New Orleans Bingo! Show presents bigger, better Bingo! Parlour

Voodoo 2008

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By Jason Andreasen

One of the many things that sets Voodoo apart from other weekend festivals is the embrace between it and the community and culture it annually descends upon. Other festivals might feature local acts or local culinary staples, but for the second year in a row, Voodoo has gone another step deeper into New Orleans’ underground.

Enter The New Orleans Bingo! Show.

If you haven’t seen the Bingo! Show live before, you should honestly take a look in the mirror and realize that you are oblivious to the best-kept secret in Louisiana entertainment. The seven-piece troupe combines elements of a Dust Bowl-era sideshow with a musical smattering that is as ambiguous as a carnie fortune teller’s forecasting. Galvanizing the worlds of video art, musical innovation, cabaret, vaudeville and good old fashioned bingo, this is an act unlike any other you’ll see inside or outside Voodoo.

On the heels of the success of last year’s Bingo! Parlour, Voodoo’s brass reached out to Bingo! member, clown and emcee, Ron Rana (aka Ronnie Numbers) to head up the sequel. This year, as Rana explained, the beast that is The New Orleans Bingo! Parlour has grown.

“We’ve really been looking forward to upping the ante after last year.”

He continued, “Last year was a great learning experience. It was a crash course in festival planning. I’ve had a little more help this year. I mean this thing has doubled in size. We rented a tent from an Italian circus company out of Florida that’s ridiculous. We’ve got Butthole Surfers, Man Man, The Gutter Twins, but we’re still sticking to the same program, highlighting the Louisiana underground. It’s kind of like a family reunion.”

Make no mistake though, the headliner of the Bingo! Parlour is The New Orleans Bingo! Show. In addition to playing all three days of the festival, this year, even their sets have expanded.

“We’re doing three themed shows,” explained Rana. “Friday will be the Black Show, Saturday is the Red Show and Sunday’s the Gold Show. Each one will have a different feel, a different look. We’ll have a trapeze artist for every show. One thing we’ve always done since the Fiorella’s days is highlight a lot of our friends’ groups, which is the whole point of the Bingo! Parlour. We’ll shine the spotlight on Noisician Coalition, then on Saturday we’re gonna have a band out of Oakland that are friends of ours called Vermillion Lies and then Sunday we’re gonna incorporate Fleur de Tease.”

In addition to The New Orleans Bingo! Show and the aforementioned acts, the Parlour will also feature acts such as Morning 40 Federation, Shudder to Think, Quintron, Zydepunks and Baton Rouge’s own Bones.

The unique grouping of local underground and national acts that The New Orleans Bingo! Parlour will have on display during Voodoo weekend adds a unique flavor to the festival at large. It also speaks to the artistic vision and flexibility of The New Orleans Bingo! Show itself. Under the organization of Rana, they have been driving the creative process of the Parlour, resulting in a unique exploration of New Orleans music beyond the normal cliches that is sure to be one of the most memorable ingredients of the Voodoo experience.

As Rana puts it before wishing to see Lil’ Wayne join Bingo! on-stage, “It’s not just a New Orleans rock band tent.”

Originally Published: Issue 709 - October 22, 2008

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