By: David Schultz

The High Line, an elevated section of abandoned railroad tracks located on the west side of New York City, has become a lightning rod for the revitalization of an entire neighborhood. At the same time that the tracks are being refurbished into an elevated park and many new buildings are being constructed, the neighborhood is also undergoing a cultural Renaissance of sorts. One of the focal points of the area's artistic reawakening, the Highline Ballroom, opened this past Monday and will host multiple performances during this month's First Annual High Line Festival. David Bowie, the Festival's inaugural curator, followed through on his promise to bring a diverse group of musicians to New York City for the occasion, securing performances personal favorites like The Secret Machines, Laurie Anderson, Air, The Polyphonic Spree and the Arcade Fire.

The Thin White Duke may not have had a hand in selecting Lou Reed to open the new venue this past Monday night, but if he did, a finer selection could not have been made. Dating back to his days with the Velvet Underground, Andy Warhol and the Exploding Plastic Inevitable, Reed and his literary body of work are as intrinsically tied to New York City as James Joyce's to Dublin. With other notable Manhattanites like Richard Belzer, Paul Shaffer and Laurie Anderson in attendance, the prototypical New Yorker consecrated The Big Apple's newest stage as only he could - with attitude, lots and lots of attitude.

In contrast to the earthy, lived-in concert halls that are rapidly disappearing from the New York concert scene, the Highline Ballroom is a sleek, upscale nightspot. With top shelf bars and relatively frou-frou menus of mixed drinks and haute cuisine, the Highline apparently expects to be catering to an elite group of concert-goers. The surroundings made an odd but not unfamiliar setting for Reed: the iconoclast has a penchant for playing atypical venues like the staid Town Hall or former hip-hop mecca Crobar. The honor of opening the Highline comes on the heels of recent accolades bestowed upon him by Syracuse University, his alma mater, who not only awarded the singer the George Arents Pioneer Medal For Excellence In The Arts but also founded a creative writing scholarship in his and mentor Delmore Schwartz' name.

The notoriously cantankerous singer wasted no time making his first impressions known, interrupting his second song, "What’s Good" to scathingly bark disapproval over his sound monitors and the smoke machine. Reed reserved his praise and admiration for his band, which consisted of several familiar faces: Mike Rathke on guitar, Rob Wasserman on stand-up bass and Jane Scarpantoni on cello. In lieu of Fernando Saunders, Reed's longtime cohort, or a drummer, Steve Hunter, who rejoined Reed for last December's Berlin concerts, played the role of Reed's onstage foil.

Reed's performance highlighted his penchant for poignant urbane poetry. Bracketing his set around songs from Magic And Loss, his 1992 contemplation of mortality, Reed seemed uninterested in tackling material from his influential Velvet Underground period or Seventies solo catalog. With the exception of "The Last Great American Whale," Reed built his set list from the post New York period of his career. It made great fodder for true-Lou fans but probably proved bewildering to the non-obsessive; Reed hardly played anything that could be traditionally considered "a hit." As to be expected from any Lou Reed show, the headstrong singer followed his own muse with mixed results. Updated renditions of "Trade In" and "Sword Of Damocles" worked splendidly, an overwrought "Ecstasy" meandered and an electronic-based reworking of Songs For Drella's "Faces And Names" went bewilderingly awry.

For the most part, Reed played a restrained set interrupted by short staccato blasts of guitar, usually from Hunter. The sparse arrangements brought Reed's lyrics and everyone's musicianship to the forefront, but oftentimes lacked a cohesive consistency. John Zorn, another icon of New York music scene, joined Reed near the close of his two hour set and provided the proper spark. The two New York titans first played together at the 20th Anniversary celebration of the Knitting Factory and, at the Highline, recaptured the same chemistry that worked so well last March. Blending perfectly with Scarpantoni's cello, Zorn's saxophone played perfect counterpoint to Reed's guitar on "Magic And Loss" and lovingly filled the gaps on "Rock Minuet."

Time Out magazine recently ranked The Velvet Underground atop their list of the Top 50 New York musicians of all-time, describing them as "the ultimate New York band." If the Velvets were the ultimate New York band, Reed is the ultimate New York musician. Even though Okkervil River played the Highline's first notes, tabbing Lou Reed to break the champagne bottle on the Highline's newly christened hull nicely bridged the gap between different generations, uniting them all in the name of New York rock and roll.

Labels: David Bowie, High Line Ballroom, John Zorn, Lou Reed