The daily digest of Twin Cities culture | Secrets of the City

Has anyone seen the movie Diva recently? It's this 1981 French film my dad really likes, and that, by extension, I pretended to like when I was young, and now have grown to like genuinely (I think). The plot centers around an American opera singer - Cynthia Hawkins - and a young courier who's obsessed with her. Her voice has never been recorded before and she's adamantly against signing a record deal; opera, she contends, is a living thing, and can't be captured on vinyl with anything approaching the energy and exuberance that she can put forth in a live performance.

Recording techniques have evolved a bit since the era of this film - we've gone from vinyl to 8-track to cassette to CD to mp3 to mp4 - but I think Ms. Hawkins' beliefs are still valid. And while no doubt some groups strive to make music in the studio that's difficult to replicate on stage (meaning, their songs are meant for albums, not for concerts), for the most part music is in its purest form when heard live.

It's hard for me to sit down and listen to any of TV on the Radio's albums. For the most part, their music isn't pretty-sounding stuff (nor is it supposed to be). The tracks on Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes, Return to Cookie Mountain, and their most recent Dear Science are full of distortion, ambient feedback, and even Tunde Adebimpe's high-register vocals sometimes test the ears. A couple of their songs are magnificent - I've had "Dreams" stuck in my head for about eighteen months now, in a good way - but on the whole there's something a little disturbing about it.

Dear Science is maybe a bit more coherent than their previous stuff, but the group hasn't vastly changed its aesthetic or anything. It should be noted that Fela Kuti - whose informed performers from James Brown to the Talking Heads to Vampire Weekend - is haunting a bunch of these tracks. For the sake of comparisons, one might say TVOTR is like a less dour version of Radiohead, or even an updated Pink Floyd. (They can pull off hip-hop, too - Adebimpe made a guest appearance on Atmosphere's latest album.) But I haven't listened to enough of their music, or to enough music in general, to dissect it properly. That doesn't matter, though, which is kind of my point. (Here's a proper review from someone else, however.)

Because in concert TV on the Radio is simply amazing. Or, at least, such was the case last time they were in Minneapolis. The comparisons and references become meaningless in performances like the one they manifested in the spring of 2007. Something else was going on beyond the music - one of those ineffably captivating atmospheres was created, in which every member of the audience was somehow synced together, united in thought and sentiment by the band on stage.

The effect is indescribable except in vague terms, but I'll try to put down a couple details anyway, and hopefully they're the convincing ones. Adebimpe is himself a Diva. He's like Miles Davis, except that he faces the crowd - one senses something extremely internal, and yet extremely relatable when he sings. His face is a plane of expression and it's probably a good thing that he keeps his eyes closed most of the time, lest we should read too much into his mind. And he has this effeminate way of dancing that's absolutely impossible to stop watching, waving his hand above his head in a wrist-only movement, as if swatting away applause.

The music played behind him seems to amass and collect in large balls of noise, which Adebimpe disperses at will, so that bursts of guitars or drums will suddenly rush out over the crowd and then just as suddenly stop. If I remember correctly, they all wear tight jeans, but move as if they're wearing gauchos. Does that make sense?

The main thing being, they're playing a two-night set at First Ave this week. So if you haven't been to a concert in a while, and are looking for something new and unforgettable, I highly recommend picking up a ticket. I'll update this post tomorrow in hopes of being able to more ably define their allure (hopefully it's still in tact).