Who Killed Amanda Palmer

Even I couldn’t quite figure out exactly where Club Academy was. The ticket didn’t say Academy 2, where The Dresden Dolls performed last time, just Club Academy. A couple of strolls around the building didn’t help all that much. The campus signs, the ones that say “You are here, or here!”, didn’t help at all. After the third circuit I had decided that the queue at the front was THE queue, so joined the tail end of it. Those black and white striped tights are a sure indication of a Dresden Dolls fan.

The inside of the venue has been modernised since my last visit back in May 2006 and Club Academy is exactly as you would expect, underground with a low ceiling. I managed to secure a vantage point about 10 foot from the stage in front of a large pillar. The stage can only have been about 2 foot high, with a 2 foot high riser holding aloft Miss Palmer’s piano and stool.

Jason Webley was first on with just about the loudest accordion that I've ever heard, and I've heard two, and a hat that spent most of it’s time either over his eyes or on the floor. He was really entertaining and funny. I mean how many times have you been instructed to hold your finger in the air and spin around 12 times. Obviously I didn’t… I like to stay in control. He looks like a younger, thinner, Chris Cornell, so it came as no surprise to hear that he hails from Seattle.

Zoë Keating was on next with a new cello. It makes a great, rich, sound which is then repeated and doubled with the aid of a MacBook pro and a bank of foot pedals. I wish I had been closer to the stage to see what pedals Zoë hits as she plays. I was also a little curious as to why she had to click her fingers into the microphone before she started.

Oooo ahhh!! And so to the recently departed Amanda Palmer. Draped in a veil and carried, for obvious reasons, by The Danger Ensemble across the front of the stage and then onto the piano stool. The veil removed Amanda started to play Astronaut from the new album Who Killed Amanda Palmer. The rest of the evening just flew by in a blur. Ampersand and Guitar Hero were other tracks from the new record as well as the one that name checks Google. Coin-Operated Boy, Mrs. O and Half Jack were the Dresden Dolls songs that I remember. A Smiths and a Regina Spektor cover, then Oasis, the rather contradictory Livin' On A Prayer with Jason, Zoë and Lyndon, the violinist, all joining in. Then back to the piano stool for the last song Leeds United.

Considering, by her own admission, Amanda had had a pretty crummy day I think that by the end of it she had cheered up considerably. We certainly made enough noise to turn her mood around.

Amanda Palmer Rest In Peace.

Related Links
Amanda Palmer photos by Man Alive! on flickr
Astronaut on YouTube
Ampersand on YouTube
Let Me Get What I Want on YouTube

The Dresden Dolls
by Lisa Lunskaya Gordon

As always I arrived in Manchester at least a couple of hours before the show. I would much rather walk around, to kill some time, than to sit in a traffic jam panicking that I'd miss something, or not get a spot near the front.

The people queuing outside the Academy 2 were predictably young and ‘goth’ like. One ‘goth’ girl in front of me couldn’t stop talking the whole time that I was waiting. She actually pointed out an older gentleman further up in the queue saying, “Yeah, look at him, that old bloke smoking!”. It’s as if she thought that there should be an age limit to liking certain kinds of music. That only the young and trendy should be allowed out at night to see their favourite bands. If such a limit was enforced it should be an IQ limit or an attitude limit instead of one based on age. Fortunately or unfortunately I was within earshot so she didn’t talk to her mates about me. These mates, by the way, were behind us in the queue and she invited them all to join her. Don’t mind me, or ask if it’s okay! Judging from the scars on her forearm she had problems.

So it was quite interesting, as always, just standing there in the drizzle watching the people go by. A few people were dressed suitably for the occasion. A couple of men wearing bowler hats, one of them even wearing stockings, short trousers and white face paint. One chap was dressed in a suit and had a top hat on his head (were else!) and I'm sure I recognised him. It must have been at the Rollins show at the Academy because I've only been out twice this year.

Of course it was only later that I would recognise the two members of Bang On walking by and also two members of DeVotchKa getting out of a cab.

After what seemed like ages we, or rather me and everyone else, were let into the building out of the rain. Only to have to queue again to get into the hall itself, which strangely enough, is upstairs. The Academy 2 must be about the same size as the assembly hall at my old school. The gig was supposed to be in the Academy 3, which by its name alone, must be even smaller still. Probably about the size of my living room!

I was stood in a pretty good spot, just right of centre about ten feet from the stage. The gaggle of girls (what is the collective noun for a group of ‘goths’?) were stood, more or less, at the front but on the far right next to the speaker stacks. Why would anyone want to stand there instead of in the middle where you can see all of the stage?

