Review of concert from 2000-05-05: Brooklyn, NYC, St Anne's Theater - with Roy Nathanson
- A. Chisholm [alex@pz.harvard.edu]

 

Fire at St. Anne's Church

Despite mediocre acoustics and inexcusable technical difficulties, I was wowed by this

performance, and continue to be seduced by the piece in general. I think it's going to be a while before I wake up in the morning without a track from Fire at Keaton's already running through my head.

Elvis was in fine form on all parts of "Fire Suite," and indeed his voice was among the most comprehensible through the seemingly endless school auditorium-style echo in this venue. I don't know whether this is a problem of the space itself, or of the sound system that night, or whether it was just my crappy seats, but it was a real distraction-- "Fire" deserves a rich, muddy, bar-like sound, but not the YMCA pool treatment it got here. (Okay, maybe I'm exaggerating a bit.) And to have Kenny Washington's mic out was unforgivable. But I make these complaints only because it was so great to hear this piece live, and it could have been brilliant. It's one of those things that one really wants to hear LOUD. Problem here was, the great blaring LOUD came at the price of being able to understand only one word in five.

The musicianship was edgier and faster than on the CD-- again, just the live vibe that you would want from a piece about live music, a bar, and its beery denizens. Nathanson is really the star of this show, and deservedly so, and you could tell he was having a blast. As those familiar with the CD will know, the character voices in Fire are wonderfully varied, and the video backgrounds used here really helped pull them together. Some were very literal, like a loop of Debby Harry as Cups (chatting with customers but never, seemingly, doing any work) set against an instantly familiar wall of dusty booze bottles. More abstract shots of shimmering water worked pretty well as evocations of quieter conversations and internal thoughts, and so on. My only complaint with the video was with the too-distant shots of the bar on fire, which looked more like a staged barn fire on someone's back forty than anything you'd see on a city block. It's close-up flames and heat, and impenetrable smoke, that scare the shit out people when they're in or near a fire like that-- maybe the videographer should have read Elvis's lyrics a bit more carefully. The blaring, panic-filled, siren-like rendition of "Carol Ann" more than made up for it, though, and gave me actual goosebumps. (Corey Harris's fiery red metallic shirt was pretty damned scary too.)

Other highlights: Richard Butler singing the addictive, Kurt Weil-esque "Last Call" (perhaps the tune most likely to end up in my early morning whistling sessions); the stunning harmony on "Bend in the Night"; and an additional tune or two (such as Cups's song "Imitation of a Kiss").

Of course, being the Elvis fan that I am, it was hard (possible, but hard) to get past the fabulous parts of "Fire Suite," and the way Elvis's voice and his writing framed the piece like drop-dead gorgeous sterling silver bookends around a group of motley-beautiful but much cherished books. If I ever get the chance, I'll be sure to thank him for making me a regular at Keaton's Bar and Grill.