Word: drums
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...stage of the Kennedy Center's Terrace Theater is full of men in black suits and women with Marge Simpson-size hair. To the quiet tick of a deep-voiced drum, they strip to their skivvies. Then the four percussionists in the pit lay down a loud backbeat, and the half-clothed dancers start flying crazily through the air. They look like mall rats at a suburban prom--but their airy lifts and arabesques are straight out of Swan Lake...
...they will notice differences. For one, composer and lead guitarist Billy Howerdel is less crunching and more delicate with his riffs, still ripping heavy dirges but tempered with artful solos and even the occasional acoustic. Howerdel is full of surprises, showcasing Keenan in front of softer ballads ("3 Libras"), drum machine and sample and extensive strong arrangements ("Rose"). What? Is that a violin? Yes, Tool fans. You will be shocked to find that A Perfect Circle employs a permanent violinist, Paz Lenchantin, who doubles as the bassist. But the focus never changes from Keenan's depressingly enchanting voice...
...that if Harvard students don't care, nobody does. The fact that on most days you can barely walk two feet in the yard without running into some kind of protest is proof enough that the Harvard student body as a whole is hardly apathetic. If they can't drum up support here, prospects are looking bleak for the talk-show circuit...
...subgenres of dance music. Where other dance acts might have been happy to go on stage with just two turntables, the group turned up at Axis not only with a DJ, but with the full complement of a rock band: guitarist, bassist and two (!) drummers to simulate the maniacal drum-machine rhythms of their songs, not to mention loads of lighting effects. It wasn't just a gimmick. Apollo 440's big-beat-tinged songs tend to have an arena-rock quality; indeed, their biggest hit, 1997's apostrophe-laden "Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Dub," samples a Van Halen guitar...
...didn't help that despite the extravaganza of stage decor, lead singer Mry Mary looked like he had decided to throw on a tatty T-shirt before coming on stage. It took the drum 'n' bass beats of the single "Heart Go Boom" to finally get the crowd going, and even then, the transition into a slower song killed the momentum. Another single, "Stop the Rock," came next, but the rock was already stopped: like a weak bomb, the crowd bounced slowly but never exploded. The poker-faced security people might have smiled inside, faced as they were with...