Guilty Guilty Blues
Diamanda Galas - Guilty Guilty Guilty
The State Theatre, 21 October 2005
I had tried to explain to YB what I was going to see. Considering she is also a vocalist slash pianist (slash dancer...) skewed a couple of degrees anti-clockwise from the rest of us, I figured she might be a bit interested. Couldn't quite do it. Explain Diamanda. And after seeing her show I still can't.
I had expected the screeching and the wailing, the dark and morbid themes. Somehow having her at the State Theatre, a venue of such excessive, dramatic and opulent features, seemed quite appropriate even though I didn't really know what to expect. JPB wasn't sure if I would like her but a couple of seconds into her performance I knew I was watching something special.
I wasn't expecting her to be so bluesy, though. And unexpectedly humourous, too, launching into a jaunty little ditty about how her baby was a bit insane, and her version of I Put A Spell On You is wickedly and disturbingly funny. With her much-spoken-of four-octave range she begins from the pit of her stomach to soar to operatic heights only to crow like some possessed rooster, sometimes all in one very long breath. And the songs are so dark one can only wonder what kind of relationships she has had in her life to sing like this. She uses some audio effects; an everpresent echo throughout the show, the occasional incomprehensible chattering voices trailing her lyrics, and in one song her piano sounding like its from some 50's B-grade sci-fi - nothing too overwhelming though it makes me wonder what the show would be like, completely stripped back to just vocals and piano. Considering what she does with her voice, is there really a need for F/X?
Offstage, Galas is reportedly quite unlike her onstage tortured persona. Pleasant and quite likable (shouldn't really be that much of a surprise though, I find it is quite often the case that the performer doesn't usually correspond to the performance). She was gracious in her curtain call, extremely modest in her onstage badinage, and she took two encores. The next day I tried to explain to YB what I had seen but could only describe it as "Gothic Blues" which doesn't quite sum it all up. I guess you just had to be there.
