City Pages
October 1998

Ana Voog at First Avenue, September 25

Pairs of professional-looking, male thirtysomethings were spotted throughout the Entry on this Friday night, whispering to each other about how small Ana Voog appears in person. The fellas were evidently cultists of Anacam, Voog's live-cam Web site, just now getting their first "real" look at their heroine at her long-awaited CD-release party. And her new breed of male admirers might be preferable to the biker creeps who would hoot and leer at her when she was Rachael Olson of the Blue Up?, but in stepping out from her self-imposed exile on the sterile Web, Voog has yet to match her past glories. Bald and dressed in the most demure stage gear she's donned this decade, poor Ana was visibly unnerved under the spotlight. Further, her cold techno backdrop seemed to keep her from converting that anxiety into the strange beauty she cultivated with her former band. Voog's entourage of assistants, who sauntered about blowing bubbles and theatrically dusting the room, weren't of much consequence, either. I wouldn't begrudge one of the city's most dynamic performers the chance to score a hit with her rapturous yet shallow CD, anavoog.com, but a return to warm, organic live performances may be in order.