Reconsidering Peaches

From the first time I saw Peaches, I reached the conclusion that she was trading exclusively in shock value in the absence of any other discernible talent, that she had nothing going for her other than sexual provocation. If she didn't exist, someone would have to invent her if only as fodder for gender studies academics.

My basis for this opinion was established by my initial exposure to her, opening for Elastica at the Park West in Chicago in 2000. But I have been forced recently to rethink my assessment. Peaches was interviewed on the January 29 episode of Sound Opinions. Jim DeRogatis starts off by calling the performance "infamous." Peaches responds that it was her "worst show ever." DeRogatis continues by explaining that the venue has been around since the days of Al Capone, and they still talk about it as the single worst show in its history. She recalls that it was the fourth show of her first tour ever and she was experimenting on stage to develop her new persona.

In other words, to say that I caught her on an off night is an understatement. I'll have to be a little more open-minded about her work, although I'll stick with Patti Smith for upending expectations of female performers.

Concert Review: The Magnetic Fields, Wilbur Theatre, February 11

Oh, Stephin Merritt, you are so droll. You are so witty. Your songs are so exquisite. If only you were so lively. Please, can Magnetic Fields concerts be inspired by your opening number, "Kiss Me Like You Mean It"? The band takes the notion of chamber pop too seriously in the live setting. The material was perfectly presented except for a few bum notes caused by laryngitis going through the tour bus, but it was staid. The band's performance was pleasant enough but hardly vital. As a songwriter, Merritt mines so many nuances of emotion, but the band didn't convey that emotion. They replicated the recordings but didn't bring the songs to life. Apart from some awkwardly amusing repartee between Merritt and Claudia Gonson, there was little to recommend for their concert over their albums.

There was are recurring theme of songs about vampires, surprising considering they never played the Future Bible Heroes song, "I'm a Vampire," even though they played songs by Merritt's other outfits, the Sixths and the Gothic Archies.

Opener Laura Barrett's main accompaniment was the kalimba, a thumb piano that sounds like a music box. Her quirkiness would have worn thin quickly if she had just tried to coast on her charms, the way too much '90s indie pop relied on the mistaken belief that cuteness compensates for ineptitude. But she and her accompanist were fully competent of their hodge podge of instruments, and she never sang a bum note, making her odd songs were appealing.

Magnetic Fields set list:

Kiss Me Like You Mean It
You Must Be Out of Your Mind
The Luckiest Guy on the Lower East Side
We Are Having a Hootenanny
Walk a Lonely Road
Shipwrecked
When Will You Love Me Again
All I Want To Know
I Have the Moon
Looking for Love [In the Hall of Mirrors]

[Intermission]

Xylophone Track
Interlude
Long Vermont Roads
You You You You You
The Nun's Litany
I'm Sorry I Love You
Don't Look Away
The Little Hebrew Girl
The Flowers She Sent and the Flowers She Said She Sent
Better Things
Fear of Trains
The Dolls' Tea Party
Always Already Gone
100,000 Fireflies

[Encore]
I Die
From a Sinking Ship