No love for the ladies

By April Corbin (contact)

Friday, Oct. 23, 2009 | 4:10 p.m.

The third annual Las Vegas Girl Festival is more than halfway over, but I’ve felt no surge of estrogen or desire to burn my bra. Actually, after sitting through performances at Sam Ash Music Store on Sunday, the Platinum Hotel on Tuesday and the Freakin’ Frog on Wednesday, the only reoccurring thought in my head has been, “Where is everyone?”

Despite a decent line up of XX-chromosome musicians, the performances failed to bring out music-hungry audiences at all three venues. Maybe it was the atypical show times – even more established local bands would likely struggle to bring an audience at 1 p.m. on a Sunday, and Tuesday and Wednesday nights at 5:30 p.m. and 8 p.m., respectively, aren’t primetime slots either. The venues themselves may have played a role, too. The valet-only parking at the Platinum isn’t the most inviting for the indie-loving hipster crowd that a festival like this appeals to. It’s also possible that the Vegas music scene, already criticized for being inattentive, just doesn’t care about showcasing women unless they’re wearing three-inch go-go boots and shaking to hip-hop.

Whatever the sociological or tactical reasons for the dismal crowds drawn so far, some benefits do exist for musicians playing to lackluster audiences during the first half of Girl Festival. Here are three:

1. Better sing-a-longs. When blues vocalist and trumpeter Lady J Huston broke into “Mustang Sally” at the Platinum on Tuesday and asked for the audience to contribute “ride, sally, ride” backing vocals, the response was quiet, but completely in tune. If you’re a singer brave enough to demand audience participation from a crowd of less than 30 people, it helps for the majority of those audience members to have a background in music.

2. Optimal photoshoot time. With the crowd entertaining itself with its own company and the Freakin’ Frog’s beer selection, Shauna Burns still managed to give a animated performance (perhaps too much so) for the video-camera and photographer shooting her.

3. It can only get better from here. The second half of Girl Festival includes more mainstream venues, such as Beauty Bar and House of Blues. While time is still an issue (tonight and tomorrow’s Beauty Bar performances begin at 6 p.m.) the convenient, music-focused locales may give the fest the supportive boost it needs.