Homeland-Laurie Anderson-Sydney Opera House

Laurie Anderson has the sort of voice that captures your attention. Not because it is loud and forceful, but it has that tone of a flight attendant at times, and it makes you think that maybe you should pay attention. Laurie and a trio of musicians performed her new work, Homeland, at the Sydney Opera House on Sunday to an attentive and appreciative audience of fans. We were all covered in that beautiful sound Laurie can create with a mixture of voice and electronics and strings but the underlying theme of the work left you feeling a tad apprehensive of the state of affairs of the world and the Bush-land.Simply, though, Laurie does not spell everything out in her art. She creates a space in her work where she can delve into music, and then with a pause, throw in some words. Having seen Laurie perform her United States I-IV in the early 80s over 4 nights/8 hours at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, I was expecting more of a multi-media blitz on the evening. But Homeland, was a musical piece, albeit one with words about the state of the nation (USA) and how it fits into the rest of the universe today. Laurie would associate the footprints of America to be parallel to those of a dinosaur. This can bee seen in the political, cultural and environmental views she shares throughout the evening.As per usual, the drone and the hypnotic repetition of her work is captivating. She is joined by Jamshied Sharfi on keys, Skuli Sverrisson on bass and guitar and the amazing Eyvind Kang on viola. Laurie plays the violin and keyboards and employs similar vocal techniques to her vocals as she has done in the past. Cracking some jokes amongst the political songs like Why Do People Hate Us and the witty and sharp and catchy Only An Expert. The latter is a take on the Iraq situation using media speak to describe why ‘there is no problem, unless an expert tells us there is a problem. There is clearly NO problem’. This joke goes on and on, but simply, it is not a joke. Laurie and her band performed without showing any emotion and let the piece speak for itself. The stage was a simple, but very effective, sea of tiny tea lights. Throughout the night some went out and I felt this was part of the piece and a reflection that we don’t know actually how long the lights will be on. Laurie actually did some more singing then she had in the past and I liked the timbre and sound of her vocals with the music.She captured the Opera House’s crowd attention and funny bone with her whimsical view of the world on The Underwear Gods and the playing were compelling throughout. Not a work of art to be taken lightly, and not a rock concert, Laurie has created a piece that will definitely pluck some strings and make you think. Let me tell you I am an expert when it comes to problems and there definitely IS a problem.