Live Review: Erasure

Live Review: Erasure

Erasure offers sensory overload in a glittering, strutting show: Aidin Vaziri | Wearing angel wings and head-to-toe white denim, Andy Bell thoughtfully glanced over the 500 sweaty fans crammed into the Independent on Friday and said, "This is so intimate. I feel like I've slept with half of you." It was the first of Erasure's five sold-out concerts at the small San Francisco venue, and the preening singer was in his element: a psychedelic stage set constructed of foil and inflatable trees; two backup singers dressed as fairies; and his sidekick of two decades, frowning keyboard player Vince Clark, just inches away punching buttons on the laptop and wearing a satellite dish on his head. Midway through the two-hour set, after the steel-drum-and-disco remake of Blondie's "Rapture," Bell disappeared backstage and re-emerged wearing a black Elvis jumpsuit, doing a glass-shattering rendition of "Ave Maria." Then the two black backup singers came out wearing Marilyn Monroe dresses that floated up to reveal their legs. You don't get that at a Queens of the Stone Age show. Shortly after that, Bell changed once more, this time into glittery bikini briefs and a pair of matching high-heel boots straight out of the International Male catalog. It was such a hilarious sight, with the singer doing a showgirl routine while singing the moody "Blue Savannah," even his long-suffering partner Clark couldn't help but crack a smile.