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drwexThrough the miracle of the kid-sitting gods we've managed to make it out to three different events in the space of the past couple weeks. Herewith, thoughts.
The first show, at the Somerville Theater, was a performance by Neil and Amanda to honor a mutual friend who had died suddenly, and to help endow a scholarship in her name. As a result we went for the expensive tickets, which included a signed poster and a brief (and very disorganized) meet-and-greet with the various artists afterward.
I continue to be less a fan of Amanda Palmer's music than I am of Ms Palmer herself. I like a lot of what she does and her attempts to make the music business bend to her ways and her no-holds-barred approach. So for me it was less about getting to see Dresden Dolls or Jason Webley than it was about getting to help these people honor someone meaningful to them and if the scholarship comes to be then having a real impact on some womens' lives in the future.
The show was a mixed bag. There was poetry, and music, and singing. And Neil read one of the short stories he'd written recently. It was a good evening, though it could have done with a little more planning.
To be specific, it was Ian Anderson with Jethro Tull doing Thick as a Brick, Volumes I and II. In their entirety.
This was both a plus and a minus. Plus is this is probably the only time I'm ever going to see them do this, or maybe even see them ever again. Minus is that I'm not all that fond of this particular album. In the end plus won out over minus.
Anderson has been performing for... um, probably about as long as I've been alive and though he hasn't had a hard-rock lifestyle the years have worn on his voice in particular. He did all the flute bits, and a fair amount of physical activity. But they brought in a young kid - apparently a student of one of the band members - whose voice sounds uncannily like a young Ian Anderson and had him pick up some of the vocal bits.
Unfortunately, I did not think the show was very good. It was very much a staged performance, with some of the trappings of a rock concert. I've seen many prog-rock staged shows and those are concerts with stage trappings. I don't know that I can precisely explain the difference, except by example. At one point the guitarist breaks into a "jam" that ought to have been improvisational but instead was clearly scripted, right down to the move-here-do-this bit. You could see how polished it was.
Also, boo on the Wang sound system, which was pretty bad and rendered almost all the vocals unintelligible. There was just too much mixing into the mid-range so that when people were singing the instrumentals overran them.
In the end I will probably end up being glad I saw this since I doubt there will be another chance to see Anderson or Tull, but it could have been a better night.
Once again a Beats Antique show in a packed club with a lot of people whose sense of personal space was... degraded, to say the least. There was a great deal of attractive eye candy, but by the third time the drunk-chick-gyrating-three-inches-from-me almost hit me in the head with her upraised arm I was done.
People, too many of them, packed too tightly and with too little respect for others around them. Seriously, how many of you asshats need to hold your wobbly cell phones up so you can photo/video the stage and obstruct the view of everyone behind you? Yes, I'm a cranky old fart. Yes I refrained from actually shoving (hard) anyone or telling anyone off. Barely.
The show was... OK. Beats are on tour for their first concept album, called "A Thousand Faces". As you can guess it's their interpretation of the Campbell ur saga, filtered through modern sensibilities and Zoe Jakes' new-found fascination with Balinese dance and costuming styles. Pygment was more disappointed than I - she was looking forward to something she could dance to. I had listened to the new album (got it by Kickstarter-backing this tour production) and knew more of what was coming.
I thought the production had several clever bits and was generally pretty good. I think if I'd been able to see and hear (omg the Paradise Rock Club's sound system is fucking AWFUL, no matter how hot the house sound-board op is) better I would have enjoyed it more. But I have to admit that the best part probably was the encore where they hauled out some old favorites and just went to town.
The first show, at the Somerville Theater, was a performance by Neil and Amanda to honor a mutual friend who had died suddenly, and to help endow a scholarship in her name. As a result we went for the expensive tickets, which included a signed poster and a brief (and very disorganized) meet-and-greet with the various artists afterward.
I continue to be less a fan of Amanda Palmer's music than I am of Ms Palmer herself. I like a lot of what she does and her attempts to make the music business bend to her ways and her no-holds-barred approach. So for me it was less about getting to see Dresden Dolls or Jason Webley than it was about getting to help these people honor someone meaningful to them and if the scholarship comes to be then having a real impact on some womens' lives in the future.
The show was a mixed bag. There was poetry, and music, and singing. And Neil read one of the short stories he'd written recently. It was a good evening, though it could have done with a little more planning.
To be specific, it was Ian Anderson with Jethro Tull doing Thick as a Brick, Volumes I and II. In their entirety.
This was both a plus and a minus. Plus is this is probably the only time I'm ever going to see them do this, or maybe even see them ever again. Minus is that I'm not all that fond of this particular album. In the end plus won out over minus.
Anderson has been performing for... um, probably about as long as I've been alive and though he hasn't had a hard-rock lifestyle the years have worn on his voice in particular. He did all the flute bits, and a fair amount of physical activity. But they brought in a young kid - apparently a student of one of the band members - whose voice sounds uncannily like a young Ian Anderson and had him pick up some of the vocal bits.
Unfortunately, I did not think the show was very good. It was very much a staged performance, with some of the trappings of a rock concert. I've seen many prog-rock staged shows and those are concerts with stage trappings. I don't know that I can precisely explain the difference, except by example. At one point the guitarist breaks into a "jam" that ought to have been improvisational but instead was clearly scripted, right down to the move-here-do-this bit. You could see how polished it was.
Also, boo on the Wang sound system, which was pretty bad and rendered almost all the vocals unintelligible. There was just too much mixing into the mid-range so that when people were singing the instrumentals overran them.
In the end I will probably end up being glad I saw this since I doubt there will be another chance to see Anderson or Tull, but it could have been a better night.
Once again a Beats Antique show in a packed club with a lot of people whose sense of personal space was... degraded, to say the least. There was a great deal of attractive eye candy, but by the third time the drunk-chick-gyrating-three-inches-from-me almost hit me in the head with her upraised arm I was done.
People, too many of them, packed too tightly and with too little respect for others around them. Seriously, how many of you asshats need to hold your wobbly cell phones up so you can photo/video the stage and obstruct the view of everyone behind you? Yes, I'm a cranky old fart. Yes I refrained from actually shoving (hard) anyone or telling anyone off. Barely.
The show was... OK. Beats are on tour for their first concept album, called "A Thousand Faces". As you can guess it's their interpretation of the Campbell ur saga, filtered through modern sensibilities and Zoe Jakes' new-found fascination with Balinese dance and costuming styles. Pygment was more disappointed than I - she was looking forward to something she could dance to. I had listened to the new album (got it by Kickstarter-backing this tour production) and knew more of what was coming.
I thought the production had several clever bits and was generally pretty good. I think if I'd been able to see and hear (omg the Paradise Rock Club's sound system is fucking AWFUL, no matter how hot the house sound-board op is) better I would have enjoyed it more. But I have to admit that the best part probably was the encore where they hauled out some old favorites and just went to town.
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Date: 2013-10-28 10:28 pm (UTC)It's possible to get acceptable sound at the Paradise, though. Whether the sound-board-operator-of-the-evening decides to do so is another thing altogether.
I refuse to step into TT the Bears place; find me someone who can wrangle decent sound out of that setup and you've found the Kwisatz Haderach.