The Boston Globe from Boston, Massachusetts • 43

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 31, 2001 The Boston Globe UvingArts C3 Foreign Policy musters its forces for an enlightening discussion irir 1 'ilKrl vti.a 7 -1 I enough to earn him mentions in a Foreign Policy article (even if he's cast on the ill-informed side), and is one of the threads of a cover story in the November Details. The latter, of course, doesnt delve into anything too substantive, and that's as it should be. But Details does provide details, such; as Bono's real name (Paul Hew son), age (41), and family status (father of four). The story's fabu lous tidbit however, is this: Bono' dad's last words before being takj en by cancer this summer: "Art you all bleeping mad?" Even on; his way out Bob Hewson clearly was a man of today's world. a Rammer's analysis is powerfully stated, if not original.

The legacy of mayhem left by religionists has long been proof for atheists that God does not exist. The rejoinder, of course, is all the good that has been done by believers. All about Bono A reasonable case in point would be Bono, lead singer and spiritual leader of U2. From the band's earliest days, its lyrics have used religious imagery and reflected spirituality; so have the band's conduct and causes. Take, for example, Bono's devotion to the cause of Third World debt relief, which he has worked tirelessly for since he and his wife traveled to Africa four or five years ago.

His visibility on the issue is piiriii ini I I IWhil 1 1 1 ml- By Michael Prager GLOBE STAFF God forbid this should sound anything like Raymond Oglethorpe, the president of America I itorai-v Online, Lnerary week that the anthrax "fe attacks responsible for the deaths of three people have been "incredibly positive for the Internet" Clearly, Ray needs to get a new speech writer. But one result of our reordered world is that we're seeing a broad set of people and institutions in a wholly different light Not only police and firefighters, and mail carriers and National Guardsmen. But how about security guards? And do you think maybe the folks in the mailroom deserve a holiday gift this year? In the world of magazines, a leading candidate for this category is Foreign Policy, which has been bringing the world and a world-view home to America for 31 years, even as networks and newspapers have starved their foreign-news budgets because consumers didn't care. And then the planes came, proving again that there are life-and-death matters out there. That proof, Foreign Policy editor Moises Nairn says in the current issue, is just about the only dangers not delivered by ICBMs.

Of more questionable value elsewhere in the magazine Is writer Ray Takeyh's suggestion that democracy is arising as a third option between modernity and Islamic fundamentalism in the Middle East Takeyh is a fellow at a Washington think tank, and I'm not, but his argument that elected, representative government is the next wave in the Islamic world just wasnt persuasive. Even so, it can be lauded as unconventional thought which has been in short supply since Sept 11. The role of faith Unconventionality of a sharper fashion is a strength of Wendy Ka-miner's essay in Boston magazine, one of four the magazine is presenting in November as part of its coverage of the attack aftermath. She is an agnostic for whom "the murder of some 6,000 people was, after all, a faith-based initiative." She assails what she sees as the circular reasoning of those who say that this terrorism "was not spawned by religion at least not by true' religion," and the notion that what Islamic fundamentalists had wrought had nothing to do with Islam, which "is like insisting that the Inquisition wasnt really Christian." WW1 good news from the attack. The same notion "that the American people now understand that they are, in fact, part of the globe" is voiced by a retired US Army major general, William Nash, one of four top-level retirees whom the magazine had serendipitously scheduled for a discussion on Sept 12.

Their comments offer perspectives that are useful and often surprising, coming as they do from four such lions of the establishment For example, they describe the disparity of spending between the State and Defense departments, and rue that it has made soldiers, rather than diplomats, the most visible US representa I jlj ill I loved il! It'SDerfect! So CO! Wre perfect, IE STUAUT STKIETI Croup Safes NAYNOUSF.1 200 Stuart Street al die ladnor, Hotel Bo BETTY'S LOVE VOU Of HI salutes to US with collage of hits SUMMER VACATION A WILD COMEDY BY CHRISTOPHER DURANG DIRECTED BY NICHOLAS MARTIN Special night a. Kb i U2 mixes By Michael Prager GLOBE STAFF PROVIDENCE The typical U2 concert, if such events could ever be called typical, is made up HU of equal parts of love MUSIC an(j politics, show-ReweW manship and musi- cianship, Bono and the Edge. At the Big Donut in Providence last night the band added a heavy helping of good old American patriotism, egged on by the lead singer's numerous allusions to the terrorist attacks on Sept 1 1. During a lull in "Sunday Bloody Sunday," for example, Bono reached into the crowd from the tip of the heart-shaped stage extension for an American flag. He cradled it, and then went back into one of the song's signature for people PLAYING NOW! aged is and under Tonight Thurs.

