I WAS THERE: Fever Ray Freaks Out Webster Hall With Laser Canons, Smoke Monsters, and Satanic Jim Henson Costumes
Posted on September 29, 2009
Filed Under I Was There, Reviews | 4 Comments
Words and Photos by Andrew Parks
“See this 2 right here?” a security guard said at Monday night’s Fever Ray show. “If you move past it, you’re out of here.”
By here, he meant a pit that parted a sea of photographers right down the middle, making it nearly impossible to get a clear shot of Karin Dreijer Anderson. Which is unfortunate; unlike the Knife’s screen-sheathed magic show, Fever Ray’s full band emerges from the ether like a live Fraggle Rock film..if it were co-written/directed by Charles Manson and David Lynch. We’re talking a wild-eyed percussionist who whacks the hell out of his/her drum kit, lots of eye-gouging lasers, a Gacy-caliber clown with a mean sampler setup, a keyboardist cloaked in a fur mask, and enough freakish fog to give Sunn O))) an asthma attack.
As for the pitch-shifting puppet master behind all this madness, she’s as chilling/captivating as ever, keeping her cult following enthralled from the muted phantom melodies of “If I Had a Heart” to an extended haunted forest version of “Coconut.” No encore. No guitar solos. Just one woman’s personal hell, as filtered through flesh-and-blood electronic music. (In another move that distances Fever Ray performances from the Knife—although they’re both stunning for different reasons—Anderson’s costumed cohorts are clearly recreating her music without relying on laptops and one-button solutions.)
Trick or treat, indeed.
Fever Ray @ Webster Hall, 9.28.09:
If I Had a Heart
Triangle Walks
Concrete Walls
Seven
I’m Not Done
Now’s The Only Time I Know
Keep The Streets Empty
Dry & Dusty
Stranger Than Kindness
When I Grow Up
Here Before
Coconut
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4 Responses to “I WAS THERE: Fever Ray Freaks Out Webster Hall With Laser Canons, Smoke Monsters, and Satanic Jim Henson Costumes”
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looks like something I’d hate probably.
Sadly, none of these costumes were at all visible from anywhere except the very front of the stage (and obviously not even really from there based on these pictures); and it was essentially like listening to the Fever Ray album (which I think is excellent) being played on the random setting over a loud soundsystem.
The show only became more exciting than studying for a test when:
a) it first started and the lasers seemed like they were foreshadowing something rather than the most climactic element of the show
and b) they finally upped the lights on the stage to a level where you could at least see the bands silhouettes and therefore some body movement that was in synch with the music.
A bummer of a show from such a great band.
Sadly, none of these costumes were at all visible from anywhere except the very front of the stage (and obviously not even really from there based on these pictures); and it was essentially like listening to the Fever Ray album (which I think is excellent) being played on the random setting over a loud soundsystem.
The show only became more exciting than studying for a test when:
a) it first started and the lasers seemed like they were foreshadowing something rather than the most climactic element of the show
and b) they finally upped the lights on the stage to a level where you could at least see the bandmembers’ silhouettes and therefore some body movement that was in synch with the music.
A bummer of a show from such a great band.
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