Hammerstein F*** The Iraq War Review

Our loyal slutreader Drew has reported the following about last night's show at the Hammerstein Ballroom.

Without further wait, here's his review:

Country singer and old-school hippie Steve Earle opened the evening
with a couple of excellent songs. Accompanied only by his acoustic
guitar and a harmonica, Earle started with an up-tempo, the chorus of
which was "Fuck the FCC/ Fuck the CIA/...I live in the motherfucking
USA." That got the skeptical crowd's attention, as he went on to sing
"Poor Boy Fighting a Rich Man's War." A poignant reminder of why we
were there. A subtle and well-programmed opener.

Earle was followed by Korean-American comedic diva Margaret Cho (segues
are for KIDS!). Cho was in fine form, alternating effortlessly between
incredibly smutty sexual humour, and rants about the Bush
administration. Cho has gotten SO much better in recent years at fusing
the two. Her earlier attempts (esp. on Notorious C.H.O.) sometimes came
across as awkward and preachy, but she nailed it here. My face was in
pain from laughing by the time she finished.

The arrival of several white-clad musicians, be-feathered dancers, and
a bass drum bearing their new geometric logo, heralded the
much-anticipated (by many people there) arrival of FischerSpooner.
Although I find Warren Fischer's synth-programming exciting, lead
singer Casey Spooner does absolutely nothing for me on stage. He has no
singing voice to speak of and he is an even worse dancer (esp. when
aping the moves of the professional dancers all around him). Their
guitarist was fucking great, though, and the back-up singers were
excellent. They certainly got an A+ for Spectacle. Apart from a cool,
amped-up version of "Emerge" (still their best studio recording) and
their new song "We Need A War" (with lyrics by Susan Sontag), I was
left sorely lacking any real substance from them.

Susan Sarandon emerged next to introduce peace-activist Cindy Sheehan.
Sarandon was a gracious and humble hostess (she looked GREAT, too!).
Sheehan is much taller than you think she is. Her speech was nice.
Although she is a bit over-hyped, it does not detract from her powerful
personal story and her message. She clearly has someone giving her some
pointers on how to work a crowd, but she still stuck the crumbled bit
of paper containing her scribbled notes in her mouth when she applauded
for other people. Love that!
Sheehan had some excellent things to say about the first amendment, and
touching missives, as always, about her son's legacy. She, in turn,
introduced a woman who is a pharmacist in Iraq. Through a translator,
she gave an incredibly sombre and somewhat grisly account of what life
has been like for her in Iraq since they had been "liberated" by the
US. The comment that stayed with me was something along the lines of,
"If my people could be here tonight, you would hear only songs of
sadness and death."

Moby, his friend Darren, and the Cultural Director of MoveOn.org made a
surprise appearance, and did an acoustic version of "There's somethin'
happenin' here." The Cultural Director had a surprisingly confident and
smokey voice. The song was a little too long, but it was cool to see
Moby, who is the shit.

Indie-rock phenom Devendra Banhart moped onto the stage with his large
band shortly afterwards, and bumbled around before limping through two
rather tired selections. Just when everyone thought that they could
tune out for a while (I chose this moment to step on 300 people's toes
to go to and from the bathroom), he and his band whipped themselves
into a Black-Crowes-esque frenzy and finished very strongly, taking the
crowd along with him. The pretty boy standing behind us knew every word
to every song, which was kind of hot. A really nice performance from a
great band. They just need to rethink their opening numbers in future.
I also dug their very authentic looking 70's-hippie-post-Zeppelin look.
It totally works for them.

Peaches, whose name had been, essentially, the punch-line of the
evening, finally took the stage! Sporting a skimpy teddy-type affair,
and brandishing a pink, plastic hand with two fingers extended into a
peace sign (this novelty item looked suspiciously like a sex-toy and
made a moaning noise when she pressed a switch on the handle), she
opened by briefly singing about Impeaching her Bush. Then, taking a cue
from Margaret Cho, she busted into "Two Guys for Every Girl" and "Fuck
the Pain Away" (gyrating lewdly for the press corps around the stage)
before leaving. She was wildly inappropriate and a lot of fun. Her
massive silver platform hooker boots were pretty kick-ass, as well. On
her way out she introduced...

