FUV Five Favorite Concerts: Kara Manning

During the 2014 FUV fall member drive, we're shining a spotlight on live concerts and performances. The FUV on-air staffers compiled individual lists of five memorable and marvelous shows that have stayed with them over the years, for one reason or another.

Kara Manning's Five Favorite Concerts (Host of "UKNY"):

1. Underworld at Central Park's Rumsey Playfield (September 14, 2007):
No other show has surpassed the emotional impact of seeing Underworld on this particular late summer evening. I was at a serious crossroads in my life and unmoored following the death of my dad. A friend bailed on going with me an hour earlier, I was loathe to go alone, and recall halting in my tracks on the way to the field, on the brink of turning back home. But I didn't. I kept walking. This brilliant Underworld show—communal, uplifting, joyful, brooding, sensual, robustly spirited and embracing the very essence of passing from the dark to the light—was a revelation, as close to a baptism as I'll ever get. Returning home that night, chatting with friends I'd run into whilst there, a crisp breeze rifled through the trees, ushering autumn into the park as fallen leaves protested with a noisy crunch underfoot. Everything seemed electric around me and I felt, at last, that I could move forward with strength, gently pushed by Essex rhythm and poetry. I've seen Underworld many times, before and since, but that show is etched deeply into my heart.

2. Kate Bush at London's Hammersmith Apollo (September 30, 2014):
Sitting at the Hammersmith Apollo a couple of weeks ago, I was convinced I'd stumbled into some surreal, jet-lagged dream. How could I be lucky enough to see Kate Bush in "Before The Dawn," one of only 22 concerts she was playing after 35 years of never touring? After passing through fifteen minutes of incredulity—grinning stupidly and stunned I was actually there—I finally let go and fully immersed myself in Kate's theatrically impassioned set. At the denouement of "The Ninth Wave" suite, as Kate and her actors, dancers and bandmates, the latter strumming acoustic guitars, strolled onstage singing "The Morning Fog," I surrendered to the outrageous beauty of it all and burst into tears.

3. The Cure at Radio City Music Hall (June 21, 2008):
Over three hours of moody bliss seeing a band I love, admiring Robert Smith's deft guitarwork (and lyrically wounded heart) and the band's taut, responsive framework, digging deeply into songs like "Pictures of You," "One Hundred Years" and "Kyoto Song." Smith gleefully decided to clamber up the side promenades of the venue and then, halfway through, seemed to realize it was a bad idea but made it to the upper rafters just the same, triumphant. A gorgeous show.

4. Laurie Anderson at New York's Town Hall (September 19, 2001):
It was barely a week after September 11 and it seemed impossible to want to walk out of the apartment. We were raw, stunned, griefstricken and horrified. But we did, we made our way to Town Hall, and Laurie Anderson took all of us under her tender, tough wing that night (and for two nights after) and sang to us, comforting us by telling us stories of her beloved New York, finding a way that we could feel safe in a room together. If there is anyone I would trust to guide me from a tempest or shipwreck, it would be Laurie Anderson.

5. Kevin Drew at Bowery Ballroom (April 28, 2014):
What a remarkable, unique, cheerfully shambolic, stirring and sincere show! Kevin Drew, co-frontman of Broken Social Scene and supporting his recent solo album Darlings, didn't just play a gig, he handed everyone his heart and had a full-fledged conversation with the audience via songs, earnest confessions, hilariously self-deprecating banter and group hugs. He waded frequently into the crowd, cajoled everyone to put away their smartphones and at show's end, literally embraced every single person who had come out to Bowery Ballroom that night (fans were lined up, as if Drew were the guru Amma). He brought along Andy Kim as an opener too. Brilliant.