Concert Review: Lou Reed ....or "Just Plain Lou"

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mikenycLI
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Joined: Mon May 26, 2003 2:02 pm
Location: New York City Metropolitan Area, United States

Concert Review: Lou Reed ....or "Just Plain Lou"

Postby mikenycLI » Thu Jun 26, 2003 8:23 pm

I saw Lou during his maltese cross tie-died hair, in the mid - Seventies, and was TOTALLY enthralled with his brilliance as an artist who took chances. He, apparently, hasn't lost that edge !


Courtesy of Reuters....

Concert Review: Lou Reed

Wed June 25, 2003 06:33 PM ET

By Tom Roland

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - "Happiness would be a surprise," Lou Reed said, quoting from his rewrite of Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven."

Indeed, happiness was in short supply during Reed's 2 1/2-hour performance as he took a relentless walk on the dark side of humanity. Mixing material from the breadth of his career, including a smattering of Velvet Underground relics, the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer used his pre-Knopfler, half-sung, half-spoken jive to paint impressions of suicide, apathy, addiction, withdrawal, loneliness, dysfunction, depression and the abuse of power.

Supporting "The Raven" and "NYC Man: The Collection," Reed employed four backing musicians in a lineup atypical for a rock band, with a seated vocalist, a cellist, guitarist and bass player, who sometimes switched to an electric drum. Many of the 21 songs featured no percussion whatsoever. Occasional classical shadings weaved into the mix, though the bulk of the set veered between gritty melancholy and pulsing rock.

Reed noted his own limited range as a vocalist, though it's never halted him from working as one. His rough, take-it-or-leave-it approach matches the dry, acerbic nature of his songs, as did his demeanor.

During "Day John Kennedy Died," he sucked a ball of phlegm to the back of his throat and made no pretense to hide it from the microphone. Neither did his leather pants and tight T-shirt hide the moderate extra pounds that have accumulated around his waist. That sort of unapologetic presentation fits with his hardened New York point of view and a seeming insistence on getting to the heart of reality, unpretty and unflattering though it might be. It also matches the intentional, less-than-perfect way he approaches songwriting, employing cadences that at times cram too many syllables uncomfortably into a phrase and ending a line with an awkward consonant.

Reed contrasted his own gruffness by using an Asian tai chi master during three of his songs. The perfection in his fluid, exacting movements provided extreme opposition to the coarse nature of Reed's presence, though how the martial art was supposed to mesh with the material remains a bit of a mystery.

Also a bit mysterious is one incident that evolved during the course of the show. Midway through the performance, backing singer Antony mouthed to an audience member, "Shut up! Shut up! You! Shut up!" Before the encore, Reed again singled out the offender and refused to perform until security ousted him from the venue. He asked that the guy be refunded his ticket, and a man and two women were soon escorted from the front section of the seats.

It was a no-nonsense moment that came as an abrupt surprise to most of the crowd. That such an in-your-face challenge would be directed by Reed was not, however, all that surprising. He may not delve much into happiness -- heck, he seems to doubt that it's anything but a mirage -- but, in true New York fashion, no one else is going to get in the way of achieving it.

Reuters/Hollywood Reporter

http://asia.reuters.com/newsArticle.jht ... ID=2990557