Peaches
Emo’s, July 29
Peaches is the forbidden fruit of pop music, promising sexual liberation and self-awareness to those daring enough to partake in her provocative and pornographic electrotrash. Saturday night at Emo’s, the sold-out crowd devoured every bit of her raunchy grime raps and raucous burlesque bits. The 39-year-old Canadian siren, once known as Merrill Nisker, took the stage dressed in a shimmering gold-and-silver outfit with knee-high boots and matching accessories, like a prostitute prophet from the not-too-distant future, and heightened the crowd’s arousal with “Tent in Your Pants” and “Fuck or Kill,” both from her latest, Impeach My Bush (XL). Backed by her live band the Herms (J.D. Samson, Radio Sloan, and Samantha Maloney), Peaches put on a full-blown “Rock Show.” She caressed her Flying V guitar like a phallus during “Give ‘Er,” busted out synchronized Kiss moves during “Two Guys (for Every Girl),” evoked her frequent collaborators in Eagles of Death Metal with her cocky falsetto and dirty garage rock on “You Love It,” and married AC/DC with Joan Jett on “Boys Wanna Be Her.” There were props (an inflatable penis that inevitably went limp during “Slippery Dick”; plastic breasts for “AA XXX”), costume changes (a XXX cape for “Fuck the Pain Away” and less clothing thereafter), and slogan-filled anthems (“Rock the Shocker,” “Shake Yer Dix”). Other hedonistic shock-rockers might attempt to burn similar paths, but when Peaches lifted her left leg during “Hot Rod” and uttered the lines “Show me what you got/Rub it against my thigh,” she revealed two of her own circular bruises. At least her followers knew she practiced what she preached.
This article appears in August 4 • 2006.