Niki Luparelli with burlesque dancer Fonda Feeling and all woman Led Zep tribute band
Nobody understands better than Niki Luparelli that rock and roll is a metaphor for the pelvic thrust during sexual intercourse. Presenting her Strip Zeppelin show at The Crystal Ballroom at Somerville Theatre last Saturday night, Luparelli combined an all woman Led Zeppelin tribute band with some of the area’s best burlesque dancers.
While it does not take exceptional perception to see the Led Zep classics like “Whole Lotta Love,” “Black Dog,” and “Kashmir” more than hint at the raw sexuality in those songs, Luparelli got her team of burlesque dancers to prance, strut, and oftentimes gyrate to songs by the mighty Led Zeppelin with attention to detail. Luparelli found the sexual message coursing through each of the 20 Led Zep classics that have, over the years, made her scream with joy.
Long thick bass lines and a pounding from her drummer gave Luparelli something solid and rhythmic to slide her sultry voice over on opening number “Good Times Bad Times.” She purred like a kitten while asserting her vocal like a woman who knows what she wants and how to get it. Dancer Abby Normal also made the most out of the hard throbbing bass lines so generously offered by bassist Ellie Martin, moving to them like a well oiled machine. Led Zep’s “Rock And Roll” provided a playground for Luparelli and her all woman band to prance around in. Buzzing lead guitar lines played by V Witkin and a racing Jerry Lee Lewis piano part drew a scantily clad dancer, Dahlia Strack, out to gyrate to Zep’s tribute to oldies rock and roll.
Bettysioux Taylor during Kashmir
Luparelli understands that the rhythms of “Dyer Maker” are the rhythms of swaying with one’s partner, with “swaying” having more than one possible meaning. With an unerring ability to detect the lustful inspiration for this piece, Luparelli used vocal coos and sustains, punctuated by danceable drums, to illustrate what Zeppelin tried to add to their reggae guitar riffs and island grooves. Dancer Harley Foxx shimmed a perfect motion to show more of this work’s exotic touch.
Luparelli’s dusky drawl on “Dazed And Confused” implied that numerous encounters with hard experience left her in the song title’s state of mind. Sonorous lead guitar, a deluge of bass notes, and drum fills and rolls showed what the lumbering groove was really all about. Luparelli’s ability to coax more meaning out of the lyrics with her throaty purr over the top of the instruments showcased her ability to massage the head of an implicit song. Dancer Pearl Buttons moved like a slithering snake to the menacing temptation of this Zep masterwork.
A pajama clad cutie named Lucifer Christmas strutted around to the start-stop rhythm of “Black Dog.” The pj’s came off as they slinked around to the guitar’s mischievous peekaboo, a phrase that darted around Luparelli’s belty croon about a mama that can make one sweat and make one groove. Another large Zeppelin song, “Since I’ve Been Loving You,” found Luparelli and her all woman band drawing all of the bluesy, angsty energy out of the song and delivering it to their Crystal Ballroom audience. It was uncanny how well dancer Honey Pie, a fixture in Boston’s burlesque scene, mirrored the slow build up of the song, a build up that suddenly erupts into a rapturous expression of the song’s frenetic release.
Band with burlesque ensemble
“The Immigrant Song” from the Led Zeppelin III proudly and obviously announces its need for conquests and all of the pleasurable spoils on a victorious Viking invasion. One long thick groove carried this song forward with muscular control while dancer Heather Rose in her bikini costume knew how to ride the pulsating muscle of this song with her grinding gyrations. “Dancing Days” mirrored the confident swagger of Robert Plant in its loose groove, a groove that dancer Jolie La Vie loosely, at a considerate pace, let go of her garments to become one with the sound. “Ramble On” found drummer Shaina Mikee Keiths singing lead vocal while drumming a path for dancer Jessicalee Skary to travel dreamily, releasing herself from her burden of garments.
“Going To California” took things down an easy path, mandolin and acoustic guitar notes caressed by players to highlight the song’s breathtaking beauty. Dancer Fonda Feeliing used a slow swivel to express the possibilities, feeling all of those raindrops of notes, metaphorically the gentle touches to just the right places that the song suggests.
A hippie chick dancer, Bettysioux Taylor, slowly peeled off her bright yellow costume to “Misty Mountain Hop.” Swiveling her hips to the bulbous groove this song spins around, she implied with carefully considered motions the shenanigans that might be talking place at a park near you this summer. Lilting keyboard notes from Allison Sigrist and twitchy guitar phrasing seemed to emphasize the sweet seductiveness of letting the song’s events carry one toward a joyful ending.
An early climax might have taken place when Luparelli caterwauled over the band during “Whole Lotta Love.” Was it too good? Too soon? Maybe. It required multiple dancers to express the happenings implied in what could compete for the most sexually infused song of all time. Backing vocalist Susan Catinski’s orgiastic vocalizing likely inspired all of the flesh undulating to the pulsating rhythms.
Strip Zeppelin
Voluptuous dancer Fonda Feeling captured the sensuous energy from backing vocalist Susan Catinski’s raw, passionate harmonica waves on “When The Levee Breaks.” Her breathy wail carried the sexual energy all the way to the end and the rhythm section’s powered stomp left space open for the snake like lead guitar phrase. Fonda Feeling used every muscle in their body to ride the waves and relay the sense of being impaled, suspended, lifted, caught in a force of nature.
“Tangerine” was the rest between more heavy, heaving action. Dancer Lucifer Christmas in their golden toga exuded the wide, sweeping motions of this mellower Zep tune. “What Is And What Should Never Be,” seductive lounge music, made one think of places where people can hook up. Dancer Harley Foxx followed this vibe as she seductively posed herself between each removal of each garment.
“Babe, I’m Gonna Leave You” got a bass and drums build up within its folk-rock idioms. Not so subtle changes in Luparelli’s breathy vocals, wiry guitar, and a stirring cymbal ride made one sense the ecstatic nature behind this arrangement. Dancer Pearl Buttons unzipped slowly, contrasting the hurricane winds blowing in this unwieldy Zep number. Another stand out Zep long song is “Kashmir,” which dancer Bettysioux Taylor used her blue capes and feathers to express the exotic width and sprawling release. She was perfectly suited and then unsuited to amplify the middle eastern flavored lead guitar phrasing as well as the steady dollops of groove that make this song come alive in one’s vivid imagination.
Led Zeppelin’s underappreciated epic “Battle Of Evermore” featured both Luparelli and Catinski on lead vocals. Appropriate, as Robert Plant sang it as a duo with Sandy Denny on Led Zeppelin IV. The two pretty voices overlapped perfectly during the emotive laden piece that traipsed across the Chrystal Ballroom as lightly as dancing fairies. Two dancers, Heather Rose and A Glam B practically scissored each other to its medieval percussion.
Luparelli, band and dancers all colluded on the obvious conclusion, “Stairway To Heaven.” A subtle yet stirring mellotron presence was the platform that the whole ensemble of dancers grooved to, prancing, preening, and contorting to on stage as the all woman band played out the Jimmy Page/Robert Plant epic.
Strip Zeppelin was a perfect blend of rock and roll and burlesque. With a bevy of dancers snaking, twisting, and in some cases writhing to the music of Led Zeppelin, Strip Zeppelin was also a study in the raw, sensual power of the music written, recorded, produced, and released by this once in a lifetime line up of Robert Plant, Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones, and John Bonham. Luparelli has much to be proud of here. Her intellect, eye for art, and ear for music all came together as one in this impressive look, listen, and appreciation of the most powerful expressions of human existence.
