June 05, 2023
On a muggy June night, Fine Line witnessed what was perhaps the year’s most extravagant event yet — local artist Blu Bone’s Hi Cotton Ball; A decadent, hedonistic mix of live music, dance breaks, and a ballroom showdown at the end, concertgoers experienced a lifetime within just a few short hours.
The Hi Cotton Ball initially emerged as an informal response to last year’s Afropunk festival, which reportedly underpaid and undercut local performers. This year’s iteration operates under more joyous circumstances, celebrating the release of Blu Bone’s long-awaited EP, Hi Cotton. It’s a fantastic record, laden with striking imagery and curious production choices — near-monastic chants, careening guitars, D&B-inspired drums, Blu’s voice ever-morphing from furious growl to golden-voiced singer.
This high-concept affair also draws from Blu’s family ties to the Deep South. “In the Black Mississippian lexicon, high cotton means the highest quality and the highest pleasure,” Blu shared in an interview with Carbon Sound last year. “It was funny to me that material and crops such as cotton that are tied to such violence and suffering for my people were used to talk about something pleasurable… by flipping and subverting these materials and these ideas… [my people’s] pleasure and pain are always connected.”
The performance itself was marked by transformation. Adorned in spikes and hair pronged upward, Blu bared sharpened teeth and widened eyes, made all the eerier with feline contacts. He had come armed and ready, throttling the mic and snarling through opening tracks “SOUF STAR” and “WICKED WOMB.”
Given the night’s professed theme of Rapture, Blu effectively warped doomsday into his own design. Grainy black and white images flashed behind him, the Hi Cotton band’s cacophony of drums at times emulating rolling thunder, at others, the very earth splitting open. Blu’s pointed nails slashed through the air. A potent cross between the holy and unholy, shadows melted into each other as Blu rapped his way through standout “RIVER,” an atmospheric yet undeniably catchy cut.
“It’s nation time and you must be ready for War. Afro-Apocalyptic effect… the Holy War. How will we adorn ourselves when the trumpet blows?” Blu shared on Instagram earlier this week, equal parts a death knell and a call to action. “Do you imagine yourself a soldier? An ArcAngel? Mothership conductor? A Hi Cotton Affair is all about activating our collective imagination for the future.”
Later donning gleaming white pants and a tipped cowboy hat, Blu slipped from otherworldly creature to natural showman. Bolstered by the remarkable live band, tracks “DONT RUN” and “HI COTTON” took a funkier, guitar-heavy route, the audience rapturous. Legs aching after hours of standing, I was powerless to do anything but move my body, and chant along.
Hi Cotton is high-concept and requires space and time to explore. However, the night ran overlong, with festivities running well past midnight. Extended dance breaks and wide gaps between supporting acts were likely the cause, but despite my aching feet, stellar openers like Yonci and Gym Kang made the wait well worth our while. The latter’s smooth vocals and impressive dancing blew me away, as did the former’s tastefully DJed mix of crowd favorites and industrial tracks. Goldgrrl and Denaisha were also solid additions, Goldgrrl’s unique mix of metal and sugary hooks reminiscent of pop mainstays Poppy and Grimes. In between acts, host and local legend Destiny Spike kept us entertained with jokes and quick performances, later leading a Soul Train line in the crowd.
Backed by DJ Hijo Pródigo, Hi Cotton’s closing ball was an all-hands-on-deck production. In accordance with the night’s theme, concertgoers came decked out in ripped mesh, extravagant gowns, and lethal black — one notable inclusion was a plague doctor mask.
Blu expertly corralled us through the evening’s categories: Commentator v. Commentator, Runway, Sex Siren, Performance, and Hands. A loving homage to queer culture of past and present, the competitors battled it out under the fierce scrutiny of a handful of guest judges.
All in all, this year’s Hi Cotton Ball was a rousing success as a celebration of Blackness, of queerness, of all its refracting and varying intersections. It was an avant-garde subversion of both corporatized pride and Juneteenth celebrations. It was also a straight-up night of great music. At the very end, a gaggle of friends carted a massive cake onstage.
“It’s Blu’s birthday today!” someone shouted. As the crowd launched into a chorus of “Happy Birthday,” Blu shut us down fast: “I will conduct. I need y’all to provide bass, soprano, and alto.” The audience broke out in laughter, and the night hurtled to a close.
