The Nomi Song (2004)
Like most little underage new wavers
in the 80's, running around in my checkered sports
coat and skinny tie, I didn't really get to see much
new wave music live. I had to sustain my love for
the music by buying records. A good way to find new
bands you might like were compilation records where
several bands could be heard on one album. It was
on such records that I found bands like XTC, The Human
League, Suburban Lawns, and Klaus Nomi.
Nomi had a track on a compilation
that was really a soundtrack called "Urgh! A Music
War." This was an album that was also worthy because
it had live performances by Devo, The Police, and
The Go-Go's and it appeared right about the time that
those bands were beginning to break into the mainstream
with top 40 hits.
You could also come across an appearance
by the bands you liked and discover new bands to love
on television. In addition to Tom Snyder's "Tomorrow"
show and "Saturday Night Live," the USA Network's
"Night Flight" was a great place to catch punk and
new wave music on TV and it was there that I first
saw "Urgh! A Music War," the film. While Nomi's odd
track "Total Eclipse" wasn't particularly interesting
on record, just a little weird, the brilliance of
the performer and the songs became glaringly obvious
on film. Nomi was unlike any performer I had ever
seen. In a giant plastic tuxedo, his face caked with
pancake white make-up and his tightly pursed mouth
covered with black lipstick, Nomi was riveting. It
was impossible to take your eyes off of him. And while
other bands stood on stage in torn jeans with slung
guitar in an effort to look nonchalant and cool, Nomi
provided a pretentious Bowiesque stage show complete
with rock band posing as punk in industrial coveralls,
back-up singers and, the most amazing accouterment,
two African- American modern dancers in black leotards
moving in modern jazz motions as if the entire ensemble
was the brainchild of Twyla Tharp. It was amazing,
jaw-dropping awesomeness. Nothing in the film came
close to this explosive theatrical moment and anyone
who saw the film immediately wanted to know more about
Klaus Nomi.
A few months ago I ran that clip
on my cable access show, "The Lodger Showboat," and
Ross, one of the access guys, just kept raving about
how awesome and weird it was. I looked for more Nomi
video work on-line and found his clip in Michael O'Donoghue's
"Mr. Mike's Mondo Video" listed as his only other
visual appearance. In this clip, obviously shot in
8mm, Nomi comes out in his futuristic garb, his make-up
similar to the "Urgh!" appearance, and sings an aria
from an opera with perfection. It is an oddly beautiful
moment. It was the only thing that could make a suburban
punk listen to opera.
And this was all I knew of Nomi.
That is, until the Austin Film Festival in 2004 when
a little known documentary called "The Nomi Song"
appeared. What is most amazing about this film is
the inordinate amount of footage of Nomi that is included.
We get home movies and home videos created by his
friends, video of his live performances, cable access
TV appearance, and music videos created by his record
company for his song, "A Simple Man" and other tunes.
There is a plethora of images on Nomi in this doc
and we are astounded by every single moment that the
man is on screen. Even in grainy, shaky, cruddy, degraded
video, Nomi is stunning and amazingly beautiful. His
image never ceases to leave the viewer transfixed.
For a casual fan or a full-blown fanatic, the amount
of footage here is phenomenal. Filmmaker Andrew Horn
has seemingly left no stone unturned in searching
out and finding video images of Nomi. From his early
performance art pieces and concerts captured by friends,
to his "Saturday Night Live" performance as a back-up
singer for David Bowie, everything Nomi ever did that
was captured on film or video seems to be included
here.
Nomi intimates are also interviewed
for the film as well including many musicians who
worked with him as well as performer Ann Magnuson,
neighbor and artist Kenny Scharf, and Anthony Scibelli.
There are interviews with Nomi's former roommate and
his aunt (who is oddly shown only in diorama form)
and many of his friends. All of these paint a glowing
and loving portrait of Nomi and allow us to feel an
close relationship to the man.
Nomi died of AIDS in the early 80's,
back when the disease hadn't even been named yet,
back when it was still called "the gay cancer." Hearing
gay men, like Scharf and others, now much wiser and
older, talk about not seeing Nomi on his deathbed,
because of ignorance and fear, is heartbeaking. How
courageous and bold and honest of these men to admit
their then seemingly callousness due to fearfulness
of the unknown. The sorrow on their faces and in their
words over their inability to have properly said goodbye
to their friend says how important he was as a person.
Luckily, we, the audience, do not
have to see our oddball hero in his final, deteriorated
state. Instead we are treated to Nomi in Shakespearian
garb singing an odd modern opera piece in strong voice.
We see Nomi as pop star in a music video (where he
seems to be attempting to steal the career of Gary
Numan), and we see that monumental first image of
Nomi that first appeared over 20 years ago in "Mr.
Mike's Mondo Video," of Nomi in futuristic garb, face
painted like a alien mime, his slight frame and white
face approaching us and looking at us almost inquisitively.
His voice, like an angel from another planet, anointing
our ears to an opera aria, making all us little glimmering
new wavers, with day-glo shoes and skinny ties, stop
and listen.
Growing up in the Reagan era, we
all felt like the bomb might drop at any minute (and
it did with AIDS). We all felt the end was near. We
all lived for the moment. With one foot firmly entrenched
in an operatic past and one foot stepping assuredly
into a sci-fi inspired future, Klaus Nomi sounded
very much like that moment. Klaus Nomi sounded very
much like
Right
Now.
Note:
Also with images of Debby Harry,
Martin Sheen, and Twisted Sister.
The film won a Best Documentary
award at Berlin and is currently making the film festival
rounds. The film has been picked up for the U.S. by
Palm Pictures.
Viewed in October 2004 as a part
of the Austin Film Festival at the Dobie Theater.
