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Amanda Palmer I am huddled under a large quilt in a bed in Camden town in London," explains the ever-poetic Amanda Palmer to me, as I swelter away in one of the most extreme heatwaves I have ever experienced. "I'm really jealous of your weather right now." She remains calm as I express, in words I needn't repeat here, my indignation. "Dude, we should switch!" London, however, is only temporary for Ms Palmer. "We just kicked off the European tour here last night. It was a brilliant show, it was kind of awkward - we'd already played in London, and we didn't want to repeat ourselves, so we played an entirely experimental set. For that, I think it went over really well." The European tour is but a small warm-up for what we will be able to see here in the Antipodes. At least, that's how it seems to me. "Right now, for the European tour, I've just got Lyndon [Chester] with me, who's the violin player, but by the time I get over there I'm going to be joined by Zo‘ Keating on cello. So there'll be two string players, and Zo‘'s also opening up for the entire Australian tour. And she's brilliant." For all the Dresden Dolls fans worrying that Palmer may be too comfortable with her present collaborators, fear not - her respect for fellow Doll Brian Viglione has not faded. "I just played with Brian a couple of weeks ago, and I forget what incredible power and might a drum set has. I mean, there's just something about a drummer blasting out a drum set that holds people's attention like nothing else. I also really love this other side of what I'm doing right now, instead of it being a large-sounding thing, it's like I'm quieting down for a while. Even that being said, when I play the harder, more rocking songs on piano, I still make a lot of noise, and I've been forced to up my game without the drums to hide behind. So it's been a really evolutionary experience to do the solo thing." Evolutionary, but not revolutionary - her solo show seems to be at pains to replace the gargantuan presence of the agile, expressive Viglione. "That's kind of why I have the Danger Ensemble. Because they take Brian's place much more than the strings do. I mean, I play off of them musically, and energetically - the strings that is - but their parts are completely scripted. There's very little improvisation in what they're doing. So we don't make quite as much eye contact as I would with Brian. They are playing parts, except for a few moments where we go into space jam land and we really start playing live and improvisationally. But the Danger Ensemble lends this whole other element to the show, because you've got the piano, and the songs, and then the strings on top of that, and then on top of that you've got four actors doing crazy shit ranging from really beautifully choreographed and profound melancholy pieces to these really absurd, silly, interactive audience pieces. It's really all over the place." 'All over the place' doesn't merely describe the stage antics of her performance troupe. Those words also describe the plethora of forums, from independent radio to major TV networks, in which Palmer's quite unique cabaret-rock music has been accepted, and also rejected. Recently, a number of broadcasters in the UK have been refusing to play the single Oasis due to its ironic take on sexual assault and abortion. But Palmer flatly denies that she was trying to offend, or even challenge, her audience. "And that's one of the things that I find myself having to explain to people, there is no part of me when I wrote that song that was thinking, 'wow, this is really going to rile people.' I really just thought it was funny when I wrote it. "There's also something kind of disturbing about the media, I think, underestimating the general intelligence of the public. Because the vibe that I get from these media outlets in the UK not wanting to air the song is that they don't think people will get the joke. And that I think is a real tragedy, because then the media is guilty of directly dumbing down the quality of entertainment... it assumes that you're not smart, it assumes that you're not going to get a complicated joke, it assumes that you have no sense of irony, and that's a shame. Because the general public is a lot smarter than the media gives it credit for." Ben Revi |