Beauty Call

It’s not quite 11 o’clock on a Tuesday night, but Alicia Solombrino already looks dressed to kill.

While the other three members of her band, the Beautiful Bodies, are lounging in T-shirts and jeans in the living room of bassist Luis Arana’s cavernous three-story house, Solombrino — the singer and spiritual founder of the fledgling project — is decked out in calf-length candy-apple-red boots, a low-cut top and dangerously short shorts.

It’s an outfit that makes her look undeniably sexy — or, depending on how you look at it, overtly sexualized. Yet somehow, Solombrino’s bad-girl rock-star look — complemented by an ironic Sonic the Hedgehog wristband and her signature teased-out, jet-black-and-bleach-white hair — seems completely natural to Arana, guitarist Michael Corte and drummer Nicholas Organ.

Maybe it’s because, at least in terms of her wardrobe, onstage Alicia and real-life Alicia aren’t all that different.

When she’s onstage, Solombrino is a writhing, flailing, screaming sexpot who punctuates her high notes with orgasmic squeals. And quite often, a live Bodies show is a full-contact sport that sends at least one member of the foursome (quite frequently, it’s Solombrino) home with a little less blood than he or she came with.

For that reason, she’s an ideal match for the band’s Blondie-by-way-of-Slayer dance-metal sound, a concept similar to, but a little more danceable than, Pixel Panda, the other band to which she and Arana belong.

“Every time I have a dress made, they just keep getting shorter and shorter,” she says, describing the slinky, custom-tailored costumes she has created for the band’s live shows.

“Orange” and “Stranger” (live) by the Beautiful Bodies:

Offstage, though, the 22-year-old Solombrino is more like a caricature of her onstage persona — or maybe it’s the other way around. Regardless, she says, it can be confusing for people who take her stage show at more than face value.

“I’m a virgin,” she says. “That’s not how I go around introducing myself or anything, but I’m not embarrassed about it. I’m a very sexual person, but I’ve just never had sex.”

It’s as if playing the role of a hypersexual lead singer gives her the chance to explore her own beliefs on sexuality and materialism.

For example, at the band’s most recent show — opening for Seattle brat-punkers the Blood Brothers at The Granada — she wore a half-goth, half-scenester dress that she says incorporates different subsets of the local music scene into one personality.

“It’s all part of what I call ‘The Concept,'” she explains. “The whole point is, what does my physical appearance have to do with my music?”

In a perfect world, nothing, and it’s probably a worthy concept for a band to explore. But it’s even more intriguing that a group that’s still working on its first EP (expect a release in late June or early July) is already starting to draw big crowds and open for high-profile acts such as the Blood Brothers.

“She appeals to the kiddos in the crowds, and we appeal to the musicians,” Organ says. “When we talk to people backstage, people say they like the music. But out front, they’re all watching Alicia.”

It’s obvious that Organ is the least enthusiastic about the band’s stage routine, though he’s relatively at peace with it.

“It’s there, and it’s fun, but I don’t think we should base the whole band on it,” he says. “But what she chooses to wear is the same as what color I choose for my drums. It doesn’t really affect me.”

In fact, if you can stop staring at Solombrino for a few seconds, what’s happening on the rest of the stage could be the band’s real selling point.

“People love seeing shows with energy,” Corte says. “There are so many great musicians in Kansas City who don’t move at all when they get onstage, but all of us really do.”

Now that the band has conquered the art of performing live, the next step is that forthcoming EP. And though they may be a visual overdose live, all four are convinced that fans will appreciate what’s being attempted musically.

“I think a lot of people have been so busy paying attention to Alicia bouncing around, they’ve never sat down and listened to our music,” Corte says.

“Yeah — could you put your boobs away for one night?” Organ jokes.

Without a doubt, it will be more difficult for Solombrino’s short skirts and skimpy tops to get noticed on an audio recording, and the band knows it.

Then again, that’s what album covers were made for.