From the topless statues, to the lurid murals, to the towering images of women that surround the stage (some in leather, some in nothing at all) the live music club's wall paintings could easily fool the first-timer into thinking they'd stumbled into an entirely different sort of venue.

Reich shrugs and adjusts the microphone.

"I've decided that while I'm up here, it will be about empowerment," she says.

Whatever the women on the wall are about, once a month the Orange Bear, 47 Murray St., turns the stage over to "Chicks with Guitars," a showcase featuring female singers and songwriters. On Feb. 19, the ladies took full advantage.

The artists filled out their 20- minute sets with songs ranging in style from gentle folk to Reich's rock-opera theatrics.

"I'm looking for trouble," Jeanette Palmer sang. "Do you know where to find it, do you know where it lives?"

No one breathed a word.

"They listen here," she said, clearly delighted with the audience following her set. "They really listen."

The Brooklyn singer and songwriter hosts the monthly showcase she began in November shortly after playing her first gig at the bar. (She takes booking requests through her website, chicks withguitars.com.) The next showcase is set for March 25.

"It's my way of creating an opportunity to share with other people so we can all build an audience and share an audience," Palmer said.

Offstage Palmer passed the tip jar and oversaw the artists' CDs and mailing lists displayed on the pool table.

"I sold one CD," Reich said. "That's good-for New York."

As the crowd thinned late in the show, bar owner Victor Ribar began clearing beer bottles from the tables. A solo performer who goes only by the name Pi propped the microphone in front of a boom box.

"This," she explained, "is my band." She accompanied herself on acoustic guitar while the beats and bass lines she had previously recorded kept time.