Bjork at Radio City
Randomly had a hotel room not far from the show for the night through work. Watched some Bravo before going, an episode of Project Runway [Finale of Season 2] and Shear Genius which I had never seen before. Headed over to Radio City,
Bjork at Radio City
Row F in the orchestra is way further back then it should be because Radio City is one of these venues with double letter rows before single letter.
Konono N°1 were the opening act. They were ok if a bit repetitive by the end of their set. Made me yearn for the Afro-Cuban All Stars.
Björk was great but the venue was really wrong for her. I remember seeing her at the Tibetan Freedom Festival and much prefer seeing her outdoors. A lot of the crowd was dead and the energy of the hardcore people got lost.
One of the more bizarre points in the evening was when I told the guy next to me I think she has a wooden leg attached. The beats were really cool and I literally could have sworn for a bit that she had a third leg on that she was using to bang on the stage and create the extra beats. I took a bunch of photos focusing on her legs to prove / disprove the notion. It was actually a bit of fabric hanging form the dress that I was misinterpreting. It’s kind of funny that I didn’t think it too weird for her.
RCMH setlist is below. I am a bit jealous of those who saw her at United Palace theatre because they got Hunter and Immature (and Bachelorette and Hyperballad). Though we got All Is Full of Love and Jóga so I guess it balances out.
Setlist:
01 Earth Intruders*
02 Venus as a Boy
03 Aurora
04 I See Who You Are**
05 Oceania
06 Dull Flame of Desire***
07 All is Full of Love
08 The Pleasure is All Mine
09 Pagan Poetry
10 Jóga
11 Where is the Line
12 Army of Me
13 Innocence
14 Wanderlust
15 Pluto
Encores:
16 [encore break]
17 [band introductions]
18 Anchor Song
19 Declare Independence
*With Konono N°1
**With Min Xiao-Fen
***With Antony Hegarty
After the show I was hanging out by the stage door, at first in hopes of taking a photo of the setlist under the false assumption that the hardcore folks who nabbed it would be hanging out.
Saw Idan Raichel waiting around too. Normally I wouldn’t go over to someone famous but what the hell Bjork wasn’t coming out…Ended up talking to him about the Bjork show – he was really impressed by Antony Hegarty [Antony and the Johnsons] and about seeing him perform in The Idan Raichel Project’s very first show in Tel Aviv. I had even seen him perform back in the day when he was the keyboard player for Ivri Lider. It seems he is in NY a fair bit these days because he’s got a gorgeous NYC girlfriend.
Idan Raichel with fans
I channeled my mother for this picture. These two fans came over and told him they were fans. Without asking him if it was ok I asked them if they wanted a picture with him. Then, I said – if that’s ok with you….it would have been assholic for him to refuse just like it was assholic for me to do what I did….It was a bossy, Israeli, Jewish mother – the matter was settled before he was consulted, like I said assholic thing for me to do. The girls got a cute picture…Sorry Idan….it was ridiculous. The price of fame I guess…
Didn’t end up waiting for Bjork. Had a great salad to go from Metro Cafe and got back to my hotel room to watch some more Bravo. I really don’t get the show Work Out.
