Pgh Lesbian Correspondents

One Saturday night in February was bitter cold and snowing (sort of). So to warm up body and spirit, I took my fourteen year old niece with me to see King Princess.  Although my niece is a self-proclaimed metal rocker, and King Princess is as far away from that genre as you can get, she was a good sport. The concert was held at Stage AE which is a nice venue and, best of all, not far from my house. The audience was mostly in their late teens and early twenties (King Princess is only twenty!) but, thankfully there were some “older” adults such as I that were there. And really, despite my age, I still like current music and want to keep up with what “the kids” are listening to.

King Princess is, as I alluded to in the first paragraph is pure pop. She has a great voice and was a pretty proficient piano player.  I first heard about her when I caught her on Saturday Night Live in November. SNL does not, in my opinion, have the best sound quality, but I liked what I heard. When I heard she was coming to Pittsburgh! I decided to get tickets to see her. Then we received tickets to review the show for the blog and I knew that I had to go.

It was glorious to see – it means a lot to be around LGBT people because most of us operate in a heteronormative environment. 

The one thing I admired about her music is that she is unapologetically queer. She has a song titled, “Pussy is God,” and sings frankly of being romantically involved with other women. Now, I remember a time when this was not the case, when “queer/LGBT” artists spoke in code about their romantic relationships even though it was an open secret in the LGBT communities that they were part of the community. It seems, despite the current political climate where LGBT/Queer people are once again being targeted by the tiresome right wing, that more and more artists are being open about their sexuality/queerness. Of course my personal opinion is that is a good thing.

And, along with the affirming pop music, the LGBT community was “out” in full force (in every sense of the word) at a concert space that caters to “every day” music. It was glorious to see – it means a lot to be around LGBT people because most of us operate in a heteronormative environment.  It is also nice to see that butch women still dress just like the butch women when I was coming up decades ago, and the gay boys also still dress the same. The continuity between generations is nice.

So I will put in a plug, buy King Princess’ new album, Cheap Queen, and support a queer/LGBT artist.