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| Explosive blues shake Pavement |
REVIEW - JOHN SPENCER BLUES EXPLOSION
Koko By MAIRI MACDONALD
WHEN punk blues trio The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion took
to the stage in their orange jumpsuits – in case anyone was
unsure which album they were about to hear – it could have
been a pre-release performance for a brand new album.
Spencer, Russell Simins and Judah Bauer ambled on at Koko in Camden
Town to perform their extraordinary 1994 album Orange and they
sounded fresher than a Mercury nominee.
From the slashing guitar intro for Bellbottoms, the semi-circle
of semi-balding blokes at the front were bouncing, there was huge
applause and a lot of love in the room.
The average age in the room suggests many have been in for the
long haul with Spencer. The other White Stripe-alike whippersnappers
were equally enthused by the forefathers of today’s wave
of punk rock.
Spencer’s approach to music from early blues onwards was
to rip it all up, throw the bits in the air and then glue them
back together.
And they recreated their excellent distorted take on an old sound,
pulling it off with ingenuity. Torn up blues riffs laced with
punk rock was never better than on Sweat and Blues X Man.
In the second half they ditched the unnerving jumpsuits and reappeared
black-clad and the music clearly benefited as the second half
was better than expected.
Could the future be orange after all? Another success for Koko’s
imaginative Don’t Look Back series.
REVIEW - STEPHEN MALKMUS
Koko By CATHERINE ETOE
THERE’S something comforting about watching a professional
musician deal with technical hitches the Stephen Malkmus way.
Banging the amplifier with the palm of his hand like a pensioner
trying to get the picture back on his clapped out television didn’t
actually work.
But that didn’t really matter given the laconic banter gangly
Malkmus (below, right) and his Jicks bass player and fellow Portland
musician Joanna Bolme were capable of spouting between technical
glitches and songs.
Unfortunately and unusually, verbal wit is what is lacking in
much of Malkmus’s new album Face The Truth.
That much is clear when the former Pavement frontman indulges
us in a much appreciated rendition of Jenny and the Ess-Dog from
his first eponymous album..
And even the melodies aren’t quite up there with the likes
of Church on White, another live treat, from the same record.
The new wavey Pencil Rot is irritating and I’ve Hardly Been
is a jaggedy tune a snake charmer could probably make use of but
has no place in my Malkmus top 20. But as this live show proves,
Face the Truth is a
grower.
Freeze the Saints is a guitar rift laden gem, while No More Shame
has those of us in Koko’s lofty balcony stamping our feet
with almost as much feeling as Malkmus. Which may not have done
much for the technical glitches, or Koko’s ceiling for that
matter, but shows this man, who looks like a sixth former playing
his favourite records to the common room, can still have us eating
out of the palm of his hand.
CLICK HERE FOR
LISTINGS
Welcome innovation
REVIEW - THE BITTER TEARS OF PETRA VON KANT + MASKARADE
Coliseum + Covent Garden By HELEN LAWRENCE
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Carl Nielsen’s Maskarade
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YOU wait for ages, then two come along at once.
It has taken 100 years for Carl Nielsen’s Maskarade to reach
Covent Garden, while Irish composer Gerald Barry’s new opera,
The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant received its first staging at
ENO.
Based on the play by Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Barry’s opera
is set in the world of Patsy and Edina’s Absolutely Fabulous
with a story about a fashion designer’s disastrous lesbian
obsession with a young model.
The claustrophobic atmosphere of Fassbinder’s film is replaced
by brittle brilliance.
Barry’s intriguing score charges along with blaring brass fanfares
in the orchestra, often aggressive, often fun, expertly controlled
by conductor Andre de Ridder.
The staging by Richard Jones with Ultz’s fashionable 1970s
orange interior and terrific frocks, keeps the characters moving
and brings out the comedy. But, as with so many contemporary composers,
the flaw at the heart of the piece is that Barry appears not to
understand how to write expressively for the voice. The vocal lines
consist of yards of undifferentiated recitative with no feel for
line or meaning, and little connection to what is happening in the
orchestra.
High notes are thrown in for no apparent reason. ENO’s much
discussed new subtitles were essential to catch all the words. The
excellent all-female cast convey the required emotions almost despite
what they have to sing.
Stephanie Friede’s warm attractive voice is given nothing expressive
to sing but she conveys Petra’s varying moods and disintegration
with searing conviction by sheer force of her acting.
One of the strongest performances was from the character with nothing
to sing at all: Linda Kitchen was remarkable as Petra’s mute
PA, Marlene, consumed with unrequited passion. The show is saved
by the singers and production.
By contrast the Neilson opera at Covent Garden, a co-production
with the Bregenz Festival, is almost sabotaged by its production.
It’s a jolly piece, not at all the metaphysical Neilson of
the symphonies; the music is tuneful and charming but not particularly
memorable.
Based on a play by the 18th-century Danish writer Holberg, the comic
plot about star-crossed lovers who triumph over parental opposition
is a sort of cross between Falstaff and Cimarosa’s The Secret
Marriage.
Most of the action is set at the carnival, the Maskarade of the
title. It might have made a good Christmas show with a different
director.
David Pountney’s vulgar production and updated English translation
only undermine it. The frenetic action on stage, in suitably gaudy
sets and costumes, drags in Elvis, Marilyn Monroe and practically
everything bar the kitchen sink. It plumbs the depths with an offensive
“joke” about Douglas Bader, the disabled RAF flying ace.
A cast of talented singers just manage to survive the wearisome
and distracting hyperactivity sufficiently to put the music across.
The orchestra, conducted by Michael Schonwandt, play with relish
and the chorus and dancers give it their all.
However, much gratitude to both houses for giving us two interesting
works new to London.
Poetic musicians
PREVIEW - APOLLO CHAMBER PLAYERS
St Giles, EC2
THE relationship between poetry and music is not one that has
escaped the attention of composers and numerous pieces use verse.
But on Wednesday at St Giles, Poems on the Underground, the group
that supply poems to Tube trains, are performing with the Apollo
Chamber Players. And it promises to be quite a treat. So we have
William Blake’s Songs of Innocence and Experience set alongside
Vaughan Williams’ Blake Songs for cello and oboe.
There is also Finzi’s setting of Shakespeare with bass Jonathan
Gunthorpe.
For more information ring 0845 120 7500.
CLICK HERE FOR LISTINGS
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Look for vintage not barcode
WE are in the middle of a revolution in food. Farmers’
markets and small shops specialising in naturally produced and seasonal
produce are challenging the supermarkets.
When it comes to wine, however, we are going in the opposite direction.
FULL STORY...
... and another thing....
Typical isn’t it? You leave the country for a few days
and when you get back everything you thought you knew is wrong.
FULL STORY...
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