Music can arguably make anyone sexy. Average Joe rockstars have hordes of fans who easily translate song into physical beauty Mick Jagger-style. But what about silence?
Germany's Einsturzende Neubaten ("collapsing new buildings") kicked off its nearly three-hour set Thursday night at the Metro by addressing the concept. "silence is sexy," the title track of this yearŐs release seemed an apt place to start (the majority of the verses waver between "silence is sexy" and "silence is not sexy at all"). As vocalist Blixa Bargeld coolly lit a cigarette in front of the mic, the click of the lighter sounded and echoed, a faint foreshadowing of the noise that would follow.
Bargeld is a bit crazy, evident in his early half-naked escapades on the Berlin Autobahn with percussionist N.U. Unruh, where the two beat the edge of a hole in the overpass for the sake of, well, art. And nearly 20 years later the craziness is still evident in the way Bargeld introduces his bandmates as "doctor professors," skilled in crafts ranging from a vast knowledge of philosophy to the creation of brain wave machines. He's a mad scientist of sorts, sweetly sinister like a villain who lures children with lollipops.
And he'd have to be a bit crazy to front the band that helped pioneer industrial and experimental music, to erase the confines of accepted instruments (with oft incomprehensible lyrics to match) without alienating listeners.
It's obviously working, judging from the group's longevity (the formed in 1980) paired with the success of the new album. Bargeld and Unruh, joined by Jochen Arbeit, Rudi Moser and Alexander Hacke, create an intelligent, white-noise drone, and their live show is no exception. Einsturzende Neubauten began the show with what are arguably the strongest tracks on silence is sexy , performing a Nick Cave-esque "Sabrina" that started the showŐs long trajectory toward chaotic noise.
Don't be fooled into thinking they don't know what they're doing or don't have lyrics intelligent enough to merit a clear articulation. The band is a damn witty bunch and it came across quite clearly. Bargeld took to introducing songs with stories, explaining before one that they lost the Nobel Prize because of a plutonium accident. Two of the song's three verses were lost. The remaining verse followed amidst laughter and cries of Kraftwerk.
Still, Einsturzende Neubauten shared, in both English and German, a beauty that seemed to juxtapose the loud edginess of its sound. Case in point: during the song "Beauty," Bargeld softly sang in his speaking-type manner that "your arms would not be able to stretch as far as necessary to form an adequate gesture for beautyÉbeauty remains in the impossibilities of the body.
The beauty was mostly caught by an audience comprised of mainly knowledgable fans (the lack of publicity seemed to deter casual listeners). Chances are, Einsturzende Neubauten is the best band you didnŐt see. This is your second chance. Check 'em out and expand your non-mainstream know-how. KATE SCHWARTZ 07/31/00
Centerstage Will Feed You
