SLIGHTLY THROBBING

When does Throbbing Gristle become dead meat? When it becomes too Cosey. Don’t get it? No reason to worry--the riddle’s as unimportant as the performance former Throbbing Gristle members Chris (Carter) and Cosey (Fanni Tutti) gave at the Meltdown on Friday night. Instead of spewing forth shock waves (one of Throbbing Gristle’s operative procedures), Chris and Cosey sent out mild titillations: slightly poppy, slightly hypnotic, slightly erotic monochromatic electro-sounds. In other words, slight. Videos accompanying the duo included clips from Bunuel/Dali’s “An Andalusian Dog” (always a big art school fave) and scenes of Cosey as a stripper. Now if the live Cosey, alternating between bleating on a trumpet, noodling with a slide guitar and doing a great Nico impersonation, had taken it off, we might have had something to remember. As it was, Chris and Cosey’s soundscapes were moody, ambient and completely forgettable.