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see all the photos from this concert here
I kid you not, dear reader. The venue for
tonight’s gig really does style itself a ‘blues club and grill’. From this,
you might infer that Siouxsie is playing a ramshackle roadhouse, a While we’re considering names, it’s worth
noting that tonight’s show is simply billed as ‘an evening with Siouxsie’.
Not the Banshees, not The Creatures - this is Siouxsie in a new The band arrange themselves in their places
without ceremony, and are greeted with a huge gale of applause from the
packed house. There’s a feeling of goodwill in the air, a sense that The band pitch merrily into the set list,
giving us a bit of everything: we begin with recent Creatures and progress
seamlessly to vintage Banshees. ‘Godzilla’ in particular is a lunatic
beat-barrage, Budgie and Leonard Eto setting up a downright funky percussion
groove as they trade tricks and licks, Siouxsie yelling out those magnificently
silly lyrics like they mean all things profound. Budgie comes down the
front for his turn in the spotlight, laying into a couple of downstage
drums, wearing a grin like he knows something tasty is being cooked up
tonight. Siouxsie is on top form between the songs, joshing with the crowd
and goading But let’s not divert ourselves too much
from the music. The band squeezes new life into familiar songs: I’m particularly
struck by the grooved-up version of ‘Kiss Them For Me’. It’s lithe and
forceful, packing far more of a punch than the rather wet album version,
on which Stephen Hague’s programmed-to-death production suppressed the
band’s natural identity. Remember Stephen Hague? Hot-shot producer
of the early 90s, who only ever had one snare drum sound which he imposed
upon every band - nothing short of a criminal technique when you’re working
with a drummer as individual and creative as Budgie. We also get a curiously
beefy version of ‘Happy House’, the stark minimalism of the original replaced
by a bigger, warmer, arrangement, as if the band have been feeding the
song up on protein pills and Bovril. But for my money the showstopper has
to be ‘Second Floor’ - always an epic, and never more so than tonight.
It roars, it churns, it builds and builds into a mighty anthem, Siouxsie
swirling like a flamenco dancer as the song reaches its crescendo - and
then, instead of a conventional ending, it all drops and drops and drops
away, the tempo slowing down, Siouxsie collapsing slowly to the floor until
she’s on her knees, beating the stage as she drags out the final words:
‘Second....flooorrr...’. And then it all finally shudders to a halt; the
audience hesitant, reluctant to applaud, unsure if it’s all really finished
- and then the roar of the crowd nearly brings B.B. King’s roof down.
Out into the white light night of 42nd street, where so much artificial illumination pours into the air that I’m temporarily disoriented, convinced that somehow the world has turned and it’s daylight again. That was classic Siouxsie, fired up and on the rampage, no quarter given and obviously having a good time doing it. At a time when so many of her contemporaries from the punk era and after are plodding round the revival circuit, or contemplating everyone-else-is-doing-it-so-why-don’t-we reformations, it’s good to see an artist so unequivocally at the top of her game, and moving forward with the creativity throttle wide open. Siouxsie, as ever, is the standard everyone else has to beat.
see all the photos from this concert here The Creatures' website - official source of all current Siouxsie info: http://www.thecreatures.com Unofficial Siouxsie site - best for comprehensive
tour info, setlists, photos, reviews, etc: http://www.untiedundone.com
The B.B. King Blues Club & Grill: http://www.bbkingblues.com Reviewed by Uncle Nemesis: http://www.nemesis.to
11/28/04 |
down-home
bar in a downtown backstreet somewhere in, say, Louisiana or Kentucky.
But nothing could be further than the truth. In fact, we’re slap on 42nd
street in NYC, and the venue is large, plush, thickly-carpeted, air-conned
to the max, and decidedly upmarket. Whether or not the club has anything
to do with B.B. King himself is another matter. Although the veteran blues
guitarist’s name and likeness are featured in neon-lit glitz on the sign
outside (thus creating the rather odd impression that Siouxsie is actually
the support band at a B.B. King gig), there’s nothing to indicate
whether he actually has any kind of business interest in the place. If
the venue is simply using the great man’s name to lend a bit of cred to
the establishment, all I can say is that I hope he’s getting royalties.
guise,
as a solo performer, with a set that draws in material from all her previous
incarnations. But this doesn’t mean she’s alone on stage. We have a full
band which features Budgie on drums (of course), recent Creatures collaborator
Leonard Eto on a fearsome array of Japanese percussion, and late-model
Banshees guitarist Knox Chandler. Add two supercool twin girls on backing
vocals (clocking them is a real how-many-beers-did-I have-tonight moment)
and a noo-wavey looking guy in white DMs on keyboards, and there you have
the band. Significantly, given the tales we’ve doubtless all heard
about the Siouxsie-versus-Severin stresses which so enlivened the latter-day
incarnations of the Banshees, there is no bass guitar in this line-up.
It’s as if Siouxsie is so reluctant to risk opening that particular box
of delights again that she hasn’t merely severed all ties with Severin
- she’s nixed the idea of having any bass player at all.
something
positive and special is about to unfold. And then, with a wham and a blam
and a cannonade of drumbeats the show is under way, kicking off with a
selection of new tracks from The Creatures’ recent east-meets-west percussion
frenzy that is the ‘Hai!’ album. Siouxsie herself is on fine form, swooping
and gyrating around the stage like she’s been on the whoopee pills. I have
seen Siouxise in good moods and bad moods, cheery and curmudgeonly, but
I’ve never seen her having so much fun at a gig as she clearly is tonight.
This is always the great unknown of any Siouxsie performance: will she
be in a good mood, or will she be in a strop? Both moods will, in different
ways, get you a good show, but on balance I think I like happy Siouxsie
more than stroppy Siouxsie.
the
venue management for turning the air conditioning up too high - ‘Wankers!’
Endearingly, Siouxsie always becomes extremely saaarf Laaahndon at such
moments. Well-wishers in the seething crowd proffer gifts towards
her throughout the show - I’m amused to see a hand rise out of the mosh
bearing a neatly-wrapped parcel, gold ribbon and all. What, I wonder, does
that person expect Siouxsie to do? Stop the entire gig to unwrap her present
- ‘Oh! A tea towel! Just what I’ve always wanted!’ There’s a bloke
just in front of me who’s brought along a large and cumbersome bunch of
flowers which he waves like a football trophy. He thrusts the flowers at
Siouxsie, who adopts a comedy-horror expression and waves him away, and
then she’s off to the other side of the stage, hamming it up for the photographers
in the front row. Another hand emerges from the melee, holding a small
camera. Siouxsie leans into the lens and lets out an open-mouthed
‘Waaarrrgh!’ just as his flash goes off. Someone, somewhere, has a photograph
of Siouxsie’s tonsils. If I had been able to find that photo on the web,
believe me, you’d see it here.
