Customer Reviews

Live In New York

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I had tickets to about 2 broadway shows and a 3 day vacation planned for Fla. the week of Sept 11th. Right after the attacks, I, of course, and every other New Yorker were too stunned to even leave our house except for work. I did'nt go to Fla., did'nt go to the plays - The next event I had scheduled prior to Sept 11 was Laurie - My friend and I dragged ourselves on the subway and to Town Hall on that wednesday Sept 19th.I can't even begin to tell you what a balming effect this music had in the wake of Sept 11th. I did'nt get the CD yet but this was the best sounding live show I ever attended - I was in the forth row and Laurie was phenominal. The drummer / percussionist just blew us away. I'm not sure this made the CD, but I remember when Laurie first walked out, she dedicated the night's music to peace.What a testament to that dedication. A lovely concert.

Playing this CD makes the listener feel they are attending the event itself. The music itself is amazing right through, as are the spken word pieces. There is an intimacy, some intensity, some discomfort but some delight too, for example when the anecdote ('Beginning French') about French 'traffic testers' gives way discreetly to the intro of 'O Superman.' But the intensity is felt most when Laurie refers to 9/11 and her reactions, playing that evening, the sense of an entirley changed world. Her songs fit. My favourites here are O Superman, which I knew from the 8os and Strange Angels, which I didn't know before.
The discomfort comes in when you've listened all the way through and get to O Superman on Disc 2, when the references to 'Amercian planes, made in America' are heard.
This is a good place to go for a live compilation of Laurie Anderson songs.

I've seen Laurie Anderson live on a half-dozen occasions, and the shows are always somehow new.

This show is no different. Unlike most of her shows in recent years, this one heavily features her earlier, most-quirky material. But, that material is re-conceived for the live band. Although updated and punched up a bit, it's still true to its original spirit.

The results are wonderful. If you enjoy the earlier albums like Big Science, you'll love hearing their formerly-sparse arrangements augmented with a really great live band. Some of these songs haven't been performed live for many years, and hearing them now is a treat.

I have to agree with the Amazon reviewer and a couple of others: "O Superman" is clearly the climax of the show. The audience's reaction -- surprised and then delighted -- to the opening of O Superman fading in as if sent from long ago is exhilarating.

Knowing the conext of this show and hearing Laurie sing, voice barely controlled, about the "American planes", gives me chills every time I listen. To think that this song was written nearly 20 years before the events of 9/11 is eerie. Extremely powerful stuff.

What a haunting and beautiful piece of work this is. It's music from Laurie's last studio album mixed with some of her "greatest hits," but it's the time and place that really give this double cd its power. Recorded just days after the Sept. 11 tracks and at Town Hall, you can hear the emotion in her voice. And the bravery of pulling out such difficult tracks as "O Superman" and "Let x=x" with their chilling, prophetic lines about crashing planes and burning buildings. From anyone else this would have seemed like sacrilege and a horrible misstep to capitalize on the moment, but in Laurie Anderson's hands they are soothing, healing balm. Bless you for this, Laurie. It truly is the definitive memorial for the living and the dead.

The two discs which comprise this set span 20 years of LA's music, from the early single "O Superman!" to pieces from her latest studio endeavor "Life On a String" (2001). What makes this collection most worthwhile, however, is not the mere breadth of material covered but, rather, the emotional weight which each and every piece carries.

At the beginning of the set, Lori dedicates the music to the
"opportunity we all have to truly understand the events of
the past few days" (i.e. Sept. 11), and the themes of not knowing "what comes next" surfaces and resurfaces time and
again throughout the length of the concert(s) from which
these cds hail. In the opening song "Statue of Liberty" (from "Life on a String") Lori states with a slight tremble
in her voice, "Freedom is a scary thing. So precious. So
easy to lose". In "Let X=X" the line "I feel like I am in
a burning building" takes on new meaning, while when Lori
sings "Big changes are coming, here they come" at the end
of "Strange Angels" it's hard not to see what this would have
meant both to her and to her audience on that particular evening. Personally, the most emotionally charged moment for me is on "Love Among the Sailors", especially the line, "And if this is the work of an angry God, I want to look into his angry
eyes" which is uttered with such intensity that I can't help
feeling a shutter every time I listen...

