blue man group @ the warfield, 2003/05/29

[rone]

After yet another invigorating meal at Henry's Hunan on Natoma (which is now a firm Echeverri pre-concert tradition in San Francisco), Marty, Jeanne, Kim and i headed to the Warfield. Tracy Bonham (of "Mother, Mother" fame) opened with a nice 30-minute set, which was topped off with a smashing cover of PJ Harvey's "50 Ft. Queenie", with Tracy on violin and keyboardist Peter Adams on spoons. Then came Venus Hum, who were preceded by a bucketload of equipment (two big keyboards, two little keyboards, two Mac laptops, a noise box, and a guitar). Annette Strean has a great voice (and seems to be compared a lot to Björk a lot, but isn't nearly half as spastic), and the songs never have that dull, sterile feeling that most electronic music has.

Blue Man Group played most of the songs on The Complex as well as "Drumbone" from Audio, and finished off with a cover of "Baba O'Reilly", with Tracy Bonham on violin. She also provided vocals for many of the tracks, and Venus Hum came out to do "I Feel Love", with silver suits and Annette's light-up plastic dress. The Blue Man stuck a camera into a lucky guy's mouth, wandered the balcony, and generally incited the crowd. There were dueling LED signs before BMG started. The Wire Man animation during "The Current" was really good (i wonder if they really used an anvil). The BMG band had two guitarists, a bassist, a keyboardist (one of these guys played Stick, too), and three drummers. The show had plenty of energy, the volume was not excessive, and a great time was had by all.