The Lantern, 1st August 1998
Rick West
Luscious Jackson had just finished their sound-check Friday afternoon and had learned one important nuance of the Newport Music Hall."This place is kind of hot," said Singh Birdsong (he swears it's his real name), one of the side musicians touring with the band.kind of hot is an understatement of impossible proportions. It was really hot. Hot and wet. Hot and wet can be a good combination in many instances. An authentic Italian beef sandwich comes to mind. So does an evening of intimate adult relations.It is not, however, a good climatic combination. Especially indoors, where we civilized people have grown accustomed to the protection of the almighty air conditioner in our battle against the evil heat miser.Alas, there was no air conditioning at the Newport Friday night, much to the dismay of both Luscious Jackson and the soaking wet crowd. Despite conditions that would have wilted lesser bands, L] were troopers, to say the least. Luscious Jackson rocked. They rocked for an hour and a half and they looked good doing it too, let me tell you. There's something about sweaty women playing instruments that really turns a crowd on. These weren't women who were afraid to sweat, either. Granted, if they were going to play they had no choice but to sweat, it was a good 200 degrees in there. (This figure was not acquired with fancy instrumentation, just years of good old-fashioned weather know-how. Like your pappy did it back in the pre-Double Doppler days).They played hard. They played loud. They jumped around and danced and gyrated their hips and smiled and winked at me and asked me to be their love slave...of course, it might just be the heat stroke talking.The band barreled through their 90 minute set with few pauses. Songs like "Rock Freak" evolved from their lazy, summer day album form into seriously up-tempo rockers that kept the crowd bouncing despite the oppressive heat. Other highlights included anything from the new disc "Electric Honey," which plays better live than recorded, and "City Song." during which drummer Kate Schellenbach came out from behind her kit to join singer Jill Cunniff in some sort of cheerleader dance-type thing. The bands exuberance in the face of potential doom was much appreciated by the dripping throngs. There was more, lots more. But the details are so hazy and my notes are completely illegible, having been smeared beyond recognition by sweat. As best I can remember, heat-induced dementia not withstanding, the concert was really good.