Paul Robicheau
Sunday’s 100-minute show at Crystal Ballroom offered a celebration of what Gang of Four means for its surviving original members and followers alike, including newer generations represented onstage as well as in the packed hall.
Exposure is a septet assembled to perform Robert Fripp’s quirkily diverse, overlooked 1979 solo album “Exposure” for the first time ever, in sequence.
Stripped of trip-hop trappings, Beth Gibbons’s fragile voice commanded through a ghostly filter effect as she sang with edgy emotion, peaking in the tagline, “How can it feel this wrong?”
Anybody at Tuesday’s show who thought the members of Kraftwerk were just punching buttons at their static posts while audiovisuals surged automatically would be mistaken.
The sheepishly affable Trey Anastasio wisely focused on music, allowing him to play a broader representation of his repertoire across two hours and 25 minutes.
Timelines bounce a bit through the loosely organized, vignette-rooted book, where the back half casually weaves through a checklist of characters and tales not to be missed.
A unique, memorable summit of three intellectually minded luminaries who bridged jazz, classical, Latin and South Asian influences.
The singer/guitarist rolls the dice every night, playing it loose and gritty with drummer Patrick Keeler, bassist Dominic Davis, and keyboardist Bobby Emmett, who deftly hack away at revolving song choices from White’s broad catalog and beyond.
The resolute British singer/actress survived addiction, homelessness, cancer and Covid, which left her in a coma before she completed work on her final album in 2021.
Jesus Lizard remains one of rock’s most fearsome combos, and this night the veteran band delivered one of 2024’s most memorable shows.
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