Adam Ant: Antics In The Forbidden Zone
Adam Ant: Antics In The Forbidden Zone– One day in 1983… Adam Ant begged me hither. He, nestled alongside a quashed and tranquilized Huey Lewis. Posters in my sister’s room. They wanted an answer from me; who would lead me forward? Which of these men would teach me their trade? Lewis looking like he’d rather be off calculating anti-derivatives or Ant wanting me to join him in an all swashbuckling version of Lady Windemere’s Fan. He had props pouring from his pockets: Napoleon hats and gold lame coveralls. I figured the afternoon would be at the very least spastic and bi-polar. Lewis looked on in dismay, comforting himself I suppose with James Michener’s Centennial.
In the ensuing 30 years since Adam Ant was plaster on a wall, you would be hard pressed to find an artist more genuinely excited to be breathing, the air his constant revelation. The unstoppable, unquenchable charisma spontaneously setting fire to corset and pantaloons alike. The sound of never sleeping. Or pausing for anything other than finding more noise makers or things with which to overload the buckling circuit breaker. It can be likened to being trampled alive by a traveling roadshow of squawking pheasant under glass. Loud, confused, riled and for some reason encased in glass, a nonsensical bombardment.
That’s not to say, the plans have no structure or are left wanting for anything. This is a highly organized, well fortified gang on the prowl. It’s much like West Side Story: They may have sung and danced, but when you’re a Jet, you’re a Jet… And as I remember, there were casualties in that play; don’t be fooled by their outward appearance. Join or face bludgeoning from Marco Pirroni’s red leather valise. While most punk rock of the late 70′s and early 80′s happily dug itself into dark maudlin self parody, Adam and the Ants fired off a very singular ammo. A walloping, sweeping fanaticism that aimed conquest and pillage. Nothing since has ever come close to Ant’s dangerous siege of face powder and world capitals…10/10