Laurie Anderson delivers an avant-garde performance in New Jersey during 1985
With spoken word, music, film and elaborate costume design.
Folloring Laurie Anderson’s 1984 album Mister Heartbreak, she travelled to the Park Theater in Union City, NJ to record a live concert the next year.
Read more: The groundbreaking intersectionality of Laurie Anderson’s Big Science
Intertwining avant-garde spoken performances, film and instrumental tracks, the concert included songs from Anderson’s Mister Heartbreak album, alongside her 1983 multimedia show United States, as well as several original pieces.
It also featured appearances by author William S. Burroughs, keyboardist Joy Askew, percussionist David Van Tieghem, guitarist Adrian Belew and actor Won-sang Park.
The set was released on VHS in 1963 under the name Home of the Brave, with recordings from the performance later contributing to Anderson’s 1986 soundtrack album of the same name.
Watch the performance in full above, and check out the setlist below.
Setlist:
2. Zero and One (spoken word)
3. Excellent Birds
4. Old Hat (spoken word)
5. Drum Dance (instrumental)
6. Smoke Rings
7. Late Show (instrumental with vocal sample by William S. Burroughs)
8. White Lily (spoken word)
9. Sharkey’s Day
10. How to Write (instrumental with spoken word introduction by Won-sang Park)
11. Kokoku
12. Radar (instrumental with wordless vocalszations by Anderson)
13. Gravity’s Angel
14. Langue d’amour
15. Talk Normal
16. Difficult Listening Hour (spoken word)
17. Language Is a Virus
18. Sharkey’s Night
19. Credit Racket (instrumental)
