Blue Man Group: Painting the town at summer’s last bash

SARATOGA SPRINGS -The 2003 summer of pop is officially over, effectively done in by the three blue men who appeared at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center Saturday night.

The cobalt-colored performance artists came to paint the town with their visionary brand of rock ‘n’ roll freak-a-rama. And after their departure, there was nothing left for anybody to say.

The blue men played to the shadows and danced in the light; they combed the crowd - from center stage to the far reaches of the upper balcony - with miniature “spy” cams, and blew the curtain off its rigid sky-hooks in an opening spectacle worthy of Springsteen or the Rolling Stones. Psychotic reactions for the cyber-age.

Backed by an eight-piece ensemble of keyboards, bass, a pair of guitars and four drummers,
the blue men performed a 90-minute ritual in a celebration of rhythm.
On their backs, they donned hyper-amp’d “tubulums” - portable drumming tubes - which they attacked with orange neon sticks to create a symphony of poly-rhythms.
They used wands like sonic scepters, slicing through the air as huge beams of light maniacally ricocheted on and off the stage.

Among the arsenal, an intricate weave of vinyl tubes, giant sheets of aluminum and a grand piano turned on its side, its wire chords periodically struck by large white-tipped mallets whose atonal chimes reverberated throughout the amphitheater.

These were moments inspired by John Cage as much as by Johnny Rotten. The musical staging was reminiscent of the avant-theatrics performed by Laurie Anderson in her “United States Live” shows of the 1980s.

Tracy Bonham, who led her three-piece band in a pleasing opening set, kicked things off with an electric violin performance of Led Zeppelin’s “Black Dog.” Later, Bonham played the role of psychedelic chanteuse Grace Slick, joining the blue men for a surrealistic rendition of “White Rabbit,” then belting out the rock ‘n’ roll power vocals for a version of The Who’s “Baba O’Reilly,” surrounded by portable tubulums that shot long gobs of confetti into the crowd.

The evening’s other opening act, Venus Hum, joined the blue men as well for an ethereal Quentin Tarantino-meets-Las Vegas performance of the disco hit “I Feel Love,” complete
with the lead vocalist’s bowl-shaped skirt illuminated with pulsating light that mimicked the
multiple video action on stage.

There were solemn moments as well.

When Blue Man Group performed “Exhibit 13” in memory of 9/11, tattered pieces of scorched paper fell across the stage like sad winter leaves.

Before the blue men came on stage, the crowd was entertained by a pair of electronic message boards posted on either side of the theater that insulted each other, soliciting audience response.

By evening’s end, the audience was satiated.
Splattered in flecks of multi-colored paint and caught in the flicker of strobe lights, they rose as one and chanted into the night: “Blue! Blue! Blue! Blue!” like a sonically possessed
throng of loons bidding farewell to the waning days of summer.

by Thomas Dimopoulos
published in The Saratogian, Sept. 01, 2003.