Documentary on THE ROXY
Aug 20, 2008 1:23:57 GMT -5
Post by 🅳🅸🆂🅲🅾 on Aug 20, 2008 1:23:57 GMT -5
I read about the documentary at Peter's boards last week. I'm glad I was able to see this since I don't have the LOGO channel on my cable system. It was pretty good overall. I wish they had interviewed a few of the other DJs who had spun there over the years. And some of the other artists who had performed there. I'm assuming that they might have wanted to do that but maybe they weren't available and/or they didn't want to participate.
I used to get the occasional issue of Billboard magazine back in the day when it wasn't as expensive. I happened to purchase that issue in '98 where Larry Flick recounted Madonna's appearance there during the Ray Of Light era. I have the clipping still. But I found that little item on a Madonna forum. Here it is.
If only there was a video of this performance.
I used to get the occasional issue of Billboard magazine back in the day when it wasn't as expensive. I happened to purchase that issue in '98 where Larry Flick recounted Madonna's appearance there during the Ray Of Light era. I have the clipping still. But I found that little item on a Madonna forum. Here it is.
Madonna
The Roxy
New York
Feb. 14, 1998
Reviewed by Larry Flick
At nearly 2 a.m. on Valentine's Day, a shoulder-to-shoulder crowd of 2,500
clubgoers stared at the empty stage of New York's painfully trendy Roxy,
mentally willing the curtain to open. They knew behind it stood Madonna,
whose secret "Ice Ball" gig would mark her first club performance in more
than 10 years.
Finally, as the room went dark, a tiny figure floated onstage, breathing the
words "Sky fits heaven, so fly it" over swirling, muted keyboard chords.
Once the song's heavy, trance-like beat kicked in and a rainbow of light
washed over the stage, the pop chameleon whipped off her black,
Gautier-designed silk shroud and revealed her latest hippie-chick/Earth Mama
persona. The crowd went ballistic, pawing at the almost perilously
accessible singer as she twirled up and down the club's runaway. The Roxy's
muddy sound system left much to be desired, almost obliterating the nuances
of techno producer William Orbit's synthesizer work. But Madonna rose to the
challenge, swinging from the tune "Sky Fits Heaven" into the tribalistic
yoga chant, "Shanti/Ashtangi," which she punctuated with the occasional yoga
position and go-go-girl flailing.
Visibly enjoying herself, Madonna touched the audience's outstretched hands
and ranted about how "fucking great" it felt to be back in a club. Then,
segueing into a 10-plus-minute version of "Ray Of Light," she hit notes
that seemed to stretch far beyond those touched in 1996's "Evita" . . . all
while jumping, swaggering, and occasionally dropping to her knees to play
furious air-guitar in sync with the track's solos.
When the song was finished, so was Madonna, who left quickly as the crowd
vainly shrieked for more. Yet it hardly mattered that she only performed
three tracks -- all of them from her forthcoming Maverick/Warner Bros.
collection, "Ray Of Light" -- and did not include her new single, "Frozen."
The show was a homecoming of the highest order, with Madonna exuding the
confidence and charisma of a true diva, if there ever was one.
Larry Flick is the Dance Music editor for Billboard.
If only there was a video of this performance.
