Suicide Girls – Blackheart Burlesque (Live in Vancouver – 04/26/16)

It’s been just over a year since The Suicide Girls‘ Blackheart Burlesque show made its way through Vancouver.  Last year was the first time I saw the touring nerd-gasm showcase and it – quite frankly – blew me away.  As soon as the announcement came through, I knew I’d be going again. How could I not?

The Blackheart Burlesque, is after all, a sight to see.

Ran by The Suicide Girls, an online website dedicated to an alternative take on the modelling industry, skewed towards the punk, emo and tattoo lifestyle; the burlesque tour encompasses all of that into almost two hours of choreographed dancing filled to the brim with pop culture references. It tours the world, rotating dancers and routines all the while maintaining the same ideology and entertainment.

The question, then, is simple: did the 2016 edition of the tour live up to the expectations set forth the year prior? The answer, honestly, is yes and no.

This year’s rendering saw a few returning Suicide Girls – Peneloppe, Sunny, Liryc – alongside newcomers Lucerne, Cookie and Katherine who took over MC duties from Sunny this year. For me, it was the addition of Vancouver’s very own Cheri Suicide  to the lineup that truly excited and ultimately disappointed me.  As one of my favourite Suicide Girls and one of the best stage dancers I’ve seen, I was excited to see what she’d bring to the Blackheart Burlesque pop-culture themed dances. Sadly, she focused her energy on DJing and never took the stage. While the music and cues are most definitely integral, I was eagerly anticipating seeing her dancing – a feat that never came.

Nevertheless, the six Suicide Girls who did grace the stage with their dance moves were far from a disappointment.  Switching between solo and group performances, there was rarely any downtime. A few new routines filtered into their set – The Simpsons meets Planet Of The Apes being a major highlight as was Katherine Suicide‘s Pokemon solo dance – but they kept going strong with their old classics too.

The Star Wars themed closer with all six dancers, the insanely sexy 50 Shades of Gray routine, a solo of Legend Of Zelda number by Liryc, a trio of Adventure Time characters, an energetic Beetlejuice performance and the classic burlesque number, Time Warp from Rocky Horror Picture Shot.  These were just some of their uniquely styled Burlesque dances. Frank – Donnie Darko’s famed rabbit – even made a scantily clad appearance to the soothing tunes of Mad World around the midway point.

Showing that they’re not all about dancing, Sunny Suicide stepped up to the stage near the end to sing a slightly re-worked version of The Little Mermaid‘s Part Of Your World  – but added the Suicide Girls spin with condom and dildo props.

Katherine Suicide was a spectacular host – and just like Sunny did last year, utilized a lot of crowd participation and subscription giveaways. It would’ve been nice to see them come up with a few new interactive contests – but you just can’t say no to a lap dance from Peneloppe Suicide (who, on a side note, absolutely stole the show all night).

The biggest thing to take from the evening’s event was the importance of setting and atmosphere at a Blackheart Burlesque show. At the Rickshaw, it was standing room. You could move around. Dance. Cheer. It was a more collaborative, jovial atmosphere. The Vogue is a gorgeous theatre, but planted seats took away the frivolity of it, eliminated some of the intimacy and make it a bit stuffier (if you could ever call watching half-naked models dance to Thriller stuffy). Plus, with seats its way harder to walk away from annoying drunk frat boys yelling moronic shit all night than it is with free flowing foot traffic.

Was it as good as last years? Maybe not, the seated atmosphere took something away from it. Was it fun? Hell yeah – and you can be sure I’ll be there again next year.