5-17-98 live review

HELIUM at the O'SHAUGHNESSY AUDITORIUMSt. Paul, MN, USA. May 17,1998.

I had had the Helium album The Magic City warmly recommended to me, so it was a nice surprise to see that this reportedly exciting band would open for avant-garde noise rock legends Sonic Youth. I was sadly disappointed.The concert was oddly divided in two. During the first 4-5 songs, they were plain awful!! Pretentious bleeps and twangs that just did not have anything attractive about them. Then came three songs that were pretty good, with some drive and cool melody lines, before the finale: a noise attack worthy of SY themselves!

In other words, a fifty-fifty concert that nevertheless made for a negative impression since the band was so bloody amateurish. I don't know if they were very nervous or what, but they kept having to re-tune their guitars, re-program their synth, the singer/guitar player kept unplugging her guitar by accident, etc. Annoying.

This page was originally published to Tore's Official Concert Guidein May 1998