Costumed kick ass

Lead singer, Kelly Clipperton

We arrived at The Foxhole Halloween Bash featuring Kelly & the Kellygirls just after midnight to a crowd of people standing in the street. Someone had pulled the fire alarm and the Gladstone had to be evacuated. The fire truck, swarmed by people in costumes, seemed as if it were a prop; nobody was concerned or even interested in the possibility of a fire.

After ten minutes, it was back inside and onto the dance floor. As the band waited a few extra minutes for all the stragglers to come in before gracing the stage, I noticed the crowd provided proof of two truths, like a skip in Toronto’s indie record: 1) Kelly & the Kellygirls (among other great gay indie bands) almost always play to a packed house, even though they are largely overlooked by the rest of T.O.’s minute indie scene because 2) it doesn’t matter how good you are – if you’re gay, you will get a room filled with very loyal lesbians only.

Politics aside, the bar was packed to the tits with a drunken mess of partygoers in great costumes out to have a good time. When the Kellygirls took the stage as a zombified version of themselves, the dance floor was tight with people ready to tear it a new one, and it seemed like nobody budged during their set, not even to use the bathroom. The dancing was fierce and relentless and generating a large amount of heat beneath the heavy costumes.

Kelly Clipperton, lead singer and founder of the Kellygirls, came on stage with force – a raucous but soft pitched voice juxtaposed against intricate and upbeat horns. It’s dance music – swing, pop, blues, and a little New Orleans jazz; dance music for straight high school girls to get their first girl-girl kiss to, but also the kind of music your parents would get up for at a wedding. In fact, Kelly & The Kellygirls would be a great wedding band, if that weren’t such an insult!

The Foxhole Halloween party was a family affair where everyone knew each other and the band intimately. Mid-set, Kelly announced, “We’re actually not dressed for Halloween, we just came back from playing a show in Thunder Bay.”

Shortly afterwards, they launched into an amazing cover of Michael Jackson’s ‘Thriller’, and as if they needed anything more to cheer about, the crowd went nuts.

For more info go to: www.kellyclipperton.com . Kelly & The Kellygirls’ next gig is Sat. Nov. 26, 2005 at Damzels In This Dress funeral party in Toronto

Photography by Matthew Parris