Wednesday, May 31, 1995 - The Michigan Daily - 9

arvey brings you a terrific show
Heather Phares Much of the music's success has to do beginning of "To Bring You My Love."
Jaily Arts Editor with the band's singer Martine, whose Throughout the entire show, the audi-
"Sorry about that. I've lost my concen- voice is sweet and full with a slight rasp ence continued to cheer, scream, shout "I
ration. One more time, here's 'Suffocated that makes for compelling listening. Af- love you, PJ!" and generally shower the
love,"' said an apologetic Tricky, the singer with complete devotion.
>pening act at last Saturday's phenomenal Harvey, for her part, looked and acted
PJ Harvey gig. That mistake was the only every inch the diva; she had both her band
>ne during the entire show, and it did little PJ Harvey (which included noted writer/guitarist Joe
to spoil what was otherwise an evening of St. Andrews Hall Gore and keyboardist extraordinaire Eric
flawless performances. Drew Feldman, who's played with Pere
* Though the response to his music May 27, 1995 Ubu and Frank Black among others) and
was somewhat lackluster, Tricky and his the audience in her complete control. Her
group played a riveting 40-minute set ter what seemed like just a few songs, the wraithlike form clad in a black bra, a silky
that included most of the songs from his group left the stage, only to encore with black slip, torn fishnet stockings and black
debut album "Maxinquaye." Along with "Aftermath." "You're wicked!" Tricky heels, her face exaggerated with thick red
"Suffocated Love," the band played yelped gleefully as he and his band left lips, violet eyeshadow and inch-long fake
"Overcome," "Ponderosa," "Hell is the stage for good. eyelashes, she exuded a fearsome sexual-
Around the Corner" and an explosive But then came the moment that the ity. The elaborate lighting effects choreo-
rendition of the Public Enemy song sold-out crowd had been waiting for: graphed into the show added to the theatri-
"Black Steel." Drawing on influences Their goddess, Polly Jean Harvey, ap- cality of the evening; during the industrial
ranging from Tom Waits, Public Enemy peared onstage with her backup band. stomp of "Meet Ze Monsta" harsh white
Sd heavy metal, Tricky's music rattled The applause and cheers were thunder- strobes cut the air, while a glittering disco
d clanked like a bag of bones at some ous when she took the mic; they were ball sparkled during the haunting "Teclo."
points, and floated ethereally at others. deafening when she began to sing the Special effects aside, Harvey worked

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hen her hair is up in curlers.
variety. Her voice spanned the guttural
lows of "Hook" to the chirping highs of
"C'Mon Billy." Harvey threw all of her
essence into singing and dancing for the
crowd; after years of playing the guitar
(and having played the majority of in-

the audience, deftly manipulating their
emotions by alternating faster rock songs
with deeply emotional ballads. By juxta-
posing songs like "50 Foot Queenie" and
"Oh My Lover," Harvey's emotional
range ran the gamut. But even wider than
her emotional range was Harvey's vocal

'Mnemonic' kicks off 1995: The year that cyberpunk broke

By Michael Zilberman
Daily Arts Writer
If "Johnny Mnemonic" has anything
going for it, it's great timing. Its arrival
heralds a slew of computer flicks to fol-
low ("The Net," "Virtuosity," Hackers"
the list goes on and on). It stars Keanu
Reeves, an action hero du jour. And its
script was developed by William
Gibson, a standard-setter of the
cyberpunk genre: "cyber," as in acid-trip
imagery galore and more AT&T logos
then you'll ever want to see, and "punk,"
as in decaying cities populated by walk-
ons from "Sid and Nancy".
Here's the slick basic premise of the
short story on which the film is based: in
21st century, no storage of informa-
tion is safe from legions of hackers -
except the human brain. Ergo, the hot
new profession: mnemonic courier, a
person who's willing to upload
scrambled information into his brain and
deliver it wherever told. The nature of
the input remains a mystery to the car-
rier. In addition (to throw in a race-
against-the-clock scenario), the cargo
must be delivered and downloaded on

W, W AM

time, or it will do some unspecified harm
to the brain. Another nice catch is that to
expand his storage capacity, a courier
has his mind cleared of long-term
memory, i.e., his childhood, which
makes Johnny a cross between Robocop
and Chance The Gardener: a hero on a
quest for his own identity.
ohnny Mnemonic
Directed by Robert .Longo;
with Keanu Reeves
At Briarwood and Showcase
Sadly, even this brilliant setup doesn't
guarantee there's anything in "Johnny"
that you haven't seen before. Visually,
the film rips off all three guideposts of
modern dystopia - "Metropolis,"
"Blade Runner" and "Mad Max" - and
still manages to look utterly uninspired.
Since Robert Longo is an artist, and
"Mnemonic" is his first experiment in
the new medium, one would expect, at
the very least, some interesting set de-
signs and makeup jobs. What we get in-

stead are good ol' junk heaps, body paint
and city-on-fire nightscapes.
The casting, on the other hand, is the
most inventive aspect of the film. Henry
Rollins and Ice-T get the best lines in the
movie. The "Red Scorpion" lug Dolph
Lundgren plays The Preacher, a deeply dis-
turbing dude whose presence is devilishly
intriguing mostly because there is abso-
lutely no justification for him to be in-
cluded in the plot. The Preacher is a priest
/bounty hunter /homicidal maniac, and the
vague offensiveness of this character sub-
stitutes for the character itself. As for
Keanu Reeves, well ... What made him
click with audiences in "Speed" was how
his stunted Bill (or Ted?)persona suddenly
gave way to an action hero. Having played
Buddha and Hamletin the past year alone,
Reeves no longer has the luxury of catch-
ing us off guard. He's by no means horrible
as Johnny Mnemonic -just blandly effi-
cient.
The current wave of cyberflicks is the
second one, the first being "a kid plays
Tetris and inadvertedly launches a
nuclear attack" movies of the early '80s.
As much as the times have changed, the

idea remains the same: what's alluring
about the computer age is that its infor- Deep Forest - "Boheme
mational free-for-all, real or not, allows The latest from this ethnic
an average Joe to get involved in global dance hybrid.
events. There's little - doubt that
cyberflicks as such are bound to vanish: Alison Moyet - "Untitled"
no significant work of art has ever been The name says it all.
born out of fascination with a medium.
These films are, in essence, the modem Roches - "Can We Go Home
equivalent of "radio songs" of the '20s or Now?"
man-vs-computer chess tournaments of New release from this Canadian
the '70s: impulsive reactions of a culture
that doesn't quite catch up with its tech- female folk-duo,
nology. There's nothing wrong with it -
these things actually help people cope Die Toten Hosen ---"Love, Peat
with radical scientific advancements by & Money"
putting them into a familiar form. But Three of the most important
what inevitably follows is a sad realiza- thins
tion that whatever you are making will "
end up as a novelty item. In this sense,
"Johnny Mnemonic," as the leader of the DoubleX - "Ruff, Rugged &
pack, is also the first victim. Raw
great scorehs..

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