The Beverly Bombshells
Birdland, NYC, August 7, 2017
Reviewed by Elizabeth Ahlfors for Cabaret Scenes
One SRO night at Birdland, three solid-gold singers from Los Angeles, dressed to the nines and ready to have a good time, delivered a dynamite show of the songs of today with a twist of vintage. Formed in 2016 and making their New York debut, The Beverly Bombshells (Tiffany Dissette, Heather Lundstedt O’Neill, Leah Sprecher) of Los Angeles illustrated the Top 40 hits with saucy humor, stylized tight harmonies, scat, jig-jagging rhythms of the 1930s and ’40s. There was a mixing of generations at the venerable jazz club.
This evening, the crowd of young fans, new to Birdland, had never heard their favorite superstars’ hits sound like hard-swinging jive. Nor did veteran clubgoers recognize the style of their grandmothers’ favorite sister act vocalizing to Selena Gomez’s “Bad Liar” (Gomez/Michaels/Tranter). Instead of “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy,” they heard the Bombshells’ kick-ass opening with Taylor Swift’s “Shake It Off” (Swift/Max Martin/Shellback), a peppery dance-pop hit of 2014 (“I keep cruising, can’t stop, won’t stop moving”). And these glamour rockers keep moving with a focus on sex with a tease, taking it sinuously with “Issues” (Julia Michaels/Justin Tranter/Benny Blanco/Stargate), and smacking it right out with a soul-pop “Bang Bang” (Max Martin/Savan Kotecha/Rickard Göransson/Onika Maraj), promising, “You need a bad girl to blow your mind.”
Obviously, their millennium songs are not about reflecting the taste or romanticism of the girl trios back in the day. They speak to listeners of today, pairing the lusty lyrics with intricate vocal arrangements and swing rhythms. Their music is shaped and honed as carefully as The Boswell Sisters showed in their New Orleans days.
The Bombshells communicate together and prove to be class-A entertainers. They keep the feeling upbeat with the ebullience and their spicy brand-new arrangements by drummer David Lamoureux, with accompaniment by Jordon Lamoureux on bass, guitarist Mike Rosengarten, and reeds by Josh Plotner.
They also connect to the audience, flirting and teasing. Sprecher singled out a bald man in the audience and began Christina Aguilera’s “Ain’t No Other Man” (Aguilera/DJ Premier/Charles Martin Roane/Kara DioGuardi/ Harold Beatty) luring him with, “You got what I want, boy, and I want it!” Plotner’s sax added heat, but Sprecher already had that. The kicker was, Sprecher prey was with his boyfriend.
The girls dazzle throughout the show, putting it together with a swaying, indie-feel salute to their hometown, “Los Angeles” (Inara George/Greg Kurstin): “Living in LA, la la la la la/I love you more than anyone.” Still, this town is the top of the heap and this charismatic trio, packed with panache, will surely bring their first-rate talents back to New York, and hopefully soon. It was great fun for all ages.
