Village Voice Week of March 13, 2002 

Catch Her on the Rebound 

"This is not a drag queen pretending to be Laura Branigan," read the e-mail from Homocorps, Dean Johnson's monthly queer punk showcase at CBGB, advertising Saturday's show. 
"This is the REAL Laura Branigan ("Gloria," "Self Control") singing her greatest hits with a live band!" And why not? According to Laurabranigan.com, "Laura is beholden to the gay community." 
She's had some tough times lately: After she retired, her husband died of cancer, her mother fell ill, and then, she told Johnson in a recent interview in HX, she broke both hips in a wisteria-hanging 
accident. Her only other recent gig was at the Mohegan Sun casino, and while that audience was probably more respectful, it couldn't have been warmer. Already loosened up by Johnson's wigstock rock crew 
(the self-explanatory Indigo Etheridge; his own not-yet-ready-for-Don Kirschner combo, Velvet Mafia; and a troupe of white-spandex-clad Dazzle Dancers), the mostly homogeneous crowd acted excited when she 
finally emerged from the club's seedy bowels and treated them to "The Night Spanish Eddie Cashed It In." They perked up when she began working her diva hand jive, striking totemic salutory poses later 
shamelessly copied in every Whitesnake video. They tried to help her out with the soundman (chanting, "Reverb! Reverb!") and waited patiently through the sappy parts for the hits, which she delivered in 
minimalist arrangements perhaps inspired by her days as a Leonard Cohen backup singer. They chanted her name as she left the stage, although a few confused souls called her "Gloria," and one wag yelled 
for "Dr. Laura!" Returning to the stage for an encore, she apologized that she couldn't perform her new single, "The Winner Takes It All," because "a piece of equipment didn't arrive." Instead she plowed 
through "Don't Cry for Me, Argentina," and Argentina played along, cheering just because she asked. Beauty, they say, is in the eye of the beholder. -Josh Goldfein