this Thursday, at "JJ1-; Box Office Kellia Ovorbay. photo: Jon Marcus! for details. -attace Slipknot, System pack in 10,000 at Centrum tives overseas. And, unshackled by retirement they're not chary of assessing military waste: General Charles Boyd of the Air Force puts it at 20 to 30 percent Admiral William Owens was reluctant to use the word "waste" but was willing to say, "The number of $100 billion of gross inefficiency is adequately stated." OK, as long as we dont call it waste. The surprises extend to their discussion, specifically of how events of the 11th should or might change US priorities; Boyd, for example, agrees spending billions on a missile defense shield is questionable when there are present iiiii iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii iiiiiiii 111111111 U2 with Stereophonies At: Dunkin Donuts Center, Providence, last night.

iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinii tion," which was marred by a slight problem with Bono's microphone, and "Beautiful Day" before hitting their first peak with "New Year's Day," which featured the Edge not only on his unparalleled guitar, but also on keyboards. The band hit another high note with "Staring at the Sun," the only song it played from its lightly regarded Pop" album. Bono and the Edge played it acoustic, again back out at the tip of the heart. Bono played up its politics in the introduction, railing against religious nuts. sideways but System of a Down proved to be refreshingly original and the best band of the night The first Armenian metal group to make national waves, System had a pronounced political bite on "Prison Song" (about how 2 million Americans are incarcerated and they're building a prison for you and and "Deer Dance," an antigun tune.

System singer Serj Tankian sang and barked his way brilliantly, inspiring the mosh-crazed crowd (and this was the heaviest moshing crowd since a Korn gig at Tsongas Arena a few years ago), and noting that Americans dont have to give in to any doomsday predictions. "I know we have a choice because the human spirit can attain that choice," he roared. It was an eagerly embraced moment and System, after encoring with hit "Sugar," left the stage while John Lennon's "Imag- groups are players in the balconies and in the hallways surrounding them. Their music comments, questions, eulogizes, howls, and mourns. One thinks of metaphor: The guitar may represent a spirit now serene and ever-enduring; the others rep resent the range of human response to loss.

Most of the music is quiet but there is one shriek from the back of the second balcony, reinforced by a police whistle and alarm signals. In texture, timbre, and emotional charge this is a wonderful piece, and the performance let us hear that because Cortese had mastered the considerable problems of coordination. To replace the ailing Nelson Freire, the BSO turned to Joseph Kalichstein, who returned to the orchestra after an absence of 30 years (although he's been in Boston since then in his piano trio with Susan Robinson and Jaime Laredo). The Israeli-American pianist substituted Mozart's last ,5 'I i i I A new exhibition of photographic works in grass by Heather Ackroyd and Dan Harvey October 31-January 1 Lecture with the artists 617-566-1401 November 1, 630 p.m. www.gardneimuseum.org By Steve Morse GLOBE STAFF WORCESTER If there was any doubt about the Bay State being a headbanging capital, it was Mucin laid to rest at the Cen-I1 tram this week.

Satur-ReVieW day's sold-out "Family Values" show was the second-biggest date of that tour (second only to Los Angeles), while last night's "Pledge of Allegiance" tour drew 10,000 fans for the single largest crowd of that heavy-metal caravan. Credit Worcester radio station WAAF (107.3 FM) for helping bring out the crowds, but credit Slipknot and System of a Down for building the excitement once they got there. If simply impossible to imagine a harder, louder, fiercer one-two punch than what Slipknot and System uncorked last night Slipknot was the definition lyrics: "Wipe your tears away." He dedicated "Kite," from the most recent album "All That You Can't Leave Behind," to anyone who has to let go of someone. "This is for you, America," he said. And when he returned to the stage for the band's first encore, he came dressed in a New York City Fire Department T-shirt, covered, of course, by his usual, heart-adorned leather jacket, albeit lined with more fabric of the American flag.

He even suggested that Osama bin Laden could kiss his royal Irish posterior. Beyond the current-events references, though, the show featured many of the same sights and songs the band offered up during a four-spot at the FleetCenter in June. They opened with "Eleva- of an adrenaline rush, though it eventually became a bit monotonous with its rock-primitive shtick, as the members ran around in masks and jumpsuits (every night is Halloween for this band) and unleashed a brutal, high-decibel rage amid rotating drumkits, Kiss-like pyrotechnics, and raw-throated vocals from Corey Taylor on such uncompromising tracks as "People Equal (expletive)," "Disaster Piece," and The Heretic Anthem." Taylor, however, did show a brief, socially-conscious side when he told the crowd that he was sick of the hate crimes that have occurred since the Sept 11 terrorist attacks. "This is unacceptable. We must punish the guilty and not innocent Americans," he said.

