One to Watch

Destiny’s children. Winnipeg divas Alexa Dirks (Chic Gamine, The New Lightweights) and Marti Sarbit (Imaginary Cities) host Guilty Pleasures, a tribute show to ’90s girl bands on Dec. 21 at Le Garage Café.
   
"I don’t really sing in (a girl-band style) much but I love to sing in that style, all the little runs, riffs and inflections," Dirks, 24, says. "You know when you’re with your friends and you hear those songs, it’s like, ‘Oh wow, that’s so cheesy,’ but secretly you really want to sing them. They’re just super-powerful."
   
Dirks and Sarbit will sing hits by such all-female acts as TLC, All Saints and Spice Girls, but it’s not just girl power. The ladies will be backed by brothers Joey and Dave Landreth (guitar and bass, respectively), keyboardist Alex Campballse and drummer Ryan Voth. In fact, it was Voth who came up with the idea while on tour with Imaginary Cities, inspired by Sarbit’s singing of Destiny’s Child songs.
   
"It’s interesting that it was my idea because I’m too young, I don’t actually know any of the music," Voth says. "I’m 22, so I’m just young enough that I wasn’t privy to it, but everyone else is, so I had to leave it up to Marti and Alexa to pick all the songs.
   
"There seems to be a limitless catalogue of this shit, so they keep coming back to me and wanting to add more songs and more songs to the set."
   
Don’t get Voth wrong. He’s super-excited about "this shit" and is completely unashamed. Same goes for Sarbit and Dirks.
   
"It’s fun to be doing it with someone who also feels the same way about the music," says Sarbit, 26.
   
"We both can be huge losers about it and not worry that the other person is actually cool, because we’re both not actually cool," Dirks adds.
   
"We’re going to be so uncool together," Sarbit says.
   
Yes, the girls and guys don’t feel guilty about their guilty pleasures; in fact, they take them quite seriously.
   
"We’re going to try and do a good job," Dirks says. "We’re not just going up there to laugh the whole time, not try to sing well and play poorly."
   
"It will be far from karaoke night," Voth adds.
   
Karaoke no, but maybe a huge singalong. The Guilty Pleasures gang hopes the holiday season show attracts a holly jolly crowd. DJ Hunnicut will be spinning girl-power galore between sets, and Sarbit and Dirks will try to stay sober enough to remember the words.
   
"I feel like most of them are ingrained in my brain, but I really don’t want to screw up," Dirks says.
   
"Destiny’s Child songs have a million words within five seconds," Sarbit says.
   
"A lot of (does a Beyonce-esque vocal run) singing," Dirks says.
   
"We’ll be doing a lot of switching and harmonies," Sarbit says.
   
"And a lot of fighting, hair pulling and chest bumping," Dirks adds.
   
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