Exclusive
Feature
| Berlin: Voyeurs & Pleasure Victims
Written by: Kage
Alan
Picture this. It's July 17th, 2002. I
found out a week earlier that Berlin,
one of my favorite groups from the 80s, is going to be in town to
perform a
concert at DTE (cursed to forever be called Pine Knob). Cool,
only I didn't
think I'd be able to go for various reasons. A friend of
mine sends me two
lawn seats (a huge thank you to Jose for those), but I'm still not
convinced that I should go. You see, aside from being a DVD
snob, I'm also a
concert snob whose motto is "this ass doesn't sit on grass". Yeah,
I'm
sure you feel really sorry for me, NOT. Anyway, my father
decides on the day
of the show that he'd like to go too and is willing to pay for an
upgrade. I
drive out there in the early afternoon and end up with 3rd row center
seats.
We've now just moved from "cool" to "oh yeah,
baby!"
We arrive at the theatre 30 minutes prior to the show and end up in
VIP
parking by mistake and nobody says a word. Dad and I sip a
concert-priced
lemonade and marvel at our luck, then I'm off to buy a t-shirt
(something
I've not done since the 80s) and a limited edition CD only available
at the
concert (something I've not done since Sarah Brightman last year and
was
consequently discovered by my boyfriend 2 minutes after I bought the
thing).
We find our seats, marvel at how close we are and Dad asks me what
time the
show starts. I think 7, but I figure I'll ask an usher. It's
when I'm
talking to this guy that I remember I write for a magazine and I have
business cards with me to prove it. An idea begins to form
and I present him
with a request to see if I can meet the group after their set. He
promises
to give the card to management, then I'm back in my seat as Berlin
hits the
stage.
It's a small crowd even for a Wednesday night and I feared lead singer
Terri
Nunn would address the audience not with "How's everybody doing
tonight?",
but rather with "WHERE the hell is everybody tonight?" While
I've seen
multiple bands tour together before, I have never seen an opener who
owned
the audience from the first song on. Berlin greets the
small yet devoted
group of us with energy, enthusiasm, an excellent mix of classic and
new
material and all with style, excellent chemistry between themselves
and a
huge sense of fun. They really deserved a much larger
crowd, especially
since keyboardist Mitchell Sigman is from the area and had friends
present
who cheered him on. My night didn't end there, though.
The usher, that precious umbilical chord with management, still isn't
sure
what is going on, so I return to my seat once more and wait for The
Outfield
to take the stage, which they do 20 minutes later. Three
songs into their
set, I notice somebody scoot down our row and sit down next to me. If
it's
one more person bitching at me about the Darren Hayes review I wrote,
this is
going to get ugly! He asks if the card he's holding is mine
(it is), then
introduces himself as Tom, Berlin's Tour Manager, and asks me to
follow him.
Trying my best to keep the rather large grin off my face and failing
miserably, we make our way up the long stairs of the pavilion and back
around
behind the stage past people who are told I don't have a pass and am
being
personally escorted and finally to a dressing room. Tom
knocks on the door,
walks in and announces me. I poke my head in and am certain
I look quite
star struck at this point because of how nervous I've become, then
follow him
through. There, sitting curled up on a couch and sipping a
glass of wine is
the heart and soul of Berlin herself; Terri Nunn. She is so
used to this and
I'm so not that she ends up putting me at ease. "Would
you like a glass of
wine or a beer and sit down?" Instead of blurting out the
"HELL YES!" I'm
thinking, I respond politely and sit down next to her and across from
drummer
Chris Olivas.
The first thing I do is thank Terri for something she did back in
1991.
She's curious, so I briefly tell her how I'd bought her solo album
("Moment
of Truth") and had written a letter congratulating her and
wishing her the
best success. A month and a half after I sent it, I
received an autographed
picture made out to me. Chris teases her with "aww,
isn't Terri
sweeeeeeeeet?" She is, actually. We spend the next 30
minutes covering
almost anything and everything under the sun. I wanted to
know what happened to her after releasing "Moment Of Truth",
a very underrated album by the way, until reforming Berlin in 1998. "I
got a life," she says matter-of-factly, "and I got married. All
I ever had was music, so I really wanted a life." Aside from
helping take care of her two stepchildren during her time out of the
spotlight, she also worked with Jane's Addiction, Sisters of Mercy and
a few others.
