With a suit, some
swagger, and a voice nothing short of sublime, k.d.
lang evoked memories of Camelot with her recent performance
at California'a Malibu Performing Arts Center. Like
seeing Old Blue Eyes at the Sands, lang's
performance was an intimate, sophisticated affair
punctuated by a wholly idiosyncratic talent.
The Sunday night
performance was the latest in the KCRW Sessions series
-- benefit concerts for the beloved Southern California
radio station that broadcasts a mix of talk shows,
indie music, and National Public Radio news. Tickets
ran over a hundred bucks, and even if the profits
weren't headed for a good cause (keeping KCRW and NPR
alive in greater Los Angeles), it was money well
spent.
Steps from the
lapping waves of the Pacific, the Malibu Performing Arts
Center is a modest 500-seat venue that's made for a
quiet performer like lang. The lighting is gentle, the
chairs plush, the sound crisp, and the stage views
unobstructed. Balancing wine glasses above heels and leather
loafers, audience members leisurely made their way to the
seats before the prompt 7:30 start time. After a brief
introduction by KCRW DJ Chris Douridas, lang and her
five-piece band strode onto a stage decorated with a
beige couch festooned with throw pillows.
Lang was a
stylish vision in pinstriped gray pants, matching vest, and
a checkered shirt with a chocolate-colored knot tied
around the collar. She dove into
"Upstream," a softly devastating number from
this year's Watershed, her latest album.
Neil Young's "Helpless" was next -- a
song lang covered on her Canadian-themed Hymns of
the 49th Parallel album. The uncomplicated chorus --
"Helpless, helpless, helpless" --
poured out of her mouth like honey. The audience was
in a trance by the time lang was finished with
"Thread," which she helped along with
delicate, choreographed hand motions. Lang then rolled
out "Western Stars," a 1988 cowgirl lament
written by Chris Isaak.
Douridas emerged
for a 20-minute interlude with lang, who sprawled out on
the couch in a comfortable, sexy manner. Laughing, smiling,
and flirting with her male host, lang conversed easily
on fame, sex, and her Buddhist faith, amusing the
all-ages audience without offending. Give this woman a
talk show!
It was back to
the music with the banjo-strumming goodness of
Watershed's "Coming Home." While
lang stuck mostly to recent material for the rest of
the performance, those unfamiliar with the quiet folk
of Watershed were not shifting in their seats;
her voice is such an instrument of crystalline beauty,
it could breathe life into "Mary Had a Little
Lamb."
Swinging her arms
and proclaiming her love of young, attractive men, lang
brought the boys in the band - who managed drums, two
guitars, bass, and piano -- close for the honky-tonk
stylings of "Pay Dirt." The mellow,
hypnotic "Jealous Dog" was a perfect segue for
the night's apex: a heart-stopping rendition of
Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah." A song so
powerful that Britney Spears could give it weight,
"Hallelujah" reached new heights with
lang's voice and commitment. At the end, the
hypnotized audience rose to their feet.
"I
didn't want to get political," the crooner
said before the night's fitting closer,
"Right to Love." To cheers, lang urged her
audience to vote against Proposition 8, the California
ballot initiative that would ban same-sex marriage.
Check out these
lyrics: "And yet they said that we were wrong
/ We hadn't the right to our love / That
this love was shameful to see ... / We don't care
at all / We have all we need / As long as we can
be together."
Lang's
emphasis on voice and environment was all very retro, but
her message and urgency evoked the feeling
that it couldn't have been any time other
than now.
Here's our dream all-queer cast for 'The White Lotus' season 4