Higher Gear

Peter Himmelman captures some
of his live magic on "Stage Diving"

STEVE TAPPER SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS

I

f you've ever seen a Peter Him- I shift into a higher gear when
Himmelman's rhyming talent
melman concert, I guarantee I'm on stage. If I fail, so what? It's even impressed a poetic artist of
just a big joke anyway."
that you still remember it.
another genre — a rapper he met
At the show preserved on Stage at his record company.
While his six studio albums
(plus two LPs with his former Diving, he asks the audience to
"We jammed late into the
group Sussman Lawrence) con- name a topic or emotion, and he night, making up rhymes about
tain some excellent music, these sings about it. Someone yells things," he recalls. "A real rapper
albums do not capture the aura, "steak," so Himmelman immedi- is just that, a rhymer, but he
magic, emotion, humor, and, ately chants:
doesn't have to deal with chords
"This is a song about steak / and melodies like I do. I have
well, uniqueness of his live
Maybe the only one you'll ever found that it is extremely useful
shows.
At one Himmelman concert I hear / This is a song about steak in getting your audience's atten-
attended in Minneapolis a few / The child of a cow, and a steer." tion. It's akin to juggling fire."
years ago, music/noise in an ad- The audience loved it.
As you might guess, Himmel-
Another tune, "Closer," is a mi- man never uses a song list at con-
jacent room drowned
out his band. So, mid- PHOTO BY GAR Y L. HACKING
certs. "It's like I have a
song and mid-show,
really cluttered office,
Himmelman angrily
but I know exactly
stopped playing, told
where everything is.
the audience to meet
Sometimes I let it slide
him near the canoe
into an anarchic mode,
docks of a local lake
and I know that I can
and left the stage.
fish it back again. That
Some audience mem-
is part of the excite-
bers thought he was
ment," he says.
joking; some believed
When he's not writ-
he was serious; most
ing, recording or per-
weren't sure. So, my
forming, Himmelman
date and I decided to
reads Jewish texts,
drive to the lake. Sure
nonfiction and history.
enough, Himmelman
While the artist keeps
and his guitar were
kosher and won't play
there, sans band. As the
or travel on Shabbat,
crowd grew to several
he rejects traditional
hundred (including
religious labels. "I pre-
many new concert
fer the term 'observant
crashers), he played a
Jew' because I think
number of his songs,
`Orthodox' has a bad
conversed with the au-
connotation."
dience and made up/im-
A Minneapolis na-
prov-ed a number of
tive, the 36-year-old
tunes. He even asked a
lived in New York in
10-year-old boy what
the mid-'80s and, since
his name was, then im-
then, has resided in
mediately created a
Santa Monica, Calif.
rhyming song about the "I prefer the term 'observant Jew' because I think `Orthodox' has a He and his wife (who
bad connotation," says singer Peter Himmelman.
kid and his family.
is Bob Dylan's daugh-
Well, you had to be
ter and Jakob Dylan's
crocosm of a Himmelman show. sister, for you Wallflowers fans)
there.
Himmelman's new, live al- He begins, "Ask the drummer have four children.
bum, Stage Diving, makes you from the other band to come up
His current projects include
and play bongos." After singing recording a new studio album due
feel as if you were.
In concert, Himmelman shows for a couple of minutes, he kicks in early '97, composing music for
off his musical talents (vocals, pi- into his own brand of stream-of- TV and movies and writing a
play.
ano, and guitar), intelligence, consciousness rap:
"I'm at the Bottom Line on a
sense of humor, razor-sharp wit
Though he has had a number
Wednesday night / Drummer be- of big-time record company deals,
and confidence in his craft.
"I have a certain self-confi- hind me playing so right / He's got he chose an independent label,
dence about what is unique about the bongos and the kick-drum too Plump Records, for Stage Diving
my gifts, my offerings," he said in / Everything he plays is sweet and as well as his next studio release.
a phone interview. "I get a certain true / When I take it down, he's
"It allows me to avoid becom-
self-assuredness from that. It's down to the floor When I say ing an indentured servant to a
just a certain audacity that I car- knock it off; he's out the door / He's large corporate entity. I've gone
ry with me at the shows, where I got the sticks, man, they're through that for almost 10 years."
am comfortable enough with my poundin' hard / Sweet fat, like a
Please, people at Plump, plan
audiences that I don't mind fail- ton of lard."
on letting Peter be Peter. ❑
After the song, Himmelman
ing abysmally in front of them.
says of the drummer, "Give him
For a review of Stage Diving,
Steve Tapper writes on music
a hand —whatever his name is."
turn to JIVE Reviews on Page
from Atlanta.
Classic Peter.
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