I have only seen the curious band ‘We are the World’ twice, but they seem to reinvent themselves each time, since this second show I caught at Space 1520 was quite different from the first one.
Lady Gaga’s favorites did a too short performance, at this semi-underground location, in the middle of a crowd dominated by fashion-aficionado gays and lesbians, during the Launch Party of ‘The WORK Magazine Issue No. IV, Manipulation’, showing one more time what unclassifiable band they can be.
Dressed like white ghosts in the hood, masked with enigmatic prints matching the screen in the background, they began to frenetically dance with their provocative moves, two of them holding and shaking ethnic trophies, as if they were the last lost pagan tribe of Hollywood, splitting the crowd, executing their weird and violent choreography over dark industrial beats, synth soundscapes, and Megan Gold’s strong and menacing vocals.
There is always some kind of dark cloud coming above our heads when they perform, as they look look some frightening messengers announcing the worst news or exorcising some demons, they seem to give everything they have with their visceral dancing and pounding electronic beats.
I would say everyone was more captivated by the dance than the music, the show being definitively more visual than anything else, but the sound they produced matched their theatrical sexy dance floor numbers in an unique and dramatic manner.
We Are the World consists of multi-instrumentalist/composer Robbie Williamson, his wife vocalist Megan Gold, choreographer Ryan Heffington and dancer Nina McNeely, but on Saturday night, there were 5 of them on stage, ….more enigmatic than ever. They have released their debut album ‘Clay Stones’ last year on Manimal vinyl label, but I am not sure how this can work without their disturbing dance moves.