I have lots of questions, many of which come as follow-ups from things
Chris
and Terri bring up that don't even relate to Berlin, which makes this
all the
more fun. Who does she listen to these days? "No
Doubt, Sheryl Crow and
Custom." Chris is surprised she's not mentioned hearing the new
Custom disc
yet and is further dismayed to find out she's seen the Nine Inch Nails
DVD
and not liked it very much. "I was going to get that
for you for your birthday." Terri soon turns the tables on me and
asks about Moda, what the site is like and what sorts of things I
write. I tell them about a new special edition CD and DVD
of Propaganda I'm going to be reviewing soon and she remarks
"They've got a new album out? I love them!" Not
only am I impressed that this singer/songwriter knows who Propaganda
is, but she's a fan of them too. Suddenly I don't feel like
such a geek.
The subject changes again and I ask if she has any tattoos. "None,"
she
jokes, "I'm too chicken." Chris, meanwhile, describes the
one he has, Chinese
symbols that represent the meaning for "drummer," then
eagerly tells me about
his numerous piercings. I ask him if he's ever set off an
airport metal detector and Terri laughs. I actually cracked
a joke! I'm so happy that I'm right back to feeling like a
geek again.
It was time to talk about the new album, "Voyeur," which is
due to be
released August 20th on ARTISTdirect by BMG. They'd
performed several cuts from it during their set, namely "Blink Of
An Eye," "Shiny" and "Lost My
Mind" and each sounded fantastic! Both Terri, Chris
and the rest of the
group are excited about "Voyeur" and will be spending much
of August promoting it. Fortunately, it looks as if there
will be a single or two
released from it as well, so that will hopefully spread the word that
Berlin
is back and ready for business. I tell her I'm really
looking forward to hearing it and she stops to think for a moment. "I
think I've got an extra promo copy
with me. Would you like it?" I'm once again thinking
"HELL YES!" but come up with something far less drastic.
A DVD of one of their current concerts is also in the works, which
brings the
conversation around to the famed Japanese laserdisc of a concert from
the
"Count Three And Pray" tour. She is surprised to
learn that I own the Sony
Video 45 VHS tape of 5 classic Berlin videos and it turns out that
Chris has
never heard the version of "Masquerade" featured on the
soundtrack to
"Perfect". He breaks into a humorous story about
how he used to listen to
the original version of "Masquerade" in high school and
fantasize about the
lead singer, who blushes a bit at that point. Speaking of
concerts, I couldn't help but notice that Berlin performs at a huge
number of festivals and Pride events. "We love doing
Pride shows," she beams. "The last one we did in
Long Beach had 15,000 people."
Someone comes in for a few minutes to talk to Terri and Chris takes a
moment
to tell me quite seriously that while a number of other artists often
make
comebacks for the money, "Terri isn't like that. She
does it for the music.
It's what she loves." After having seen the group perform and
then having an
opportunity to chat with some of them for half an hour, it's obvious
that
both she and the group really are about the music. Tom
tells me they have to
start moving things along, so I thank Terri and Chris and tell them
what a pleasure it's been. With a little luck, maybe I'll
see them all again in the
future. As for now, I have a new album to review and the
memory of a night
that left me a true pleasure victim.
Anyone interested in finding out up-to-date information on the group
should
check out www.berlinpage.com
***A special thank you to Tom Bennett, Berlin's Tour Manager, for
making this article possible.
COMMENTS
Date/Time of Posting:
Sep 07 2002 / 12:13:49
IP Address: 207.203.38.51
name = George Mizzell
where = gmizzell@bellsouth.net
replyemail = review of "Music Review | Berlin: Voyeur"
comments = I believe this is a pretty good review, but nowhere near as
strong as I would put it. Literally I think Berlin is the ONLY
group that has yet to put out a bad song. I LOVE every song on
every album/CD that they have produced.
If "Blink of an eye" got 1/10 of the play time it deserved, it
would be #1 for several weeks. There has not been a song as
captiavting as it is since Ace of Base - All that she wants. It is
the definition of "Acoustical Inebreiation" or "Sonic
Intoxication", phrases usually reserved for the works of Pink Floyd
and ELP and the likes of those super stars.
Go Berlin, GO
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