From: owner-shindell-list-digest@smoe.org (shindell-list-digest) To: shindell-list-digest@smoe.org Subject: shindell-list-digest V7 #191 Reply-To: shindell-list@smoe.org Sender: owner-shindell-list-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-shindell-list-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk shindell-list-digest Saturday, August 13 2005 Volume 07 : Number 191 Today's Subjects: ----------------- [RS] Giving Richard the Clap [RockinRonD@aol.com] [RS] brokerage, encores and broken flowers [sharon G ] [RS] RE: Encores [Jamie Younghans / John McDonnell ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sat, 13 Aug 2005 08:38:48 EDT From: RockinRonD@aol.com Subject: [RS] Giving Richard the Clap In a message dated 8/13/2005 4:59:41 A.M. Tom Neff lucidly observed re: encore demands from audiences... >>I think we can afford to let them keep one semi-illogical opportunity to yell and stomp and scream and coax a tired band back onstage for something special.<< I'd have to agree. In Richard's case at the Brokerage last Wednesday, he was summoned back for yet a second encore. I felt proud knowing that I was part of a hometown crowd of sorts that showed their appreciation and respect for Richard by calling him back not once but two times. I have to believe Richard felt damned good about it as well. Can't think anyone, Richard included, considered it silly. Imagine how he might have felt if a Long Island audience didn't yell and stomp and scream and coax him back after a set performance? I think I'd be embarrassed for him. Now that would be silly. ReiteratinRonD ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 13 Aug 2005 08:59:37 -0400 From: sharon G Subject: [RS] brokerage, encores and broken flowers "if we're lucky, we feel our lives knowing the next scene arrives but often we start in the middle and work our way out. " dar williams after not seeing Richard in way too long, I was at the Brokerage with Jeff and Sandy Bernstein. No one mentioned Gene and Isable Frey who were also there.. I swear I heard someone call for the Weather among the "little blue pill" and "green lights" song. I thought Richard was in great voice. While I have been amazed how Richard sings holding the last notes of the last word of the line, he was sounding remarkably a little like Lucy Kaplansky...( too many harmony Gigs recently) It was nice to see him solo. I love that little blue electric guitar. He told the story of how he acquired it and then played Blues licks because he said that the guitar plays itself and it wants to play the blues, even though he doesn't claim to play the blues. We may find some in the future. Richard used a black note book of songs and chords. He used it or flipped through it to make some choices. It seems like he has a skeleton set list and is asking for requests or trying new songs. Reunion Hill was a highlight I was surprised he had to read the words of Deportee.. He toured with Joan for HOW MANY YEARS? Deportee is a mainstay in her set for the 11 years I've seen her.. It was nice to hear Abuelita. Hey played Hazel's house, Mavis, Last Fare of the Day (I informed Richard I always think of the ex junkies who are on methadone and go to St Lukes for their daily dose at St Lukes. He told me he has a new song with those same clients/patients in them) Richard lived up by st lukes and Columbia/Harlem and has incorporated that neighborhood in a new song.) He played the whole cd except Wippowill The brokerage is small and intimate and you need a token to get out the door like Charlie on the MTA.. _________________ Encores: Ive seen artists who don't have encore and play their entire time Or don't make audiences scream and shout. Tom -I am not sure that the screaming and shouting is for the audience or for the artist's ego.. There are artists who MILK the applause and make audiences wait, knowing the house lights aren't up.. that doesn't serve the audience well I have seen artists who just go back stage, hit the wall and come back on stage or in small clubs with not backstage, pretend to leave and come back.. Ive seen artist LEAVE their AUDIENCE FAVORITE songs for last... Eg when Linda Rondstadt did her American Standards tour, she saved Desperado for last because people walked out thinking they were gonna get a night of Blue Bayou.. I think there is a tempering of applause and treating the audience to something special.. Then there are artists who are running short of time and have to fit in a short one..( we learned the sea or alleluia )or they will go over the allotted time and have curfews to meet.. Personally, I don't like to be teased through an encore, id rather be treated..we all know its there... Just do it and do something special... ______________ Lastly I went to see Broken Flowers last night.. There are times in the movie Bill Murray looks like Richard Shindell.. sharonG ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 13 Aug 2005 09:29:09 -0400 From: "Joe Lanzalotto" Subject: RE: [RS] Giving Richard the Clap I agree about Richard and encores. Probably the singer-songwriter/folk/not arena-type artist shows produce some actual spontaneity around encores. The types of encores I have a problem with are those that are well-planned way in advance. Not the _if they call for an encore, we'll do this one" thinking, but encores that are planned to happen. I saw the Eagles a few months ago here in NJ at the Continental arena. They surprised the heck out of me with the craftsmanship and care they had about their songs and performance. They were magnificent. BUT, by the "end" of the show, they had not done Hotel California. You KNEW they were coming back to do that. Then they left and came back and did another one or two (All She Wants to Do Is Dance?). Then they left again and came back and did Take It Easy and Desperado. It was a great show, perfect in almost every way, except for the lack of spontaneity around the encores. Put the planned encore songs in the "main show" and come back out only if the crowd is really going nuts, play one and get off. Leave while