Depeche Mode's "Tour Of The Universe"

Had a ball at the Depeche Mode concert at Washington, D.C.'s Nissan Pavilion on Tuesday night. Was it a perfect evening? No. But an uneven Depeche is better than most people at their best, so I was thrilled to see them again, 21 years after first attending the "Music For The Masses" tour. Yes. I'm that old.

Despite being a bunch of near-geezers, the trio -- vocalist Dave Gahan, keyboardist Andy Fletcher, and composer/instrumentalist Martin Gore -- kick surprising amounts of ass onstage. The sound is full and powerful, and the energy, especially from Gahan, is infectious. The muddy acoustics of the venue hurt some of the arrangements, notably "Master and Servant" and "Hole To Feed," which came off as walls of sound rather than songs.

But in large part, the arrangements were stellar -- a glam-rock variation on "I Feel You," a surly "Personal Jesus," and best of all, an exquisite acoustic arrangement of "Home." The video design (as you'll see in the photos below, snapped with the best of intention on Damion's -- aka Queering The Apparatus -- iPhone) was remarkably varied and powerful, especially when it challenged the audience with postmodern religious quotes, transgressive lesbian S&M, or existential astronauts (!!!).

The tour is making its way across North America right now...and it's definitely worth the $$$, if you're so inclined. It's going to be a great few months for concerts: my beloved Kylie Minogue, The Gossip, and Pet Shop Boys, one right after the other. (I can't find anyone to go with me to see PSB. Maybe I'll go by myself? I've never been to a concert alone, but there's a first time for everything.)

Paddy's Back! (Prefab Sprout Returns, And We Lose Our Minds)

An amazing day for 80's and 90's comebacks...no sooner do I post the new Bananarama single, that I see the brand-new Prefab Sprout single, "Let There Be Music," preceding the new disc coming out in September. Paddy McAloon is one of the few bona fide genius songwriters of our age...don't be scared by the opening 16 bars. No one uses melody and harmony like this today. Pure heaven.



[If I could bottle XO's Middle Eight, I'd drink it all day.]

Fabulousity: New Bananarama "Love Comes"

HOT. The girls have come a long way, baby.



[via the genius that is Electroqueer]

A Personal Memoriam: Merce Cunningham

My heart breaks today...one of the greatest artists of the 20th century, Merce Cunningham, has died at the age of 90. More importantly to me, though, is the loss of one of my personal heroes, perhaps the most significant artistic influence on my life.

Merce was widely considered the greatest living choreographer in the world, but his influence stretched well beyond the world of dance. His theories of movement have affected theater for decades; his collaborations with minimalist composer John Cage transformed modern music; and his pieces made for film expanded the possibilities of cinema. You can find architects, scientists and even video-game creators who have been powerfully influenced by his work. He wasn't just an artist, in my opinion -- Merce Cunningham was a transformative presence in the world of art and culture, and we may never see his like again.

As a young playwright and director 20 years ago, I first experienced "Beach Birds For Camera," Cunningham's seminal video/dance work. I had literally never seen anything like it; everyday movements pushed into the realm of the poetic, animal behavior made awe-inspiring and elegant, and mathematical computation where rhythm once dominated. There's no way for me to adequately describe the earthquake "Beach Birds" set off inside me; it challenged every assumption I had made about art, and forced me to see entirely new avenues of possibility. Along with Sondheim, Parker, Cadmus , Hemphill, and other heroes, Merce Cunningham changed not only the person I was, but the artist I would be.




I've spent a large chunk of my life being inspired by Merce Cunningham; many of my own works for the theatre -- and if you're familiar with them, I'm talking about things like "Stealing Pears," "Pierced," "rite #55/wonderwall elegy" and my current project-in-process, "The Gilgamesh Variations" (coming to a stage near you in 2010!) -- are naked attempts to equal Cunningham's complexity, grandeur and personal style. I will miss him the rest of my life...and I'm certain the world is deprived by his absence.

