Sara Schwabe: Tour de macabre
I've never been a mega-fan of the quasi-goth group, The Dresden Dolls. That is to say, I wasn't until I saw them on Monday night for their nearly sold-out show at the Bijou. To put it simply, the two-person tour de macabre left me in awe.
As usual, I prepared for the show and impending review by doing some research on the band: their history, their training, how they met, their influences, saw pictures of them as kids, blah blah blah. I listened to mp3s, watched video clips and bought their recent CD Yes, Virginia. Pretty much everywhere I clicked and every page I flipped had some reference to their "Punk Cabaret" style. There also seemed to be lots of references the band, themselves, made in response like: "Fuck Punk Cabaret".
It didn't take me long to gather that the Dresden Dolls despise being pigeon-holed into a specific genre. But nothing I read did a very good job of explaining just what the hell "Punk Cabaret" is and why they said, "fuck it"!
Being an actress, when I hear "cabaret", I think of the small, smoky, fleshy German nightclubs of the Weimar Republic, which Technicolored their way into American theatres behind Liza Minnelli and Joel Gray. Even after listening to their CD (which I was convinced had to be over-produced), I couldn't see how the Dresden Dolls could weave the dark and intimate performance style of Cabaret with the knock-you-on-your-ass force of Punk. Especially with a two-person band. Come on!
After the first number the Dresden Dolls played, however, not only did I see how they wove Punk Cabaret into beautiful fabric, but I saw how it was cut to fit every member of the audience in a perfect and unique way. It was clear that Punk Cabaret is whatever it means to the listener. I was watching and listening as a performer, I found it astounding.
Musically speaking, the bold & expressive style of Brian Viglione's drumming perfectly accompanies the text-based music of the band. Amanda Palmer's driving chords -both vocal and on the keyboard - infused even the more subdued numbers with a fluid, sophisticated energy typically reserved for the theatre. The words of their songs are important and Palmer not only uses them to tell her story, but she also wields them as a sort of lyrical percussion. I didn't want to miss a thing she was singing about, and her skillful vocal style made every image play on the Bijou stage like Brecht. My one criticism? Someone get that girl a real piano. The Kurzweil, although nice, didn't seem to suit her style. The presentation would have been even more effective with her pounding on some real ivories.
Nitpicking aside, it was refreshing to leave a performance completely inspired. (Did she say inspired?) Yeah, the music of the Dresden Dolls is dark and gritty...but it's also clever and entertaining. The musicians are smart, highly gifted and creating something that is completely their own with nods to the past thrown in for fun. It's inspiring to know that there are artists and audiences out there that value the clever and the gifted!
Watch a video of the Dresden Dolls here!
p.s.
Photo-props to Virgile Biechy and Kelly Davidson.
Comments
Very well said!!! That show was amazing!! I can't wait until they return to Knoxville
Posted by: Jason Fogarty | October 27, 2006 10:26 AM
Very well written article Sara. I wanted to go to this show because there was so much buzz after their Bonnaroo performance, but finances don't allow me to go to everything! It sounds great. I would have loved it, I'm sure. It's one thing to enjoy art; another to enjoy it AND be inspired.
Posted by: Debra | October 27, 2006 04:17 PM