For 37 years, Phase 1 has played an important role for Washington's lesbian community. The Barracks Row nightspot, one of the oldest lesbian bars in the country, is the city's only full-time bar for lesbians, offering comfortable surroundings, DJs, drag shows and a busy pool table.
But if singer-songwriter Mara Levi has her way, Phase 1 will soon be known as something else: a destination for live music.
Levi is an up-and-coming local musician who performed on the main stage at the Capital Pride festival in June and released an album called "What Are You?" in the spring. When she's not driving across the country to perform her own music, Levi is responsible for booking Phase 1's Sunday night concert series. Sometimes, that can be problematic.
"I occasionally run into trouble filling slots [with out-of-town artists] because people don't think we have a scene [in Washington]," she explains. To prove the doubters wrong, she has organized Phase Fest, three nights of music, comedy and arts on Eighth Street SE, which continues Friday and Saturday. "The purpose of the festival," Levi says, "is to help bring out the queer community and bring some queer musicians to D.C. and show them there is a scene here."
To find the right mix of national and local acts, Levi worked with Outmusic, a network for gay and lesbian musicians; the New York-based arts organization Riot Grrrl Ink; and the online booking agency Sonicbids. "I thought what we were going to do was have one night be punk night, or one night be hip-hop night," Levi says. "But we sort of went for it and tried to mix it up as much as we could."
Saturday night, for example, finds Levi's jazzy folk-pop scheduled between Baltimore five-piece punk-pop band Odd Girl Out and the banging hip-hop of New York City headliners God-Des and She. The day kicks off at noon and includes a visit from the Dykes of Hazard comedy tour and a lap-dancing class.
Friday's lineup offers spoken-word performance art by Pandora Scooter, who's serving as the festival's MC, feminist electro-pop from Nicky Click, Baltimore's hard-rocking Pariah Piranha and K. Love the Infinate's raw hip-hop and soul. (Links to artists' Web sites and music samples can be found on http://www.phasefest.com.)
Though Phase 1 is first and foremost a lesbian bar, Levi says the organizers tried to be inclusive when booking acts, to make sure they didn't alienate gay men or transgendered music lovers. "No one ever thought, 'Let's keep this lesbian,' " she says. "It's, 'Let this be for the queer community.' " (In that spirit, Phase 1 is waiving its usual requirement that all men must be escorted by a woman.)
-- Fritz Hahn (August 17, 2007)
Tickets are $15 per day, and a VIP ticket option includes passes for all three days, a festival t-shirt, a mug that's good for $2 beers all weekend and a Friday night dinner with the artists on Phase 1's patio, catered by Belga Cafe. Purchase advance tickets at www.phasefest.com.
Thursday
Katastrophy (hip-hop)
Athens Boys Choir (spoken word)
Team Gina (electro hip-hop)
Friday
K. Love the Infinate (hip-hop)
Pandora Scooter (spoken word)
Pariah Piranha (rock)
Nicky Click (electro-pop)
Saturday
Harness Workshop with Sugar
Natalie E. Illum (spoken word)
Alex Voegele (singer-songwriter)
Lap Dancing 101 with Peggy Sue
Nancy Eddy (singer-songwriter)
Lisa Williams
Andy Mullen (folksy singer-songwriter)
Nikki Smith
Dykes of Hazard (stand-up comedy)
Odd Girl Out (punk-pop)
Mara Levi (jazzy folk-pop)
God-Des and She (hip-hop)
