Art is the music we make from the bewildered cry of being alive. ~Maria Popova
15 Jan 2013 4 Comments
in General Posts Tags: concert behavior
(Reprinted from Rolling Stone)
By Andy Greene
Going to rock concerts has always meant dealing with a bunch of unruly people, many of them very drunk – but it seems like lately things have been worse than ever. Attention spans are at an all-time low, and the ubiquity of smartphones has resulted in a huge percentage of the audience at any given show barely paying attention to the action onstage. Here are the 10 most annoying behaviors at rock concerts:
1. Taking pictures the entire freaking show.
I get it. You want to show all your friends on Facebook and Twitter that you saw a cool concert. Fine. Take a photo. Take five if you want! But please, don’t take 77. You always manage to hold your camera right in my line of sight. You don’t even look like you’re enjoying the show while you’re doing this. All your attention is on the photos. And you know what? Those photos are all going to look like shit. Every single one of them. You’re too far away. You’ll probably never even look at them. Also, you see those guys right in front of the stage with the giant cameras? They’re taking great professional pictures. There’s really no need for yours.
2. Checking e-mail, Facebook and Twitter every couple of minutes.
Unless you’re a surgeon or a firefighter, everything can wait. Live in the moment. Enjoy the show. You paid good money to be here. You can e-mail your friends when you get home. Also, that cellphone emits a very harsh and distracting glow. For the love of God, just turn it off.
3. Incessantly talking to your friends.
You might not like whatever song is playing. You may be bored with the show in general. You may have been dragged here against your will. But you’ve been chattering the entire show, and I can hear every word. It’s driving me crazy. Please shut up. Please. I can’t tell you how many shows I attend where the two people in front of me are yelling in each others’ ears the entire night. Not only is my sightline blocked when their heads come together, but I can hear them. Maybe go to a coffee shop when the show is done. Lie under an oak tree and talk until the sun comes up. I don’t care. Just quiet down so I can enjoy the show.
4. Yelling out requests.
Look, I hope Morrissey plays “There Is A Light That Never Goes Out” also. That would be cool – but stop screaming for it. Most of the time the set list is pre-determined, and you’re screaming in my ear. They’re going to play what they’re going to play. Go along for the ride. And to the guy screaming for a super obscure B-side from 15 years ago? Nobody thinks you’re cool.
5. Yelling out “Freebird!”
This request deserves its own subcategory of irritation. This joke has never been funny. Not once. Just stop. It was lame in 1981. Now it’s just infuriating.
6. Pushing your way to the front.
If a concert is general admission, the people in front earned their spots. They got there early and laid claim to their space. The people all the way in front might have even spent all day camped out by the doors, so when the lights go off and you shove your way to the front, you’re being a huge asshole. Don’t do that. If you show up late and there’s only room in the back, you’ve just gotta deal with it.
7. Getting so drunk you puke.
At pretty much any big concert, you’ll see a janitor emerge after a couple of songs with a big broom and a bucket of sawdust. It means somebody puked. It’s a bummer for the puker, but the people all around have to deal with the aftermath. Don’t be the vomit guy. There’s no worse kind of person to be at the concert.
8. Loudly complaining after the show because the band didn’t play your favorite song.
Not all artists take the Rod Stewart/Billy Joel/Tom Petty approach of “nothing but the hits.” Performers like Neil Young or Van Morrison are unpredictable. This is actually a good thing. Try to enjoy the show you’re getting as opposed the one you wish you were seeing. Besides, haven’t you heard “Brown Eyed Girl” and “Southern Man” enough?
9. Filming the entire show on your iPhone.
This distracts people even worse than taking pictures, and usually results in an equally horrid product. The sad irony is that people tend to film their favorite songs, but the smiles on their faces are gone when all their concentration goes into capturing these moments on film. Tomorrow morning, YouTube will be cluttered with crappy cellphone videos of every song from whatever show you’re seeing. There’s no need to add to that. You paid good money to see a show, and you’re joylessly watching it through a tiny screen on your iPhone. It just doesn’t make any sense.
10. Yelling “Sit down!” at people who are standing up.
This is a real problem at theater and arena shows that attract fans over the age of, say, 40. Nobody can quite agree when to stand or when to sit down. Inevitably, there are some people standing right in front of people that wish to remain seated. Between songs, someone will scream “Sit down!” The stander either obliges, or yells back something like “Go fuck yourself.” The person in the seat just seethes with rage, and the tension seeps through the whole section. Often the person is standing only because someone in front of them is standing. It leads to chaos, and grumpy old people spending the entire show miserable. This has to stop. Here’s a simple rule of thumb: If you can’t see, stand up. It’s very easy. Inversely, if everyone in front of you is seated, sit down. Go with the flow and just relax. We’re all in this concert together.
