According to front-woman Kay Hanley, "anybody on stage has a certain amount of sex appeal, just because they're up there, even if they're completely ordinary." Not to say that Ms. Hanley was completely ordinary, but sex appeal was virtually leaking out of her body while on stage. Rarely does a single performance alter the viewer's perception as greatly as Letters to Cleo's performance at the Floodzone.
I'm generally a happy person with somewhat dark tastes in music: Nine Inch Nails, the Cure, Portishead, and Bauhaus. However, the self proclaimed "goofy, smiley, happy loser pop band" became my absolute favorite band of the year as they displayed an array of songs from both the slightly somber Aurora Gory Alice and the upbeat Wholesale Meats and Fish. It seemed that the same sort of frenzy over took most of the crowd as they danced nonchalantly through the night.
The Cleos opened the show with the hard rocking first track off of Wholesale, "Demon Rock." The crowd instantly proved very receptive to the song as well as the stage presence of the ever-lovable Kay Hanley. Her enthusiastic and at times sultry body movements on stage helped bolster the strength of each ensuing song. Any remaining stigma tied to Melrose Place and monster hit "Here & Now" was instantly forgotten. The quality of sound and skill easily matched, if not surpassed, that of the studio recorded albums.
At times, the band needed to rearrange some of their songs for live performance. For instance, "Acid Jed" has an incredibly melodic and memorable organ part which was instead replaced by fierce lead guitar. In addition, the acoustic and skeletal original version of "Step Back" was replaced by a full-band, electric version of the song. These changes made the songs no less effective. More so, the differences kept the audience from falling into a lull of expectancy as well as displayed the band's actual ability to perform live.
The body of the show lasted 13 songs consisting mostly of material off the then newly released Wholesale Meats and Fish. In contrast the four-song encore contained "I See," "Step Back," and "Rimshak" off of Aurora. The surprise performance of the encore was a version of Dillon Fence's "Living Room Scene." The difference between Dillon Fence's Greg Humphrey's voice and that of Kay Hanley's virtually transformed the song's appeal from pure emotion to sex appeal while leaving the substance of the song essentially unchanged.
It may be true that everyone on stage has a degree of sex appeal; but few can match the personality and presence of Kay Hanley and Letters to Cleo.