From the ‘Show Time’ notices outside the opening band weren’t going to start until 8:30pm. So I was cursing the fact that it was still 40 minutes before I'd see any live music. My legs were aching, my back was aching, hell it must be my age!

Thankfully Amanda Palmer came on and introduced Bang On.

She had seen them performing at the Edinburgh Festival and had asked Katie and Dave to open for them. They make a great sound using unconventional instruments, which is essentially anything that will make a noise. Yes, I've never seen guitars played like that before. Bang On apparently played for nothing. Not even getting money for transportation, so a huge bucket, bright orange naturally, was passed around and I dumped a handful of coins into it.

After a quick set change DeVotchka were on next. Their web-site is having a make-over but they do have a MySpace page.

They have something of an eclectic sound. It’s kind of gypsy folk music with an eastern European kind of feel to it. What is surprising is that they come from Denver Colorado in the US. I, personally, have never seen an accordion being played on stage before let alone a tuba. They played their own material and, I think, ‘Venus In Furs’ by The Velvet Underground & Nico, because I spotted the “shiny, shiny, shiny boots of leather” line.

AlexandrA was on next and she performed ‘air ballet’ on a red silk rope 12 feet in the air. I was thinking, whilst watching her twisting and swinging from this rope, how does someone practice that? Not because I want to, but because you just couldn’t attach a silk rope to the roof in your garage and start hanging around.

After a quick set-up The Dresden Dolls finally walk on stage, hand in hand throwing flowers into the crowd. Behind their respective instruments Amanda and Brian start to play ‘Sex Changes’ from the new album ‘Yes, Virginia…’. I must confess that when I listened to the CD for the first time it didn’t really sink in. I remember feeling disappointed. But after repeated plays the music really does get under your skin the same way that the last album did. They played ‘Backstabber’, ‘Dirty Business’, ‘Mrs. O’ and ‘Mandy Goes to Med School’ from the new album. ‘Coin-Operated Boy’, ‘Half Jack’, ‘Girl Anachronism’ and ‘The Jeep Song’ from the last album. As well as ‘War Pigs’ and two other cover songs that I didn’t recognise. There are no doubt a few songs that I've missed.

I sang along and smiled and bobbed my head along with the music. I had a great old time. Amanda hit the keyboard keys so damned hard. That can’t possibly be the same keyboard that she punished when they supported Nine Inch Nails, can it? Brian, the drummer, was just a sight to behold, part of the reason why I was slightly to the right of centre. He just hits the drum-kit so hard you wouldn’t believe. Throwing his sticks up in the air and not even bothering to catch them. He does make a hell of a sound from what must, for drummers, be considered a minimal kit.

Everyone sang along to ‘Coin-Operated Boy’ and I tried valiantly to sing all of the ‘skip’ part but gave up about 4 repeats from the end. That was just through fear of passing out. There was practically a mosh pit when they played ‘Girl Anachronism’. I never thought that I'd see so much flailing hair tonight. Because of some curfew they couldn’t play for much longer. They were about to play the last song when some people behind me started shouting. Even I couldn’t work out what they were asking for. Amanda and Brian could decipher the request and they played ‘The Jeep Song’ as if their lives depended on it.

The show would have been perfect if they had dropped the two cover songs that I didn’t know. Only because there was a noticeable lull. Some people did sing along but obviously I wasn’t one of them. So I really wish they had played two of their own songs instead. ‘First Orgasm’ is one of my favourites off the new album. I mean I don’t think they even played the new single ‘Sing’. But maybe they were going to do that before ‘The Jeep Song’ was unexpectedly moved to the top of the playlist.

One thing that always bugs me is the fact that people go to concerts and stand completely still. They don’t sing or respond to the music in any way. Hell they don’t even applaud between songs. Which I think is a little disrespectful in a way.

One girl, who looked about two months past twelve, just stood there smoking her cigarettes. If you want to do that you can do it in any pub or pedestrianised town centre in the land! Just stay away from concerts.

A boy in front of me had his arms around his girlfriend for so long that I thought he was just using her for support. Then again maybe he was. Quit being so damned possessive!

The other thing which spoilt the proceedings for me was the drunken idiot(s) who shouted out during the performance. Amanda and Brian just ignored them, and rightly so, you don’t want to give the knuckle dragging Neanderthals any kind of attention.

