The Dresden Dolls 2010 Halloween Show in NYC

Posted by newageamazon on Tuesday, November 2nd, 2010

Brian Viglione at the Dresden Dolls 10th Bandiversary Show

I tried to come up with a clever title for this piece. I really, really did. I was tempted to title it “The Dresden Dolls On Halloween or How I Stopped Worrying and Learned to Love Punk Cabaret.” That would have been misleading, I didn’t NEED to see the Dolls live in order to love punk cabaret. I also toyed with “I Saw The Dresden Dolls on Halloween 2010 and All I Got Were These Tear-Stained Cheeks and Multiple Orgasms Because I Was Too Dumb to Buy Any Merch and DAMMIT They Aren’t Selling the Tour Shirts Online.” But, really, that’s a bit MUCH, isn’t it?

Amanda Palmer at the Dresden Dolls 10th Bandiversary Show

This is not meant to be a review of the show. I don’t think I can pretend to be even the slightest bit impartial and scholarly about the show, which was a celebration of the 10th anniversary of the band’s formation. I mean, I’m sure I could force myself to try and pretend, but I really can’t. Because from the second Amanda Palmer and Brian Viglione stepped onto the stage at Irving Plaza all impartial thoughts and logic were overcome by sheer EMOTION. Which only became worse, or more appropriately BETTER, when they sat behind their respective instruments and began to play “Sex Changes” to a huge assembled crowd that gladly and reverently sang along, surging for the repeated refrain of “Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow.”

Brian Viglione at the Dresden Dolls 10th Bandivesary Show

The sing alongs continued through the night, Amanda even exploited this during the opening for “Coin-Operated Boy” which featured several false starts…she’d play the opening piano bit and then the entire audience would sing “COIN!” only to realize she’d stopped and was laughing. Several lucky fans even got the chance to sing along on stage, as they were chosen from the audience to act as back-up singers during “The Jeep Song.” And trust me, I was personally very rewarded when I had the chance to sing along in the crowd, loudly and probably off-key, to “Backstabber.”

The set-list also included “Mrs. O,” “Modern Moonlight,” “Half Jack” and a FANTASTIC live performance of “Mandy Goes to Med School.” But it wasn’t limited to their own songs. They also performed several covers throughout the night, including “Pirate Jenny” from The Threepenny Opera. They also treated fans to their version of “Pierre” by Carole King, based on the book by Maurice Sendak.

But then there was a cover that was SO INTENSE. At one point, Amanda and Brian pointed out that the lights on the balcony section looked like a rainbow…which segway-ed into their cover of “Double Rainbow.” In the middle of the song, they stopped, with Brian pretending(?) to cry and Amanda asking him “Did you get into the pot brownies a fan brought backstage?” Following the brief interlude, they broke BACK into “Double Rainbow” and dropped rainbow-colored balloons onto the audience.

Another cover nearly brought down the house. As you likely know, Amanda recently played the Emcee in a performance of Cabaret in Boston, so it was very fitting for the Dresden Dolls to cover “Mein Herr,” with Amanda in a golden sequined bra, dancing and sprawling herself onstage.

When the band announced they had performed their final song, the audience was on to their trickery…they had yet to perform “Girl Anachronism.” After another three or four songs they attempted to leave the stage again and were called back, again.

The final encore was a bit of a shocker, the band performed “Truce” because, as Amanda said, “If the Dresden Dolls have ever written a song for New York City, this is it.” They then closed with another cover: a punk cabaret rendition of “War Pigs” by Black Sabbath.

What else can I say about this show? It’s difficult because there really aren’t words for it. It was an experience, it was personal. For me, it was SOMETHING during a time where I am scared of being absolutely nothing. It was a church service and a witches’ sabbath, both fitting for the night of Halloween. It was crowded and hot and it was being surrounded by people who haven’t stopped believing in being able to believe. It is a paragraph meant to be full of substance that probably amounts to gibberish.

It left me without a title.

A full set of photos from the show can be found at my Flickr.