The Knife at Webster Hall Review
The Knife is continually putting layers between them, their music, and their audience. Wednesday night at Webster Hall there was a scrim with projected lines of light between the masked brother and sister duo and the audience. Images were projected behind the two and large faces were projected on three oval screens midway back on the stage. Dressed identically, Olof and Karin also disguised themselves visually behind black ski masks covering orange iridescent face paint and aurally behind various effects on the vocals. There were few if any instruments on stage; buttons are a more apt description. Karin would trigger vocal effects and Olof would wield his glowing drumsticks over pads to pound out elements in the beat. The Knife performed as an idea rather than the two individuals who made the music. The only glimpse of personality we saw on stage was in their dancing.
Flattening the overlapping layers of bodies, light, image, The Knife gave us a screen to view their music, a virtual performance almost without people or instruments. However, the show was more physically engaging than just watching a moving image, you could still hear the life in her voice, see their character in their dancing, and feel the energy in the crowd. The duality of Karin and Olof being at Webster Hall performing their music but not is a pretty good trick.
PS. Jason and I had the amazing opportunity to interview The Knife on our Sirius radio show last Tuesday. This was a little mind-blowing because Karin and Olof came to the studio without masks and talked about their personal lives. I hope you are in the habit of listening because they were really interesting people. There is more about our discussion at Product Shop.
