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2000 The Year in Review: Concerts Full of Surprises
By: Doug Elfman - www.lvrj.com
December 31st 2000 7:37am
My favorite concerts this year were the ones where the musicians performed brilliantly while taking real chances. After all, art without surprise is just commerce.
So let's look on the bright side of life today. I get paid to have fun, so you don't have to. And this is what I saw at the front in the year 2000.
1. VAST (modern rock), Sept. 2 at the Sanctuary -- A few hundred people showed up at the Sanctuary for a concert by my favorite nonfamous rock band, VAST. They played an amazing kind of modern rock built around the lush atmospherics of orchestras and monk chants.
The singer and driving force of the band, Jon Crosby, sounded as if he was influenced by The Cure, Depeche Mode, Mozart and others. Sometimes, people say VAST sounds like early Nine Inch Nails.
Crosby's orchestrated rockers, such as "We Will Meet Again" and "A Better Place," are peerless and seamless and perfectly natural.
2. The B-52's (classic punk), Aug. 5 at the Hard Rock Hotel -- The B-52's looked as old as the punk movement they helped launch in the 1970s, but the players flawlessly performed the best of the B-52's treasure chest, "Rock Lobster" and "Private Idaho," and such.
3. Joan Osborne (singer-songwriter), Sept. 8 at the House of Blues -- Osborne's singer-songwriter show at the House of Blues was so intimate, I kind of felt like I was on a date with her.
She sang astonishing, blues-rock vocals at full throttle for long stretches. She doesn't just sing her music. She is her music. I had no doubt at all that she was living every line of "Poisoned Apples (Hallelujah)" right in front of me.
She slurred slowly: "Oh, I recall the moment when you ruined me for other men. ... If I die before you do, believe me, I'll be haunting you. I'll come upon you, while you sleep, to drown you in a kiss so deep."
I thought I might propose at any minute.
4. Hooverphonic (trip-hop), Oct. 29 at the Hard Rock Hotel -- Hooverphonic is a trip-hop band, I suppose. Trip-hop, if you don't know, is a form of electronica music. You hear it in car commercials and in movies.
Many electronica acts use synthesizers to play large parts of their songs. They input album songs into a fancy keyboard and then just punch it up in concert. But even though Hooverphonic could have resorted to that trickery, they didn't.
5. Prince (funk rock), Dec. 9 at the Aladdin -- Prince returned to Las Vegas to perform a greatest-hits concert at the
Aladdin. Mostly, he played his 1980s hits, but he also toyed with familiar album cuts, such as 1984's "Darling Nikki." During that song, his pigtailed dancer, all dolled up in a Catholic schoolgirl outfit, grinded in his face, and then Prince grinded her drawers after she dropped them on the ground.
After two hours at the Aladdin, Prince packed up his gear and headed to Studio 54 at the MGM Grand, where he improvised until 4 a.m.
The rest -- There were other, very good performances this year by The Deftones, Blink-182, country's Patty Griffin and LeAnn Rimes, Jill Sobule, Everlast, Pat Benatar at Junefest, The Bangles, Phish, No Doubt, Bruce Springsteen, Pearl Jam and Foo Fighters, Nine Inch Nails and Christina Aguilera.
By the way, I also heard good things about shows by Grandaddy, Roger Waters and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, but I was elsewhere those nights. My friend and fellow entertainment writer Mike Weatherford saw the latter two concerts. He held this pop music job before I got here in May, and before he switched entertainment beats. That's why my favorite Las Vegas concerts of 2000 cover the last eight months.
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