October 19, 2006
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It is not surprising that Alison Goldfrapp "started out as lead singer of various punk and goth bands." At Roseland, on Wednesday, she was more goth than disco. Odd, this. Her band transmits DISCO signals. They entered the stage to a massive old disco tune and they, you know, make disco records. But Alison has witch vibes. Strong, aspirate tone in her "normal" midrange, accurate pitch when she goes up for the theremin wails. But: she doesn't move. She's in a dance band. And there she is, not moving.
It doesn't matter that she wore a red jumpsuit/parachute truss/thing-only-famous-people-wear, showing lots of skinny leg and looking all cocaine Diana Ross. She rarely responded, visibly, to the beat. Not disco.
But! Then! All that Not Moving made sense because four skinny women in bikinis, wearing wolf? bear? masks, came out and did a choreographed dance to one of the big singles. It worked. If you don't know what to do on stage, invite the Four Hot Animal Ladies to join you. If it costs $5000, don't worry. (I didn't see opening act Teddy Bears, but their online presence makes me think there may be a connection there. Couldn't find any web pictures of the show.)
POSTSCRIPT: Joshua writes: "Knowing NOTHING but the name of the new album, I'm gonna guess Alison took the stage to the strains of "Supernature," by Cerrone, c. 1977? (also featuring humans with animal heads, as I recall)." Yes. That's what it was. Bad enough I couldn't ID it. It gets worse: the reissue of "Supernature 3," and three other Cerrone albums, are sitting about a foot from me. The gears grind slowly to a halt....
Posted by Sasha at October 19, 2006 12:21 PM | TrackBack