After a quixotic and often disastrous national "farewell" tour in '83, Burma called it quits by playing one more largely disastrous show in the urban no-man's land known as Staten Island, opening for Public Image Ltd., who refused to let Burma use the P.A. This canonizing has been a process undertaken with almost no participation by the band members themselves. The strange career of Mission of Burma is proof that in art, the ability to make a lifetime last forever is often an artist's greatest achievement. These shows haven't been accompanied by any new records (though some new songs have crept into the band's set), but in a way, that dearth of new material is itself an argument for Burma's receiving the award. Later this month, the band will hit the West Coast for three shows, including one at Seattle's Experience Music Project, the high-tech museum of rock history launched by former Microsoft impresario Paul Allen. Since January, Burma has headlined a handful of shows in Boston, New York and London, and done two shows at the All Tomorrow's Parties festival in southern England, playing to audiences much larger than any the band had ever encountered.
The honor coincides with the first reunion tour by the legendary band in the nearly two decades since it broke up. Enshrining the band's lifetime accomplishment would seem to be the equivalent of inducting Pedro Martinez into baseball's Hall of Fame - in an alternate universe where he disappeared after pitching one year with the Red Sox, during a season when no fans showed up at Fenway. From 1979 to 1983, Burma put out two singles, one six-song mini-album ("Signals, Calls and Marches"), and one full-length album ("Vs."), all on the tiny Boston independent label Ace of Hearts. At the 15th annual Boston Music Awards, held earlier this year, the 2002 Hall of Fame honor - essentially a lifetime achievement award - was given to Mission of Burma, a band whose lifetime lasted a mere four years and whose cumulative recorded achievement amounted to 21 songs that few people heard.
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