lifeblood: listlogs: 2009v11n051-news

ig-news-digest         thursday, june 18 2009         volume 11 : number 051

today's subjects:
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  [ig-news] concert review from nyt   [sherlyn koo <sherlyn@pixelopolis.com>]

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date: thu, 18 jun 2009 10:19:48 +1000
from: sherlyn koo <sherlyn@pixelopolis.com>
subject: [ig-news] concert review from nyt

hey folks,

here's a concert review from the new york times.  you can read it online at
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/18/arts/music/18indigo.html?_r=1

cheers,
sherlyn

- ---begin forwarded email---
june 18, 2009
music review | indigo girls
where the outdoors are humming with melodies and messages
by jon caramanica

those in the crowd tuesday night watching the indigo girls at central park
summerstage were never happier than when they got to curse, loudly and in
unison. it happened twice: near the end of "pendulum swinger," a tough
musing on religion and authoritarianism, and during "shame on you," about
race and hypocrisy. in each case a happy murmur briefly ruptured to make
room for a fist-pumping roar, then righted itself, pleased with the
transgression.

typically, restlessness is below the surface with the indigo girls -- amy
ray and emily saliers -- now more than two decades into a career in which
message has been inseparable from melody. ms. ray and ms. saliers are
adamant in their politics, left and lesbian, but even more so in their
commitment to efficient folk songcraft, thick with beautiful, aching,
narcotic harmonies. so soothing are indigo girls songs that it's a relief
to remember that profane explosion is never too far away.

in march they released their 11th studio album, "poseidon and the bitter
bug"(ig/vanguard), a double-disc collection (produced by mitchell froom)
featuring the same songs in two versions, full band and acoustic. the album
features some of the band's knottiest material ("sugar tongue") and also
some of its frankest: "love of our lives" and "driver education," a love
song about regretting what came before. ("when you were sweet 16, i was
already mean/and feeling bad for giving it up to the man/just to make the
scene.")

at summerstage the duo kept it alluringly simple, each playing acoustic
guitar, mostly, and rarely varying from delicate, even on their angstiest
songs; only the indigo girls can sound sweet singing "no one can convince
me we aren't gluttons for our doom," as on "prince of darkness." "power of
two" was like a lullaby, and "i'll change," from the new album, was
exquisite, a promise of an apology yet to come. (they were joined onstage
by julie wolf, who alternated between synthesizer, piano and accordion.)

toward the end of the show came slight variations in form. ms. ray, solo,
played a sassy, salty cover of dire straits' "romeo and juliet," and on
"galileo," which closed the encore, ms. saliers added unexpected r&b licks.

matt nathanson, the excellent young singer-songwriter who opened the show,
ably subbed for michael stipe on the early indigo girls song "kid fears,"
though having him stick around for "closer to fine," the group's signature
song, felt needlessly communal. not that the crowd minded. it drowned out
everyone on the stage, singing the song's occasionally petulant lines about
self-discovery -- "i spent four years prostrate to the higher mind/got my
paper and i was free" -- as if they were a string of four-letter words.

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