Slipknot used some old metal tricks such as a Motley Crue-like drum kit that tilted forward and in a concert in Symphony Hall last night (repeats Thursday night, Friday afternoon, and Saturday night). iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiimiiiiiiiiiiiinii wonderful sense of the singing line, and sharp ears. And last night he was on top of every element of a wide-ranging program. He began with three of Ives's "Ragtime Dances." In these pieces, which werent reconstructed until the mid-1970s, the young Ives put familiar tunes and ragtime riffs through the paper shredder and reassembled them in an order that isnt as random as it sounds. These were disconcertingly delightful and Jan Swafford's program note provided a deft introduction.

At an opposite extreme was "Grabstein fuer Stephan" for by the contemporary Hungarian composer Gyorgy Kurtag. In this piece a guitarist (Hank Wiktorowicz) sits centerstage repeatedly playing a It's a song about fundamentalists, how they remake God in their own image: "Tiny, pathetic, self-obsessed. WeVe had a few of those at home in Ireland," he said. Then came the anthem home stretch: "Bad," "Where the Streets Have No Name," "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For," and "Pride (In the Name of Love)," accompanied by visages of the Rev. Martin Luther King and snippets of King's "I Have a Dream" speech.

Then came the first encore, with its finale of New York, replete with images of high-rises dancing across vast vertical screens and an improvised lyric: "Even Boston loves New York." It was perhaps the only time all evening when Bono was slightly off-key. iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiimiiiiiiiiiiii Pledge of Allegiance Tour With: Slipknot, System of a Down, No One, and American Head Charge At: Worcester Centrum Centre last night. IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIMIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ine" came on the loudspeakers. A nice change from some of the metal nihilism of the other acts. The Pledge of Allegiance tour has not been without trouble Rammstein dropped off the bill inexplicably, and Mudvayne left to join the Ozzy OsbourneRob Zombie "Merry Mayhem" tour.

Last night" openers American Head Charge and No One bashed away without much impact Singer Martin Cock of American Head Charge seemed kind of full of himself, while No One asked the crowd to "focus on all your rage and insecurities that you hold inside and let them become real tonight" Huh? Can we just play the music and stop pandering, please? agreed to play in a memorial concert for Isaac Stern in New York that began at 3 p.m. yesterday, the BSO had a car and driver waiting for him afterward and he made it to Symphony Hall in time. Kalichstein's performance wasnt note-perfect, but his playing boasted nimble fingers, style, energy, and imagination. It also had all three dimensions this was not Mozart painted on porcelain. Kalichstein brought particularly interesting and flexible ideas about tempo to the piece, and Cortese and the orchestra kept up with them.

Pianist conductor, and orchestra delivered the theme of the finale with high spirits matched by inflections of exquisite refinement The final work was Schubert's Tragic" Symphony. Cortese's approach was full of life, and the seriousness of the opening gradually gave way to a finale in which pathos was overcome by smiles. Music Review Cortese on top of elements in lively BSO program Jrv. i 1 1 ii 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 it 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 xvxcnarci uyer slow arpeggio with gradually shift- piano concerto for Freire's choice, globe staff Boston Symphony Orchestra ing harmonies. Around him are and got it up to speed on short no- Acefcor.t.wir.sWtnrc.anirali- FedericO Cortese, assistant Conductor, nnum nf nloinrc.

Ao oro ilcn iioo omnfliUah Assistant conductors tradi of players; there also piano concerto for Freire's choice, and got it up to speed on short notice. He also had a conflict: He had ir as at Boston's World Trade Center (Free shuttle bus from South Station!) November 2, 3 4 Glass 4, ityingerbread -At I ert 1 tif It Ma it it are tionally nervous wrecks when their turn comes to perform. By this point, Federico Cortese's nerves must be pretty experienced. In 1998, the young Italian conductor made his Boston Symphony debut leading half of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony on the Boston Common on virtually no notice when Seiji Ozawa fell ill. Later he took over one night of an elaborate BSO production of Puccini's "Madama Butterfly" from Ozawa, again on short notice.

Since then he has conducted Verdi's "II Trovatore" in Parma, where the patrons can be bloodthirsty; he entered the lion's den and emerged unscathed. Just this week, Cortese survived an unexpected visit from James Levine, BSO's music director designate, who dropped in to hear how his rehearsal of Schubert's "Tragic" Symphony was going. Cortese has no need to fear. He has a livery, clear rhythmic pulse, a i 1 I i It America's Finest Artisans Hobday Shopping Over 350 Exhibitors Gourmet Foods Directions: World Trade Center, Northern Avenue, Boston Info (617)385-5000 i jt.