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It’s about 9.30 in the middle of a shopping centre,
in Islington, London. Not exactly the place you’d expect
to stumble across Melissa Auf Der Maur (formerly
of the Smashing Pumpkins and Hole) launching her career
as a front woman, but it’s in the unassuming Carling
Academy that Auf Der Maur play their first headline
show, ever. Red seems to be the in colour at the moment.
Red stage lights, red Valentines Day just gone, and
the red siren centre stage that is Melissa. A timid
and understandably nervous ‘Beast of honor’ doesn’t
so much introduce the band to the world with a bang,
more of a polite hello. In a first half mainly devoid
of energy and power, the transformation is a revelation.
‘Overpower Thee’, a self indulgent ballad brings out
the diva in Melissa and the rest as they say, is history.
Fuelled by eroticism, lust and longing, the siren
finally wails. ‘Skin Receiver’ has all the characteristics
of a wild stampede, ‘Taste You’ gives unrequited love
a new set of balls and ‘My Foggy Notion’ unleashes the
pounding, pouting, temptress. Yet, as on the album,
‘I’ll Be Anything You Want’ is straight from the catacombs
of desire and drips with a sexual longing and frustration
paramount to that of a 16 year old schoolboy.
It’s oh so easy to make comparisons, but with songs
about love, dancing and erm, opium dens, the latest
Homme collaboration could have prove fatal. With the
Queens on the rocks, it looks like another Queen is
waiting and more than able to take the throne.
Relevant sites:
http://www.aufdermaur.com
Sherief Younis for Crud Magazine 2004©
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