Canadian artist Peaches approached prominence in 2003 when her track “Fuck the Pain Away” was featured in the cultishly popular Sofia Coppola film, “Lost in Translation.” But, the artist’s empowering explorations of various types of sexuality remain a bit idiosyncratic for mainstream tastes. Her October 2015 performance at Washington, D.C.’s 9:30 Club was raw and — literally — stripped down, the artist eventually clad only in tights and pasties. Her ultimately minimalist attire was in contrast, of sorts, to earlier sections of the show that featured dancers festooned as giant, ambulatory vulvas.
15 years after the release of that seminal track, Peaches showed that, though she remains an unlikely occupant of the popular imagination, her themes of gender and sexual inclusion have never been more influential.
Opening up the show, Los Angeles-based duo Deap Vally provided a perfect combination of 70s grit and glam, presented alongside contemporary no holds barred feminism.
Deap Vally | Katherine Gaines
9:30 Club, October 28, 2015, Washington, D.C.
Peaches | Katherine Gaines
9:30 Club, October 28, 2015, Washington, D.C.
Deap Vally | Katherine Gaines | Portraits