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Tuesday, March 25, 2003

Def Leppard

"We've got something to say," sang Joe Elliott as Def Leppard kicked into "Rock of Ages" on Friday night at the Petersen Events Center. "It's better to burn out than to fade away."

The borrowed sentiment from Neil Young came off as a bit ironic. While Def Leppard hasn't been reduced to the club circuit, the band is years removed from selling out larger arenas and charting hit singles.

But has relevance ever really been the point with this heavy pop band? Silly shout-along songs such as "Pour Some Sugar on Me," "Women" and "Foolin' " have always been decidedly out of step with the trendy and the important. They're regular rock songs for regular folks, only now there are fewer of them.

The big hooks in the band's songs have actually held up well, especially the poppy "Photograph," the deliberately plodding "Bringing on the Heartbreak" and the propulsive "Animal." Tunes like "You're So Beautiful" from the 2001 album "X" weren't as well known but sounded just as good. Elliott's voice is a bit worse for the wear, however, especially when he strains for high notes. The vocals were low in the mix, though, and only really registered when his bandmates would harmonize or shout in unison on the choruses.

Elliott pronounced Pitt's Petersen Center "much better than the old Stanley Theater" and vowed to return soon. "Until next time," he said, ending the show. "And there will be a next time."

Perhaps. But resurgent radio interest or some new tricks wouldn't hurt this band that appears to be in the twilight of its popular run.

-- Review by John Young, For the Post-Gazette

Marianne Cornetti

The young musicians in the Duquesne University Symphony Orchestra were surely inspired Sunday night when mezzo-soprano and Duquesne alumna Marianne Cornetti returned to share the stage at Carnegie Hall in Oakland.

A native of Cabot, Cornetti has established a burgeoning operatic career, already garnering good reviews at the Metropolitan Opera and La Scala. She offered three arias by Verdi, a wise base from which to developing her vocal strength and dramatic intensity.

She warmed up with "Il trovatore's" "Stride la vampa" and "Condotta ell'era in ceppi," where she unleashed a rich and powerful voice that filled the hall. In addition to a wonderful blend throughout her range, Cornetti's high register achieved a glorious vocal ease that captured the imagination.

Eboli's aria, "O don fatal" from "Don Carlo," is a favorite from the Verdi repertoire and Cornetti brought a deep and abiding passion to her interpretation. It all warranted a welcome encore, "Acerb volutta" from "Adriana Lecouvreur."

Conductor Sidney Harth framed Cornetti's appearance with opportunities for some wonderful singing lines from the orchestra.

A little-known operatic tidbit, Wolf-Ferrari's overture to "Il segreto di Susanna," provided a charming opening. Mahler's "Symphony No. 4," a fine choice for its combination of youth and sadness, was a stretch for the musicians, to which they acquitted themselves, for the most part, quite admirably.

Marianne Cornetti also performs Sunday for the International Poetry Forum series. The program comprises arias by Rossini, Verdi and others. 8 p.m. Carnegie Library Lecture Hall, Oakland, Pittsburgh

-- By Jane Vranish, Post-Gazette Staff Writer

Mooney Suzuki/Raveonettes

The thing about making a record is you either do or do not leave yourself sufficient room to take it up a notch in concert.

The Mooney Suzuki couldn't hope to top the relentless abandon with which the members were able to filter their love of all things mod and Detroit punk through "Live at Leeds" on an album whose title says it all -- "Electric Sweat." There were plenty of times when they just about equaled it Friday at Club Laga, though, attacking many of the album's strongest cuts with an explosive energy while climbing speaker cabinets, leaping through the air and engaging in some of the funniest rock star posturing since Green Day.

But the real surprise on Friday's four-band bill -- after opening sets by the leather boys of White Light Motorcade and the Psychedelic Furs enthusiasts of Longwave -- was the Raveonettes, who took it up a notch or maybe two with the addition of a drummer, a second guitarist and, apparently, a lot of caffeine and/or trucker speed. They rocked their Danish surf beats with an energy the album barely hinted at without losing their raiding-the-Jesus-and-Mary-Chain-closet appeal. Most conversations at the bar, in fact, were split between raving about how great their set was and raving about how well they'd been able to capture the sound of the Jesus and Mary Chain.

The first song found them shoving Buddy Holly up against a wall of distorted guitars on "Everyday," making good on the "Rave On" part of the band name at last. And with a new one called "Chain Gang," Sharin Foo was free to wrap her blase Debbie Harryesque delivery and sex appeal around a song with all the sassy pop appeal of Blondie's greatest hits.

-- Review by Ed Masley, Post-Gazette Pop Music Critic

Bill Deasy

With better luck, Bill Deasy could have shown John Mayer -- and James Taylor, who's apparently forgotten -- how it's done when this year's Grammy broadcast turned its attention to shining a light on the singer-songwriter scene. But Deasy's self-releasing these days, just in time to hit you with a song that comes on like the breakthrough hit he never knew -- outside of Pittsburgh, anyway. Not that his earlier work was inaccessible -- or even close to inaccessible -- but "Blue Sky Grey" is such an instantly engaging folk-rock treasure even Atlantic would have had a hard time fumbling the ball on that one.

And it's not alone here, either. "Good Day No Rain" hits the streets today on Deasy's own Bound to Be Records. And fans of his work with the Gathering Field would do well not to miss this latest chapter in the Deasy story.

Cut in New York City with a band of session aces and a couple of friends from Pittsburgh (Liz Berlin of Rusted Root and Clark Slater of Push), the production is warm and rich and, even in its loudest moments, intimate, whether supporting his heartfelt vocals with strings on "Blue Sky Grey" and "Who We Are" or scaling it back to acoustic guitar and percussion. Even when the energy kicks in on "Prisoner," the vocals remain in the forefront. And that's where you want the vocals with a lyricist as strong as Deasy spinning turns of phrase as inspired as "You make poetry from lies till it almost sounds like the truth" and "Where did you go last night while she slept in sheets of white dreaming of you?"

-- Review by Ed Masley, Post-Gazette Pop Music Critic

A different take on Australia

Jill Ker Conway, a native of the Outback, hates “Crocodile Dundee.”

In fact, her distaste for the Australian movie was one of several reasons why she paused in her successful academic career to become a memoir writer.

She’s succeeded at that pursuit as well and spent her hour upon the Carnegie Music Hall stage last night to tell the Heinz Lectures audience why she did it.

“I wanted to dispose of the notion that the Outback is full of tough ‘Crocodile Dundees.’ There are plenty of tough women there, too.”

There were other, more important, motivations as well, including offering an alternative to the traditionally passive life stories of women to revealing the injustices she faced in forging self-reliance and an independent career.

The author of three autobiographical volumes -- “The Road From Coorain, “True North” and “A Woman’s Education” -- Conway’s journey has been of particular inspiration to young women fighting the same discrimination she battled from Down Under to Harvard to the University of Toronto.

She was also the first female president of Smith College and now is on the faculty at MIT.

Striding out in almost summery light slacks and jacket, the 68-year-old Conway was a no-nonsense lecturer who told the crowd what she was going to talk about, then did.

Her Outback toughness seemed a bit cold at times, but she left ‘em laughing with an account of what she called the “moments of folly” in the academic groves.

The series has rescheduled novelist Anchee Min, who canceled due to bad weather. She will speak at the music hall April 23 at 7:30 p.m. Tickets from the canceled event will be honored.

-- Review by Bob Hoover, Post-Gazette Book Editor