Songs and Stories from Moby Dick is Laurie Anderson’s take on a classic of American literature. Wielding her synth, her electric violin and processed vocals—along with video projections associatively based on Melville’s famously associative storytelling—Anderson approaches the audience as a storyteller, spinning yarns about America. As she put it, “It’s about people working — and that’s pretty American. Another is that you’re trapped on a ship with a captain who’s out of his mind. And this is not an unfamiliar concept to Americans: The guy in charge is crazy, completely crazy. And the third is that it’s about something that you look for, that you’re never going to find.”