Xiu Xiu lynchpin Jamie Stewart’s own words on what these two, sold-out evening highlights of the David Lynch season at GoMA were about.
“The music of 'Twin Peaks' is everything that we aspire to as musicians and is everything that we want to listen to as music fans. It is romantic, it is terrifying, it is beautiful, it is unnervingly sexual.“The idea of holding the ‘purity’ of the 1950s up to the cold light of a violent moon and exposing the skull beneath the frozen, worried smile has been a stunning influence on us. There is no way that we can recreate Badalamenti and Lynch’s music as it was originally played. It is too perfect and we could never do its replication justice.
“Our attempt will be to play the parts of the songs as written, meaning, following the harmony melody but to arrange in the way that it has shaped us as players.”
Xiu Xiu have never been a stranger to reinterpretations having just two years ago released an album of reinterpretations of Nina Simone songs and have regularly covered other artists from Queen to The Pussycat Dolls over their 15-year career. Combine this with the fact their own, band name is derived from a film directed by Joan Chen – who played Josie Packard in 'Twin Peaks' – and it’s clear there’s no-one better suited to undertake such a project.
'Twin Peaks' was arguably the first, massively successful American TV show that bridged the gap between the glib, overacted, soap operas of the '80s like 'Dallas' or 'Dynasty' to the gold standard of modern drama it now holds with examples such as 'The Wire' or 'Breaking Bad'.
It’s amazing looking back to think that a director such as Lynch was given the opportunity to work on such a high-scale show considering the niche surrealism and absurdity that underpins his work, blurring the lines of reality in a way that puts the onus on the viewer to interpret what they’ve seen. In the words of the Log Lady: “Behind all things are reasons. Reasons can even explain the absurd. Do we have the time to learn the reasons behind the human being's varied behaviour? I think not.”
Despite this, 'Twin Peaks' was a big success and remains a classic with a loyal, hardcore following that lost their collective shit when the prospect of new episodes were tweeted by Lynch and confirmed by Showtime last year. While that confirmation also looks to have blurred the line between reality and aspiration, at the very least it’s proved a pertinent excuse to dig out one of Lynch’s masterpieces again.
As with much of Lynch’s work, music is a pivotal part of 'Twin Peaks', a collaboration between Lynch and Angelo Badalamenti that has inspired many. Its iconic theme, ‘Falling’, skillfully set the scene for the exploration of the dark side of the American dream that is a common theme for so much of Lynch’s work.
These days Lynch seems to be spending more time on his musical career than as a director, having not released a feature-length film since 2006’s 'Inland Empire'. Part of me wondered whether or not the man himself may even join the band for the performance, but alas that wasn’t to be.
With all of this in mind, the atmosphere and expectation before the show was electrifying. Then, without announcement or fanfare, Shayna Dunkelman, Angela Seo and a suited Jamie Stewart walked onto the stage as the crowd didn’t know whether to applaud or respect the silence holding an event in a cinema subconsciously enforces.
After a few, silent nods between the members – as they took their place among the sprawl of instruments and electronics – the opening notes play out to 'Laura Palmer’s Theme'. Though the source material was comprised of relatively brief compositions originally designed to complement what was on screen, Xiu Xiu fleshed out the sound and managed to tastefully adapt each piece to make it their own.
The unexpected jumps from tender moments of sparseness to sudden bursts of brutality and noise captured the tension with more explicitness than the originals contained. Even the wandering basslines, which bordered on the slapstick in their original forms on ‘Audrey’s Dance’ and ‘Freshly Squeezed’ received bursts of noise and harsh percussion that gave them a far more sinister feel.
No words were spoken between songs during the entire performance as the cinema screen alternated between a handful of short loops of shots from the series, including the ominous view up the empty Palmer staircase as the fan slowly spins.
Stewart’s voice was as painfully strained as always, making the performance of 'Sycamore Trees' an almost uncomfortable listen as his face drastically contorted to deliver the notes. Stewart’s tormented delivery stripped the innocence away from some of Julee Cruise’s original deliveries, continuing to reduce the subtlety that Xiu Xiu could possibly deliver and stamping it with their own trademark.
Though easy to get wrong, the balance between interpreting the music in their style and remaining faithful to the originals was a great success managing to capture the best between both worlds.
However, all good things have to come to an end and for this performance that was an innocent toned reading of Laura’s diary by Shayna Dunkelman as the other two built noises of dread behind it, which was abruptly ended by a delivery of 'Mairzy Doats' that would have made Ray Wise proud.
Then, without a word, the band walked off the stage as abruptly as they had entered. It was everything an audience could have asked for and it’s little surprise that the concept for these two shows has now been extended to a full, European tour for the band.
In the words of The Log Lady: “I play my part on my stage. I tell what I can to form the perfect answer. But that answer cannot come before all are ready to hear. So I tell what I can to form the perfect answer.”. This was it.
