Sexy girls and fishnet stockings. Roller skates and kneepads. Bruises and blood and tattoos. This isn't a list of what it takes to make a second-rate soft-core porn (or for that matter, horror) film. Rather, it's what you'll find at Sunday Bloody Sunday, the second match of the Tampa Bay Derby Darlins' inaugural roller derby season. The Vicegrip Vixens go head to head, quite literally, with the Switchblade Sisters in what can only be described as a family-friendly death match on wheels. This is an all-ages event, though if you want to get close to the action (in the "suicide seats," according to the website), you gotta be at least 18. Girls with names like Bipolar Bear, Slammy Davis, Jr. and Demi Morgue are in attendance, knocking one another around in a quest to be a roller derby superstar. Rarely has the phrase "girl-on-girl action" sounded so gruesome, yet appealing. Sun., June 11, 6 p.m., United Skates of America, 5121 N. Armenia Ave., Tampa, $10, www.tampabayderbydarlins.com.
This article appears in Jun 7-13, 2006.