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Great American Music Hall August 19, 2000 Review by Squid We loved The Chameleons, and we adore Mark Burgess. Squid saw him the last time he was here solo in '94, and won't forget it anytime soon. He opened the show by walking on stage and verbally destroying a woman in the audience for a comment he overheard her make regarding a homeless man outside the venue. "She said, "Why don't they just kill them already", and I'm here to tell you lady that you are already dead!" Mark was, as Squid remembered him, charismatic and crowd-silencing. He began with "The Healer", a beautiful song from the Chameleons' final release, the "Tommy Fletcher Walked on Water" ep. (Squid thinks he actually played all of "Tommy" at some point or another.) It's hard to describe the hold this man has over an audience - the whole 'pin drop' cliche is applicable here. For the encore, he brought back the Bellows as a backing band, which, being good musicians, they were well suited to. Our only complaint was that he very noticibly left out the two biggest hits: "Tears" and "Swamp Thing". Squid usually applauds "hit omission" live, but those songs are just so gorgeous, and define the Chameleons sound to both neophytes and die-hards alike. At the end, he was bum-rushed by a squadron of adoring male fans who threw themselves on him,weeping and screaming. Daz has never seen anything like that at a show here, ever. She is very, very sorry that she didn't get a photo of it, words can't do it justice. |