There's definitely something for everyone on these 2 cds,
from long-time Anderson fans to "initiates" who are looking
for a good introduction to her art and music (though
perhaps the best place to start is with the "Talk Normal"
anthology). For those that like Lori's spoken word pieces, there's "Wildebeests", "Animals" and "Beginning French", while
those that enjoy her work with Brian Eno will be happy to
see that there are no less than three pieces from "Bright
Red" (1994) covered here (both "Poison" and "Puppet Motel"
have been reworked) and, of course, the unlikely super-hit "O
Superman" is here too, with all of it's bitterly
ironic lines.

The only warnings/reservations I have about
this set are 1) the fact that the vocals do not sound as flawless here as
they do on her studio albums (though the emotional intensity with which
she sings more than makes up for it, IMO) and 2) her voice
is mixed way in front, which may put some people off.
Otherwise, highly recommended. It goes without saying that this one is absolutely essential to long time LA admirers.

Laurie Anderson: Live in New York is an eerie CD that reflects the feeling of being present in a time of uncertainty. Laurie's music, which has always been ahead of its time, seems perfectly fitted for the Town Hall performance shortly after September 11th. Listening to "Statue of Liberty" from her last CD and that freedom is, "So precious, so easy to loose" to hearing "Let X=X" written almost 20 years before speaking that "I gotta' go" from a burning building, she brings you into thinking about the hear and now. Laurie chose to perform some of her best pieces (O Superman, Life on a String, White Lily, Coolsville, etc.) from her extensive body of work and ties them together skillfully. All of Laurie Anderson's musical stories/songs of life, death, technology, futility, time, loss and angels surround you. You are left feeling moved, touched by life around you and aware that as everything changes, history is happening right before your eyes.

Laurie Anderson recently applied for and was hired as kitchen worker at McDonald's hamburger joint near her studio in Manhattan. Huh???...yes it's true, and she recounts her McDonalds experience in her new performance piece, "Happiness". Laurie Anderson can find beauty in strange places. At Town Hall, eight short days after the collapse of the Trade Towers, Laurie found beauty in a terrifying place. She performed "Love Amoung the Sailors", from her Bright Red album and the lyric..."There is no pure land now, no safe place...If this is the work of an angry God, I want to look in his angry face..." ; becomes a prophetic statement of iron willed resolve. "Let X=X" takes on a new meaning as we, the listeners, are placed in an aisle seat of a burning plane. George Bush talked about "wanted dead or alive" and "hunting down terrorists like dogs" and Laurie Anderson talked about the phenomena of flaming birds in the sky after the American planes became guided missles from hell. Now, one year later as Sadam becomes the ghost of Osama, I look to Laurie Anderson's concert at Town Hall as a defining moment in a Brave, New World. Laurie Anderson (not Rudy Guliani) is New York's first citizen and the heart and soul of this planet, Earth.

Laurie Anderson concert in NYC recorded just days after the 9/11 tragedy. Great quality audio and a beautiful and diverse mix of Laurie songs from over the decades. The highlight, as other users have mentioned, is O Superman. A prophetic song first recorded in the early 80s, it becomes even more important and moving in the context of the 9/11 tragedy. This recording of O Superman is worth the entire price of the CD. Listen to it and recall that it was laid down mere days after the attacks. It is the most chilling performance I have ever heard. "And I've got a message...to give to you...here come the planes." I can think of nothing else that so convincingly faces the fear and sadness, but also the inevitability, of the tragic 9/11 attacks. If you can listen to it without crying and asking what America has come to, then please hold out your right index and middle fingers and place them on the underside of the left wrist to see if you are still alive.

I had tickets to about 2 broadway shows and a 3 day vacation planned for Fla. the week of Sept 11th. Right after the attacks, I, and every other New Yorker were too stunned to even leave our house except for work. I did'nt go to Fla., did'nt go to the plays - The next event I had scheduled prior to Sept 11 was Laurie - My friend and I dragged ourselves on the subway and to Town Hall on that wednesday Sept 19th.I can't even begin to tell you what a balming effect this music had in the wake of Sept 11th. I did'nt get the CD yet but this was the best sounding live show I ever attended - I was in the forth row and Laurie was phenominal. The drummer / percussionist just blew us away. I'm not sure this made the CD, but I remember when Laurie first walked out, she dedicated the night's music to peace.What a testament to that dedication. A lovely concert.

Even if it didn't have so many extra layers of resonance, given the post-Sept. 11 setting in New York, this would still be one of the most gorgeous and haunting releases in recent memory. The old and new material blend perfectly and gain extra immediacy and depth from their arrangement for this excellent four-person band. Buy it, turn down the lights, turn up the volume, and enter a unique musical (and lyrical) world.