DCD in Boston

[think!ames!decwrl!decvax!zinn.mv.com!mem@EDDIE.MIT.EDU (Mark E. Mallett)]

While y'all were in London at the KB convention, I at least got to see
Dead Can Dance in Boston.  I don't normally post concert impressions,
but I just wrote up a description for a friend who was unable to go,
so what the heck.

The concert was quite good.  It was also interesting to see all the
college kids in their punk uniforms.  The price of conformity is
the amusement of us older folks. :-)

There were the two main people (Lisa Gerrard and Brendan Perry) plus
three others to play instruments.  They played some pretty odd
instruments here and there.  One thing was a big box with a crank on
it.  The Globe called it a "hurdy gurdy."  I've heard of that but
never knew what it was.

They used a rhythm unit but didn't rely on it to fill the concert, like
a lot of groups that sound good on the CD player but are disappointing
live.  I didn't like the use of the rhythm unit so much.  They also
used synthesized drums and other percussion; it was odd to see the guy
hitting some little drum pads and hear the results.  There was also an
electric violin that usually sounded like a flute.  From somewhere, at
one point, there was a whole string section.  :-)

The audience responded the most to the pieces with lots of synthesized
percussion and heavy volume.  Fortunately for me there were only 2 or
three of those.  Mostly it was really good.  The band didn't talk to
the audience at all except to say "Thank you and good night."  There
were two encores, the first one was quite long, and the second
consisted of all of them whaling away on drums and boxes and bells.
When they started it, I thought oh no, not a bunch of drumming.  But
it was really good; they played for about 5,6,7,8 minutes (somewhere
in there), getting louder and wilder all the time.

The Globe review in yesterday's paper was a rave -- they loved it.
They also claimed that it was the first of the American tour, first
time ever in the US.  The Berklee was packed full, I was amazed.

What else..

Lighting was pretty neat.  They had a lot of different patterns washed
onto a reflective background screen mostly with spotlights but
occasionally with solid floods.  (The spotlights were used to make
crisscross or up/down patterns of different colors.  They achieved
some pretty nice color combinations too.)  Foreground was almost
exclusively spotlighting on individuals, often with changes as the
music changed during a song.  There was some stunning lighting
particularly with mainly solo vocal pieces.  A solid purple backgound
with a bright white spot on the female vocalist was particularly
niffty.

They played for over two hours, but we were still out by 10 pm.  No
intermission, no programs, no Tshirts, CDs, or other paraphenalia.

-mm-