Artvoice: Buffalo's #1 Newsweekly
Home Blogs Web Features Calendar Listings Artvoice TV Real Estate Classifieds Contact
Previous story: Latinbeat Film Festival
Next story: Rise Up With Heart and Harmonies!

Lisa Germano

Click to watch
Lisa Germano performs "Simply Tony"

Lisa Germano has never been easy to pin down. She has never conformed to any musical genre nor has she compromised her artistic vision for her audience or for a record label. A musical wonder who learned the violin before she was 10, by 1987 she was recording and performing in John Cougar Mellencamp’s band, where she would remain for seven years. After releasing a couple of solo records in the early 1990s, she signed to the then ultra-hip 4AD Records, where she released Geek, the Girl, a harrowing collection of songs drenched with sadness, inferiority complexes and naked fear and insecurity. The album received rave reviews and was on many a critical “Top Ten” list for that year. After parting ways with 4AD later that decade, Germano all but retired from the spotlight, opting to play backup with artists such as David Bowie, Johnny Marr and Calexico. However, this past year, Michael Gira (Swans, Angels of Light) signed Germano to his Young God Records, where she recently released In the Maybe World, a stark and honest album that is simulataneously beautiful and melancholy. Opening for Ms. Germano are local female rockers Michel Weber and Ellen West.

Wednesday, October 11 at 8pm. Mohawk Place, 47 E. Mohawk St. (855-3931) www.mohawkplace.com. $10