Mr. ModFab And Walter Cronkite

The funeral of Walter Cronkite was yesterday, at St. Bartholomew's Church here in New York City. It was a beautiful touching ceremony...and here at ModFab HQ, quite an event. That's because Mr. ModFab, my adorable husband, was asked to be the featured singer for the funeral. He performed four songs, including an improvised version of "When The Saints Go Marching In" requested by the family. An enormous honor, and one that he pulled off beautifully. I'm very proud of him!

In the news snippet above, you can hear bits of some of the performance. It was a moving ceremony, for a man I believe to be the greatest news presence of the 20th century. If you'd like to hear more, you can listen to tracks here.

Leprechauns, Racists and Me

I'm working on an article for next week previewing the entire Broadway season, but I need to obsess over one particular new show...or rather, an old show making a long-overdue return.

For decades, I have loved Finian's Rainbow, the gangly, uneven 1947 musical from Harburg and Lane (better known these days as the tunesmiths of The Wizard of Oz). Finian's a bit of a mess, because its book is truly horrible, an odd mashup of fairy tale and social bluster. (Get this: Irish leprechauns are transported to the Southern United States, specifically a mythical land called Missitucky, where they encounter woefully dated stereotypes in the battle for race relations as they dither over a pot of gold. Not exactly Shakespeare.)

But but but BUT. The score is one of the most beautiful ever composed for the theatre -- elegant, pristine, surprising, and beautiful, featuring bona fide classics "Look To The Rainbow," "Ole Devil Moon" and "How Are Things In Glocca Morra." How much do I love this score? Well, at my wedding in 2005, my classical-singer husband offered to perform any song of my choosing. And I chose "Glocca Morra."



The new revival stars Cheyenne Jackson (Xanadu), Kate Baldwin (Wonderful Town) and Jim Norton (The Seafarer), repeating their roles from last season's concert version at City Center Encores. Kate's the one singing above; while I prefer the more delicate interpretation of Melissa Errico (who starred in the 2004 Off-Broadway revival with Malcolm Gets), Kate's is still a beautiful rendition.

But Finian's Rainbow, if I'm being brutally honest, is not a great musical...just one of the greatest scores of all time, burdened with a hopelessly FUBAR book. Finian hasn't seen a Broadway revival since the 60's, and that's no accident. While I hope this new version finds success, I'm dubious about its prospects -- once the New York crowd finishes seeing it (by Christmas or so, I'm guessing), are tourists really going to flock to a sweet, old-fashioned musical about leprechauns and racists? Especially with Spider-Man and Hugh Jackman as alternative options?

So here's my advice: if you truly love musicals, grab tickets now...and I'd suggest going before Thanksgiving. It's worth the trip, and who knows how long you'll have the chance.

[vidlink via the divine Sarah]

A Reader Request: My Cell Phone

Yesterday I got one of the most interesting e-mails I've ever received, a reader asking what my cell phone ring is right now. Interesting, because blogs don't have ringtones. (Maybe they should?)

Actually, I've had the same ring for over a year now, because I like it so damn much -- Jill Scott's "Golden," which doubles as a personal mantra. When life is stressing me out, it's nice to have the phone go off and remind you of the way you should be living, even if you're not at that exact moment. (Similarly, my ringtone for my family is "Lola's Theme" by the Shapeshifters, aka Shape:UK, who warn me every single time to be a different person, yeah yeah yeahhh, turn my life around.)



I'm also loving this video today, from Swing Out Sister's maestro Andy Connell. Beautiful.

Spider-Man: The Musical (And Whiny Theatre Critics)

Some great video interviews today with Julie Taymor, the visionary director of The Lion King, Titus and Across The Universe, talking about her approach to the upcoming Broadway musical Spider-Man: Turn Off The Dark. I think you'll notice the same thing I saw last spring when I heard her speak -- she's approaching the material with great respect and a mythological perspective, which is the only possible way it'll work. And as she says, there'll be no singing webcrawlers in tights:





In other news: isn't it friggin' hilarious how upset all the old-media critics are about getting kicked out of the Tony voting? They're trying to couch it as an ethical battle to save art, but really it's just spoiled children who are mad they lost their free-ticket sugar daddies. (I mean, come on...if critics were really doing their job defending challenging art, we'd have great work like The Pillowman and A Catered Affair still running instead of Mary Poppins and Mamma Mia. But I digress.)

