rambling and review

[hsut@ec.purdue.edu (Bill Hsu)]

< Shelli raves about Smithereens >
Uhhh... I've seen the Blood and Roses video several times and can't really
say it's memorable (musically or visually). A decent bit of jangly, catchy
pop, but nothing terribly exciting (the review of their earlier stuff
in New Trouser Press Record Guide comes to mind here...) 


And now, the surprise unasked-for half-assed notes on:

LAURIE ANDERSON AT THE HOLIDAY STAR, MERRILLVILLE INDIANA (where?)

Well after some misadventures (all of which were my fault, sigh) the Terrible 
Trio (Kitty, Andy and me) finally made it to Mville. A rather low
trendies to non-trendies ratio, and I overheard some people saying
they thought Laurie Anderson was fusion :-) :-). LA had two male
backup singers and a keyboards player. For detailed notes on her
equipment, setup, etc., refer to expert opinion on net.music,
net.music.synth, net.music.classical (well maybe not) or just
Tom Janzen.

Since there've been tons of Laurie Anderson reviews in the past
three months, I'll just mention some neat details. LA came on stage
thru the audience, and for quite a few songs sat on the edge of the
stage. I had always thought from listening to the albums that she
was kind of a distant, playful performer who doesn't get close to
the audience. Some of the old stuff she did (I don't have the new
album):

Big Science	(the simple slide show really enhanced this one; lovely)
Sweaters	(hilarious mangled version with tape loop of lascivious
			panting)
Walking & Falling
Oh Superman
Let x=x/it tango
Kokoku		(with the famous airplane and snowflake slides)
Gravity's Angel	(the highlight of the evening; the almost-industrial sounds
		 and powerful delivery evoked superbly the flavor of
		 some scenes from the Pynchon book)

She did two encores: Walk the Dog and Language is a Virus. 

While I still don't think much of the new material, her performance of
the old stuff is really worth seeing. Don't miss her when she comes
into your area.

					Bill Hsu