moore.wbst@Xerox.ARPA (04/09/85)
From: Lee C. Moore <Moore.wbst@Xerox.ARPA> Here is a review that I sent around Xerox... -=lee << To: NewWave^.es >> Well, last week was rather big for new music fans here in Rochester. A week ago last Sunday ex-Rochestarian Lydia Lunch (formerly of "Teenage Jesus and the Jerks" and "Eight-eyed Spy") gave a poetry reading at Wilson Commons (that's Wilson as in Joseph C. Wilson) at the Univ. of Rochester. The first thing Lydia said was "Don't take me seriously, yet". Then she composed herself to look dramatic and said "Ok, you can take me seriously now.". Needless to say, the mostly student audience choose to ignore the latter remark. Since she was speaking to a Rochester audience, she mainly choose material that related to her experiences here. Her first "reading" was about getting picked up by a sickee in front of the Monroe Theater and being forced at gun point to go to Cobbs Hill park. The event ends happily with Lydia asking for his phone number. The next story was about her father killing the family cat. A friend of mine who has met her family says that they really do scream outrageous things at each other all the time. After a couple of other works she concluded with a montage of street calls she gets as she walks in the less pleasant neighborhoods. All in all, very intense but pretty funny in a weird way. Wednesday was music overload: First was The Bongos who played at the Casablanca. They are touring to support their new album (which was very dissapointing-- nothing nearly as good as "Drums Along the Hudson".) In addition to their current line-up they also brought along polyrhythmic percussionist Steven Scales who was on the Talking Heads last tour. The show started with the upbeat "In the Congo" and continued on with songs from both albums, the EP and also Mastro and Barone's duo effort "Nuts and Bolts". One highlight was a really funked-up version of Mambo Sun. All-in-all a very fun concert. The only disappointment was the open act: The Chesterfield Kings. They continued their sort of drunken renditions of paisley music. The Bongos concert ended around 12:00 so a whole herd of people headed down to Scorgies to catch the end of Suicidal Tendencies concert. I am not a real fan of hardcore music but it was the place to be. Those of you who get the Times-Union, probably saw the picture last week from this concert. As you can tell, there was plenty of slamming. Fortuately, there were only minor injuries. The band itself blasted away and was nearly un-intelligible. Needless to say the crowd went wild for "Institutionalized". This concert was worth going to just to see the cultural milieu. -=lee