September 19, 2005

Dead Can Dance



DCD came to the Paramount last night. I saw them once before in Vancouver in 1996 and according to Brendan Perry, this tour is the first time they've played together on stage since then.

The theater was packed with goth-Renaissance folk-world music fans and the show started at 8:04 with Nierika - wonderful choice with that cool synth sound at the beginning. No whispering between songs please; sshhhhhhhh. This stuff is serious.

Included in the 3 sets were:
  • Saltarello - everyone's favorite, including mine
  • The Ubiquitous Mr. Lovegrove
  • Yulunga
  • The Wind that Shakes the Barley
  • How Fortunate the Man with None

An official looking FAQ list on the web says this about Lisa's lyrics:
What language does Lisa Gerrard sing?
Only Lisa knows the answer to this question. Her vocals are mainly phonetics that are sprung from thoughts and emotion she feels as she sings.

Presumably she's taught some of this language to Brendan because he sings those phonetics with her on a few songs. On other songs, where he sings lead, he sings in English.

Lisa ended the show with a sort of lullaby, all in English, which sounded quite Celtic to these ears.

Something that seems pretty popular now is to sell the actual concert on CD. You can purchase the Sept 18th Seattle recording here for a limited time.