Luscious Jackson Bewitches Deep Ellum Crowd
by Crayton Harrison
March 6, 1997
Luscious Jackson entranced its young audience Tuesday night at Deep
Ellum Live, turning an aggressive throng of crowd-surfers into a crowd
of peaceful dancers.
The
New York band used hypnotic grooves, engaging vocals and pop music
mastery to tame its audience and bring it into submission.
The crowd filled most of the Deep Ellum Live floor. Many audience members wore vintage clothes, mimicking the band in dress.
The
band opened with a thrilling percussion assault, rousing the audience
into a frenzy. Drummer Kate Schellenbach, who began her musical career
as the original drummer for the Beastie Boys, dished out a tribal,
exotic beat.
The young crowd began to push and shove each other
near the stage, and a few audience members became part of the '90s
concert ritual of crowd-surfing - that is, until the band stopped them.
Looking
out at the fans with a motherly expression, vocalist and bass player
Jill Cuniff asked the audience to stop crowd-surfing because it might
interfere with the enjoyment of "those underneath."
Most of the
crowd obeyed and, as the band began a series of disco-influenced songs,
audience members went from nodding their heads to the beat to
uninhibited dancing.
Luscious Jackson played mostly slow-tempo jams with hip-hop beats, showing the flavor of its urban background.
One of the band's hits, City Song, combined cool, subdued rap vocals by guitarist Gabrielle Glaser countered by Cuniff's soaring chorus.
Luscious Jackson kept the crowd on its feet with the heavily disco-influenced More, the nasty funk of Deep Shag and the blistering pop hit Naked Eye.
The band kept the positive energy flowing throughout the show, pacifying the audience with charm.
"We're going to play a punk song now," Cuniff announced, "but please don't hurt each other."
The audience obeyed, and the band rewarded it by talking with fans after the performance.
Alternative
rock trio The Eels opened the show using gimmicks and humor in an
attempt to enliven the audience, without much success.
The band
used a telephone as a microphone in one song and all three members
played drums in another song. The band's bored, withdrawn delivery
failed to deliver much enthusiasm, at least not until it played its
alternative radio hit Novacaine for the Soul.
It took more power to win over the audience Tuesday night.
Luckily, Luscious Jackson had the right weapons.
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