Going centre-stage with the personal: Amanda Palmer's new gig
Amanda Palmer’s gigs go way beyond just music as she brings her own experiences to bear on abortion and other issues, writes .
Amanda Palmer describes her new show as the ultimate Rorschach test — everyone attending will experience it differently. “It invites feedback from the audience,” says the singer. “I did a performance in Portland and there was practically a brawl. A woman stood up and shouted that she didn’t agree with my stance on abortion.”
Palmer, who performs baroque and fantastically catchy chamber pop, might be the perfect 21st century rock star. Over her 20 year career, she has forged on an intimate relationship with her fans, so that she can rely on their support rather than the backing of a faceless record label.
She is as famous, among the wider public, for her TED talks and writings on crowd-funding and artist support, as for her breathlessly confessional music. And she puts her personal experiences — painful though they often are — front and centre of her work.
It’s a potent cocktail. But her latest project is one of her most ambitious and searing yet. On new album, There Will Be No Intermission,and the accompanying tour, she discusses motherhood, reproductive choice and how each has impacted on her (she has a four year old son with her husband, the writer Neil Gaiman).
Ireland plays a significant part in the story. On May 25, 2018, Palmer and Gaiman were in Dublin for a literary festival. The city has always been special for her as it was where they first got together romantically. This time their visit coincided with the Repeal the Eighth vote.
“I landed in Dublin the morning of the referendum and it was totally coincidental,” says Palmer, who returns to Ireland next week for a run of dates.
As if by divine providence I got to be in the inside of this beautiful feminist revolution. To be able to witness that first hand felt like one of the luckiest nights of my life.
“But I was also taken aside by activists and told that I was only seeing the tip of the iceberg. I hadn’t been around watching the emotional carnage that woman had gone through for generations.”
Palmer will discuss her experiences of that night among other subjects when she visits Cork Opera House on Wednesday October 23. She will also open about her three abortions, her ambivalence through her earlier life about becoming her parent and her joy at giving birth to in 2015
It’s a rollercoaster that brings the audience through many dark, fraught places before concluding on a note of empathy and optimism. And if it’s intense for the punters, imagine how it must feel for the musician. Going through that grinder every night is a lot to ask of a performer, even one as ferocious as Palmer.
“It’s a very bizarre mix,” she says. “These shows are so intense. It’s like going into a foundry It’s a strange combination of energising and exhausting.
"On the North American leg I was a lot more careful not to book more than three shows a week. Because of the tour routing in Europe, I have to do six in nights in a row. I’m preparing for those like a marathoner.”
Palmer has been an eclectic songwriter since the dawn of the century. She styled her first project, the Dresden Dolls, as “Brechtian punk cabaret”. At its best it sounded like Tom Waits and David Bowie collaborating on a Bob Fosse show-tune. This was every bit as thrilling as it sounds and Dresden Dolls became a cult affair.
Her solo career got off to an even more impressive start with her 2008 album, Who Killed Amanda Palmer? However, songwriting took a back seat when she became an advocate for supporting artists through crowd funding.
In 2014 she gave a blockbuster Ted Talk on the subject, which she adapted into a book, The Art of Asking. Now she’s back doing what’s most important to her: taken her music to the people.
“I have had three abortions,” she says. “One with my boyfriend when I was very young. Two with my husband. One by medical necessity. One by choice.
"In Ireland, if found that men seemed to be comfortable taking a place in the narrative where they were able to help and support. I remember looking around thinking, ‘how can I bring some of this home with me?”
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