Wednesday, August 5, 1998
New York
Life
by Roddy Alan Fletcher
Definitely the best of the four shows I attented. A great day for me, and not a half bad show, either! I was supposed to meet up with the Sioux Records representative beforehand but had terrible luck in that regard. I was enjoying myself too much to worry about that, though.
We had a very good spot for the show--at the stage in front of the dual drums. A great view of Siouxsie/Budgie whenever they put the drums to good use.
Another wild crowd, and Siouxsie enjoyed the enthusiastic response. I was in a super mood and basically danced like crazy the whole time. Sioux looked fabulous. As expected, the new material sounded amazing again, and I enjoyed the addition of "Venus Sands." The semi-new interpretation of that song sounded much better than on the 1990 Boomerang bootlegs I have.
The most I can say about my time that evening was that it ended far too soon. The concert ended after 1:00, and it was off to the cab for Penn Station.by Sean Barrow
Last night was another great show although I liked the song selection on Tuesday better. She switched "Pluto Drive" for "Venus Sands," "But Not Them" for "Thumb," "B Side Ourselves" for "I Was Me," and "Gun" for "A Strutting Rooster." She was wearing her silver spandex outfit this time and Budgie was wearing a short sleeveless black dress. More importantly though, Siouxsie touched me! I was right in front in the center and during "Murdering Mouth," she looked at me and held out her hand. I was dumbstruck for a second before I reached up and she held my hand for a good two seconds! AAACK!
by Walter Pacheco
What else can be said about the once dubbed, "Ice Queen?" Well, for starters, her amazing ability to keep an audience enthralled, if not mesmerized, by her performance is certainly a spell all of her own casting. Siouxsie Sioux commands an air of majesty and decadence, yet slightly twisted with a touch of comedy, "Roses are red, Violets are blue, I'm Schizophrenic, and so am I," Sioux said. Her performance at New York City's Life Club was an event reminiscent of those long ago days of pure live music; no real pretense emanating from this "Ice Queen." John Cale's entrance with "Riverbank" aroused the semi-punk gothic retro trucker rocker crowd. The quick tempo and light beat of the song was in no way reflective of the wall of sound this man can create. "Magazine" sent the crowd into a frenzy as did "Pablo Picasso." However, the real treat of the night was Siouxsie. Her entrance into Cale's creepy "Hedda Gabbler," ensured that the night belonged to Siouxsie. Her appearance signaled the end of Cale's first set, and she began hers with "Disconnected" and "Take Mine", a song with an ethereal and spiraling "Are you happy now?" at the end of the song. Siouxsie's stage presence was somewhere between seductress and enchantress. Her fluid and gyrating hips during "Prettiest Thing" and rhythmic hand beats during the thunderous "Turn it On" kept the fans flickering like stained black grass in a thunderstorm. The stage was shared by Sioux and Cale several times, most memorably during "Murdering Mouth," in which Sioux ends by rubbing up against Cale like a pussycat in heat and then leering at him as she ends the song whispering "Always you my darling...Always you my dear. " A perfect finial to the night was a cover of the Velvet Underground's "Venus in Furs" which spellbound one of the many ghouls at the loudspeaker to actually lick and caress Siouxsie's boot! Siouxsie gladly accepted flowers and allowed herself to be photographed by her fans despite occasional intrusion by a bouncer trying to take away a fan's memory of a truly gifted and intriguing phenomenon in today's bland and often insipid music industry.
Also check out the New York Times review of this show.