Interviews (235)

• June 27, 2024
• Colleen Johnson
• 380
• 0

(photo credit: Dana Lynn Pleasant)

Editor’s Note: As the summer heats up in Provincetown, this girl’s happiest place in the world, let’s be honest. The cultural options are enormous for that show to warm you up for the night. My recommendation for the no-miss show this summer is going down at the famous Post Office Cabaret every Wednesday night to September 4th. That artist performing each Wednesday is queer icon Bitch, whose roots are sprinkled all over this little piece of paradise. Bitch will be putting on her one-woman show, “Hey Bitch!” every week; the debut show went down last night! It features several moments off her latest album, dropped in 2022, Bitchcraft, and also will be a wild journey into how the self-described “quiet shut-down child” shed that chrysalis and became who she is today.

I recently had the chance to chat with Bitch about everything from how this show came to be, its “made for P-town” version, her recommendations for what you should be doing if in town for one of her gigs, or just the beautiful paradise that  Provincetown can offer you. I may be a bit biased about my feelings towards Provincetown as a Provincetown High graduate, but you should make your call about the town if you make the trip to catch this sure-to-be legendary show. All relevant information in regards to tickets, event times, everything you can think of when it comes to this iconic venue can be found at the Post Office Cabaret website! This is a definite no-miss show!

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Colleen Johnson: (after talking about where Bitch was playing during our call)I actually grew up in the Midwest, in IL, so just south of that area (In my call with Bitch, Bitch was en-route to soundcheck for their appearance at a festival in Wisconsin). It hasn’t always been the friendliest region for the LGBQT community. 

Bitch: Yaas. 

CJ: Times have changed in the past few years, but looking at this experience, playing at this festival tonight, what are the feelings going in, considering how times have changed  in the Midwest? 

Bitch:  Oh, yeah! Very excited. I think it’s easy to say it’s okay, with everything happening in our political systems right now, to believe that we’re moving backward. There are serious things at play, and there are only four words. So, here we are. We are still taking up space. We’re in the Midwest, we’re being queer. There is nothing that can stop us.

CJ: That is perfect. 

Bitch: That’s my soundbite (cackles). 

 

CJ: To jump right into it, your residency starts in less than a week.

Bitch: I can’t believe it.

CJ: How long has this residency been in the planning for you? I know it’s down the street from The Atlantic House, which has also been there forever. (The residency is at the Post Office Cabaret starting Wednesday, June 26th). How long has this been in the planning for you, this residency, this summer? 

Bitch: For me, I started dreaming about it last summer and was kind of in talks with a couple of different people and venues. And I played a show at the Post Office Cabaret, which sealed the deal for me. These people are great; the person running tech there is so professional and wonderful. I literally played a show at the end of August, and they just said, whenever you want for next year. It was like, music to my Bitch ears (laughs). 

CJ: And then I know from reading about it, it’s going to be focusing a lot on your last record that came out in 2022, Bitchcraft. But how have the preparations been for this residency? When did you start putting together the show and the set? 

Bitch: Okay! So this show was born out of-. When I released Bitchcraft, which was in 2022, I started a version of this play for that release. So, I premiered it in Los Angeles and toured it in 2022. Which is when Bitchcraft came out, so I had been working on it for maybe six months before that. With the director, Margie Zohn, who I had come to, saying, like I want to not only play some rock shows. But I want to tell my story while I do it. And so that’s how it was born. So I took it across the US to probably a hundred rock clubs in America. Lugging around my giant notebooks and my oversized pencil, etcetera. And I was doing feminist theater in rock clubs across the US. So we’ve been developing different versions of it; we did it a couple of times at Joe’s Pub, a couple different versions of it. So, this is a made-for-Ptown version. 

CJ: Special one just for Provincetown. Then, considering your roots in Provincetown, where everything started for you, how are you feeling about returning and being this steady figure in Provincetown? 

Bitch: It feels so good. It feels like just a full-circle moment. Animal and I came to Ptown after a year or so of living in New York. Being in the New York scene, working shitty jobs, and we had heard about Provincetown. We moved there sight unseen for the summer. We just packed our feral cat in our Uhaul and went up there. And it is the first place it felt all me as an artist. And it helps me see myself as an artist. Even though I had been living in New York, I was seeing a very different side of New York. Just working at a coffee shop and whatever, New York is a vast cultural place. But there was something about being in Ptown. And it was also the year they were celebrating, I believe, their 100th year of being an artist colony. It was the first place that I noticed how vital art is culturally. That I could be a voice in that, and in fact, it gave me my voice: that town.

 

CJ: And then maybe considering how Provincetown was so shut down, they’ve lept back to life. I know it’s originally a fishing town, but even last weekend. It was so alive, considering how shutdown it was during the pandemic. Maybe performers that you like that have surged or places that you really like, that when people are there, places they should also be checking out if they come to see you?  

Bitch: Oh yeah! Of course, you’ve got to swing by Living Craft. Of course, you’ve got to see Dina Martina. Of course, you have to bike through the Dunes. Of course, you have to enjoy the feeling of waiting for low tide to walk your dog on the bay and waiting for high tide to jump in the bay. And go up to Herring Cove, or Heads of Harbor, take your top off, and jump in the ocean. And not get a ticket for it. 

Because back in the day when Animal and I first went there, the police would come up and down the beach and ticket the assigned female at birth people for having their boobs out. 

CJ: Really? 

Bitch: I’m! We would get tickets for it. When just a stone’s throw away, all the men were there, with barely their nutsacks covered and not having any problems with the law. 

CJ: I’m sure, yeah! I’m sure. 

Bitch:  It was a very monumental place. We invented a character named Sparkling Queen Areola. I did some research, and it was, in fact, the areola that was the illegal part of the female body.

CJ: They couldn’t handle it. 

Bitch: (laughs) They just can’t handle it. 

CJ: That’s where they cross the line. That’s what gets you.  Then I know you have the festival tonight; starting next week, you’ll be in Provincetown once a week, which is beautiful, I believe, until September 4th. I think that’s the last show, so lots of shows. Maybe second to last, for people who haven’t seen you perform, what can they expect? There are so many shows happening, and there are so many performers every night in Provincetown; it might sound cheesy, but what do you think makes a Bitch show something you can’t miss?

Bitch: Great question! They can expect a lot of laughter. There’s a lot of humor, and it is the story of a quiet, shut-down child. So, it has some emotional depth; it’s an autobiographical tale. They can expect wild ideas to be thrown at them in a fun, feminist way. And watch out, there might just be some tap dancing (laughs). And, of course, big pop songs fronted by my electric violin.

CJ: We love it; I love every bit of it. Then, to end it off, the last album was in 2022, and you have this huge residency this summer. We know what’s going on there, but maybe hopes or goals in these next few months for you as an artist and performer? 

Bitch: Oh, thank you. I hope to have the opportunity to tell the story more in other theaters. I want to inspire young people and ensure that this is an all-ages show; I want to inspire the younger generation to be their biggest, brightest, boldest selves. And I hope for a wider platform to help make that world possible.