Re: Patti – Meltdown – 23 June 2005

[Andrew F Wilson <andrewfwilson>]

Patti's pals pitch it high 
Reviewed by Sue Steward
Evening Standard, 24 June 2005

Patti Smith was almost right when she said it would be impossible to
fill Lotte Lenya's shoes. The German chanteuse's cracked, gutteral
voice established a sound still synonymous with pre-war songs by
Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill.

For this Meltdown show, Smith picked from their Threepenny Opera,
Mahagonny and Happy End, and conceived a revue involving singers with
intriguing and downright original voices from a spectrum of styles and
ages.

Backing them was the London Sinfonietta, directed by James Holmes.
Weill's music is notoriously treacherous, with jagged pitch and
rhythm; Smith had a hilariously bumpy ride.

Apart from a reading by Tilda Swinton, and some instrumental pieces,
this was a night of song. Fiona Shaw performed the timeless Song of
the German Mother, about a son's death in war, then Smith,
surprisingly flirtatious in a black dress, dramatically reinvented
Mack the Knife with Lenny Kaye's guitar and James Crabb's brilliantly
minimal accordion. It was a definite challenge to Lotte Lenya.

The programme reintroduced many legends, including David Thomas, front
man with the cult American indie band Pere Ubu, who rolled and swayed
through Alabama Song.

He sang through a distorting microphone, tinny as a 78 record, but it
was faulty, and he made a magnificent repeat performance later. Sparks
rekindled their beguiling strangeness, but kept the falsetto to a
minimum.

And Marc Almond returned to cheers, but his update of the decadent
Around Bilbao was sadly inexpressive. The Finn Brothers (Crowded
House) reinvented themselves as a couple of angry anti-war folkies
with I Read About Tank Battles.

The programme was definitely biased towards high-pitched male voices.
The Tiger Lillies, in Edwardian check suits and bowlers, are led by a
sinisterly charismatic singer and accordionist who possesses a
chilling, strident falsetto. But it was the tall, young American boy
called Antony who stole most hearts.

With his white cherubic face, long black hair and wonderfully weird
voice, in and out of falsetto, he is magnetic.

He mourned Subaraya Johnny, a sailor who abandoned him, then enacted
with Martha Wainwright (sister of Rufus) a lost love affair between a
pimp and his whore. Wainwright is expressively feminine, her hand
gestures like a silent movie star's.

This show was slicker, more confident and musically sophisticated than
Songs of Innocence earlier in the week, partly because of the
anchoring presence of the Sinfonietta and Smith's sensitive direction.

In closing, Smith - in a long, pink dress - brought out the cast for
an agitprop finale of Solidarity Song with subtitles asking: "Whose
tomorrow is tomorrow? And whose earth is the earth?"

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/