Big Hat (was: woj's C'est Le Mort review)

[gatech!chinet.chi.il.us!katefans@eddie (Chris n Vickie)]

Vickie here.

Woj writes:

> 12. big hat "you lied" - i know that these folks have been mentioned on
> gaffa before. i thin kthat they have been compared to the twins, but i 
> think that a better starting point is hugo largo, perhaps. or maybe even
> area (now there's a oddity, normally area is called derivative!). this
> track is slow, deep and mixes a middle eastern feel with a simple melody.
> production is abit muddled, but it's still decent. no idea if they have 
> any releases out, but i think that they do. they are from chicago as
> well...vickie?

Yes they are from Chicago and have been together just over a year. I've
seen them in concert a few times and they're always good live. The first
time I saw them they opened for Mazzy Star and blew them away (and I
_like_ Mazzy Star!). We also saw them open for The Sundays. That was a
great night for them. The concert was sold out and most of the people
there left that night very impressed with Big Hat. The keyboard player
had to keep going home for more cassettes to sell because they were
being snatched up like crazy. I think they completely sold out their
existing stock of cassettes that night. I had a great time, except for
a run-in with two jerkassbastardsuburbieyuppie-wanna-bes. We had just 
come from a wonderful exhibit at Navy Pier and, from there, I brought
a HUGE helium-filled balloon (you should have seen us in the car on the
way to the concert :-) I mean, this thing was big. Kate could have fit 
inside this balloon! I had intended to give it to Harriet, the Sunday's
vocalist. But when I got there and found out that Big Hat were opening,
I decided to give it to their lead singer Yvonne. The area in front of
the stage was PACKED...at least 30 deep, and there was no way I was
going to get anywhere near the stage. OK, I decided to ask people to
pass it up to her. The first person I asked, a woman, looked at me like
I had just asked her to lick my ankle upside down, and turned away. So I
asked a guy in front of her. He took the balloon string and looked at
it, with a dopey expression on his face. His ever-so-hip buddy yucked
and said "why don't you let it go?" Guess what? He did! So there goes
this huge balloon soaring to the ceiling. I had lots to say about things
like...oh... "shit for brains" and such-like, then went back to my seat.
So there's my story. Anyway, Big Hat also opened for Julee Cruise, which
was the best time I ever had seeing them. I've seen them a few other times
by themselves. They are very mesmerising live, more so than on record even.

They bill themselves as "23rd Century Renaissance Music" and I'd say that's
just about right. They have a male percussionist, a male keyboard player,
a female violin player (with the weirdest-looking violin in the world!)
and a female lead singer, of course. They used to have a female saxophone
player (she plays on "You Lied") but she's quit and they're looking to
replace her. They have one cassette out, called _Hathead_ and are hoping
to put a CD out soon. Actually, the track on Dr. Death's is one of my
least favorite songs by them. I do like it, but I like the others on
Hathead better. It does sound nice though, and it certainly gives a very
accurate taste of what the band's style is like.

I just got DDV5, so I can't comment on your comments, woj. I only
sampled a bit of each track and have yet to listen to it all the way
through. 

(Ecto-content: HTR may very well be on DDV6! Details when sure)

Vickie
katefans@chinet.chi.il.us