15 Jan 2013 Leave a comment
in General Posts Tags: keith moon, keith moon last performance, the who
(Reprinted from Open Culture)
Last summer, we revisited a memorable moment from the annals of rock ‘ n’ roll — the time when Keith Moon, flying high on PCP, passed out at a 1973 Who concert in California, giving an unsuspecting fan, Scot Halpin, the chance to take over on the drums. (Watch it all happen here:https://edcyphers.com/2012/09/03/keith-moon-passes-out-at-1973-concert-19-year-old-fan-takes-over/ )
It was a glorious moment for Scot. For Keith, it was the middle of the end — another example of the outrageous substance abuse that would kill him five years later.
Fast forward to 1978, and we arrive at Keith Moon’s final live performance with The Who. It took place when the band shot live footage for the rockumentary, The Kids Are Alright. In his recently-published biography, Who Am I?, Pete Townshend writes that, by 1978, Moon’s addictions had caught up to him. His “drumming was getting so uneven that recording was almost impossible, so much so that work on the Who Are You album had ground to a halt…. [The Who] had just about enough tracks for a record, with very little additional material to spare. ‘Music Must Change‘ was completed with footsteps replacing drums.” When it came time to shoot live footage for The Kids Are Alright, Townshend “was terrified that Keith wouldn’t be able to hide his deteriorating condition,” but agreed to give it a try.
The initial shoot was appalling. The band was out of practice, and Keith couldn’t keep up. So they tried a second shoot, filmed at Shepperton Studios on May 25, 1978, where they played a limited number of hit songs before a small audience. (Watch above and below.) “Keith was in a good mood but bloated and unfit,” writes Townshend, “and he found the repeated takes wearying.” Because Moon’s earphones kept falling off, they taped them to his head with thick black gaffers’ tape. In the months that followed, Moon headed to Malibu, California where he tried to kick his alcohol habit and then started abusing medications to relieve the withdrawal symptoms. On September 6, Moon took 32 tablets of clomethiazole, a sedative meant to help him cope with the withdrawal. The next morning Roger Daltrey, The Who’s lead singer, called Pete Townshend and simply said “He’s done it.”
14 Jan 2013 Leave a comment
in General Posts Tags: top ten singles
Week ending January 16, 1993
(Source: Billboard Hot 100)
14 Jan 2013 Leave a comment
in General Posts Tags: justin timberlake
Had enough of electropop dance music? As its hold on the pop charts seems to loosen a little more with every passing month, a variety of musical styles have so far slipped into the vacuum: currently Top 40 slots are occupied by the reliable crossover country of Taylor Swift, the Americana-inflected folk pop of The Lumineers and Of Monsters and Men, and even actual rock music here and there, represented by Imagine Dragons and unlikely rock hero Pink.
Still, in the same way it took major artists like Rihanna and Britney Spears committing albums to the electronic dance pop sound for it to take such hold in the first place, it might take an artist of significant stature to toll the bell signaling its demise.
Like maybe Justin Timberlake.
If his new single “Suit & Tie” is any indication, Timberlake will be pushing the pendulum back in the direction of actual R&B-flavored dance music with his new album, expected later this year. In a perfect synergy of style and lyric, the song suggests a restoration of dignity and class to a genre that’s been caught up in stut-tut-tuttering vocal samples, warp speed drum sample fills and stabs of synthetic keys for a few years now.
Timberlake is squarely in R. Kelly territory, which means music in the tradition of the Al Greens, Barry Whites and Marvin Gayes of decades past. But where Kelly’s very good Write Me Back album of 2012 charted high but didn’t effect an overall stylistic change, Justin Timberlake’s gravitas as an artist could be enough to push the needle back toward a more organic sound.
If so, it would be a welcome return indeed.
(Note: be sure to listen beyond the 40-second intro)
14 Jan 2013 2 Comments
in General Posts Tags: beatles tour rider, the beatles
(Reprinted from MSN Reverb Music Blog and The Smoking Gun)
The Beatles had modest demands when they toured the U.S. in 1965 (The group’s standard three-page rider and a one-page contract for the tour’s Portland stop contain) no requirement of bendy straws, Rough Rider condoms, or Cristal for the Fab Four. Instead, the most influential band ever just wanted adequate police protection, a “hi-fidelity sound system with adequate number of speakers,” and “a platform for Ringo Starr and his drums.”
The backstage dressing room accommodations were also spartan: “four cots, mirrors, an ice cooler, portable TV set and clean towels.” As for ground transportation, the performers were not above sharing a ride: “Two (2) seven-passenger Cadillac limousines (air-conditioned if possible), with chauffeurs.”
…The four-page list of demands (is) modest by today’s standards. Dressing rooms? A fence to keep fans from rushing the stage from behind? Cots? What primadonnas those four were!
The fascinating thing is demand #5.
Remember, this is 1965 — mere months after the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed, and the band was demanding that all promoters extend racial equality to all the band’s fans. Say whatever you want about the way the ’60s are remembered through rose-colored glasses. Some people were walking the walk.
By the way, ticket prices for the Portland show: $6, $5 and $4.
Every Moment Has A Song 