MOMUS @ Star and Shadow Cinema
July 23, 2008
All I knew of Momus before this show was a half-listen to his recent(ish) album Ocky Milk and information given to me by my friend Ella in the form of sentances that started out along the lines of 'so I was reading this blog and there's this interesting cultural theory/weird art concept...'. It was Momus' blog, always, but I never actually read it until a few weeks ago. And yes, it turns out he's pretty conceptual. At this show, which was at a small space here in Newcastle specialising in cult film screenings and the wackier side of art and musical performances, he mentioned that 'it's more about the imagination than the song itself' or something like that and this was so right, more than I ever would've thought as he moved his way through a song from each album of his 22 year (!) musical career. While to some extent I enjoyed his tinny hamfisted Pet Shop Boys karaoke and weird Casio Baroque stylings, I for some reason expected more than just him singing over iPod backing tracks and I wasn't a huge fan of his ill-fitting shirt and short-trackpants and black rubber clog/Croc combo. Between the quiet songs he footnoted and explained each song with skittering pretend hyper-literate chatshow banter with his mannequin which he pretended was Michael Parkinson, who interviewed him about various personal and musical things and exchanged ideas about Jeff Koons and chicks and getting sued. It was odd and humorous but for all the concepts behind these wacked-out and sincere ballads, musically it wasn't that good. But that's probably why he's named after the Greek god of mockery. It's a good joke and an interesting notion of performance, I just wish the music was better.
2 comments:
Yeah, I've always enjoyed reading his blog much more than actually listening to his music.
totez, but it's funny, after seeing the gig which i only really enjoyed because it was different to most gigs (ie i got bored by the music itself) i find myself liking momus even more; reading about him and his blog makes the idea of it even better. but just the idea. yeah
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