people are looking for more, not while they are staying just because the artist is playing but hey are looking at their watches. Joe ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 13 Aug 2005 11:41:53 -0400 From: Jamie Younghans / John McDonnell Subject: [RS] RE: Encores Hi All, Tom wrote: I think we can afford to let them keep one semi-illogical opportunity to yell and stomp and scream and coax a tired band back onstage for something special. I agree, but think that the "get-back-here-young-man/lady" aspect of the encore is really just a charade of willing participants. We know they're not done, they know they're not done, but they have to get off the stage anyway. Programmatic, perhaps, but it's a harmless game, and I quite like the idea that something is finished--but then it's not. Isn't that why the hand always pops out of the grave at the end of the movie? Also, I'm always interested in the encore as separate from the set-why the song(s) in the encore and not in the set. On Wednesday, for example, when RS started Money For Floods (and now its unanimous, except for you-know-who) I was surprised that he would do it as an encore. Doing Arrowhead was more predictable, though no less satisfying. Which raises the encore as "something special" aspect. I think doing "Reunion Hill" and "Sittin' On Top of the World" on the Danelectro as he did on Wednesday would have made a great encore, because it really was special. It's only an issue for me for "less mainstream" artists. I'm not interested in a Dylan or Springsteen or U2 encore in the same way; then again it may be because I'm just not as interested in seeing them (ever again). John McD. ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 13 Aug 2005 13:21:03 -0400 From: Amy Cocuzza Subject: [RS] Brokerage and Towne Crier Okay, I'm a bit behind the 8-ball, but I've never been that reliable with my emails. I was at the Brokerage gig too - see, this is why I say we need a secret handshake or something! Although I guess most of you know each other by now and it's just us fringe-folk who have no faces to put with the names. Great show. Great crowd. Anyway, everyone's already done a pretty thorough job covering the details, so I won't belabor the point. Although I will a) add my voice to the MFF/Ascent question - it was Money For Floods. No question. Sorry Richard! (at one point didn't he go looking for a song that he "almost never plays" only to discover that he didn't have the lyrics with him? I'll bet that was Ascent.) and b) point out that he actually did grant a request, or tried to. I had begged for One Man's Arkansas (which was a no-go, as previously reported.) I was at the table right against the stage, so I sort of had an edge. So the Towne Crier...any other listees go last night? It struck me that, while there was still a respectable core of people who knew most of the songs and all, there were far fewer hardcore Shinheads in attendance. There seems to be some indisputable NY meridian north of which we rarely achieve true uber-fan critical mass. Maybe Putnam County is the buffer? Anyway, I hadn't planned on attending the TC show, but Richard and I struck a deal after the Brokerage. I basically proposed that he relearn One Man's Arkansas before last night if I promised to find a way up there. He was amenable. Besides, I love that venue. I ended up renting a Zipcar and driving up from the city. His opener was a young woman - Swati. Fabulous 12-string guitar work and a great, expressive voice. If I had to guess (after one five song set) I'd say that she's still finding her songwriting voice - there's still a lot of Ani and Alanis in there right now - but she seems to be a great talent. Interacted really nicely with the audience. Lincoln came along for this show (known to some of my more casual-fan friends as "that Bill Clinton-looking guy") and played on almost everything. He's such a solid musician and knows how to stay out of the songs' way, so he'll always get my vote. He stepped out for the Sitting on Top of the World/Reunion Hill Danelectric bonanza, then came back only to be sent away again for "One Man's Arkansas. ("You don't know this one. Sorry") They had some funny banter about Lincoln's face being a finely calibrated feedback system for Richard's tuning. In fact, there was more banter overall than at Wednesday's show. Our man seemed more engaged - not that he's ever remote, but he was in storyteller mode last night. We got an impromptu grammar lesson when a few people confessed ignorance of the subjunctive. There were also far fewer lyrical blunders. He did an extensive prelude to the new iteration of AYHN. Introduced it by saying that it was the nastiest song he'd ever written, and also possibly the best song he's ever written (?) although he didn't want to explore that high water mark. He then explained that he's currently trying to render it unrecognizable "so it doesn't frighten the other songs." Lincoln still had a bit of a challenge figuring out *what* Richard was doing with it, and by the second verse it was almost back to normal. The set list was just about what you'd expect given the recent reports. We did get Mary Magdalene and Darkness, Darkness - whee! I noticed that several of the songs were in different keys. I know that Richard generally operates in a 1/2-step-in-either-direction zone, but Transit in particular sounded at least a full step higher than normal - maybe more. The change really affected the tone and color of the songs - Transit sounded much brighter and crisper than I'm used to hearing it. I enjoyed the shake-up. Of course, one of the highlights for me was the much-anticipated One Man's Arkansas. Damn, that's a good song! Right now it may be neck and neck with Mavis as my favorite. All of this is a very wordy way of saying that it was another great Richard outing - well worth the drive. I'm probably forgetting something significant, but I think that's more than enough out of me. Cheers, Amy ------------------------------ End of shindell-list-digest V7 #191 ***********************************