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I Just Want Your Music Tonight
The Knife @ Webster Hall 11/1/2006 (early show)
Pass This On / The Captain / We Share Our Mothers' Health / You Make Me Like Charity / Marble House / Forest Families / Kino / Heartbeats / Silent Shout / From Off To On // Like A Pen
The Knife "Forest Families" - Aside from a brief encore break and a moment at the very end of the show when Karin Dreijer Andersson acknowledged the presence of the audience by giving a brief and sorta creepy wave goodbye, the Knife's performance had very little to do with the common expectations of live music, and seemed more like an experimental film presented in three dimensions.
In fact, only a portion of the music was actually physically performed as it was heard. There was live electronic percussion and assorted gadget fiddling from Olof Dreijer, and live vocals from Karin, who manually manipulated the sound of her voice with a machine to her side. With or without the electronic filters, her voice is an arresting presence, and from the first time you hear it in person up through the end of the show, it's hard not to be struck by the fact that she's actually real as opposed to being some creature out of folklore.
Of course, that's pretty much what they both looked like as they were obscured by shadows with the contours of their bodies lost under black jumpsuits and their faces hidden beneath masks that looked like BDSM fetish gear as designed by Fourth World-era Jack Kirby. (For comics geeks or people who want to get a better idea of what I mean, I'm thinking specifically about the look of his design for Mister Miracle as reinterpreted by JH Williams and Pasqual Ferry in Grant Morrison's recent Seven Soldiers mini-series, but devoid of bright colors. Basically, the eerie glowing trim, but only around the eyes and mouth, the rest of the face rendered as black negative space. Actually, closer to Metron's suit, I guess.) The duo were not going for simple gender-bending androgyny - they went further into an abstraction of their own humanity. Karin in particular came across like a lonely alien creature with a voice that changed shape like a glob of mercury, which was especially unnerving when she performed "You Make Me Like Charity" and had to switch between male and female characters at rapid intervals. Whereas most other female artists either play up their sexuality or seek to define or redefine their femininity, Karin inhabited the characters of every song by completely obliterating herself.
For the benefit of readers who may be seeing the Knife in California this weekend, I'm going to avoid getting into many specifics about the staging and imagery in each song, mainly because this is probably the one music show you could ever see in which "spoilers" not involving the setlist are actually a valid concern, but also because some of them are so elaborate and strange that it would be difficult to adequately convey in words. The presentation of "Marble House" was especially haunting and brilliant and will probably be seared into my memory for the rest of my life, but I can't think of a way to explain what was there on stage without making it sound silly, which of course on some level it actually was. You don't just have to see it, you actually have to be there to fully understand the experience.
The heart of the performance, of course, was the music. The selections from Silent Shout were presented without any perceptible change in arrangement, though the older songs were played in a style closer to the feeling of that album. (The songs from Deep Cuts sounded exactly as they did in the One Music session, and "Kino" was like a more extreme version of itself, with a stronger dance beat and a darker atmosphere.) Since the music was set in a fixed position, the focus was on the sound of Karin's voice and the nuances of her phrasing, which generally did not vary significantly from the album recordings, though her profound aura amplified the potent emotions of the songs. "We Share Our Mothers' Health" alternated between moments of terror and ecstasy; "Forest Families" blended crippling paranoia with affectionate intimacy; "Silent Shout" was a perfect musical expression of stifled anguish. "Heartbeats" was exactly as sublime as you might imagine, and the goose bump magic of that moment was enhanced considerably by the obvious fact that a vast majority of the people in the audience would count it among their favorite songs of all time. As Karin sang the song in her natural voice, there was a powerful sense of reverence in the room, as though everyone was extremely aware that this could be their only chance to ever witness a performance of it by the original artist, and that every second of it must be savored. (Click here to buy it from Sound Fix.)
Bossanova @ Ace Of Clubs 11/1/2006
In The Immortal Words Of You / Calvary / French Accent / I'll Leave Of My Heart / My First Luau / Rare Brazil / It Felt Like A Weight
Bossanova "French Accent" - This show began a little over a half hour after the Knife's final song, and though they were an incredibly difficult act to follow, Bossanova were able to deliver a strong set of their classy, romantic pop at the criminally under-attended TeenBeat CMJ showcase. Though band leader and songwriter Chris Storrow made a self-deprecating quip about how the band on stage sees each other about as often as the audience sees them, the group (which occasionally included TeenBeat founder and former Unrest leader Mark Robinson) sounded professional if not always as tight as the music on their underrated debut album. Storrow's gentle crooning and the overdriven drone of a vintage organ were the most appealing superficial elements, but the quality of the compositions carried the show, most especially the nearly transcendental disco epic "Rare Brazil." (Click here to buy it from TeenBeat.)
Elsewhere: My new Hit Refresh column is up on the ASAP site, and includes mp3s from Josef K, Beach House, and the Oohlas.
Also: Like Nick says, if you dress as the internet (next) Halloween, don't forget to wear your anti-intellectual discontent. Also, please remember to take some of the ugliest, most demystifying photos imaginable from your spot in the VIP area of the balcony.
And: If you are curious about what the Knife looked like onstage from the perspective of the audience, you'll get a fairly accurate feel for it if you look at these youtube clips or this post on Merry Swankster.
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