Before the esteemed Mercury Prize mantle, before allegedly making Lou Reed teary-eyed, before blog-rolling Boston college girls chatted about him on the Green Line (we eavesdropped on one such hilarious conversation last week), androgynous cabaret singer (chanteuse?) Antony performed at the
Oni Gallery, a dearly-departed Chinatown loft space. (Reason #389 why the city of Boston sucks: the inability to comprehend why something like the Oni should exist.)
Back then, semi-professional early-adopter
Jon Whitney (recently propped for his music site
Brainwashed.com here and
here) interviewed Antony for his weekly vlog segment,
the Eye. Contrast this 27-minute piece against the 4700+-word profile in the
New York Times earlier this month (sorry, not online for free) and you can see how performers reveal themselves differently when the venue shifts from fifth-floor loft space to Carnegie Hall. Y'see, some people speak more softly into a megaphone.
1. Antony’s mane.
NYT asks whether or not Antony’s “dark, glossy hair of mysterious origin” is a wig: "If Elton John and Beyonce divulge their beauty secrets, I promise I shall follow suit!"
The Eye: he’s straight-up bald.
2. Antony’s outsider status.
NYT: "It's a sign of the times... that someone like me could have a forum to present myself."
The Eye: “In most societies... my kind of person usually is the first to be killed. In Afghanistan, I would’ve been buried under a wall of rubble when I was 12.”
3. Antony’s Johnson.
NYT: “I probably would marry a man,” he would tell me after much tortured consideration. “So that probably answers your question around whom I’m attracted to. I wasn't really one of those kids who needed to come out.”
The Eye: Growing up, "I thought that homosexuality was disgusting... although I knew I was, like, a cocksucker.”
WATCH:
Jon Whitney interviews Antony (scroll)
Antony's back in Boston tonight, following up his MFA gig earlier this year, with an intimate "cabaret-seating" gig at the Paradise, 967 Comm Ave, Boston 617.228.6000.