From: owner-ecto-digest@smoe.org (ecto-digest) To: ecto-digest@smoe.org Subject: ecto-digest V8 #103 Reply-To: ecto@smoe.org Sender: owner-ecto-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-ecto-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk ecto-digest Friday, April 12 2002 Volume 08 : Number 103 Today's Subjects: ----------------- Re: Walkouts. was: Dear Janes at the 12 Bar Club [meredith ] Charlotte Martin [DanS ] Re: Walkouts. was: Dear Janes at the 12 Bar Club [Billi Mazur ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 11 Apr 2002 23:39:26 -0400 From: meredith Subject: Re: Walkouts. was: Dear Janes at the 12 Bar Club Hi, Steve responded: >Sturgeon's Law apparently applies quite well to the local music scene in >Eugene. Heh. It's not just Eugene. One occupational hazard of going to as many live performances as we do is the fact that most opening acts, be they official "openers" or just other bands/artists on the bill that night, well, *suck*. Some are merely bland and boring, but some are so horrifically bad that they become the stuff of legend. (See: Vibrolush, who opened for Throwing Muses at Tramps in NYC a few years ago; also Conehead Buddha and Countless Others, who opened for Happy at Joyous Lake in 1994 -- that experience will live in our minds forever.) ======================================= Meredith Tarr New Haven, CT USA mailto:meth@smoe.org http://www.smoe.org/meth ======================================= Live At The House O'Muzak House Concert Series http://www.smoe.org/meth/muzak.html ======Next Up: N&K Nields 4/21/02====== ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 11 Apr 2002 21:07:27 -0700 From: irvin lin Subject: Walkouts and random band musings. Random people wrote: > thus, performances i didn't walk out on include the "my bloody > valentine" show that was so loud that a friend's girlfriend vomited ( i > guess some critical tendencies just can't wait until afterwards ;). MY BLOODY VALENTINE made her throw up? Wow. Fabulous. I saw MBV years ago when they were touring for LOVELESS. It was with DINOSAUR JR and BABES IN TOYLAND. It was one of the best shows I'd seen I college. Didn't make me throw up though. LOVELESS was (still is) an amazing album. > melting hopefuls (who?) Hey whatever happened to them? I quite enjoyed their short album/long ep VIVA LA VOID, but was a little disappointed with their previous album SPACE FLYER.... I also liked their name. > does anyone here like morphine? > sandman died when he was 46 of a heart attack on stage, while performing! it > was in room, on july 3rd 199(9?). that would be a very, very strange > concert to be at. Ah poor MARK SANDMAN. I never really listened to all that much MORPHINE, but I had friends who did - and who LOVED LOVED LOVED him. I believe they played at my college when I was there, but I was too busy pretending to listen to DINOSAUR JR (see above) to bother checking them out. You can hear him sing on the new TANYA DONELLY album I do believe (I don't have the album, but I read an interview with TANYA and she mentioned it). I need to look into getting it, but funds are low at the moment... I don't think I have ever walked out of a show. Oh wait. I think I ended up leaving a NIELDS show once because my friend RENEE hated it so much.... I was rather indifferent so we left. Heh. irvin ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 12 Apr 2002 00:32:07 -0400 From: DanS Subject: Charlotte Martin Surprisingly enough, I got tipped off to this thanks to a small article in the issue of Details magazine that hit my mailbox today. From her web site... > (Charlotte) Martin's approach encompasses the orchestrated ruminations of Kate Bush, > the poetic storytelling of Joni Mitchell or Billy Joel, plus the fiery piano playing and > alternately dark and humorous lyrical take of Ben Folds. A couple of songs and tour dates can be found at http://www.charlottemartin.com (she's playing residency dates at Knitting Factory and HOB in California this month). Judging from the mp3s on her web site, I think they intentionally left a couple other comparisons out of that description. I'm looking forward to hearing the entire album though, which is not officially out yet. Dan ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 11 Apr 2002 22:25:33 -0700 From: Billi Mazur Subject: Re: Walkouts. was: Dear Janes at the 12 Bar Club First off, Hello Everyone! I have been faithfully lurking. I have the usual excuses for not posting in eons (long hard work hours, fun evenings spending time w/ Billi or working on music). Since Phil mentioned me by name, I felt compelled to finally post again. Billi and I were also at the same Bowie concert at the Shoreline that Phil walked out on. We were both so excited to finally get tix to see him, with Adrian Belew on guitar no less. We had tried to get tickets for other Bowie shows, but they always sold out too quickly. We had seen him perform many times on TV (Midnight Special, "The Little Drummer Boy" duet w/ Bing on that bizarre Xmas special, the HBO special of "The Serious Moonlight" tour and the ABC airing of "The Glass Spider" tour). We were finally going to see him live! Woohoo!!! What a bummer of a show! For all of the reasons Phil listed below, Billi and I were hugely disappointed. In addition, Belew, who was so brilliant when I saw him with King Crimson, was horrendous. He was completely over the top and out of control. He butchered all of the leads that Stevie Ray Vaughan immortalized from the famous songs off of "Let's Dance". The whole band was really bad. Say what you will about the pompous Mr. Fripp, at least he knew how to "Discipline" Mr. Belew (sorry for the bad pun). As Phil states, I was at the Yes show where he walked out. I have seen Yes over two dozen times since the first time Billi and I saw them in 1972 at the Berkeley Community Theatre during the Close to the Edge tour. In my opinion, they have never played a lackluster show. Most times, they have been absolutely brilliant. With that being said, I do agree with Phil that the show he walked out on was not one of the strongest shows that they ever played. A few years later I bought tickets for a Yes show at the Concord Pavilion. I asked Phil to join me for the show. Billi had to give up her ticket due to illness. Phil was reluctant, but ended up joining me and really enjoyed the show. They ended up doing all of their old classics like before. This time though, they had great energy on stage. Some of that was because of their new keyboard player, Igor. They also resurrected old songs they hadn't done in years. It was a great show. I have never walked out of a concert, although I have walked out of the hall into the lobby to avoid the onslaught of a few horrible bands sandwiched between some of my favorite bands. Billi and I saw Focus, Poco and Yes at Winterland. Focus and Yes were both incredible. Poco, sandwiched in the middle, were so loud and horrible that Billi and I were scrambling to find something to put into our ears to protect us from the noise. Another example was the Progfest in LA a few years ago. That whole two day concert event was wonderful, with one notable exception. That was a band from Italy called Deus Ex Machina. Some proggers absolutely adore these guys. My brother and I tried to sit through their set. We lasted only about 5 minutes. We made a beeline for the lobby. Their lead singer screeched in this overly dramatic, operatic voice while the band played "too many notes" at 180 bps or better. "But they're so cool man! He sings in Latin and they are such virtuosos on their instruments." I guess my brother and I just didn't get it. The whole Ectofest West concert was special to me. Happy and her band were brilliant, especially considering the extraordinary circumstances of the day. I loved everyone else on the bill too. It was magical night. OK, I will try to end this long post by adding that Billi and I did walk out of Frank Zappa's "200 Motels". Zappa is brilliant, but that movie was difficult to handle on the big screen. Sorry, one last aside because of Jeff's post. Terry Bozzio is an incredible drummer. I never saw him with Missing Persons. I did see him with Zappa. He was a madman behind the kit. Peace, love, kisses and hugs to all of you! I will talk to you again in another six months. Back to lurking. Bill M. P.S. - Thanks everyone for getting me hooked on BtVS. ;-p - That's a worse addiction than EWS. I started watching 3rd season reruns on FX a few months ago after seeing the repeat of the Buffy Musical. I had to see it after all of the raves recorded here. I have now seen most of the episodes from all of the seasons at this point. Damn you Ecto! ;-) n.p. - Low _"Things We Lost in the Fire"_ n.r. - J.K. Rowling _"Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets"_ Phil wrote: > Adam raises an interesting topic: > > "Well, I walked out on only my second gig last night (the > first one was John McLaughlin in Central Park, some 20 > years ago -- I like to pace myself)" > > Which gigs have we walked out of, or wanted