From: owner-trajectory-digest@smoe.org (trajectory-digest) To: trajectory-digest@smoe.org Subject: trajectory-digest V2 #89 Reply-To: trajectory@smoe.org Sender: owner-trajectory-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-trajectory-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk trajectory-digest Wednesday, August 26 1998 Volume 02 : Number 089 Today's Subjects: ----------------- Veda Hille and Kinnie Starr in NYC [meredith ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 25 Aug 1998 23:20:45 -0400 From: meredith Subject: Veda Hille and Kinnie Starr in NYC Hi! I was lucky enough to see both of Veda's shows in New York City the past couple days. (Alas, I wasn't able to find out why she'd cancelled the Asbury Park gig on Saturday... I tried!) Sunday night she and Kinnie Starr were at the Meow Mix, a tiny little dyke bar in the East Village. There was a very small crowd there, but they were all attentive and appreciative. Veda did a pretty standard set, consisting entirely of songs from _Spine_ and two of the new songs, "Clumsy" and "Born Lucky". The rest of the set included "Sweet", "INSTRUCTIONS", "26 Years", "One Hot Summer", "Slumber Queen" and "Bellyfish" (with Kinnie providing backing vocals). It was a pretty somber set, but Veda lightened it up in the middle by passing around a photo she had with her for some reason, which was taken when she was 10 on Halloween. She was dressed as a Tuscan Raider (you know, from Star Wars :), and she was incredibly cute. (I must admit to a pang of jealousy: I think that was the same year I went as Darth Vader, but her costume was much cooler than mine. ;) Apparently she was sitting somewhere on St. Marks Place the other day when she was approached by an HBO film crew, who asked if she would go through the contents of her backpack with them. The picture was in the backpack, so who knows -- you all might get a chance to see it too. :) (I have no idea why this film crew wanted to look inside her bag or whether or when it will ever be broadcast, but if I find out anything I'll let y'all know.) We didn't stick around for Kinnie's set, as it was a school night :) and we had to get back home, despite Veda's pleading that we stay. Last night she and Kinnie had the 8 to 9:30 slot at the Old Office in the basement of the Knitting Factory. They both did a tandem set, switching off after one song each. I got there pretty early, and while Veda was putting together her set list she asked if I had any requests. :) I was really happy to hear that she played my three requests first. :) Veda's songs were, in this order: "Bug Yelling"/Song For Snake Three Precious Heart 15 Years Battered/Kill Zone Driven Born Lucky (A Nick Cave song) Praise (Kinnie Starr's song, a cappella, as encore w/Kinnie) "Battered" and "Kill Zone" are two new songs I hadn't heard before. "Battered" is very much like "Clumsy": a quiet, simple guitar line over which she quietly sings the lyrics. (These have a lot of God and storm imagery in them.) From there she immediately went into "Kill Zone", the lyrics for which she said she had taken directly from a pulp novel called _Chicago Kill Zone_. It's loud and she plays the guitar with the slide on it, and it's great. Afterwards she noted that she likes the juxtaposition between religion and violence in those two songs. :) In between, Kinnie Starr did her usual mix of spoken-word, rap over pre-recorded backing music, and songs on her big green guitar. Veda accompanied her on many of them, either on backing vocals or piano or both. It was pretty cool (especially on the songs when Kinnie came out into the audience and did her thing literally in woj's face ;). During Veda's songs, Kinnie would just sit there (in what she called the "executioner's chair") in the background looking at Veda with the most awed fan-girl look on her face. It was really cute. At the end of the set Kinnie commented that it's been great playing with Veda for the past couple weeks, because she's added so much to her songs. She wanted to play on some of Veda's songs too, but "I have no idea what's going on with this thing" (her guitar), and all the time changes and everything just blew her mind so she couldn't do it. The two of them were having a great time, and as the set progressed it was like they were each trying to one-up the other. Veda asked at one point (right before she launched into a driving "15 Years") if it was a challenge. ;) The set got more and more intense and fun as it went along. The audience (which kept getting bigger) really warmed up to Veda quickly, and she got an even bigger ovation than Kinnie at the end (though Kinnie got a big cheer too). I think it was the best performance of Veda's I've seen. My friend Alvin, a fellow Veda fan who is visiting from Norway and had the good fortune to pick this weekend to do so, took a bunch of pictures last night, and they all came out pretty well. They're a touch dark, but not bad. I've scanned them in and will put them up on the web page within the next couple of days. The news is that Veda will be back in NYC with the band (including Ford Pier) in November. They'll be at the Mercury Lounge, and maybe somewhere else too. As always, info will be posted here as soon as I get it. :) +==========================================================================+ | Meredith Tarr meth@smoe.org | | New Haven, CT USA http://www.smoe.org/~meth | +==========================================================================+ | "things are more beautiful when they're obscure" -- veda hille | | *** TRAJECTORY, the Veda Hille mailing list: *** | | *** http://www.smoe.org/meth/trajectory.html *** | +==========================================================================+ ------------------------------ End of trajectory-digest V2 #89 *******************************