HUNX AND HIS PUNX at Silver Dollar, Saturday, March 31. Rating: NNNN
Seth Bogart is as confident a performer as he is a flirty, hilariously faggy one. Dressed in a red blazer, sheer panties and black bikini briefs, the Hunx and his Punx main man presided over a rowdy mosh pit of deliriously happy bouncing guys and girls.
Though the Oakland-based thrift-store heartthrob’s latest album, Hairdresser Blues, was a solo effort largely about personal catharsis and recorded without his Punx backing band, the garage-pop songs have a simple timelessness and filthy energy that’s totally irresistible when played live by a razor-sharp four-piece band (including Shannon Shawof Shannon and the Clams on bass) dressed like background actors from John Waters’s Cry-Baby.
When he wasn’t pausing to reapply lipstick, Bogart used between-song moments to verbally molest a beefy stage hand – or anyone, really – and poll the audience for homos. “If you’re a gay man raise your hand. This one’s for you.” Gay or otherwise, the crowd seemed inspired by his charisma.