Pansy Division

at the Rat
by Mark Phinney
photo by Rich Rodichok

Judy Garland, Bette Midler, Guys and Dolls, and the Pansy Division. These guys are everything they claim to be: Open, out, and more fun than a front row seat at La Cage Au Folles. Rip Taylor and Jim J. Bullock can’t touch these guys with a 10-foot _____ (well, you can fill in the mad lib.) It’s ironic that this trio shares the Lookout! label with The Queers, who are everything but… however, in a manner of shrieking, the Division rip through pop punk melodies, and scrape the guitar strings, with just as much anger and energy as any other band on the still surviving punk outskirts (no pun intended). The only real problem I found, as far as the show was concerned, was the attendance. Seeing that Boston is such a strong arrowhead for gay rights and gay pride, I expected a whole herd to be out; instead I counted, say, 40 people max. Another thing (not a disappointment so much as a wake-up call), don’t go see Pansy Division and expect a flower-picking afternoon. These boys look as straight as Lee Iacocca, and they play their instruments (on stage) as well. They ran through most of their new album Pile Up (Lookout!), and I also got to hear a lot of my faves from previous works, such as “Rock ‘N’ Roll Queer Bar,” “Cocksucker Club,” and “James Bondage,” (wherein lead singer, Jon Ginoli, professes his love for the homo-heartthrob himself, Sean Connery). The Division, as we straight folk back on Mars like to call them, are fun, a genuine good time to be had by all, and I’m not afraid to come out… and… whisper it?