Welcome to the Freak Cabaret brought to you tonight by the Dakh Daughters at the Musical Instrument Museum. Caroline hinted at having some interest in this group from Kyiv, Ukraine, a month or so ago, but I was kind of ho-hum about them. Sure we’d seen the woman on the right with DakhaBrakha a couple of times, but the video of this group’s live performance hadn’t swayed me so I skipped picking up tickets at that time. Then a few days ago she reminded me that they were playing on Monday night, so obviously, her interest was greater than her hint. With that I took a gander at the MIM’s website for some seats and sure enough with just 24 hours before the show there were two seats in the 4th row (our favorite) that were reserved for handicap access. I took a wager that they might stay free and so I bought them with my fingers crossed.

Turns out these six women are infinitely better live and in-person than on the video. The strongest sense I got from this troupe is that we are in the age of women’s empowerment. Not that their lyrics suggested such, but just their presence spoke to owning the stage and their craft. Regarding the lyrics that were mostly sung in Ukrainian: their background video had subtitles that allowed us to read along with what they were singing. It was mildly distracting, but they were a great reference to glean an idea of what their songs were all about. Then again I can’t say I understood the meaning of what I was reading anyway. How lucky we are that we live in an age where an all-woman cabaret act from the former Soviet Union travels to the desert to entertain us.