When Artistes Have Dancers On Stage

Bez.

 

I love that the Mighty Mighty Bosstones have that one guy who (mostly) just jumps up and down on the stage all night.

 

I once danced onstage with The Flaming Lips dressed in a bunny suit for their whole set.

It was freaking AWESOME.

I also danced onstage with Iggy & The Stooges. He held the mic for me to sing the last line of 'Funhouse'. That was beyond awesome.

Other than that, I'm not really a fan of dancers on stage.

 

Led Zeppelin Oakland 1977 - No Quarter Jam

 

Ramones had Pinhead, who did a sort-of dance....

 

Exactly. The two dancers Kate Bush had with her on The Tour of Life helped tell the story in the songs. She could have performed without them, but it would have not been as expressive.

I'll be seeing Global again Wednesday night in Chicago at Thalia Hall. I had a great time when I saw it at Knickerbocker's in Lincoln, Nebraska and want to see it again with my wife.

 

How could I forget Frankie Goes To Hollywood and The Leather Pets??



It was the Summer of 1982, the annual Larks In The Park free festival at Liverpool's Sefton Park. Frankie were unknown at the time, but would make a big impression on the day with Holly's bare bum on display, and the bondage-heavy theme of their stage show. They certainly got my attention.

This article (scroll down a little) describes the afternoon performance perfectly:

http://m80ssoundtrackforan80sgeneration.blogspot.com/2011/04/frankie-goes-to-hollywood-larks-in.html

Mark O'Toole's brother was actually named Vinnie (not Vinny), and a year later he was in the next room to me as we studied for our PhD's in Electronics at the University of Liverpool. Mad times!

 

Now who can forget this...

 

Rob Zombie used to, not sure if he does anymore.

 

Ike & Tina Turner Revue, nobody did it better.

 

Music and dance can be combined very creatively, as in the tight choreography of the Temptations and other such groups, as well as multimedia performance artists such as Meredith Monk. However, when I see contemporary pop singers who think they have to have dancers moving to the music, or when they wear headset microphones just to free themselves up to move around the stage (or even worse, when they lipsync because they can't sing and dance at the same time), I can't take them very seriously on musical grounds.

 

Funniest comment I saw about that whole thing:

'cause every girl crazy 'bout a shark dressed man.


One thing I've never been clear on...are we talking about the shark on my left, or Katy's left?

 

When Kate Bush came up with the idea of using a headset microphone and had the late Gordon "Gungi" Paterson build it out of a coathanger, it was because it was going to pretty much impossible to hold a microphone and sing at the same time and express herself fully. Compare this performance of Moving from Saturday Night at the Mill:



...to the classic Hammersmith Odeon version.

 

I'm of the opinion that for the most part, adding dancers means you need a distraction from your performance\music

 

When are girls dancing a bad thing? I never missed an American Bandstand or Soul Train.

 

I once saw a unique gig: Terry Bozzio on solo drum set with accompaniment from a professional ballet. It was a violent collision of two worlds that occasionally worked.

 

I once saw the Buttonhole Surfers with a naked girl dancing front. She was there but didn't seem "all there."

 

I would lose smart phones, the internet, digital cameras, iPads, fancy $5 cups of coffee, and even automatic transmissions ... JUST TO HAVE GO-GO DANCERS BACK!

 

Bez even out moves hot models!