Preview of the week
Brendan Cooper
It’s the singer, not the song – or in this case, the singers, not the bands – that will see the Standard Bank Arena (Johannesburg) and the Three Arts Theatre (Cape Town) packed to the rafters with sexually confused, self- doubting rock kids next weekend when Garbage and Placebo take to the stage. Perhaps that’s overstating things. The fans will be there to hear the bands, but they’ll be going to see Brian Molko and Shirley Manson, the vocalists, lyricists and sex-bomb, media darlings of these two dark, pop-rock-with-a- dash-of-aggressive-vulnerability outfits.
The show is courtesy of Real Concerts (who brought us Massive Attack and Skunk Anansie), the only organisers in South Africa who seem to have enough faith in our music listening public to take risks with avant-garde, progressive bands that will not necessarily appeal to Counting Crows and Simply Red fans. They’ve also put together a double bill that has the musical integrity and continuity that was sadly lacking when the happy, dance-opera of Faithless and the mind-shattering electronica of Prodigy had to share a stage.
Pairing Garbage and Placebo was an inspired move. The bands are different enough for there to be a change of pace and attitude throughout, but they share a common ground, located somewhere in the post-Goth, post- grunge, pre-millennium, angst-ridden Nineties for there to be a synergy between their sounds and themes.
There are a lot of similarities between the bands. Both formed during periods in the changing musical landscape when major trends were dominating. Garbage came into being in the United States at the tail end of grunge and rejected the confines of the movement by writing catchy, hook-based pop songs that, while still paying homage to the dark side, had an up-beat, ironic optimism that the Seattle set had not had. Their post-grunge, guitar-pop debut hit a nerve in the US and the world, selling four million copies worldwide.
Placebo released their self-titled debut in Britain at the height of Britpop, to which they too refused to conform. While their album did not have as much of an impact on global music as Garbage’s album did, their sexually ambiguous, powder and paint, shag- anything, drug-fiend image was a slap in the face to the lager and football Britrock establishment, and it helped shape the way of things to come.
Garbage, who will headline the gig, were formed on the day of Kurt Cobain’s suicide in 1995 by three successful producers-turned- musicians from Wisconsin – Butch Vig (Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins, Hole), Duke Erikson (U2, Depeche Mode, Nine Inch Nails) and Steve Marker (House of Pain, L7).
They had the suss to recognise a good thing (in the form of Shirley Manson’s appearance on TV) when they saw it and their lead singer was found. Scottish-born Manson joined the band from Goth obscurity to take her place as one of the most unconventional sex symbols in pop-rock history. She is the quintessential Nineties front woman – sexy, intelligent, sophisticated, fragile, totally frank and emotionally complex. Her self-loathing lyrics and constant references in the media to her traumatic childhood, rapid mood swings and complex psychological make-up have done a lot to popularise neurosis.
“I caught people’s imagination because I was fresh,” she says. “In alternative rock, for a woman to come out and be seen to be interested in fashion was practically unheard of in America.” In a way, it was her Britishness that helped define her as unconventional.
Brian Molko’s reputation as a bit of a cross gender goer has been firmly established from Stockholm to Sausalito. He’s American but grew up all over the world. His deliberately perverse personality probably has something to do with the fact that his father was an international banker and he grew up in the stocks and bonds atmosphere of countries like Belgium, Liberia, Lebanon … It was in Luxembourg that he met Swedish-born bass player Stefan Olsdal. That was before attending a theatrical college in London (where the final member of their threesome, Steve Hewitt, was found).
With the arrival of their follow-up album, Without You I’m Nothing last year, Molko, like Manson, shook off Goth obscurity to become a poster child of the times.
With the exception of the unrepresentative kick-off songs Pure Morning and Brick Shithouse, it’s a beautiful, gentle album. It swings languidly through the emotional chaos of break-ups and drug addiction, and while Garbage are headlining the gig, there will be many people there for Placebo’s minor-chord melancholy and poetic, lyrical simplicity (“Your smile would make me sneeze, when we were Siamese”).
I suppose it could be argued that the fact that Manson and Molko are considered pin-up sex symbols to 14 year olds is pretty scary, but it’s not unusual to be unconventional when your unconventionality is the convention of the times. Right now self-loathing, sexual ambiguity and melancholy seem to be de riguer.
Cape Town: R130 (unreserved floor). Johannesburg: R90, R120, R150 (reserved seating), R130 (unreserved floor) on July 28, 29 and 30