Bravolebrity Erika Jayne brings DJ Pretty Mess to NY State Fair

My feet hurt. My back is sore. My head is pounding. My neck is killing me. I haven’t danced this hard in a long time.

Last night, I ventured to the New York State Fair to see Erika Jayne, one of my favorite Real Housewives of all time, perform for LGBTQ+ Pride Day.

Erika Girardi, known professionally as Erika Jayne, has always garnered a large queer audience, both for being a “Bravolebrity” as well as for her work in the dance music scene. In 2009, she dropped her debut (and to this date, only) album, Pretty Mess, and she has since stayed in the scene, dropping singles like, “Painkillr,” before joining The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills in 2015.

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that her stint on the show was plagued with controversy in late 2020, when news about her husband’s major embezzlements broke. 

Jayne still stands firm in her claim that she knew nothing about his wrongdoings.

Last year, she announced that she would be bringing her musical talents back to the stage, behind the turntables, with her alter-alter ego, DJ Pretty Mess. Since then, she has performed at major gay clubs and opened for Kesha on her “Freedom Tour.”

Before last night’s show, I stopped by the Syracuse Guerilla Queer Bar pop-up at the Harvey’s Garden booth to wet my whistle a little, then I headed to the Chevy Court Stage around 7:30 p.m. to get barricade.

Surprisingly, the show started promptly at 9 p.m.

The stage illuminated with bright red lights as she walked on with her signature lollipop in her mouth. She wore a black and white striped latex dress with red details at the bust and whipped her iconic blonde ponytail to the music.

The set began with a sample from “Voices In My Head” by Anyma, followed by an eight-count from an iconic song, like “Heads Will Roll” by Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Then she would cut back to that sample and play another iconic eight-count.

The crowd was largely made up of early-to-middle aged women and gay men, most of them Bravo fans, who expected a typical Erika Jayne performance – singing, dancing, patting the puss, etc.

By the second song, which was “New Religion” by Bebe Rexha, the crowd had sort of waned in energy and anticipation. In other words, most of the crowd didn’t know what they had shown up to. The front section was still energetic, but the rest of the crowd was dead.

You could see this affected Jayne, as her enthusiasm waned with the crowd’s. The section right next to the stage, which I assumed was VIP, was also sort of dead.

As Chappell Roan once infamously said, “It’s so weird that VIP thinks they’re so way too cool to do this,” and in this case, ‘this’ refers to literally anything. They stayed still, with a light fist pump at most, during the entire set.

By the third or fourth song, the people in the front row, including myself, were the only ones matching her energy. As Jayne said (multiple times) throughout the show, “The front row is undefeated.”

The night went on, and she played some capital-H Hits – “No Broke Boys” by Tinashe and Disco Lines, “360” by Charli xcx, and a mashup of Madonna’s “Vogue” and “Danceteria.” 

The front row danced, jumped and fist pumped, which seemed to lift Jayne’s spirits after the disappointment that was the rest of the crowd. Now, I’m not saying the rest of the crowd was completely still – there was a little bit of head nodding.

Jayne herself was very interactive with the crowd, pointing out individuals she enjoyed watching and responding to people’s signs.

She pointed me out a couple of times because, admittedly, I was dancing throughout the entire set. I’m still sort of reeling from that.

The night first peaked for me when she played “New Bottega” by Azealia Banks, and I went bar-for-bar with her. Then she played “101” by Kim Petras, and I completely lost it; that’s why my neck hurts today.

I thought the night couldn’t get better, but she closed the show with a performance of her own song, “XXPEN$IVE,” which is truly one of my favorite songs of all time. I love the unapologetic campiness of it all.  

During the bridge, she came to the end of the stage, right in front of me, and let me tell you this: she looks just as beautiful in person as she does on Bravo. She is stunning up close.

The woman beside me (Her name was Annette, and she was amazing.) brought a sign asking for a selfie, and right after the bridge Jayne squatted down and took one with us.

Objectively, most of the crowd was a vibe killer, and it visibly brought her energy down, as I’m sure it would any other DJ. She did not perform (other than “XXPEN$IVE”) in the traditional sense, which I know many people were expecting – even though this was marketed as a DJ set. I would’ve loved to hear more of her own music mixed into the set.

If this were a more dance-music-centric crowd, I’m sure the show would’ve been 100 times better, but she worked with the crowd she had.

Erika Jayne was not exaggerating when she called herself a showman.