(The Big Take-Over '95)

Concert Reviews
Issue #38
Siouxsie & The Banshees
Roseland, NYC April 28, 1995
by Jack Rabid

19 years have failed to make the Banshees irrelevant. No band with a drummer as creative and innovative as Budgie can be taken for granted. And you know they're going to have tasteful, moody lighting, and that Siouxsie will sashay around the stage doing that peculiar sort of goose-dance we've been seeing since "Spellbound." Better, unlike the banal "Superstition," they had a challenging album in "The Rapture" to promote this time. As a result, new selections, such as a terse "Tearing Apart" and "The Double Life" didn't seem out-ranked and outclassed by "Christine," "Cities In Dust" and other old hits they still trot out convincingly (this is no nostalgia act; it's still the same three key people, and they've never broken up). The mix of current songs meshed flawlessly. Besides this, who could have expected them to pull off the epic "The Rapture," with its labyrinth of turns, and ultimately punishing climax? It went on FOREVER, and it would have been fine if it never HAD ended. And what a treat to hear "Ju Ju's" obscure "Night Shift," a masterstroke of paranoia and fright, with each sound-effect click of the camera synched up to a blinding flash of white light out of the darkness! Just 'cause you're getting on in the years doesn't mean you've lost your vitality.