Are you ready for Buster Poindexter’s post-modern cabaret? Who hasn’t watched an old movie and thought how cool it would be to experience an authentic night club show in this day and age? If you’re in the DC area this Friday night, David Johansen, as the inimitable Buster Poindexter, will be doing exactly that: playing music for a twenty-first century nightclub at the Birchmere. From the reviews we’ve been reading of his raucous New York shows, this second coming of Buster Poindexter is something you’ll want to say you’ve experienced.
BUSTER IS BACK… but the fact of the matter is, Buster Poindexter never really went away. Johansen has been using the Buster character on and off for over thirty years, mashing up calypso, doo-wop, lounge, rock ‘n’ roll, R&B, and jazz—a spectacular palette of colors in the eccentric musical rainbow that spill over in a Buster Poindexter show.
“It’s hard to compare it to anything else, because I don’t think anyone else is doing anything like this,” Johansen tells TVD. “It’s really hard to say, ‘Oh, it’s like Tony Bennett—only funny!’ Because it’s not. [Laughs] I don’t know how to explain it. It goes through so many changes in an hour-and-a-half that it’s hard to put a finger on what it is. But it’s just great music and laughs and it’s a good vibe.”
It’s always been about substance and show for David Johansen. Whether he’s fronting iconic proto-punk band The New York Dolls, diving deep into his wildly eclectic music collection as Sri Rama Lama Ding Dong for Sirius XM, or playing bouffanted night club-esque entertainer Buster Poindexter, audiences go to see David Johansen because they get an experience that’s like nothing else.
“It’s got a cabaret kind of feel to it, and it’s kind of intellectual in an offbeat kind of way,” Johansen says. “I’ve been doing shows in the Buster vein for about a year, I guess, at some places around New York. The way I started doing it this time is that there were a couple of songs I had in my head that I wanted to sing. We’ve got tons of stuff. And, really, I could only sing them as Buster, unless I was gonna create some new monster, you know?”
Buster Poindexter is a nightclub show for the internet age, pure entertainment to cut through the ennui and information overload. And if you don’t start clicking or calling now, you might miss out on its only DC-area stop at the Birchmere tomorrow night.
“I would like to say it’s mellower than the old show used to be, but… it gets bombastic sometimes. It’s fun. It’s a lot of great music, great players, a lot of laughs—it’s a good night out.”
You can still enter to win a pair of tickets on us to see Buster Poindexter this Friday evening (8/8) right here!
Tickets are still available for purchase, but move quickly as they’re …well, hot, hot, hot!
