★★★★★
Anyone attending Michelle Shocked: Bootleg This is met with a screen image inviting them to scan a QR code to vote for one of two options, Truth or Reality. Like your reviewer, most folks voted for Truth.
Michelle came on stage dressed as a stereotypical punk anarchist, reminiscent of Siouxie Sioux in her heyday. She describes herself as a bit of an anarchist to deliver an impassioned cri de coeur against the predatory monopolist behaviour of big tech Silicon Valley companies, especially Google.
She delivers her passionate message in a confiding, but humorous conversational manner aided by an occasional song, and a big on-stage screen. She gives the stories behind some of her well-known songs. She rails against the pseudo-democracy of bought-and-paid-for politicians in her home country. The only really protected speech in the US today is copyrighted speech, she says.
As an artist whose career took off from a bootleg tape, she is not going to allow Google to bootleg all her work and profit from it, even though it took her twenty years. She’s astonished by the misrepresentation of her personal life on Wikipedia and the fact that she is an ‘insufficient authority’ to challenge errors of fact in her own entry. Still, she carries on with her music and her mission.
All she ever wanted to do was write songs that change the world, but she realises that certain people – those who take unearned profit from the sweat and labour of others – don’t want to change the world as they’re very comfortable with it as it is.
Looking back on her struggle she’s inspired by Emily Dickinson’s poem, I took my Power in my Hand, itself inspired by the biblical story of David and Goliath.
I took my Power in my Hand —
And went against the World —
‘Twas not so much as David — had —
But I — was twice as bold —
I aimed my Pebble — but Myself
Was all the one that fell —
Was it Goliath — was too large —
Or was myself — too small?
Nevertheless, despite it all, she continues. May she yet win more victories against the remorseless Big Tech death machine.
Reviewed by David Kerr
Michelle Shocked: Bootleg This
20:30hrs Gilded Balloon Patter House, Venue 24
Aug 8-11 and 14-16
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