Laurie Anderson
I hope I don’t lose my sense of humor when I get old(er).
Now, I’m not saying that Ms. Lou Reed, Laurie Anderson, now 61 years of age, who Jen, Mimi, and I went to see last night, has had a full-on sense-of-humor-ectomy, but I would say that she came off as a lot more earnest than she ever did any other time I’d seen or heard from her in the last couple decades.
And who’d a thunk it? Apparently, Ms. Anderson sees herself primarily a musician these days, rather than the multi-media performance artist we came to know and love in the 1980s, because last night’s show featured nothing more visually striking than the (admittedly, quite lovely) flickering of some hundreds of votive candles surrounding her and her band on stage.
And while there were moments of drama and beauty in the audio pieces, I really did think that the music itself wasn’t nearly interesting enough to carry the show; the only times I felt fully engaged and connected to what she was doing was when her lyrics were audible, and even then, I thought that some of what she had to say was just a bit too obvious, or even—hard as it is to believe with an artist for whom, I’ve always thought, subtlety was paramount—heavy-handed, like the part of the show where she did an amusing song whose chorus made fun of our society’s penchant for deferring to “experts” on all matters of medical and geopolitical import, but whose verses got increasingly dogmatic in their (admittedly justified) attacks on the Bush administration; I did feel at times like if she wanted to send a message, use Western Union, you know?
Still, overall, it was an entertaining, if less than thrilling, evening in theater, and I love the fact that Ms. Anderson, even in her 7th decade, is still doing her thing, true to her own artistic sensibilities.
Nothing funny about that.
Now, I’m not saying that Ms. Lou Reed, Laurie Anderson, now 61 years of age, who Jen, Mimi, and I went to see last night, has had a full-on sense-of-humor-ectomy, but I would say that she came off as a lot more earnest than she ever did any other time I’d seen or heard from her in the last couple decades.
And who’d a thunk it? Apparently, Ms. Anderson sees herself primarily a musician these days, rather than the multi-media performance artist we came to know and love in the 1980s, because last night’s show featured nothing more visually striking than the (admittedly, quite lovely) flickering of some hundreds of votive candles surrounding her and her band on stage.
And while there were moments of drama and beauty in the audio pieces, I really did think that the music itself wasn’t nearly interesting enough to carry the show; the only times I felt fully engaged and connected to what she was doing was when her lyrics were audible, and even then, I thought that some of what she had to say was just a bit too obvious, or even—hard as it is to believe with an artist for whom, I’ve always thought, subtlety was paramount—heavy-handed, like the part of the show where she did an amusing song whose chorus made fun of our society’s penchant for deferring to “experts” on all matters of medical and geopolitical import, but whose verses got increasingly dogmatic in their (admittedly justified) attacks on the Bush administration; I did feel at times like if she wanted to send a message, use Western Union, you know?
Still, overall, it was an entertaining, if less than thrilling, evening in theater, and I love the fact that Ms. Anderson, even in her 7th decade, is still doing her thing, true to her own artistic sensibilities.
Nothing funny about that.
posted by Professor Dave at 11:00 AM
1 Comments:
Good post. loved your review. it got me to thinking about music and visual aids, and all that stuff. you know i like to rant about things being "about" the music (whatever that means).
loved me some sharky's day back in the day. Even though i only had the records and never got to see the full visual from her shows, i just loved her music.
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