Theatre Of The Living Arts
Philadelphia, USA (21.07.01)
   
   
vocals: Tricky, Ambersunshower, Hawkman, Marlon

here's a review from Terri:

I have returned fresh from the Philly Tricky concert, with a pretty accurate setlist, and an incredible story to tell (basically of what a dumbass I am).

Saturday all day I ran my mouth about how I was going to see the man himself and wouldn't you know it, I sprain my foot playing football. I could absolutely not walk on it, but...to make a long story short, I hoofed it on my crutches to the TLA in Phila. (about 3 blocks with my boyfriend kind of supporting me.) He works for the Electric Factory, which also does work for the TLA (this will be important later.) They were kind enough to give me a barstool to sit on, much to my dismay, since the TLA is one of the few if not only venues in Philly where there is no barricade or separation between the stage and the floor, but I took it anyway.

Pretty packed crowd for the show, although many people around me were heard asking, "I hope Ed Kowalczyk (sp?), and/or the Chili Peppers show up." Has anyone whose been to a Tricky show noticed how people dance to his music (if you can call it dancing?)  Maybe it was just me, or maybe all of the people were on drugs, but....some weird ish, let me tell you.  There was a woman next to me who was doing some kind of interpretive dance (like the ones from SNL?). Anyway, on with the show.

Emiliana Torrini opened up, and she was excellent.  Imagine Bjork, backed by a jazz band (and yes, the strange subject matter about elves (or smurfs, in this case) was present.)  When she first came out, she introduced her bass player as "the only man to walk on a beach, beside a beached whale, fall into the whale's vagina, and have to be pulled out by a crane." Uhm, yeah....She did her thing for about an hour, and i was definitely inspired to buy a CD later between sets.

Tricky opened with "A Song for Yukiko", and then Amber Sunshower went into "You Don't Wanna".  Then, she ATTEMPTED to do "Lyrics of Fury"- not great, but not bad.  I gotta agree with Kitty; best Martina replacement so far. After this, all songs are approximate- I'm just going to name what I remember, so...no particular order.

Pumpkin
OverCome
Diss We Never (Dig Up We History)
Christiansands
Bury the Evidence/Movies Don't Move Me*f'n amazing..longer than album
Ace Of Spades- with Hawkman and a young kid (17-18) who looked Asian...slightly 
higher voice than MadDog and a little faster
Girls (liked this song soooo much better after I heard it live)
Critic
unknown
Black Steel *Sunshower a little better on this one
You Don't

Encore:
For Real (and I almost thought he forgot he did Juxtapose)
Vent (10 min's...brought the house DOWN!)

Tricky actually seemed very pleased to be there. No banter with the crowd, but...it is Tricky after all. He must have thanked the crowd AT LEAST 3 times after each song though.  The sound at the TLA was PERFECT (they did tweak it for about 45 minutes before he went on); it sounded like the album cuts themselves.

So how did I meet the man? Well, my boyfriend and I decided to wait until the crowd cleared out before I attempted leaving on my crutches, and one of the stage workers asked me if I needed help.  When I asked if there was a side door, he said he would take me out the back way.  (he knew my boyfriend).  After stumbling up the stairs, I walked straight into Hawkman (and he's pretty big).  He laughed and smiled at me, as I clumsily tried to apologize.  We all ended up laughing, until my boyfriend and i shut up- stunned to see who was around the corner behind the curtain. Tricky kind of looked at us, and though he definitely didn't smile, it looked like a smirk. After I could stammer something out after my shock (I think it was "hi".), I thanked him for inspiring me to produce my own music, and told him that I was amazed by his show.  I smiled and then said I would shake his hand, except for the crutches.  He (kind of) laughed, and I said goodnight. After we got out the back door, I thought to myself of all the questions I always said I would ask Tricky if I ever had the chance to meet him.  Oh well....

Terri
 

   
 

 


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