Iron Maiden; Siouxsie Sioux
It’s a good week to be a British legend. While south London’s Iron Maiden will be taking over the fabulous Forum on Wednesday, Bromley’s own goddess of Goth Siouxsie Sioux will headline Friday and Saturday at the Music Box @ Fonda. It’s difficult to say whose music has aged better: Maiden is one of the very few bands in heavy metal history to have successfully weathered vagaries in fashion to still manage to put on huge, spectacle-filled shows almost 30 years after it began. Put it this way: One more bad Metallica album and Iron Maiden will reclaim its crown as the biggest metal group in the world. (The Forum, 3900 W. Manchester Blvd., Inglewood.)
MantaRay is Sioux’s first-ever solo album (after years of leading Banshees and Creatures), and it’s been greeted with positive notices by her pals in the U.K. media (the same ones who delighted in making her out to be an eccentric freak, when punk was something to sell newspapers to frightened parents). Still, it wasn’t long before people started listening with their ears instead of their eyes, and Sioux’s talent for moody and nuanced pop ignited a style and look that continues unabated to this day. For a born-and-bred youthquaker like Sioux, it must be easy to look back at her legacy and smirk triumphantly: Initial shock has become awe, awe has turned to respect, and, ultimately, a lasting legacy of art and mystery.
For details, see Concerts listings.
2008-02-14
Published: 02/13/2008
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