Laurie Anderson
My kind-of review of last night's Laurie Anderson
performance in Seattle.
I saw Laurie Anderson last night here in Seattle.
She continues to be an excellent performer, but something has changed in the way
that I relate to her as I get older. I first discovered her when I was 16 and I
checked out her United States 1-5 on vinyl from the library where I worked (hint
on my actual age here). It blew me away. She became, and remains, one of my
heroes. Her observations were revelatory to a suburban teenager in Reagan's
America with aspirations toward the
avant-garde.
Her new piece, "The End of
the Moon" deals with her time as NASA's first (and last) artist in residence.
While much of it was engaging, when she would wander off into deep-sounding
non-sequiturs I caught myself wondering if she was actually trying to say
something or if she was in sort of automatic art mode. I never noticed this in
her work before. I'm not sure if she was just filling space in the piece or was
actually going somewhere and just lost me on the
way.
More interesting to me was how her
music has progressed. I've always admired the sound beds she creates that form
the backdrop of her more introspective music and her narratives, but a lot of
her music didn't thrill me. Last night, I was a lot more impressed by her music
than her words for the first time. She has been playing violin for decades, but
last night was the first performance of hers where I actually felt her
virtuosity on the instrument. It could be that technology has finally caught up
to her vision, but her extended music solo music pieces (with computer
accompaniment) were amazing. It really inspired me to re-think my own extended
playing techniques.
I don't know if
she's picking up new audiences anymore. We were definitely on the younger side
of the audience age range, which is saying something. It's too bad, because
while some of her new work is a bit too much like some of her old work, the rest
is really worth exposure to some new minds.
Posted: Tue - November 9, 2004 at 11:20 AM
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