Former Public Enemy Frontman Chuck D., who encouraged people to get
passports to confuse the government, and also to vote. Sort of strange,
really, but it was Chuck D., so it was cool. And in keeping with the
strange transitions portion of the evening, Chuck D. introduced...

Rufus Wainwright (surreal). Rufus looked really cute in baggy cords and
a faded T-Shirt. He sang a lovely song from Want Two (can't place the
name), and stumbled through "11:11" from Want One, both solo on the
acoustic guitar. He was in MAGNIFICENT voice. I have never heard him
sound so incredibly good. His tendency to blank on words, however,
though endearing initially (Ani DiFranco is known for it), grew
tiresome. Blame it on the past Meth addiction, I guess? He moved to the
piano and sang a fascinating song called "Liberty Cabbage" and his
cover of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah." Although not Jeff Buckley's
cover (no-one's will ever be that!), it was very well sung, and the
crowd singing along with the chorus was lovely. He closed by having his
mother come out and accompany him on "Somewhere over the Rainbow." It
was, again, very well sung, although he blanked on the words (BAD FAG!)
and took a nice little dig at Bush and Cheney. A great sound from him.
Pity about the brain-farts.

Air America Radio Host Laura Flanders came out in a seriously cool
black velvety Sgt. Pepper looking jacket to introduce a decorated
Infantryman who had served a term in Iraq and is now a member of IVAW
and Veterans for Peace. He was a serious dude. Big beefy soldier who
had just done the big 5-day march from Mobile, AL to New Orleans. He
spoke about defending the constitution from Bush, which was cool. He
was briefly heckled by some wanker in the back, but that guy was
silenced quickly by either Security or the people around him. They
finished, and the REAL main event took the stage...

Bright Eyes. Now, I will be the first to admit that I have been
heretofore iffy on Bright Eyes. Conor Oberst being painfully adorable
aside, I hedge between thinking that he's brilliant or that he's
self-indulgent, that he can't sing or that he is just really stylized.
I will say after tonight that I think he's brilliant, self-indulgent,
really stylized and that the kid can fucking work a stage! Conor and
his band TORE IT THE FUCK UP! Great musicians all, and Conor's diction
(as noted by my companion) is shockingly good. He opened with a tune I
didn't recognize about everything having it's place. I think it's on
his latest country-tinged album. Went through a couple of other
excellent numbers, and finished with a jaw-dropping, head-banging,
rip-roaring rendition of "When the President Talks to God." This was
definitely the best thing I saw all evening, and may be one of the top
10 live performed songs I've ever seen. As my friend Robert Urban would
say, "MASSIVE!" He stole the show.

There were some more speeches that I didn't pay attention to, and
then...

Michael Stipe walked out with a large band of not-R.E.M. people. Among
them were two members of a British band called "One Giant Leap" on
piano and wurli, Rain Phoenix (Joaquin and River's sister) on vox, and
James Iha, formerly of Smashing Pumpkins, on guitar. This rather
impressive lineup (which filled everyone with much anticipation)
performed three mediocre, slow to mid-tempo songs, none of which were
R.E.M. songs, and all of which failed, more or less completely, to
impress me. The last one had a cool trip-hoppy vibe to it, but that was
THE CLOSER FOR THE NIGHT (?!). I wanted "It's the end of the world as
we know it (and I feel fine)" or "Everybody Hurts" or something!
DENIED. So, cool as it was to see this group together (Rain and Michael
both sounded great, and James had a nicely textured solo), I was left
cold.

And so back out into it I went.

All in all an excellent evening, with Bright Eyes putting in an
impressive standout performance.