Berkeley's Greek Theater truly is a traditional amphitheater, with its great granite columns rising staunchly behind the stage and its rounded-bowl seating. So it was fitting that Dead Can Dance chose the theater for their Bay Area performance Friday night (August 9). The band's peculiar blend of spicy world music, spanning continents and centuries, took the audience to a place where time might not exist.

Dead Can Dance founders Lisa Gerrard and Brendan Perry were joined onstage with a host of musicians, and as they launched into "The Snake and the Moon," from their latest release, Spiritchaser, the entire stage erupted into a fury of drums, percussion, and Gerrard's signature voice -- plaintive, ululating and unearthly.

Their set featured work spanning their 15 years of recording. "Yulunga," from 1993's Into the Labyrinth, was a lesson in anticipation as the nearly-a capella introduction built in intensity, breaking only as the steady drumbeat came through. "Nierika" was treated with an extended drum/guitar jam at the end. "Cantara," a track on Within the Realm of a Dying Sun, was breathtaking, its whirling rhythms and vocals thundering through the audience. "Sanvean," from Gerrard's solo album, The Mirror Pool, opened with Gerrard singing and chanting, almost in prayer fashion as a young girl might, before the longing tones of the tune began.

Though Gerrard, in her long white gown and turquoise cape, was prominent as the only female figure on a stage full of men, she did not monopolize Dead Can Dance's set. She left the stage as Perry played a cover of "American Girl" and allowed Perry to take the hammer dulcimer (an instrument which is usually her province) for the final number. Lance Hogan, an Irish musician who has worked with Dead Can Dance since 1993, treated the crowd to a haunting song, soloing on a wooden Native American-style flute.

The true stars, in fact, were the accompanying musicians who exhausted themselves in the complex rhythms and melodies which are at the core of Dead Can Dance's recent work. Along with Hogan the group featured Ronan O Snodiagh and Robert Perry, Hogan's bandmates in the Irish group Kila, Paskaal Japhet from Madagascar, composer John Bonnar from Wales, Dubliner Nigel Flegg, and Pieter Bourke from Australia. Most played drums or shakers, occasionally taking to bass, guitars or wood instruments. All were excellent, tight and electric musicians whose talents helped bring Dead Can Dance's studio recordings to life.

Dead Can Dance doesn't tour often or very thoroughly; they will only play a few more dates in America before finishing their tour in South America. The opportunity to see them live is a rare, but completely worthwhile, blessing. Their music unites the spiritual and physical, ancient and modern, and brings cultures together in impossible ways. In these times of war and trouble, no music may be more necessary than this.

This article was originally published in Addicted to Noise.