to? > > David Bowie at the Shoreline Theater (in about 1990?)delivered such a jaded > and lackluster perfomance that it felt like both he and his band couldn't > wait to get offstage and do something more interesting. > An incredibly tasteless 70-foot-high projection video of him accepting > simulated (I hope)fellatio from a kneeling Asian woman, gave my partner and > I the impression that we were watching some deleted scene from "Spinal Tap". > Bowie created quite a stir in his Ziggy days by pretending onstage to give > the same kneepad service to guitarist Mick Ronson, but hey David, that was > the 70s. > In retrospect, it was just plain tacky then too, but our sensibilities were > different, I suppose. Bowie has always tried very hard to be a shocker, but > I've always been more drawn to artists who relied solely on their music, and > didn't feel the need to resort to shocking tactics that, while drawing > attention and publicity to themselves, pulled the focus away from their > music. > > My other walkout, in about the same timeframe, was (gasp!) Yes. > I've seen them many times, always they were full of energy, excitement and > innovation. > This time around their set had a level of excitement normally associated > with a village lawn-bowling tournament. Not even the mighty Bill Bruford, > surrounded by an enormous battery of drums and backed with a giant moving > mirror, could keep me in my seat for more than about half the perfomance. In > fairness to Yes though, I believe Bill Mazur saw the same concert, and > didn't have the same problems with it that I did. > > By vivid comparison, Happy came onstage at Ectowest last year with a > partially severed tendon in her hand ( for those unfamiliar, it happened the > morning of the show) > Despite the obviously severe pain she was experiencing, and the fact that > she couldn't play guitar or left hand keys, she and the band quickly cobbled > together a set of songs they could still do, and gave 200+ fans an > unbelievable show. Her performances of her songs were both powerful and > passionate, and her interactions with the audience were engaging and > frequently hilarious. The whole show was a moving and transcendental > experience for many of us who were there. > > Phil ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 12 Apr 2002 06:43:34 +0100 From: "Adam K." Subject: Re: Walkouts. was: Dear Janes at the 12 Bar Club >By the way, Adam, what was it about McLaughlin's show that caused you to >walk? > >Phil Well, I'm glad you asked, Phil. It was a strange mixture of boredom and embarassment. The opening act had been Brand X, but not only without Phil Collins, but without a guitarist, who had broken his arm. Thus followed a brief but interminable set of what can only be described as "noodling". Then the legendary McLaughlin came on, with a sprawling band and a cordless guitar. The guitar was quite an innovation in those days (this is around 1977, I think), and he wanted to show it off --- so off he rambled, offstage, onstage, backstage, sometimes disappearing for ages at a time. Meanwhile, everyone onstage kept chanting about peace and love, and how we were all going to ascend to the stars to the greater power or something, and the music noodled on, and McLaughlin wandered on and off, and the drummer stood up behind the kit to deliver a monologue about peace and love and energy and ascending to the stars.....my god, I still get the chills just thinking about it. This, I should point out, was also an outdoors gig (part of the Dr. Pepper series of gigs that they used to have) and it had already rained once or twice. So both me and the friend I came with made our apologies and left for somewhere warmer, dryer and far more interesting. The damned thing is --- if I saw the same gig now, I'd probably really enjoy it. adam k. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 12 Apr 2002 01:51:43 -0400 From: "dave" Subject: a couple of shows and walkouts I can think of a few shows I've felt like walking out of.. but as I was in the band it was a little difficult. Anyway.. here's a couple of upcoming shows with Mary Arden Collins and Donna Delory, One near Philly, one in NYC THU 5/2 THE POINT 610-527-0988 880 W. Lancaster Ave Bryn Mawr, PA 9pm $12. All Ages FRI 5/3 THE CUTTING ROOM TEL: (212) 691-1900 19 W. 24th St (between 6th & B'way) New York, NY 7:30 pm $15 You can also catch Mary live on WXPN's Women's Music Hour Friday 4/19 from 9-10am ------------------------------ End of ecto-digest V8 #103 **************************