The problem with critics -- and the reason I have, for all intents and purposes, stopped being one -- is that social media and the internet have eliminated them as the important arbiters of culture. Basically, no one needs critics anymore when Twitter, Facebook, chat rooms and (especially) great bloggers will tailor a variety of perspectives -- some thoughtful, some not -- to readers, who sort through them and find individual voices they trust. I personally put MUCH more stock in the thoughts of Isaac Butler at Parabasis than I do in any print critic....because he's friggin' brilliant. And even with people I don't agree with 100% of the time (like the genius Chris Caggiano at Everything I Know I Learned From Musicals), I value their intelligence, passion and expertise enough to let it affect my ticket purchasing choices. I haven't had a print critic that I believed in that much since Frank Rich.

Whether that's a good or bad thing, it's the reality -- and theatre (like all of the arts) is going to have to learn how to manage the new cultural landscape of the internet. Sure, it's easy to attack bloggers as uninformed or petulant, but that's reductive and misleading...there are great theatre critics working on the internet, most of whom are BUYING their own tickets, thank you very much. The future of critical thought is in person-to-person interaction, which the internet can provide (and newspaper, radio and TV can't).

If I were running an old-school newspaper, I'd be figuring out how to turn my arts coverage into interactive web conversations, instead of letting Ben Brantley preach his crap from on high. His power lessens every season, and eventually will disappear. (And if you think I'm wrong about the power of social media, look no further than Next To Normal, which reached commercial success and Tony Awards after becoming a buzzed-about internet darling during previews.)

And to theatre producers and tour operators (who, after all, are the thinly-veiled power behind the Tony Awards): drop your review moratorium on previews, and don't be afraid of the internet. Embrace the new media, and its wild, uncontrollable avalanche of opinion. Sure, some people will write bad things, and some will write good things. But if you co-opt this discussion into your process, you know what will happen? In the end, good shows will benefit greatly...and bad shows will get exactly what they deserve. Now THAT's theatre.

Holy Mother of Maud Adams!

I know, I don't do the Friday Hot Guy column anymore. But if I did....wow. Jeezus.

The Single Greatest Thing To Happen To The Internet In 2009

If you're into Annie Lennox, that is...and how can you not be? Prepare to have your heart come to a complete stop for four minutes and thirty-four seconds:



[DJ Earworm, via Arjan]

Channeling My Inner Shirley Bassey

Now THIS is how you do gender-twisted drag! I could listen to McAlmont every single day. And covering Bassey, on my favorite Bond theme ever? Heaven.

Because Music This Good Shouldn't Disappear In The Mists Of Time

Everyone's got their favorite obscure obsessions, right? One of mine snuck into my brain today and wouldn't let go -- electronic art combo Propaganda. Their debut album, A Secret Wish, hinted at greatness, but the band disbanded soon after. (Reformations over the next two decades never recaptured the magic, probably due to the loss of iconic vocalist Claudia Brücken).

This was smart pop...and for those of you young'uns obsessed with Lady GaGa, "smart pop" is something we used to have back in the olden days, when you bought your music at an actual store, on plastic circles called "CDs," which we listened to on "stereos". Also back then, lyrics were full of things called "ideas," and we had songs that had more than three chords. [/geezer rant]

Best Albums of (The First Half of) 2009

If 2008 was a golden year for television, 2009 is shaping up to be equally historic for pop music. Sure, the industry itself is floundering, desperately searching for a profitable new business model. But while they (make us) suffer, musical artists are jumping into the breach by doing what they do best...with extraordinary results. Here are my favorites of the year so far...

15. Frankmusik, Complete Me
I'm not as wild about him as the rest of the blogosphere, but "Confusion Girl" is as fine a slice of pop as you could ever want.

14. The Bird and the Bee, Ray Guns Are Not The Future
The endlessly inventive lounge/electro act's sophomore disc lacks some of the wow factor of their debut, but it's still essential listening.

13. Fischerspooner, Entertainment
Solid musicality is evident in ever single track...a quality that unwittingly transforms them from downtown hipsters into elder statesmen of 21st-century electronica.

