The Boulet Brothers' Dragula @ Nottingham Contemporary

Posted: Sun, Sep 2, 2018
Last updated: Sun, Feb 9, 2020

Okay, so maybe this one is cheating, as it wasn’t an actual concert. The Boulet Brothers' Dragula is a drag-themed reality TV show, a bit like RuPaul’s Drag Race mixed with Fear Factor. It’s fucking great.

At the time of me going to this show, I didn’t know what ‘Dragula’ was (apart from being a hit single by Rob Zombie). I didn’t even know the show existed and hadn’t heard of any of the queens before. In fact, I had barely an interest in drag at all. I had a flyer handed to me with my receipt at a goth shop I frequent in the city centre. I thought it’d be a fun night out, so off I went.

This tour was to mark the end of season 2, as the winner had been crowned. I was a bit tiddly during the show, and for some reason felt the need to film practically everything. I ended up being completely hammered by the end of it, getting even more drunk when I got home, and ended up blacking out on my kitchen floor. I woke up an hour late for work the next day, but I suppose this isn’t really relevant to the show.

The Boulet Brothers came onto the stage after each queen’s performance to introduce the next. It’s also worth noting that the music they used as filler between each queen’s set was the intro to Seamless by American Head Charge.

I’m not sure I can write much about each act as I barely remember it, all I have are the shaky videos and shit photos I took to go off. I will tell you that Vander Von Odd (season 1 winner) was fucking incredible. She has such a strong and commanding stage presence. I remember watching season 1 after going to this show and you could tell she was going to win from episode one.

I’m gonna try and calculate the setlist, or at least what I remember each queen performing to. This will be a patchy recollection at best.

Vander Von Odd

• iamamiwhoami — Chasing Kites
• The Shirelles — Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow

James Majesty

• Marilyn Manson — We Know Where You Fucking Live

Meatball

• Reba McEntire — The Night The Lights Went Out In Georgia as well as lipsyncing that iconic Designing Women monologue
• Nicki Minaj — Roman's Revenge

Abhora

• Marilyn Manson — Astonishing Panorama of the Endtimes
• Lady Gaga — Venus

Biqtch Puddin

• Lisa Stansfield — All Around The World
• Peaches & Herb — Reunited
• Tiffany — I Think We're Alone Now
• Berlin — Take My Breath Away
• Whitney Houston — I Will Always Love You

Mutha Tucka opened the show with a dress with black balloons underneath it, and she performed to Lazarus by V V Brown. Another highlight of the set was Vander’s performance to a haunting version of Will You Love Me Tomorrow, which was like an elevated version of her season 1 finale horror look. Biqtch performed a medley of songs in her season 2 finale filth look, which was also fucking class.

I decided to stand to the side a bit away from the front as these kinds of events tend to have audience participation, and considering I didn’t know who anyone was at the time I didn’t fancy making an arse of myself if I was pulled onstage.

I made the correct decision as there was a contest partway through to see who could perform a given Dragula read/quote the best. The winner did Loris' iconic ‘Not tonight!’ spiel from season 1.

Honestly, it was a really fun night. As I’m typing this a couple months after the event, I’ve been watching All Stars 4 and keeping tabs on a lot of Ru girls in case they come touring over here too.