LIVE EYE: Tracy Bonham
eye WEEKLY
eye WEEKLY February 15 1996
Toronto's arts newspaper .....free every Thursday
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LIVE EYE LIVE EYE
TRACY BONHAM
Opening for Spacehog
Friday, Feb. 16. Lee's Palace, 529 Bloor St. W. $9 from Ticketmaster,
870-8000.
by
ERIN HAWKINS
Caution: Extreme violins
Back in 1994, Tracy Bonham was just your average 27-year-old virtuoso
violinist with a crappy part-time job and this band thing on the side.
No big deal.
In a short space of time, though, the four-piece she led developed a
fierce reputation for their live show, especially when they'd launch
into one of Bonham's whisper-to-a-scream tunes like "Mother Mother."
The clubs began to fill with scary suburbanites in pristine Levi's and
expensive bomber jackets with record company logos on the back. This
could only mean one thing: Tracy Bonham was in the middle of an
unsolicited bidding war.
"Life became strange when they were trying to sign me," the good-
natured singer-songwriter-guitarist (and, don't forget, rock
violinist!) says from her Boston home. "Now it's kind of old hat. I'm
used to meeting people and saying, 'Oh hi, you're the promotions
person,' then forgetting their name 15 minutes later."
You gotta love moxy like that! Why Bonham's niceness comes as a
surprise I'm not entirely sure, but it probably has something to do
with her forthcoming album, The Burdens Of Being Upright
(Island/PolyGram), which is jammed tight with evil guitars, booming
Steve Lillywhite-approved drumming and burning bits of violin. There's
also that little trick she does with her voice, when she starts off
like an angel in God's choir then turns into the singer from Laibach
on the chorus. Throw it on at a party and you'll know who your real
friends are.
Though Bonham admits that the pressures involved in promoting a debut
album sometimes give her dyspepsia (i.e., schmoozing with guys in bad
sweaters who could be shredding her contract three years from now if
she doesn't shift enough units), she's thrilled to be signed to the
same label as Tom Waits and PJ Harvey. After years of Paganini and
Mozart, the Oregon native had a modern rock awakening in 1992 when she
discovered The Pixies. Unlike most up-and-coming artists, who always
make sure to slag off the competition, Bonham rattles off the names of
her faves (even that of the other alterna-rock band with a female
violinist, the Dambuilders). If her career as a musician came to an
end, she'd make a perfect publicist!
When told that one of her heroes, Lisa Germano, has claimed that it's
impossible to sing while playing the violin, Bonham laughs. "Ahh! Oh
no. That's what I do! Now I like her a lot. I should have a talk with
her 'cause I bet she could learn if she forced herself to. That's what
I did. If you can do one and then the other, you can do it together.
It just takes a little time.
"We actually do a PJ Harvey cover, '50 Ft. Queenie,' and I play it on
the violin. After that song, I just almost faint. I'm completely out
of breath. It's like running a marathon. People come up and talk to me
and I can't even speak."
Maybe Bonham and Germano should have a string/singing summit sometime.
"Oh, I'd love to," she beams. "She could teach me some stuff. I also
heard that PJ plays violin, too, so maybe the three of us could go out
and do a little trio and sing. Now that would be too much."
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