Semaine Three (so far): MIAOU & SCRATCH!

Not been up to much this week, due to the fact that ... well... work made me remember my life was not just an endless party...

But yet found time to check out the Tiger Lillies (Monday) and a Late'n'Live show (Tuesday).

With the Tiger Lillies, I was expecting to be shocked... But I have to say that the 3 boys took the biscuit as they displayed the vilest language I have heard for a long time (even Ubu seems like a kid's play compared to it...)

To situate the Tiger Lillies, they are a sort of decadent cabaret act, with a singer (excellent falsetto) and occasional pianist, a bass player and occasional saw player, and a drummer (who goes crazy at the end of the show).

What really annoyed me in their show, more than the gratuitous misogynistic lyrics (there is only so much of hatred one can spill!), was the apparently incoherent order of the songs, the lack of mise-en-scène (except for vague genitalia rubbing at one point) and the minimal interaction of the performers with the audience. (mind you, I probably wouldn't have wanted the singer to land on my lap, so it was probably just as well).

It annoyed me because in the encore, you could see what that band could do - raw energy and enthusiasm, decadence and very black humour... And the singer's falsetto should have been a real treat for the Klaus Nomi fan that I am...

Anyway, the songs varied between graphic descriptions of what old ladies of the night could do without their teeth, to very violently depressed songs about self harm - and not much else in between...

Would I go to see them again? - I probably would actually, because of what they could do if they were properly directed....

Re. the Late'n'Live at the Gilded Balloon, it was as usual half and half, but the compere (whose name escapes me) was very funny and bravely interacted with the most drunken members of the audience who were randomly shouting 'twice' at regular intervals... It was a bit of a baptism of fire for my friend Sandrine, who allowed me (fairly foolishly) to indulge further in my desire to see yet more comedians...

Lxox