The Boston Globe, Boston, Massachusetts (Mon, Oct 17, 1994)
by Paul Robicheau:

Cambridge - "We're gonna be looking for fabulous dancers," Luscious Jackson keyboardist Vivian Trimble told the sold-out house at the start of the Manhattan band's Friday night set at the Middle East.
But by the time the female quartet seethed through the slinky "Energy Sucker" (which peaked with the guy-dissing line "I'm a goddess, not your mother") and the polar-opposite churn of "Pele Merengue," singer Jill Cunniff found herself modifying the invitation. "Could everybody please take a step back?" she asked fans who pressed wildly against the stage.
It was a request-bordering-demand not readily heeded by the excited college-age crowd and, in turn, the band seemed a tad hesitant at the start of this final night of a monthlong tour.
But the members of Luscious Jackson also weren't into star-tripping. Their delivery was informal, their musical textures primitive and their influences hip across the board as the group eased into a string of tunes from its debut album "Natural Ingredients," one of the year's freshest CDs.
Gabby Glaser bounced sultry rap verse off Cunniff's singing in the sophisticated female empowerment vehicle "Strongman" and disco romp "Here" where Glaser urged "Get on the floor, let's dance some more" over a ping-drum keyboard. Glaser, who mostly played sparse guitar lines to Cunniff's taut bass, then strapped on a bass to anchor the pulsing soul of "City Song," which samples the Curtis Mavfield tune "On and On."
It was all tightly driven home by the swirling, smacking backbeat of ex-Beastie Boys drummer Kate Schellenbach, while disc jockey Alex Young (drafted at a party in England) filled in sonic gaps. Luscious Jackson came off like a more hip-hop Breeders, whose bassist Josephine Wiggs was hanging out as a tour guest.
But the 75-minute set truly clicked when Schellenbach and Trimble joined original members Cunniff and Glaser up front for loosely choreographed dance moves to "Let Yourself Get Down" and "Life of Leisure," both from '92's "In Search of Manny" CD. The foursome goofed around like teen-age girls dancing in the bedroom to a record. Hey, they were dancing to a record.
Any barrier between the band and the crowd had now been fully cracked (and was later torn down altogether when 10 fans were invited onstage to dance to "Keep On Rockin' It"). The group's lack of pretense was refreshing - and something that teenage girls will eat up as Luscious Jackson expands its fan base. After the show, Cunniff admitted, "We'd try to make up dances and pretend we were the Jackson 5," of the New York schooldays she shared with Glaser and Schellenbach. The set's additional tunes - from the sweet pop glide "Deep Shag" and a reggae-tinted "Angel" to weaker B-side encore "Radiating" merely added icing to that carefree attitude of the Jackson 4.
Ben Harper and his three-piece backup made an unusual but intriguing complement to the bill with drawn-out, acoustic-rooted jams that also nodded to the '70s. It was hard to see Harper in his seated position, playing antique Weissenborn guitars on his lap with a rustic slide touch. But the Californian whacked rever berating chords a la Jim Hendrix during "Like a King" (which evoked the names of Martin Luther and Rodney King). Then Harper finally rose to Leon Mobley's wailing African drum to chant "TIl Rise," drawing on Maya Angelou's poetry while he danced like a reggae prophet.