After seeing them last year I knew that The Dresden Dolls wouldn’t disappoint, and they didn’t. The new material is on a par or better than the last album and they always put on a great show.

Now, does anyone know were I can buy a bowler hat?

Related Links
Lame Squad: Oh what a night – Fame at last (and my good side to).
eGigs.co.uk – review by Kirsty Umback
eGigs.co.uk – photos by Kirsty Umback

Henry Rollins

The weather could only be described as typical Manchester weather. It was grey, it was raining and it was blowing a gale through the dirty streets.

I'd parked my car in the car park that I've used the last few times when going to concerts at the M.E.N. Arena, had something to eat and wandered around the shops to kill a little time.

I must have wandered up and down Oxford Road hundreds of times when I was attending Manchester Polytechnic, as it was then known. Nothing much has changed, just a few more coffee shops than I recall. There is a little square, past the main building, opposite the students union. I remember having lectures in a room in one of the buildings. The memory is especially vivid as it was one of the few times that I've had to speak in front of a group of people. Not something that I enjoy at all.

I managed to find the prestigious Manchester Academy and had a little wander around the block. Really to try to find Manchester Academy 2, which I think is in the students union building. I joined the queue of people and waited the 45 minutes until the doors opened, walked in, sat in a great seat dead-centre on the second row and waited another hour until show-time.

At 8:30pm sharp the lights dimmed and the orchestra started to play a be-bop arrangement of Henry’s hit ‘Liar’. The curtains opened and twelve dancing girls, the famous ‘Henriettas’ no less, high-kicked their way across the stage. Each one of them had legs up to their face and were wearing pink sequinned swimsuits which glimmered in the myriad of lights. Pink ostrich feathers in their headbands made them look even taller. Each of them were blonde, blue-eyed and big breasted, no doubt hand-picked by Henry himself. As the song reached its climax there was a drum-roll, Mike The Tour Manager said, “Ladies and gentlemen, Manchester Academy, in association with SJM Concerts proudly presents, the king of spoken word himself, Mr. Henry Rollins.” Mike dragged out the ‘Henry Rollins’ bit, similar to the way wrestlers and boxers are announced before fights. The ‘Henriettas’ split into two groups, high-kicking all the while and a huge lighted staircase lifted up from beneath the stage. The orchestra started to play ‘Liar’, again, and the man himself appeared in a spotlight at the very top of the staircase. Henry was resplendent in his white tie and tails, carrying his top hat and his silver topped cane. His thick mane of jet black hair shimmering in the lights, his deep California suntan, no doubt regularly topped up at the home of his Hollywood pal, George Hamilton, his teeth the kind of brilliant white that can only be seen at the polar ice caps. Henry’s high kicks timed to perfection with those of his dancing girls as he descended the staircase. The entire audience were on their feet, just basking in the glow of this legendary performer. Seeing this outburst of adulation Henry did a little soft-shoe-shuffle on each step, which only excited his adoring fans even more. Upon finally reaching the stage Henry tossed his top-hat and cane to two of the ‘Henriettas’, grabbed the microphone in his left hand, wrapping its cord three times around his fingers and said, “Good evening”.

This is the third time that I've seen Henry’s spoken word shows. They are always consistently funny, thought provoking and value for money.

You can never really re-count what has been said to a third person, you can only try to hit upon the subjects covered: Bush, New Orleans, Basic Instinct 2, The Royal Family, Big Day Out, Visiting The Wounded, Ijaz, Siberia, Vomit, Liar, Black Lesbian President. Henry relates his experiences but instead of reciting them verbatim he fleshes them out with vocal mannerisms, impersonations and body language. Similar, in a way, to one of his heroes Richard Pryor. He even received a round of applause for saying, “Birmingham” using the correct accent for that locale. The revelation that one of his ‘man-sacks’ swings lower than the other should be safely filed under the category: A Little Too Much Information.

Henry is someone that I admire a lot. Hell I even have a picture of him on the wall of my living room. If he didn’t travel so extensively then he wouldn’t have any experiences to relate when it came to his spoken word shows. Me, I'm not a big fan of travelling. When the chairs were set-up in the Academy for the show tonight they use a specially calibrated stick so that the rows are a consistent distance apart. This is the distance from my ass to my knee minus 6 inches. Not a comfortable situation for me. This yard stick is used by every theatre, bus, train, and aeroplane in the civilised world. In the uncivilised world the stick is snapped in half.

I still can’t quite believe that Henry just walks around Manchester during the daytime before a show. That is something that I would have to see to believe.