12. Grace Jones, Hurricane
Almost a year after its first worldwide appearance, Grace's latest opus came out in the States. But I've still got William's Blood in me.

11. Black Eyed Peas, The E.N.D.
Reinvention for the world's biggest rap/pop hybrid was probably necessary...but finding inspiration in the sounds of European club music was unexpectedly fertile ground to dig into.

And now, the top ten...

10. Antony and the Johnsons, The Crying Light
Wholly unique, Antony Hegarty is the rarest of popular musicians: an iconoclast whose talent for superb songwriting can't be ignored, even in a world that gives us crap like the Jonas Brothers.

9. Phoenix, Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
There are a million reasons to love Phoenix, but for me, it's their subtlety. I get something new every time I listen.

8. Maxwell, BLACK Summers' Night
Yes, this isn't officially out until Tuesday. But as someone who has worn out his advance copy over the last two weeks, I can only say...thank God, thank GOD, he's back.

7. Black Room, Pop Noir
KulPop and XO introduced me to this band (back when they were called Lorraine). Now under the name Black Room, their album got absolutely zero promotion, which is a shame, because it's features some of the finest, shiniest pop symphonies of the year. Do yourself a favor and grab it on iTunes.

6. Empire of the Sun, Walking On A Dream
EOTS is a love-them-or-hate-them kind of band: the repetitive beats, the dramatic costumes, the over-the-top makeup, the weird mythology. Count me among the "love-them" crowd. Especially "We Are The People," my favorite club track of the year.

5. Pet Shop Boys, Yes
Almost 25 years after their debut, the Boys have released one of their most accessible, most energetic albums. Considering that PSB are preternaturally melancholy, that energy is an odd fit, but ultimately a fulfilling one. "Did You See Me Coming" is their best single since 2002's "Home and Dry."

4. Passion Pit, Manners
I'm completely obsessed with this record. Seriously, I play it over and over and over. Something about their orchestrations, the daring of their imagination. It's truly exciting, beyond what you might expect from a college indie phenomenon.

3. Gossip, Music For Men
Beth Ditto is God. You heard it here first. And this record is so hot, it may be responsible for global warming.

2. Napoleon, Bohemians Won The Series and the Little Guy Joined The Band
My favorite find of the year is this Swedish retro-soul act, who mix the satirical melancholy of Morrissey with the effervescence of Marvin Gaye. The perfect summer beach party album. My favorite song of the year: "I Try To Despise The Ugly Ones (But The Beautiful Ones Keep Turning Me Down)".

1. Lily Allen, It's Not Me, It's You
No one is more surprised than me that Lily is at the top of my list...after listening to her 2007 debut, I wrote her off as an Amy Winehouse wannabe. Boy, what a difference a producer makes! Greg Kurstin of The Bird and The Bee gave Lily a new focus and an au currant instrumentation. "The Fear" could well be the song of the post-Bush generation, and "Fuck You" might be the equal rights anthem we've all be searching for.

And now, some other categories...

Best EP: Del Marquis, Character Assassination
Best Show Album (Tie): Original Broadway Cast, Rock of Ages; New Broadway Cast, Hair
Best Retrospective: Annie Lennox, The Annie Lennox Collection
Best Mashups: Bootrospective, Pet Shop Boys

Honorable Mentions (In Alphabetical Order): Alcazar, Disco Defenders; Basia, It's That Girl Again; Depeche Mode, Sounds of the Universe; The Juan McLean, The Future Will Come; Junior Boys, Begone Dull Care; Kelly Clarkson, All I Ever Wanted; Kristine W, The Power of Music; Lady Sovereign, Jigsaw; Morrissey, Years of Refusal; Original Cast Record, Road Show; Royksopp, Junior

And The Rest Of 2009 Looks Good, Too: new albums on the way from Sade, Adam Lambert, Prefab Sprout, Imogen Heap, Lucky Soul, Dragonette, La Roux, Corinne Bailey Rae, Kleerup, Modest Mouse, The Roots, The Avalanches, D'Angelo, and Mika, among others.

The (Few) Disappointments So Far: U2, Noisettes, Daniel Merriweather, Antigone