berlin

not the place but the album recorded by lou reed
originally released in 1973 and recently revisited by the man
he's put together a huge bunch of musicians and taken it on the road
part 4 of my day at a film festival with the film of the concert on the big screen
i have never owned a lou reed album or given his music much time at all
never liked a walk on the wild side and could never get past it
but curiousity got the better of me and so here i was
with no idea of anything at all that was about to happen
the first surprise was the credits revealing the director
julian schnabel having delivered one of the best films of this year
the diving bell and the butterfly a rich and rewarding piece of art-cinema
in the opening scenes of this film the likeness is obvious
in berlin lou reed has clearly opted to provide a visual feast
with a continual stream of images projected behind the band
the beautiful star of the afore-mentioned film also featured
emmanuelle seigner seems to be well adored by julian schnabel
providing sumptuous imagery in some of the songs from the album
the music itself starts with a feel of a return to a past (musical) time
a very obvious and unmistakeable 70's rock-opera feel coming through
lou reed demonstrating his ability providing the required guitar solos
at times in the first few songs rocking out most convincingly
he has gathered around him an eclectic bunch of musicians
steve hunter also on guitar providing support and lead duties
the usual bass, drums, keyboards doing their jobs well
stage left is a 12 member harlem youth choir
fronted by none other than antony (without the johnsons)
there's an acoustic double bass and a small string section
then over stage right there's a 3 piece brass section
so in some tunes over 20 musicans and singers contributing
to top it off there's a chap seen conducting the whole shebang
lou reed all the time looking his well perfected non-plussed self
but my feeling is he is quite pleased with this show
the camera spends quite a lot of time in close-up on his upper body
quite often there's the smallest of smiles on his now craggy face
in one tune there's a verbal whoop as steve hunter does a stunning solo
and most impressively a clap and acknowledgement of antony's contribution
he really does have a beautiful and unique voice well suited to these tunes
he presumably a fan of lou reed to avail himself for this (and other) concerts
as the tunes rolled on i found myself drawn into it quite completely
the visual spectacle, the performers, the music and the man all combining
at one point i recalled how much more satisfying was this show
than one done by mr jagger and co also using a famous director
here at least the music though quite vintage sounded fresh
and the lead singer had a certain elegance about his performance
assisted by some impressive arrangements of the material
the band letting fly at the end of the film as the credits rolled
sweet jane reminding us of lou reeds more popular tunes
a fine finale to a fine day of four films at this festival