beyonce is sacred.

on saturday i drove up to seattle for the antony & the johnsons show. i went with a murder of lesbians; audrey, rebecca and erin. we met up before the show at the whisky bar across the street from the moore. there we met the nicest kebab guy you’ll ever meet and took a small batch bourbon flight. it would have been a great experience if i had any idea which bourbon was which. the bartender just handed me four glasses, said “that’s a good tray of bourbon”, and turned to the next patron.

johanna constantine opened with two short dance pieces, johanna is a long time friend of antony’s.  i was hoping that she would amaze me, but it wasn’t her night.  johanna seemed crowded on the stage with all the instruments, i think she would have done better on a blank stage. the lighting could have helped by darkening the back of the stage, so you couldn’t see all the instruments. i found it hard to focus on her. i would love to see one of her shows. i imagine her on a black stage with a single light would be striking. also a live soundtrack, or perhaps vinyl played live.

the show was great, not my favorite antony performance, but still a capital evening. i blame the venue and not antony for it not being perfect. antony & the johnsons seemed in high spirits and pretty relaxed for being on tour, i wondered if they picked up some pot up in vancouver the night before. antony’s voice was fantastic and of course the crowd loved him. antony stayed behind the piano all night, and  the johnson’s all played brilliantly and looked very dapper. all of antony & the johnson’s songs now mean so much more to me since my mother’s passing, especially the songs off the crying light. it was all i listened to in december and january, i can argue that all the song were really written about me, my mother, and the tenuous relationships i have with my family.  i was excited to hear “her eyes are  underneath the ground”, which really isn’t as morbid of a song as the title suggests , and “aeon” the most. both songs were amazing, “her eyes” was subtle beauty and “aeon” was wonderfully soulful. “shake that devil” turned out to be quite the roof raiser live.  another  a big surprise for me was how much i liked the live version of “the crying light”. on the album this song, while beautiful, comes off a little whiny. the live rendition was different, with hints of desperation and longing. the set was centered around the new album, we got a treat when he played “i was young when i left home”. this is a traditional song that bob dylan used to sing, antony recorded a version available on the dark was the night compilation. he said he just wanted to give it a try. he sang with only rob moose playing guitar, and it was remarkable. once again, he performed his cover of beyonce’s “crazy in love”. i love this cover, and this was my first time seeing it non-orchestral. the arrangement was more drum heavy, and antony snapped his fingers. afterward someone in the audience yelled “fuck beyonce” and he quipped “why would you say that”…”beyonce is sacred”.  like all antony & the johnsons shows, it went by too quick.

the reason for this not being a perfect show, comes from where we were sitting. we had great seats just not acoustically perfect. i don’t really think that is was a sound man issue, the acoustics were against us. antony was often drowned out by the instruments. so i couldn’t fully connect to the performance as i have in the past.

the setlist.

where is my power
her eyes are underneath the ground
epilepsy is dancing
one dove
for today i am a boy
kiss my name
everglade
another world
shake the devil
crazy in love
you are my sister
fistful of love
i was young when i left home
twilight
aeon
cripple and the starfish
hope there’s someone

his arms are warm.

antony & the johnsons on last night’s letterman.

this is the second time antony & the johnsons has been on letterman. i stayed up way past my bedtime to watch. for an antony fan, this is amazing. this performance had me agog. this is easily one of the best songs on amazingly highly recommended the crying light.

swim with me my sister.

with antony being on a mini symphonic tour right now, the antony world is all a twitter. this week also brought two new antony related videos.

first is a video called fallen shadows produced for prada’s fall collection. a stunning song called “a great white ocean” is used for the soundtrack. the song may or may not be on the new antony and the johnsons album called the crying light. we have to wait till january to find out though.

then the video for antony’s duet with bjork “dull flame of desire”, from bjork’s fantastic album volta. “dull flame” is just a masterpiece of a song. every time i hear it i fall in love again. i am not sure how i feel about the video, i wish there were more actual antony and bjork, and they cut two minutes from the song.

amazing.

this past friday portland’s PICA brought antony and the johnsons to the arlene schnitzer concert hall. antony and the johnson performed with the oregon symphony orchestra opening the TBA festival. i have been looking forward to this for months. it’s been about four years now that i have been in love with the music of antony, collecting everything he is apart of and devoting a bit too much time to the justonestar forum. last year i flew to new york to see antony in a very similar concert with the brooklyn philharmonic at the brooklyn academy of music.

