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The 2009 Out Music Award at Webster Hall was well, really interesting. I don't want to talk smack about Out Music because it is a seriously cool, originally grassroots organization that has been supporting LGBT performers for a while now. But, ahem. Damn.
The 2009 Award ceremony could have used a little more help in the organization department. Or, more likely, the fact that it was being filmed for a Certain Gay Network took precedence over the actual live show. By the time all the CGN's equipment had been set up and Christine Martucci started belting out "There You Are," the night's theme song with the chorus "I've been waiting/all my life/for this moment to arrive" I started to feel like I'd been waiting all my life for the ceremony to start.
The technical delays which were ongoing and punctuated by admonitions from the stage to "keep up the energy, keep cheering" for the tv cameras had more than a few folks riled up and not always in a good way. By the time the third or fourth awards was given out, folks were pouring from the building. Don't you know people, queers, especially New York queers, are not going to put up with paying 25 bucks for a seat just to be treated like an audience member at a live tv taping. If we wanted to go to the Tyra Banks show, we'd just go.
Having said that, there were some lovely highlights of the evening:
Kate Clinton, as usual, was an amazing emcee, calm and collected, and funny without being badgering. What keeps that woman going after all those years on the hummus and granola circuit, I do not know (straight people reading this: you are not allowed to call it the hummus and granola circuit) but she is one helluva a performance professional and if CGN had any smarts they would give her own damn talk show.
Christine Martucci's theme song performance, while unintentionally ironic, was really heartfelt and rockin' and it was great to look down on the floor and see her whole Jersey fan club standing and swaying and looking like they might rush the stage. The girl's got some special Jersey charm, which I know sounds like a backhanded compliment or maybe an oxymoron but what state just passed a gay marriage bill out of committee? Yeah, shush up then. She was great.
Finally, two performers who I think are under-recognized but are really talented and great showfolks, won awards:
Nhojj who calls his brand of music "comfort soul" won the r/b soul artist category. This man knows how to perform. I first saw him perform at the Capital Rainbowfest in 2004: he was slotted near the end of the day, it was getting cold and most everyone had wandered away from the entertainment area. Nhojj started singing and they started coming back in droves. Straight people who had been in the park for dogwalks or whatever it is they do seriously sat down to watch open-mouthed.
Terese Genecco, a jazz singing dyke, won for the cabaret category. Terese is another one of those people who can really, for real, for real, entertain. I don't even really get jazz, but a friend took me to see her and she had a big band, and she was bossing them around, and wearing a tuxedo even though she's a chick playing in a pretty touristy area of Manhattan.
I am sure Outmusic learned from the fiasco and hope the volunteers who were working SO HARD trying to keep the whole thing from erupting into chaos were given a really nice thank you party.
And CGN seriously needs to give Kate Clinton a show.
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