Buffalo Performance Art: Bitch returns in one-woman (and beaver) show

By Lee Ames
(Image above: Photo by Jim Frohna)

Buffalo’s Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center welcomes singer and songwriter Bitch to Buffalo this weekend for two performances of her one-woman  show “Hey Bitch!”

On Friday and Saturday nights Bitch will be performing her “one-woman, one-beaver show,” written around her 2022 album “Bitchcraft.” 

Who is Bitch? She is a violinist, tap dancer, and singer/songwriter who originally performed with her first band, Bitch and Animal, before going solo. Bitch and Animal released multiple albums, with two on Righteous Babe Records in 2001 and 2003, cementing a relationship with Buffalo. 

In a recent interview, Bitch said that Ani DiFranco provided the launchpad for the her career with Bitch and Animal and beyond. 

“Ani heard my first band, Bitch and Animal,” Bitch said. “We were playing a free show out in Provincetown once a week, and she caught wind of it, heard our tape and invited us on tour. So that was a huge moment for me. 

“I always say that Ani paved a path for me artistically. She gave me a legitimate career. That’s how it feels because we were scooped up and suddenly out in front of these big audiences, and being able to spread our very queer, very trans message.”

In fact, she said, Bitch and Animal recorded one of their albums at DiFranco’s home studio in Buffalo. 

“So Buffalo became really a second home for us. We were in Brooklyn at the time,” Bitch said, “and I still can picture myself pulling up to her driveway to come in and record with her, because she was such an idol of mine, you know? And I’m like, oh my God, now I’m in her house. And it’s just one of those pinch yourself moments.” 

Bitch also recalled working with Righteous Babe’s Susan Tanner, who died in 2017. 

“Susan was always one of my main people at Righteous Babe when we were first signed,” Bitch said. “She was just always that person who pulled us in and made us feel at home there. She was such a wonderful woman. It’s hard to believe she’s gone.” 

Bitch has been a performer since the mid ‘90s, when she changed her name as a way to reclaim a word that is so commonly used to insult powerful women. A feminist and social justice warrior, she wanted to be an artist to help show others the different pathways they can choose to express themselves through compelling storytelling.

But by the early 2010s, Bitch and Animal had run its course. After taking some time and not being sure she wanted to share music again, she worked diligently for eight years to create “Bitchcraft,” which she released on the Kill Rock Stars label in 2022. 

RELATED MEDIA: The “You’re the Man” video from “Bitchcraft.”

After much thought, she felt that making herself big was the theme of her soon-to-be one-woman show: “Hey Bitch!” 

Bitch wanted to make something sonic, mind-bending, and colorful, unique (just as she is). The point of the show is all about teaching oneself to take up space, reclaim one’s sense of self, and allowing oneself to be bold. 

“It’s an autobiographical story,” she said of “Hey Bitch!” 

“As a young girl, I was always tall, I was always big for my age. I heard the word ‘big-boned’ a lot, which I don’t think is scientifically real. As a young woman, I feel like I got the message loud and clear by the time I hit puberty, that being small was the way that patriarchy wanted us. 

“And so this is a theme in my show where I felt like I had to teach myself how to take up space, and it was kind of like a way to reclaim my own sense of self, including naming myself Bitch. To me, it’s like a piece of living theater, in a way, like to allow myself to be that bold.”

This show in Buffalo will feature a tech-heavy production with visual elements, violin and keytar (plus a woman dressed in a beaver suit?!).

Hallwalls Executive Director Parrish Gibbons said the show is exactly in line with Hallwalls’ mission. 

“What we love about working with Bitch is that our staff gets to amplify and learn about all types of different productions,” Gibbons said. “And so this is a great opportunity for us to explore what kind of tech capabilities we can really do in there. …  So we’re really taking all of our multi disciplinary programs into one with Bitch to put on this performance, which is really exciting. We have our music department, we have our media arts department, we have our literary projects, and so this feels like all of it coming together. 

“And it’s so in line with Hallwalls’ mission and what we want to bring to the community. Like any event in production, until you’re in the room setting it up it’s hard to say exactly what we’re going to do and give to the community. (But) you know, there’s going to be some confetti, and I think we’re going to have a good time. We’re excited to make a little bit of a splash down in the Hallwall cinema with as our staff gets to explore the complexities of a more hands-on screening and performance.” 

Bitch said she hopes that “Hey Bitch!” will continue to evolve. It played two summers in Provincetown on Cape Cod, and she did an Off-Broadway run of  “”Bitchcraft: A Musical Play.” She hopes to take a version of “Hey Bitch” to European theater festivals. 

The Buffalo area is rich with supportive communities, and Bitch said she feels connected to the city, part of where she got her start and and similar to the Rust Belt cities of Pittsburgh and Detroit where she grew up. 

It’s also a significant time for the LGBTQIA+ community, which is reflected in her upcoming work. 

“I’ve been working on my next album, writing new songs,” Bitch said. “I am so horrified with the politics that are happening all around us that I feel compelled to add my voice to that. So I’ve been writing new songs, slowly recording the next album. 

She also has a side project called “One Long Earring,” which she described as “basically like a lezzie ‘Spinal Tap,’” produced with partner Faith Soloway. 

“Our mythical story is that we were huge in the late ‘70s and ‘80s, and we had a horrible on-stage public breakup at the Labia Majora Fest in the early ‘90s that nobody has quite recovered from. We’re getting the gals back together. So we have a play that we wrote that’s six characters.”

Music has been recorded. Video has been shot. The play will be premiering at Joe’s Pub in New York City in late June.

Obviously something that inspires Bitch is her connection to the LGBTQIA+ community, as so many are misrepresented in their day-to-day lives. Beyond the performances, she says she wants to show that “No matter what, we have always been here, as queer people, as gender nonconforming people; we have always been here and will always be here.” 

Being open, wild and weird is all a part of finding oneself, and the exact thing Bitch hopes people take away from their shows. 

What does she want from the audience? 

“I want [Buffalo] to come experience ‘Hey Bitch’” she said. “I want them to bring their daughter, and their nonbinary kids, and their sons, to see the show. I want them to bring their neighbors and their grandma to see the show.” 

Doors are at 6:30 with the show at 7 p.m. both Friday and Saturday for “Hey Bitch!” at Hallwalls, 341 Delaware Ave. Tickets are available HERE. 

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Lee Ames has been an intern with The Buffalo Hive for the past semester. They are graduating from SUNY Fredonia this weekend with a bachelors degree in writing and a minor in social media.