In Concert

By all accounts, Dead Can Dance’s 2012 tour was intense for the performers and audience alike. Lisa Gerrard and Brendan Perry were coming off a 16-year hiatus, and after all, Dead Can Dance had never been a group that could just “play the hits.” The performances documented here are about religious ceremony more than instant gratification. Though the relationship between the principals was tenuous, the duo had never been more in control of their gifts. Over the course of their career together, Gerrard and Perry had grown from courageous teenagers to lords and gods of their own musical terrain. They earned the right to the majestic delivery of “Children of the Sun,” “Kiko,” and “Return of the She-King,” and they deliver them with all the confidence and strength in the world. Gerrard—one of the world’s finest vocalists—is in prime condition, and whenever she's given extra space to move, the entire earth moves with her. Older Dead Can Dance songs like “Rakim” and “The Host of Seraphim” had become classics since the band’s demise, and on this 2012 tour the stirring songs were delivered with an air of pure triumph.