Never Mind The Scissor Sisters, We Want The Ark

On Monday, Bubala and I made our way to New York City to see The Ark. I am still kicking myself for missing their free Washington, D.C. show at the Swedish Embassy at which lead singer, Ola Salo, made a few laughable comments that were taken all to seriously about a plane that was flying overhead heading towards the White House. I guess some Americans have a problem when people from countries like Sweden (which apparently has more freedom of speech than America does) choose to exercise their freedom of speech in America. We don't want them to do that. Why, it's almost like imposing Democracy and freedom by invading another country and declaring war. We don't want anyone in our country that would do something mean and nasty like that now, do we? Anyway, the handful of remaining Ark U.S. tour dates were canceled after the Washington Post and Fox News blew things ways out of proportion and death threats were made against the band. The only date that was rescheduled was N.Y.C. So we knew that we were certain to be there.

We make it to N.Y.C. in pretty good time and find a place to park and have dinner in Little Italy and make it to the Bowery Ballroom just before they opened the doors. There were three ladies in line in front of us. We later found out they were the "Ark Angelheads," and that they had traveled from Los Angeles just to see this show. They had made plans to do the West coast tour dates and then the tour was canceled, so they had to come all the way to N.Y.C. To see the band. (And you thought we were crazy?) We all stood right up in the front row. I felt a little unglamorous looking at some of the N.Y.C. crowd that came to the show that night.

Opening up first was a Australian guy named Scott Matthew who is on the Shortbus soundtrack along with The Ark. He played acoustic string instruments and had a cellist accompany him. It was quite mellow, but his voice was so beautiful and he was really handsome. He kind of reminded me of Cat Stevens.

Next up was The Jealous Girlfriends. Just another alternative chainsaw band with a keyboardist and a girl singer. I put earplugs in and snoozed.

Finally, The Ark came out and played an hour and a half show. They were not as tight as on their albums which are very produced with a very polished 80's production style. Since this was a one-off show, I'm not so sure how rehearsed they were. The songs were slower in tempo and in some cases ran longer then the studio cuts. I would describe Ola Salo as a young gay glam Bono from U2. Only before Bono became a corporate rock star suckmiester who never takes off his sunglasses. Ola has a lot of charisma and stage presence and was very sexy and quite funny in his onstage banter and gymnastics. He actually did cartwheels!

Bubala and I thought that the bass player, Leari, was more our cup of tea with his sexy bald head and little mustache. And, he has a nice "=" sign tattooed on his arm.


The band played through over half of their latest album, "State Of The Ark" and a handful of songs from their other two albums that are only available as imports in the U.S. right now; 2002's "In Lust We Trust" and 2000's "We Are The Ark."

Ola Salo is a really great songwriter. His songs have great melodies and moving lyrics touching on topics like gay fatherhood in "Father Of A Son" or loving and caring for someone who is ill in "Disease." His message seems very clear though. Don't be afraid to live your life how you want to live it. "One Of Us Is Gonna Die Young" because "It Takes A Fool To Remain Sane."

I'm really glad that we went to this show, because The Ark probably won't be back in the U.S. for a while. They are writing a new record and Ola said the N.Y.C. show might be the last show until after the new record is done. So, you have a chance to go buy their albums and catch up before they come back and take over the world. Coincidentally, what other gay iconic mega super group comes from Sweden and took over the world?