The Fort Worth Star-Telegram (5.3.99)

Siouxsie - and other Creatures of the night

Mark Lowry, Star-Telegram Writer

Dallas - Siouxsie Sioux looked fantastic and husband Budgie's percussions sounded great, but the first half of The Creatures' concert at Deep Ellum Live on Saturday, was missing something.

It wasn't magnetism. Sioux has been performing for more than two decades, both with her seminal punk-goth band Siouxsie and the Banshees and with this band, a onetime side project that has become her focus since the Banshees disbanded in 1995. Onstage, she's a live wire. She writhes, flashes her animated eyes about the room and exudes an abundance of sexual energy.

And it wasn't the stage setting. This show had more roaming spotlights and dramatic colors than anything I have seen at this venue.

The problem seemed to stem from not being able to hear her vocals, both when singing and talking to the audience. I'm not sure if was because her microphone wasn't turned up or because the music was simply too loud. But I wasn't that far from the stage and I could barely hear her.

Something happened about midway through when Budgie left the skins to play acoustic guitar up front while Sioux sang I Was Me!, the best track from the new record Anima Animus. The technical staff must have upped the sound levels a notch or two, because suddenly we could hear her alluring ghoulish voice clearly.

The Creatures' music has always been about percussion. In addition to Budgie's madman skin-banging (it's easy to see that the Kodo Drummers are one of his biggest influences), Sioux employed a variety of instruments from hand cymbals to sleigh bells. Even on 2nd Floor, a major dance-floor mover, they scaled back the techno and boosted the tribal drum beats.

The main set ended with Budgie taking the spotlight at the massive bass drum on a rather tall stand downstage while Sioux belted out Exterminating Angel.

They topped that with an encore of older material as Sioux danced a goth burlesque with a feather boa given to her by someone in the audience.

Contributed by Jerry Burch.