First let me start by saying I never metaphor I
didn’t like. And I love Dead Metaphor Cabaret; a duo that wrestles in the peace
of stark beauty and a poetic emphasis on lyrics or a lyrical interpretation of
poetry. But the group’s performance Thursday night at Writers & Books wasn’t
so much a play on words as it was a play of words, with words, onward and upwards.
Curt and NaniNehring Bliss delivered a stark yet beautiful musical
backdrop — plaintive guitar, gorgeous, gorgeous voice, and an adverb-less melodica (seriously I couldn’t come up with a suitably
descriptive term) as they presented an emphatic lyrical send-up of poetry by
Elizabeth Bishop, Jane Kenyon, and Margaret Atwood, along with their own
sterling stabs at inquisitive verse. Dead Metaphor Cabaret’s set used Robert
Frost’s “The Road Less Taken” as a template as where to go and where to take
the rapt audience. Last night’s journey was down the rougher, darker bramble
path. It was epic and melancholy and utterly charming. The band promises to
take the sunnier side for its encore performance Saturday.
(Dead Metaphor Cabaret
also performs Saturday, September 28, 4 p.m. at Writers & Books. Tickets
cost $8.)
This article appears in Sep 25 – Oct 1, 2013.
