Rocktropolis Allstar Magazine
January 27th, 1998

Cyber Queen Ana Voog Gets Primal In Minneapolis

The usually barren atmosphere of Minneapolis' Seventh Street Entry was dressed up Sunday (Jan. 25) night with tables, chairs, linen tablecloths, and candles. The occasion? "Snowbient: Audio Textures Part 1," an evening of ambient bands, video installations, and DJ sets headlined by local atmospheric act Ousia. The evening also was highlighted by a cameo screaming performance from Cyber Queen Ana Voog (the artist formally known as Rachel Olsen of the Blue Up?), whose Web site (www.anacam.com) we've reported on recently, and which is Red Hot Chili Peppers/ Jane's Addiction guitarist Dave Navarro's favorite site on the Internet (allstar, Jan. 9.) Voog took the stage dressed only in silver metallic pants and high silver heels with other small metallic pieces strategically placed on her body. Her set, which lasted about five minutes, consisted of colored lights flashing behind her as she shouted and sometimes sang into a mike that was run through a digital delay, giving it an echoing effect. Performing to electronic beats, Voog moved around the stage breathing heavily into the mike, shouting various obscenities and laying down some straight- out screams worthy of a monster in a horror movie. Voog later commented that the evening's performance "had nothing to do with art... It wasn't really meant to mean anything. I had nowhere to scream. I'm friends with Ousia [Ousia's Jason Shapiro is also Voog's beau]. They said 'come screaming with us.' If ever I make a lot of money, I want to buy a place where people can go and scream. People just don't get it out." Screaming notwithstanding, Voog's debut album, anavoog.com, due in April on radioactive/RCA, features songs, not screams.
-Bill Snyder