The first half of the evening at The Boro June 25 proved more tolerable with a pitcher in front of you, so I hope you brought beer money. This shoddy night of the arts was scheduled to kick off with the Murfreesboro premiere of “Thong Girl 4: The Body Electric” at 7:30 sharp, but they must have meant Mountain Time. As it turns out, the guy bringing the projector and “Thong Girl” had some car trouble; his car’s transmission failed in Antioch, and it was an hour before things got rolling. I won’t spoil the ending of the latest film, but for those unfamiliar with the series, Thong Girl is a Nashville-based, crime-fighting superhero slinging acid-green lasers from her crack amid a loose plotline. The stuff of legend. It’s understood that these comic books-turned-infamous-cult-series are meant to be absurd, but the films are better suited for a stoned 3 a.m. viewing on a basement couch. I doubt “Thong Girl 4” would have held anyone’s attention even if there hadn’t been an intoxicated couple who appeared to be staging a loud fight on the patio.
When that ended, I woke to find my friends had arrived along with alcohol, and it was a happy time even though “The Island” screening never happened while I was there. The film, set in a post-apocalyptic world, is the work of Murfreesboro filmmaker Nathan Fisher. Released in 2010, Fisher wrote, directed and starred in the short, which premiered at the Belcourt Theatre last fall and was featured in a variety of film festivals including Arizona’s Phoenix Film Festival and The Reel Independent Film Festival. Disappointing to miss, but at least there was Billy “Jean” Thrasher, an MJ doppelganger who made a glittery entrance, donning shades and a dark hat pulled down over a sweep of black hair. He took the stage with nothing but a hula hoop and proceeded to skillfully move his hips in honor of the King of Pop, who passed away two years ago, June 25. The only hula hooping I’ve ever enjoyed at a show was when Nashville gypsy-garage-folkies Buffalo Clover did it. That said, Thrasher can hula hoop, and his performance was, though vaguely disturbing, entrancing. When he was finished, I think we clapped.
The strangeness of the non-musical portion of the evening cast a shadow over the bands following. Transitioning from “Thong Girl” to a Michael Jackson hula hoop tribute is interesting enough, but then The Parasites were up. Not to be confused with the New Jersey pop punkers with the same name, the Murfreesboro Parasites bashed out a lot of grizzled interpretations of such numbers as “I Fought the Law” and “Fell in Love with a Girl.” Murfreesboro’s Skeetzo N’ Krysis was there to thrash through some hard rock as well as punk rock outfit The Unsatisfied, who schlepped here from Chattanooga to close up this Saturday night at The Boro.
Jessica, you are totally spot-on with your review of the showing of my film Thong Girl 4: The Body Electric. I wrote and directed the damn thing and it was hard for ME to sit through it. In fact, I opted to sit out on the patio where it was cooler and the intoxicated couple was fighting and a large table of yahoos were whooping it up. Even the beer didn’t help this atrocity.
First let me apologize to the five people who were in the joint and the two of those who actually had some interest in seeing the film. My transmission did indeed give out and there was a brief moment before I piled into my rescuer’s SUV for the long drive to the ‘Boro when I considered bailing out on the whole evening. Wish I had. One of my crew booked the gig and assured me that there were folks actually waiting to see it. Even he didn’t stick around for the screening!
We rented a screen and projector and the film looked and sounded like crap. The movie was actually shot on a high end HD camera and looks REALLY good on a real projection system in a real theater. We screened the film at the Belcourt a couple of months earlier and it looked fantastic but the crappy projector that we used at the ‘Boro was not intended for screening an HD film.
The fact that it was close to 100 degrees in the club (or at least it felt like it) didn’t help either.
Again, I apologize to the handful of folks who came to hear music; after all, that’s what a club is meant for – not to watch a two-hour film about a chick in a bikini who shoots lasers out of her ass. That’s best served at an art house theater at midnight when people can actually sit back and watch and listen as a film is intended to be viewed.
I hope whomever is interested in seeing the film in it’s intended viewing format will give it another chance before writing it off completely. The dvd will be available in August along with the TG video game. Please visit http://www.thonggirlfilms.com for more info.
Comment July 18, 2011 @ 12:22 am