before the show i met up with fellow antony fans rebecca and erin, who came down from seattle for the show. they have seen antony several times before, so we talked about past shows and the possiblity of new songs. then we went to the hall, in the crowds of people i found cheryl, who was my company for the evening. she smartly brought us to a back entrance that had no crowds and we walked right in. i was amazed at how good our seats we, first row of the mezzanine just to the left of center stage. erin and rebecca were a couple of rows behind us. it wasn’t long before they dimmed the lights and the artistic directors of PICA and the oregon symphony came out and gave a short intro to antony and asked us to suggest other artists that the symphony could collaborate with. i have some, but i think it would be hard to get radiohead or bjork.

then the theater went black. a moment later in the darkness you could vaguely see antony’s shadow walk onto stage. the first too songs were song in complete darkness, forcing us to really listen to antony beautiful (love it or hate it) voice. his voice is often compared to billie holliday, bryan ferry, and nina simone, but i would say his is the voice of someones soul that is fulled with beauty, pain, hurt and love. he sings from a place in his body that few artist even know exist. after the second song a light on antony slowly brightened, coinciding with the emotions of the songs. during the forth song the main curtain was gradually lifted revealing the symphony behind it, yet still shrouded by a screen. after another song or two the screen lifted and the symphony, with members of the johnsons, were revealed during a string filled flourish of the song. the lighting also took off from that point, with a small bank of yellow lights high in the background of the stage providing most of the effects.

antony standing behind a microphone stand center stage, was simply beaming. he has said that performing live is his gift to the music world, and since he hasn’t performed in over a year, he was giving us everything he had. he played a handful of new songs and many old favorites. the orchestrations were perfect, a little more subdued than the one used at BAM last year, which at times took over. they were always there to enhance antony’s vocal and to take the johnson’s music to magical new levels, without ever overpowering the original intent. the new songs are breathtaking, using natural inspirations to tell stories of love and strength. the biggest surprise of the evening was his awesome cover of beyonce’s “crazy in love”, which he also performed at BAM, but this time he really let himself enjoy it and took it to an amazing place. truthfully i was hoping they would do his version of “i will survive”, i’ve heard it is a real stunner. the ninety minute set ended with two standing ovations, and in a way three because the crowd was still standing and applauding when the symphony stood and took their bows. i have to give the oregon symphony a lot of credit, they did an impressive job, bringing a cohesion to the music that the brooklyn philharmonic never attained. everyone involved with that evening should be immensely proud of themselves, and i hope they know how affected everyone was by the performance. we left the theater basking in the glow of what we just experienced, an amazing evening full of subtle beauty.

more photos on pitchfork.

PICA’s urban honking blog.

oregon live.

the setlist:

mysteries of love (julee cruise)
new song
cripple and the starfish
for today i am a boy
fell in love with a dead boy
kiss my name
new song
rapture
ghost (!?!)
crazy in love (beyonce)
dust & water
everything is new (moondog)
new song
encore.
river of sorrow

fell in love with a dead boy

everything is new (moondog)

river of sorrow

thanks to seaman33 on youtube.

the only bone that shows.

baby dee was someone i had to aquire a taste for. she is definably in the same family as antony, in fact she was one of the original johnsons. for some reason though she didn’t click with me right away, but i kept trying. i really wanted to like her, everyone over at justonestar (the antony forum i frequent) loves her, and i like to belong. after i while i started to get it, she finally sneaked her way into my musical subconscious. she stopped sounding like a singing frog and i understood the beauty that was there all along. i went through a very similar process with devendra banhart.

according to wikipedia this is her sixth album, and her debut on a somewhat major label. it is only the third album of hers that i have heard though, and by far this is the most accessible. safe inside the day is a complete success as an album, brilliantly written and produced. i have to give andrew w.k. some credit for his production work. the songs themselves are wonderful, it would be hard to choose a favorite, i have had all of them stuck in my head for a week now. this is a hard review for me to write because i feel like i don’t fully grasp the ideas of most of the songs yet. this is one of those albums that clicked right away, it just may take me some time to fully digest it.

this should have also been a review of her show at the doug fir, but i was too sick to attend. now after spending some time with this album, i am even more upset.

between the new erykah badu and this album it has been a fine week for the ladies on my ipod.

these videos really don’t do her justice.

“fresh out of candles”

some older material. “look what the wind blew in” and “small wonder”