Fever Ray :: Christeene 

There’s No Place I’d Rather Be Tour

(5/10/23)

Fox Theater Oakland

Gallery and Review by Fiestaban Photography

β€œOstoppbar” in Swedish. β€œUnstoppable” in English. Whatever language you use, Fever Ray is not to be outdone. One half of the early-aughts brother-sister electroclash duo The Knife, Swedish-phenom Karin Elisabeth Dreijer’s solo project is just as elaborate, just as sensuous, and just as stylish as The Knife ever was (their live shows were legendary). Fever Ray’s third and latest album, Radical Romantics is a concept piece that acts both as diary, screed and Tinder ad. Dealing with the pangs and lurches of mid-life queer love and sexuality, songs like β€œEven It Out”, β€œKandy” and β€œWhat They Call Us” (co-written and produced by Karin’s brother Olof) are high-brow bangers of the highest degreeβ€”placing ambiguity and concupiscence on equal footing and setting us up for surprise after surprise. Dressed as a sinister alter-ego reminiscent of a lecherous, balding, middle-aged man, Dreijer took last night’s crowd from trance-like tracks, like their break-out single β€œWhen I Grow Up” and β€œMustn’t Hurry,” to outright drum-n-bass tracks like β€œCarbon Dioxide,” a diabolically lit, β€œAn Itch”, newer songs off the album like the pulsating β€œNew Utensils” and glass-cracking β€œShiver”, closing with a costume change encore of β€œCoconut.” Whether you are a fan of The Knife or electronica in general, Fever Ray has a way of presenting interiority, feminism and manic longing in a way that hypnotizes, as well as encourages. From the fjords to The Fox, love is still the place Fever Ray would rather be.

Christeene

Some say, β€œBeyonce on bath salts”. I say, β€œPeaches on poppers.” Crude, lewd and nearly nude, drag performer Christeene (aka Paul Soileau) is somewhere between a 1990s San Francisco transgressive freak-wave holdover and an up-your-ass reminder that the Bay Area could be so much cooler again, if bitches would stop riding in the back of driverless cars and maybe slash their tires (and β€œbring back that psycho weird shit”) once in a while. She started her career right here at the Deco Lounge and The Stud years ago, with the help of her mentor, the recently departed drag-legend Heklina, whom Christeena owes a great deal toβ€”β€œwe all took a hit when that trash bag died,”—but she comes equipped with songs like β€œFix My Dick” and β€œButt Muscle” that are so over-the-top explicit, you almost can’t believe it’s happening. And whenever you can’t believe your eyes, you know that it’s the perfect opener for Fever Ray.

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