Kurt Loder gave Tammy Faye Starlite's Nico theater piece Chelsea Mädchen new levels of surreality when he took over the role of the journalist interviewing her as she played the part of the legendary German rock chanteuse Saturday night at the Duplex Cabaret Theatre.
The noted music journalist and longtime MTV on-air personality played himself instead of an Australian (the actor who had played the part of an Aussie journalist was unable to make this last Saturday night show in Starlite's June Duplex residency), and identified himself for real at the outset.
Starlite, in her junked-out Nico monotone, was unimpressed.
"What's your name?" she kept asking Loder, practically nodding off out of boredom--or in keeping with Nico's notorious nature, heroin-induced stupor.
"It doesn't matter," Loder responded, shaking his head in resignation. He tried to draw in Danny Fields, the legendary New York music scenester who knew Nico very well and was taking pictures of Starlite from a front table, but to little avail.
"Is Danny here? I need work," Starlite intoned, then invoked Warhol associate Paul Morrissey, who co-directed her, with Warhol, in their film Chelsea Girls. "Paul Morrissey said not to smile," she said, indirectly to Fields, "so I won't smile. Get me work, Danny."
Still, the struggling Loder did his best to engage her.
"It would be nice to hear about the flute,” he said, but it only prompted Starlite/Nico to relive the misery of the flute part on "Chelsea Girls," the titletrack of her 1967 debut album Chelsea Girl, which described the denizens of New York's landmark Hotel Chelsea, where the Warhol/Morrissey film was partially shot. Nico absolutely hated the flute, and Starlite tried to disable her band's flautist's microphone, then actually yanked off his flute's head joint.
"I lost a verse, but it doesn’t matter," she acknowledged, having been so determined to demolish the flute that she stopped singing. "This song is so f**king boring," she added, awaiting the repetition of the "dumb" chorus: "'Here they come now. See them run now.' Genius."
But the musician tried to keep going on what was left of his flute.
"I can't shut him up!" she droned. "It's like an Irish penny whistle. Go join the f**king Pogues."
Loder, meanwhile, grew progressively more frustrated and weary, muttering his questions under his breath, clearing his throat, and repeatedly walking off the stage in defeat. He was perfect in conveying utter puzzlement with Starlite/Nico--much as she was with him--and the fact that he was essentially playing himself in the present in interviewing someone from the past heightened the overall disconnect.
Starlite, who sang all the great Nico songs during the show, turned the tables on Loder at the end by inquiring, in the most obscene way possible, about his relationship with an early MTV female VJ. Here she reverted to her usual uproariously disgusting Tammy Faye Starlite born-again Christian country rock ‘n' roll shtick act, leaving Loder running for cover one last time.
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