Suave lesbian songstress worked country-flavored magic on North Texas
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Whether dancing hammy pirouettes or tenderly crooning the highest notes of her gorgeous register, K.D. Lang effortlessly proved she’s still at the top her game.
Barefoot and wearing pinstripe slacks with an ascot and cuff-linked sleeves, the Canadian’s "Watershed" tour stopped at Bass Hall on Wednesday for a near-capacity audience. And for almost 90 minutes, her impeccable five-piece combo masterfully flexed Lang’s subtle side.
She opened with "Upstream" and swam her way through brilliant crescendos that immediately dropped to near pin-drop silence. Lang blew through four songs before she said howdy to her Forth Worth audience — the day after the 2008 presidential election.
"Baby steps," she said. "It’s feeling good today in America."
Her best song of the evening was "Smoke Rings," her 1997 ode to puffing that had Lang doing the hula and a soft-shoe routine.
"That song makes me wonder," she said. "What’s Laura going to do after she leaves the White House? Will she go back to selling pot? If I lived with George, I’d smoke pot. Come to think of it, I’d smoke pot if I were married to Laura, too."
Even when she’s skewing conservatives, Lang’s boyishly country-flavored charm is like a hybrid of Bobby Hill and Ferris Bueller.
She turned "Miss Chatelaine" into a hilarious clap-along. And for the slow-mo lullaby "Jealous Dog," she busted out a five-string and joked, "You know, the banjo’s pretty much a chick magnet."
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This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition November 7, 2008.