I didn't quite grasp what Gary Numan was trying to put across at Maple Leaf Gardens last night. I think it had something to do with the anguished, dehumanized state of mankind in the technological world. Or maybe it had something to do with the puppy he lost when he was 8.

Whatever it was, the British electronic pop artist was doing his best to put something across, something complex and artistic, but it didn't work. It wasn't for lack of the proper materials; his lyrics and music succeed in portraying a stark world, not entirely stripped of intense human feeling, but a world that represses it in a way that makes any emotion at all sound like a cry, too late, from hell. It is left up to the composer to put this message across effectively on stage, something he failed to do.

It might seem appropriate that Numan is the uncharismatic, clumsy person he is on stage. But the heavier the message, the more dramatic is the technique required to transmit it, and Numan, even with all the visual tricks, could not conjure up the right mixture of movement and voice to pump this act up to something larger than parody. He was so serious and so convinced of the clarity in his work that he seemed at times entirely uninvolved in what he was doing. Again, that lack of concern might seem part and parcel of the sci-fi nature of his music, but it is difficult to comprehend anything from the rock stage that is not at least slightly over-stated. The vocal drone, rarely modulating, just wasn't enough.

Numan's music may be an accurate forecasting of pop music in the fascist world to come, but that doesn't make it interesting. Most of it was patently childish, harmonically crude, and rhythmically dull, with only the occasional intense background keyboards (from three seperate sets) adding some body to the limp sound. For what it was worth, the keyboards were played with precision and, when hooked up with the formidable light show, provided a light, soothing environment.

You are getting sleepy. You are getting sleepier. You are now asleep. Now, repeat after me: "I have no name. I am a number."