Town Hall was built for Antony's voice. Well technically Town Hall is a a non-profit organization serving the community since 1921 and was built for hosting a variety of music, dance, film, lectures, drama, and etc., but you know, go with it. Hegarty's Johnsons at present are a crack crew of genre leapers featuring a cellist, electric bassist, violinist, and two multi-instrumentalists: one that goes from acoustic guitar to violin, and then the biggest-star-who-wasn't-named-Antony of the night, a graying, wispy haired and bespectacled mad scientist who murdered skronking, screeching solos on sax (see the rattle and hum of "Shake That Devil") and guitar (as on the rousing, rising soul of "Fist Full Of Love") alike. It's an adept band that can reproduce all that Antony's covered, from plantation blues to Nico Muhly-arranged avant classical pop, and on the songs from I Am A Bird Now through to the excellent The Crying Light that we heard Friday night, they brought rich detail to a fairly dope setlist.
So yes the Johnsons did their part, playing with dynamics and dissonance as the house lights dimmed and rose, facilitating the crowd's goosebumps at realizing they were engaging with one of the singular voices of this little era. And I know I've seen Antony's cover of Beyoncé's "Crazy In Love" before, but damn. As noted in the Times, Antony's sincere and impassioned rendition swallows every crowd that initially greets it with the reflexive giggle of an ironic karaoke session, and it inevitably becomes one of the most emotionally charged moments of his show. Not that I ever want Antony to stop writing and become a Cat Power-like cover-album machine, but if Antony ever became a Cat Power-like cover-album machine, that shit would be right.
There was some fun banter, too. Antony admitted to nerves about this particular show (fair enough, singing for celebs is grounds for a tummy ache), which you wouldn't have known without the confession. The same thing that brought him the butterflies is what made it a special stop: "It's nice to be home." This is a tour that's taken Hegarty through America, a country which he has a rocky relationship with: "I could say that I knew what America was but I only knew what America was like when I left it to go to Manhattan." This time through is opening his eyes, and thanks to the internet and the accessibility of subculture in even the strictest cultures, home's becoming a more mobile concept. Later he gave out door prizes, like back in the days of his East Village performances ("we used to give out doorprizes with weapons to carry home for protection, made of Depeche Mode CDs"). One was a (tiny) t-shirt of his first play, which wound up in a front-row fan who happened to be in that very play. Odd coincidence, but matching the night's surreal energy.
Speaking of surreal: Opening the show was a performance piece with a thousands-of-years old star lady, who made tea, wet her pants, lumbered about the stage, and told us about the secret of the cosmos: it's all without meaning, and the only thing we had to look forward to was death. Well, death and the Antony set which killed it just a few minutes later. I know that might be confusing, so look at the pictures to be no less confused.
Here's Antony's setlist:
01 "Where Is My Power"
02 "Here Eyes Are Underneath The Ground"
03 "Epilepsy Is Dancing"
04 "One Dove"
05 "For Today I Am A Boy"
06 "Kiss My Name"
07 "Everglade"
08 "Another World"
09 "Shake That Devil"
10 "The Crying Light"
11 "Crazy In Love"
12 "Fist Full Of Love"
13 "You Are My Sister"
14 "Twilight"
15 "Aeon"
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16 "Cripple Adn The Starfish"
17 "Hope There's Someone"
A lot of the shows on this tour of North America and Europe are sold out, but here's a listing. If you can't make them, make do with his performances on Letterman, The Culture Show and MPR.
02/24 - San Francisco, CA @ Nob Hill Masonic Center
02/27 - Vancouver, BC @ The Vogue Theater#
02/28 - Seattle, WA @ Moore Theatre
03/15 - Bergen, Norway @ Griedhallen#
03/17 - Oslo, Norway @ Sentrum Scene#
03/19 - Stockholm, Sweden @ Cirkus
03/21 - Helsinki, Finland @ House Of Culture
03/24 - London, UK @ Royal Albert Hall
03/26 - Copenhagen, Denmark @ Falkoner#
03/28 - Ancona, Italy @ Teatro delle Muse
03/29 - Rome, Italy @ Auditorium il Parco della Musica
03/31 - Prato, Italy @ Teatro Politeama Pratese
04/01 - Milan, Italy @ Sala Verdi Conservatorio
04/04 - Zurich, Switzerland @ Kongresshaus#
04/06 - Strasbourg, France @ La Laiterie
04/09 - Paris, France @ Le Grand Rex#
04/13 - Brussels, Belgium @ Bozar#
04/15 - Barcelona, Spain @ Palau de la Musica#
04/23 - Munich, Germany @ Postpalast#
04/24 - Berlin, Germany @ Admiralspalast
04/27 - Frankfurt, Germany @ Alte Oper
04/29 - Warsaw, Poland @ National Theatre
05/01 - Krems, Austria @ Donaufestival, Main Hall
05/03 - Eindhoven, Netherlands @ MC FritsPhilips#
05/05 - San Sebastian, Spain @ Kursaal Auditorium
05/07 - Murcia, Spain @ Auditori de Murcia
05/11 - Madrid, Spain @ Palacio de Congresos#
05/14 - Lisbon, Portugal @ Coliseum
05/16 - Braga, Portugal @ Teatro Circo
05/18 - Porto, Portugal @ Coliseum
05/21 - Brighton, UK @ Brighton Dome Concert Hall (Brighton Festival)
05/22 - Birmingham, UK @ Symphony Hall
05/24 - Bristol, UK @ Colston Hall
05/27 - London, UK @ Hammersmith Apollo
05/29 - Gateshead, UK @ The Sage
05/31 - Dublin, Ireland @ Vicar St.
06/01 - Belfast, UK @ Waterfront
06/04 - Edinburgh, UK @ Playhouse
06/22 - Amsterdam, NL @ Holland Festival, Ryal Carré Theatre
# = SOLD OUT
