Corey is still the type who only buys a pair of tickets for concerts, assuming a chick will be available to go, then when that doesn’t work out (because chicks can be stupid) then I’m down to go to a show. (And I learned that lesson years ago and stopped buying an extra ticket unless I knew for sure I was getting someone to go with me (and even still risk them flaking out on me).) I didn’t know Adam Ant save for a few of the hits (not always my favorites) but a show’s a show. Even better for me, even though I would have gone anyway, was L7 opening, an odd combination -- the British flashback fighting for relevancy after ‘80s nostalgia was on the wane, with one of the few female grunge acts that survived with their integrity intact before ‘90s nostalgia was going to wax -- but Ant could use the legitimacy and L7 could use the crowd. It helped to present as a rock show, though it still didn’t guarantee a crowd -- this was a show where the C section was closed off (a third of the place), showing how smaller acts can play a venue larger than they should be able to pull, when it turns out they can shrink down a place if there's not the demand. That may have helped us get better seats, though as it was we were in the middle section in the center, a fine view especially since we didn’t need to mix with anyone (though the excitable lady next to us seemed to have held on to her very intense crush for an impressive amount of time (though only one of many, her companion, who was likely her mom, interjected)). We missed L7’s first song (which didn’t seem like a big deal at the time but ended up being “Deathwish,” which became a favorite later on, a track incendiary enough for them to play as a promise in front-loading shows), but they did a new one, and this time I was sober enough to appreciate it. (Also noting that someone bothered to record & post L7’s setlist, while no one did for Ant’s. Maybe they had just flipped for who was going to headline and L7 missed out that night.) Still four hard-rockin’ ladies who got the chance to go back on the road and play shows, even if Finch looked like she had just come from a backyard barbecue. Ant puts on a show, and I recognized every few songs. “Goody Two Shoes” turned me off from the very start years before and I never much recovered, but I always forgot “Desperate But Not Serious” was one of his, and I can get a transplanted thrill when he does the original “Physical (You’re So)” that NIN covered. The rest of the show could have been forgettable to someone not a particular fan, except for the spectacle of the drummer. There were two drummers, which is usually a turn-off since it guarantees a vacuum on any spontaneity in a rock show, the blood of a great performance, since they both have to be in near-perfect sync with each other and that takes enough planning to kill any surprises. (Not to be confused with a drummer and a percussionist, which is a different thing, but still probably too many people on stage.) This was a lady drummer (also a rarity) who played masked and done-up like she was supposed to be at some place far more interesting.. She wore a monochrome, striped top and had a silver beehive, all visually stunning on their own, and the mask looked like she was going to a masquerade party for rich colonists from the ‘70s -- the 1770s. She never wavered from the appearance, just as she kept the beat, though I honestly wasn’t paying so much attention to the music. I was enraptured by the look, sexy but not gratuitous or purposeful with it, searching for an indication that she was a human and not a well-coifed machine from the time of my ancestors. The visual might have fit with Ant and his band’s uniform of some colonial ruffian with a dash of rough-edges futurism -- an evolution from the early videos, maybe, and maybe something that fits better after all these years -- but it was all a performance upstaged by the presentation of just one element, but that lady was one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen, at a tagalong show where I figured I could sleep through some songs. It worked that she was a background player, though distracting, a great detail among others that couldn’t keep up, and she didn’t need to be the center of attention, but she could have done it on aesthetic alone. Elsewhere there was music, which was probably good enough.
L7’s setlist:
"Deathwish"
"Andres"
"Everglade"
"Monster"
"Fuel My Fire"
"One More Thing"
"Shove"
"Pretend We're Dead"
"Shitlist"
"Dispatch From Mar-a-Lago"
"Fast and Frightening"
"Fast and Frightening"
No comments:
Post a Comment