A tsunami of sound for Japan

At the end of March I attended a benefit concert for Japan hosted by Yoko Ono. It was the kind of last minute concert with big names that can only happen in a place like NYC. I’m on the email list for (Le) Poisson Rouge, a music venue in the West Village. The day after I received the email announcement for the benefit show, my new music pusher (a woman finally!), who I’ll call JD, sent me a message asking if I was planning to go to the show.  It was $100, but it was a benefit for Japan and in addition to Ono the bill included Cibo Matto and the legendary Patti Smith.  I had spent the weekend before out seeing a lot of live music. Yet, despite the lack of sleep, I bought the ticket and headed out to the show at 10:00 PM on a Tuesday. 

For many people Ono is best known as the widow of John Lennon. This greatly diminishes her impact on avant-garde performance art and music. Unfortunately, most of us are simply unaware of her work. When I posted that I was going to the benefit on my Facebook page the following conversation ensued. 

Phyllis:  ummmm two words "Yoko Ono"?

Darina : Don't be dissin' Yoko. She's totally awesome.

Me: @Phyllis Yoko Ono basically invented performance art and while one may not want to sit at home and chill out to her music, she’s quite brilliant.

Darina: Yoko is an incredibly innovative artist and business woman (she invested in Ben & Jerry cows eons ago, for example). But her heart, her absolute commitment to peace and goodness is palpable. I have been fortunate enough to have been in her presence twice in my life, and the way she radiates.... I don't know what she radiates, but it's good and amazing and bright. Her singing can at times be difficult, but we would have no B-52s without her (just to name one direct influence). At other times her singing is just direct from her heart, her mind, her gut... and it's beautiful and sweet... and at times like a sex-craved banshee. It's all good to me.

Phyllis: @Darina and Kyra I have been schooled and will endeavor to keep an open mind... 

When Ono took the stage, she immediately launched into a sweet, soft song that I later discovered was called “It Happened Today.” Unaccompanied, her voice sounded light and airy.  She sang a few verses and what I recall of the chorus was “it was so unexpected.”  Suddenly, with no build up or progression, her full band, guitar, bass, drums, and keyboards, launched into an earsplitting wall of sound.  It  was so painful that I saw many audience members immediately cover their ears.  I resisted, but it did feel like my eardrums would explode.  They didn’t. I immediately thought, ‘this must be what an earthquake or a tsunami feels like.’  One minute you are in the middle of something ordinary and without warning the next minute you are shocked and altered.  I’ve never listened to much of Ono’s music, but this song seems to represent what it is that she does best; make you pay attention.  This is not music I want to listen to at home, but I was enthralled by her performance. 

Ono is 78 years old but she moved around the stage rocking out with her son Sean and singing at times, as Darina said above, ‘like a sex-craved banshee’.  It was a lot to absorb, but she can also write a soothing melodic song. She sang “I Love You, Earth” with Antony Hegarty, of Antony and the Johnsons, a sweet love song reminding us to be grateful for what the earth has to give us.  During another more blues-inspired tune she repeated “it’s so hard.”  My friend JD pointed out the subtle brilliance of this song as the topic of every blues song ever written is about having a hard life.  The audience, a mix of young hipsters, aging hippies and a few of us too old or too young to be either, embraced Ono’s performance by pushing against the stage. People liked her and were into the music.  And this was after ‘60’s icon Patti Smith had finished her set.

Smith gave the audience only four songs. I’ve never seen her live before, but I was hooked.  A Village Voice review said Smith was “without her usual full-throttle intensity.” I thought she was going to make it rain inside the club or deliver the ghosts of the tsunami victims. She seemed to be channelling some sort of inner shaman.  Apparently, that’s not her usual intensity?  When she closed with “People Have The Power” for a second I thought ‘ugh, cheesy.’  Moments later I was singing along, feeling like a college student protesting the first Gulf War, watching the Berlin wall crumble, and Tiananmen Square fill with tanks.  I thought about the protesters in Tunisia, Egypt, Iran....and that maybe we can change things?  If anyone can make us believe that people have the power, it’s Patti Smith. 

The bookend to this benefit was the opening band Cibo Matto, ‘crazy food’ in Italian.  My brother introduced me to Cibo Matto in the late 1990’s.  He gave me their album Stereo*Type A which spent a lot of time in my stereo.  The band broke-up in 2001 so it was great to see and hear the founding members Yuka Honda and Miho Hatori on stage together. Their humorous and catchy songs, mainly about food, were in contrast to the seriousness of Ono’s music.  Live, they sound exactly like their albums.  The songs are pop inspired but have out there electronic sounds and underlying complex jazz grooves.  I called it world beat disco.   By the end of their set, I wanted more and was disappointed when I remembered they weren’t together anymore so I couldn’t catch a full show.    

We walked out of the club at nearly 1:00 AM, after a brief appearance by Lou Reed and a sing along (without Lou) of “Give Peace A Chance” to close the show.  Outside, we were handed a small sheer cloth bag with an oversized blue and clear plastic puzzle piece and a note.  The accompanying card from Yoko Ono said, 

“The sky is cracked now above Japan. 

Let’s come together in our dreams to heal. 

A dream you dream alone is only a dream

But a dream you dream together is reality.”

The bag with the puzzle piece and the little card are on my desk.  I find myself picking it up every once in a while. I am hopeful for the people of Japan. Despite this tragedy, they will recover and likely be stronger than before.  I’m struck more often by the second part of the message, about dreaming a dream together. I wonder about all the dreams that I keep to myself and whether its or not its time to start sharing them or at least finding some puzzle pieces that fit with mine?