CSS has tapped a local drag queen on its current tour to kick off the party. In D.C., they selected Shea Van Horn, or really his drag alter-ego Summer Camp. Summer Camp told the crowd she wrote the book. No one dared deny.

Sharing the bill with CSS was MEN, led by JD Samson, who used to be in the feminist dance punk trio Le Tigre.

“We should always tour with them for the rest of our lives. We love them,” Lovefoxx effused about MEN. The crowd wasn’t quite as into MEN, but the explicitly feminist and queer trio of two women and one man soldiered on anyway. They won over all of those who can appreciate some liberal politicking -- they gave a shout-out to Occupy DC -- along with good, even great, music and music-playing, with tunes steeped in early ‘80s synth-pop. Samson had as much energy as Lovefoxx, giving a kick-boxer move at a couple turns and constantly air-playing the beat and the guitar riff of her cohorts. And wow, those guitar riffs: Michael O’Neill is a master bassist.

MEN even performed several dance songs in a continuous loop, as if it were a party night at the 9:30 Club with a DJ.

But even without a DJ, it was most definitely a party. Monday night never felt so good.

Rebecca Luker is as corny as Kansas in August. Well, at least that’s what she’s singing at the Kennedy Center Concert Hall this weekend. What she really is, though, is as charming as Julie Andrews in The Sound of Music.

Performing with the National Symphony Orchestra and the Washington Chorus, Luker proves she’s as good an interpreter of tunes from the “Golden Age” of Broadway musicals as any soprano before her, including Barbara Cook. Luker’s version of “A Wonderful Guy” from South Pacific is every bit as convincing as Cook’s definitive version. Luker is one of three soloists at the NSO Pops tribute this weekend to Rodgers and Hammerstein, one of the greatest duos in Broadway history. Tenor Aaron Lazar also shines throughout the night, and baritone Rod Gilfry has a moment or two. Steven Reineke, the NSO’s new Principal Pops Conductor, is an enthusiastic presence on the podium, and his energy is infectious.

The gay Reineke's move to launch his inaugural season with some of the best, most indelible showtunes ever written should not go unnoticed by local theater queens. And hearing a full orchestra, several times the size of a regular theater orchestra, along with a full chorus take on Broadway tunes is, in so many words, an enchanting evening. The vocals come sweeping down the plain in the chorus’s opening number, a wonderfully realized, transfixing interpretation of the theme to Oklahoma! It's all uphill from there, ending with Rodgers and Hammerstein’s commercial pinnacle, The Sound of Music.

 Which brings us back to Luker, who is nearly always smiling and swaying along, even when she isn't performing, regaling the crowd with her pristine soprano and clear diction. She chuckled as the chorus men took to whistling at various points, most gloriously in “There is Nothing Like a Dame.” And she repeatedly bobbed her head along as the orchestra launched into the night’s many jaunty refrains. Luker, who earned critical acclaim years ago starring as Maria in The Sound of Music, clearly loves this songbook. Just as clearly, it loves her right back.

Remaining performance tonight, Oct. 15, at 8 p.m. Kennedy Center Concert Hall. Tickets are $20 to $85. Call 202-467-4600 or visit kennedy-center.org.

Follow @metroweekly

Almost anytime a particular scene calls for dramatic, downright scary music, Hollywood instinctively turns to the opening number, “O fortuna,” in Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana. As a result, even the least classically minded among us -- and viewers of everything from Glee to Survivor to Speed, and countless sporting events -- know the work by sound, if not by name.

 But to hear the work live, and in full, is a special treat all its own. In performances this weekend at the Kennedy Center Concert Hall, the National Symphony Orchestra may not fully honor German composer Orff’s wishes that his most famous composition be performed in a theater, as a theatrical piece. But as led by guest conductor Rafael Fruhbeck de Burgos, the NSO certainly gets closer to it than you would naturally expect. The opening night performance on Thursday, Sept. 29, at least, was essentially as much of a theatrical show as it was a night at the symphony.

The NSO achieves its most dramatic rendering of the lively Carmina Burana chiefly by enlisting a stellar troupe of nearly 200 singers, performing the medieval poems about life, love, pleasure and especially pain that Orff included in the work. The esteemed 160-person Choral Arts Society of Washington is the real powerhouse of the performance, but the Children’s Chorus of Washington serves as sweet accompaniment. The stars of the show are three terrific opera singers, who embellish their great voices by acting out what they sing (in Latin, old German and old French). Soprano Laura Claycomb and baritone Hugh Russell are both stupendous, but it’s gay tenor Nicholas Phan who’s the true standout in a hilarious, all-too-brief role. Performing what is said to be one of the most difficult pieces in the tenor repertory, Phan sings the over-the-top part of a once pretty and lively bird, now about to be consumed at dinner. “Alas, poor me!” goes the English translation, as Phan wipes his brow, sighs with all his might and then finally slumps into his chair, lifeless. Oh, the drama of it all. 

The NSO opened the show with Beethoven’s self-described “little Symphony,” Symphony No. 8. Clocking in at under 30 minutes, this spry, lighthearted work is most notable for the many musical jokes Beethoven included in it, with sudden, unexpected shifts in rhythm, tone or melody, and with various instrumentalists occasionally egging others on in a kind of teasing, call-and-response fashion. De Burgos did a fine job of keeping the orchestra tightly wound, and the piece was a perfect prelude to the dramatics that came later.

Oh fortune, indeed!

Remaining performances tonight, Friday, Sept. 30, and Saturday, Oct. 1, at 8 p.m. Kennedy Center Concert Hall. Tickets are $20 to $85. Call 202-467-4600 or visit kennedy-center.org.

Follow @metroweekly