2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Magnificient performance, dvd and evening!, June 28, 2008
This review is from: Death in June - Live in New York (DVD)
The evening this performance took place was very dreary. I recall it had rained earlier and the street the Walker Stage resides on had attained that sheen of filth that it seems one finds only in downtown New York. It was also dimly lit in a relatively abandoned area at that hour and day. It was hardly where one might imagine to find a concert hall of any size - but of the four locations that DIJ has performeed in New York it's still my favorite. Just marvelous.
I arrived very early, fearing how crowded it might become, and found myself first in line at the door which was plastered with a huge concert poster for the event. Just to the right was another door leading to a street level elevator for apartments above.
What then occured over the next hour or so was very amusing: it seems a Reverend So-and-So was throwing a bash upstairs, the means of entrance being the elevator. His friends were not dressed altogether differently than the DIJ crowd - very dark and 'New York Downtown'.
What happened is that his partygoers went straight up via the lift - and so did many of the DIJ fans! They would walk slowly, though deliberately, down the block from Broadway (I believe), see me and the dozen or more others behind me, look at the poster and then walk into the elevator and take it up, only to come right back down again in a few minutes looking very puzzled! Only then would they ask me if "this was it?" and I'd nod "uh-huh" and smile. Very amusing.
The Walker was(is?) a mainly unseated venue of very modest proportions and style - I felt very comfortable immediately. I took a wall-bench seat next to an unused piano close-by the stage which if memory serves was only a little over a foot high. Though the place filled up soon, the atmosphere was very mellow and many of the attendees sat on the floor several rows deep from the stage. Douglas and John then came out a little side door and lit some incense, claiming the place as their own for a time.
In retrospect, I recall thinking how limited the cameraman's variety of view must be, scooting back and forth in front of the stage. As you'll witness, this is not so - the variety is limited but some lovely editing precludes the possibility of occular boredom.
As for the music - Douglas and John did not disappoint and you'll hear it all here. I've never heard him as warm and friendly as he was this evening.
I'll admit to missing the Sturm und Drang of his Orensantz Center performance in 1997 (would that it were filmed, though the superb "DIJ: Live In Italy" captures much of the mood and feel) but this evening at the Walker had it's own set of charms: close, warm and even raucously familiar by the evening's end - both on Douglas' part and the audience.
I've rarley been so satisfied by any performance before or since, and much of it is captured here.
The dvd is well worth the price, whatever you pay.
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