Laurie Anderson – Homeland concert

I last saw Laurie Anderson perform at the Dominion, a venue that’s been occupied for god knows how many years by the wondrous spectacle that is the Queen musical – let there be rock, rocks-r-us or whatever it’s called. As far as I can recall, it was preceded by the Disney Beauty and the Beast musical. Poor, poor Dominion. I’m a fan of Laurie Anderson, though more of her earlier work, namely United States parts I-IV and Mister Heartbreak. I didn’t particularly enjoy my first taste of her in concert, finding her a tad too quizzical and clever. After so many years though, it was time to see how she’s developed so Is and I headed off to the Barbican theatre to find out. Is and I differed a bit while overall enjoying the concert.

I admired her fairly overt political commitment. She intelligently registered horror at the current American regime, and the terror it’s inflicted upon the peoples it’s subjugating in its quest for control of dwindling oil. Is was uncomfortable with this, fair enough, in the preaching to the converted aspect. I think we both really enjoyed the music which was frequently dramatic and, surprisingly, seemed to have registered some recognition for minimal techno tropes, even perhaps dubstep in its deep electronic bass lines. There was also some beautiful interaction between Laurie Anderson’s violin and the Eyvind Kang on viola. Not forgetting the brilliant Skuli Sverrisson and Peter Scherer – she undoubtedly has great taste in musicians. I’ll be interested to hear the album when it’s eventually released – I’ve just checked her website and it’s not ’til summer 2009! (Is this the dragging footsteps of major record companies? Seems odd to be touring an album that won’t come out for more than a year…)