The Cranberries |
 |
|
Thu. May 06.1999 4:13 PM EDT |
||
Cranberries Club Set Mixes Motherhood, PoliticsIrish band returns to stage after three-year hiatus. by Contributing Editor Frank Tortorici |
||||
|
||||
 |
The Cranberries' Bury the Hatchet debuted at #13 this week on the Billboard 200 albums chart. (Mark Seliger) |
|
||
NEW YORK -- Back on the road after a three-year break -- the
longest they've ever taken -- Irish pop-rockers the Cranberries on
Wednesday showcased new songs reflecting singer Dolores O'Riordan's
motherhood and old ones restating her
The show at the Hammerstein Ballroom was the fourth on a club tour that began a week earlier in Washington, D.C., and is scheduled to continue through the middle of May. It's in support of the band's fourth album, Bury the Hatchet, which entered the Billboard 200 albums chart this week at #13. After releasing three albums in three years, the Cranberries took a vacation after their 1996 tour for To the Faithful Departed, which was cut short after O'Riordan suffered a leg injury. The album went platinum but was nonetheless the band's weakest-selling. During the break, the energetic, yodeling lead singer became a mother. "This song I wrote just before I gave birth to my son," she said Wednesday, introducing the beautiful new "Saving Grace." "I can't wait to see your face/ It could happen here today," she sang, softly moaning the words as she rolled her eyes upward, as if seeking divine assistance. The four-piece band was augmented by a keyboard player and an additional guitarist. The Cranberries played most of the songs from Bury the Hatchet along with such crowd-pleasing hits as "Ode to My Family," from No Need to Argue (1994) and "Linger," from Everybody Else Is Doing It, So Why Can't We? (1993). Despite the long layoff since the previous tour, they displayed a hard-rocking tightness. Some fans worried that a maternal O'Riordan would mean boring Cranberries. "I'm a big fan [and] I've seen them twice in concert," Suzanne Cerabone, 26, of New Jersey, said. "But the baby might give [O'Riordan] a different perspective. [The title] Bury the Hatchet sounds like a huge transition." Motherhood notwithstanding, the pounding rhythms provided by shirtless drummer Fergal Lawler and the Hogan brothers -- Mike on bass and Noel on lead guitar -- propelled O'Riordan as she ran around the stage, violently whipping her shoulder-length hair around. She was dressed in a black pants suit, and that hair, natural black when the Cranberries first came to prominence, then blond, then black again, was back to blond. The band opened the show with three songs from Bury the Hatchet, and by the time they got to the chorus of their upbeat new single, "Promises," much of the capacity crowd was on its feet and many were screaming "Dolores." During "Animal Instinct" (RealAudio excerpt), the new album's opening track, O'Riordan, who had stripped down to a glittery tube top, crouched slightly and made a clawing gesture as she sang. For other songs, she strapped on a red guitar and waltzed around the stage looking like a strolling minstrel. O'Riordan, who has a sweet, resonant voice, introduced "Loud and Clear," a tongue-in-cheek kiss-off to a lover, by saying, "This is a bit of a sarcastic baby." Her yodel-like "eh-ee-ohs" were as prevalent as ever, sometimes taking up more time and space than her lyrics. O'Riordan's motherhood was the subject of a few new songs, whose personal touches made them stand apart from some of her earlier, more strident tunes. But the band played those, too, during a 90-minute set that mixed quiet moments with high-energy hits such as "Salvation" (RealAudio excerpt), during which the crowd's fevered swaying suggested the atmosphere of a heavy-metal concert. The band closed the main set with the 1994 hit "Zombie," about an Irish rebellion. As the house lights came on, the club echoed with the chorus' "in your head" line. "You guys are rockin'," O'Riordan said. "This has been such a great concert." |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
  |
 |
Cranberries Bear Babies, Prepare Album for Release |
|
WIRE: FROM JANIS TO KENNY LOGGINS TO THE CRANBERRIES |
|
Cranberries To Tour U.S. In Late Summer |
 |
 |
 |
|
Receive Free Music News Daily Via Email |
|
Receive Free Artist Updates Via Email for The Cranberries |
|
All news for The Cranberries |
|
Breaking Music News |
 |
Add VH1 News to My Yahoo |
|
