Laurie Anderson performed a concert at Sanders Theatre on Saturday, September 15th. For many people in the audience, it was the first cultural event that they attended since the events of the 11th, and also the first time they had assembled with others publicly and in large numbers. As people filed into the theatre, they seemed excited to see one another, happy to be part of a bigger human family once again. Perhaps because of the way that senses are heightened after a tragedy, the warm, dark wood of Sanders Theatre seemed to glow and the room felt like a solid, sacred ark.
Ms. Anderson opened the show with a brief dedication, and then began to play "Statue of Liberty," from her most recent CD Life on a String. A mournful, mesmerizing piece, it seems to be a lament for a lost or forgotten time or thing. It was hard not to imagine, however, that the lyrics described the aftermath of the disaster:
"Wind blows in from Jersey
It floats across the bay into the open ocean
It's a good day to run away..."
and later
"Statue of Liberty stands in the harbor
Holding her torch
Hello, goodbye to all the men and women
Who pass through her port
Into the open ocean
Now you're just another speck on the horizon
just another speck on the sea...."
The band played some older works as well. "O Superman" sent shivers through the audience as Ms. Anderson sang "Here come the planes...American planes...Made in America." The eerie prescience of "Love Among the Sailors", whose lyrics contain the repeating phrase "There is no pure land now/No safe place" set against the lulling instrumentation, was especially unsettling. The show had its light moments as well. Ms. Anderson described how, due to a last minute venue change early in her career, she had ended up performing at a Country-Western bar in Texas ("the regulars all had the best seats at the bar, the Art crowd was easy to pick out because they were all dressed in black...") and she spoke of being able to see that the regulars understood her songs and stories just as well as the black-clad artists. "Of course, Texas stories are pretty strange too," she reasoned.
After returning from touring, Ms. Anderson spoke with Spectrum about her experience of performing in the wake of the events of September 11th.
Ms. Anderson and her band, all of whom are New Yorkers, were in Chicago on the morning of the 11th. When they came down to the hotel lobby, they were told what had happened and they spent the next few hours trying to reach loved ones. At about noon the promoter called and said "Look, I will completely understand if you don't want to go on tonight, but people are calling and I need to know what to tell them." When Ms. Anderson replied that she and the band wanted to perform the promoter said "Good. I believe that this is what art is for." When asked if she had made changes in the show as a result of tragedy, Ms. Anderson said no, the set list remained essentially the same.
The experience of performing had changed, however. Ms. Anderson described the recent concerts as being "an amazing experience as a musician. Music is about what happens to listeners. The experience of performing is a real collaboration. I had never seen people thinking before. I could see peoples' minds moving. They were very unguarded and open."
Not only did the band do a show that night, but they continued touring, performing in Toronto, Washington, and Philadelphia as well as in Boston. Ms. Anderson said that each show was an incredible experience and that the band enjoyed traveling from city to city. "It was so moving to be in all of those cities in rapid succession, to see the incredible beauty of each place, the achievements of the people there, the lovely fall days - it was like a movie unfurling."
She said that it was hard for the band not to be with friends in New York, but "we have friends in other places and it was good to be with them." Once back in New York she connected with friends and neighbors who had "seen it, felt it." She described life in her downtown neighborhood: "The Klieg lights are up all night, you can hear the sirens," and, looking out the window, she reported that there was a twisted fire-engine being taken away on a flatbed truck.
"I'm having trouble staying inside" she said, and added that, having been to the site of the disaster, "photos don't reflect what it really looks like...the pile is huge."
Ms. Anderson noted that as a result of the event "Work has slid into the background. It's been very clarifying. There's an unbelievable amount of tenderness here." When asked how the logistical problems were impacting her community's ability to live and work, she answered that, right now, most peoples' paramount concern was much simpler and more immediate: "How can I find my friend?"
