Last night, went to see Blue Man Group's "Complex Rock Tour" show with Karen, Sev, Lisa and Brian. Damn good show.

The first opening act was Tracy Bonham, whom I found enjoyable. (Public Service Announcement: don't view the site unless you're on broadband; it's all done in Flash.) Brian was actually familiar with her (he has two of her albums). Nice complex melodic and harmonic structure, and she's got a decent voice, too. The second group was Venus Hum, which sounded like a cross between an '80s band and industrial/house/whatever they're calling it this month. I found it difficult to understand the words their vocalist was singing, and as always I'm less than impressed by groups who rely heavily on prerecorded tracks during a live show, but I'll give them bonus nostalgia points for singing backup with a vocoder.

Between the Venus Hum and Blue Man Group sets, they cleverly kept the audience amused with two scrolling LED displays. The one on the right was stodgy, presenting statistics and rules (no videotaping the concert, no photography, etc.), while the sinister sign undermined the right's messages ("Just don't use the flash... nobody will ever know."). The left sign even pimped its own website, www.wordsontheleft.com.

I wasn't exactly sure what to expect of BMG, my only previous exposure to them being the Intel commercials and the Exhibit 13 video. The show's conceit was that BMG were listening to a tape (or perhaps watching a video) on How to Be a Rock Star. Rock Movement #1: The Head Bob. It's amazing what those guys can do with various lengths of PVC pipe and drumsticks (backed up by a drum kit, two other percussionists, two guitarists, bass and keyboard players and various vocalists). Various other instructions taught them about Bringing Out a Guest Vocalist (Tracy Bonham again, who sang on several other songs), Saying Hello to the People in the Cheap Seats, Bringing Audience Members on Stage to Dance (hilarious), Getting Closer to the Audience (a giant screen projected the view from their Handycam as they pulled a guy out of the audience, pushed the camera in for an extreme closeup, and then down his throat, through his stomach and into his intestines, then back out again. Well, okay, they only pushed the lens into his mouth and then the screen cut to a taped tour of the digestive tract, but the transition was done really smoothly) and more.

They also brought out Venus Hum for a song, during which the lead singer was wearing a fascinating dress made from horizontal strips of pulsating electroluminescent tape, the design of which was then mirrored by various monitors on stage. (Karen said: I want that dress!)

Among the interesting instruments was a baby grand piano laid on its side, so that one of the Blue Men could strike its strings with a mallet (Karen said: I want a piano like that!), Fiberglas poles which they whipped about to make rhythmic "whoosh" noises, the "backpack tubulum", which was a similar concept to their floor model, but it attained varying pitches by attaching flexible plastic hoses to short lengths of PVC (which were struck to sound the notes).

Again, really great show, and props to Sev for obtaining the tickets.

An interview with one of BMG's founders gives some interesting information about the formation and evolution of the Group, as well as the basic premise behind the show.