Glasser

On Tuesday, 22 February, I went to see a concert by the American artist Glasser. Despite occasionally being mentioned on music sites such as Pitchfork, Glasser is not very well known in the US and is perhaps even less known over here. I was fairly surprised to find out that her 10 pound gig was not even sold out on the night of the performance, but I was glad that it was going to be a fairly intimate performance and experience of her art. I was only a few rows of people away from the small, underground stage, and the relatively small audience's sense of community could be felt in her performance. Glasser is an artist not just in the sense of music, as she wore a dramatic headdress, an unusual dress, and maintained a sense of mysterious theatricality throughout her mesmerizing performance. Such an experience of her art, music, and drama would not have been so effective in a large space, and I would have to wonder how she would change if she were to become more mainstream. Her only album, Ring, was written such that its nine tracks could be played over and over in a cycle like a ring, and I feel that this sense of a closed loop played an effective role in the performance space as well.

-AZ