It's a recording! It's a show! It's a recording AND a show!
Went to see Spoon the other night at the Variety Playhouse with some friends. A few things surprised me about this show.
First: We arrived around 9:30 and went to stand in one of the two holding pen-type places that the Variety has along both sides of its seating. Almost immediately, the lights went down, the curtain opened and there was Spoon. And I realized I’ve gotten to the point where I expect to stand for hours, waiting through band after opening band, my legs getting tired, drinking more beer than I really want, until finally when the main event comes, I only half-care and half want to sleep.
But there it was: not fifteen minutes at the place and there was the main act: four clean-cut gents playing a song from their newest album, sounding not one note different from the record. (More on this eerie fact in a bit.) Also: the lead singer did not look at all like Joaquin Phoenix, as I’ve always suspected he would for some reason. Instead, he looks like Gary Bussey.
He led all the songs with this sort of innocuous, smiley manner, before a really, really sedate crowd. I felt like we were in a time warp. I have a copy of Led Zeppelin’s BBC Recordings and one thing I always find jarring is that after each song, you get this smattering of polite British applause. Like, “Immigrant Song,” right? Followed by this ~Clap, clap, clap~; “Jolly good, then. Right-o.” Well, maybe no outright “Right-o”’s, but the “Right-o”’s are implied. They’re there. That’s how Wednesday night’s show was.
And yeah, the almost-zero-deviation-from-the-albums thing was weird, too. One of the people I went to the show with saw this as an asset, but gosh darn it, it’s good to see some elasticity, some creativity up there on the stage. Can’t say they weren’t good, though. Yes, they seemed like nice boys.
And yes, I didn’t write this till today because I got home after the show and had a visit from Old Man Insomnia and so was walking around with like, an hour sleep all day yesterday, till I finally crashed at (yes,) five o’clock and slept till morning. So there.
Went to see Spoon the other night at the Variety Playhouse with some friends. A few things surprised me about this show.
First: We arrived around 9:30 and went to stand in one of the two holding pen-type places that the Variety has along both sides of its seating. Almost immediately, the lights went down, the curtain opened and there was Spoon. And I realized I’ve gotten to the point where I expect to stand for hours, waiting through band after opening band, my legs getting tired, drinking more beer than I really want, until finally when the main event comes, I only half-care and half want to sleep.
But there it was: not fifteen minutes at the place and there was the main act: four clean-cut gents playing a song from their newest album, sounding not one note different from the record. (More on this eerie fact in a bit.) Also: the lead singer did not look at all like Joaquin Phoenix, as I’ve always suspected he would for some reason. Instead, he looks like Gary Bussey.
He led all the songs with this sort of innocuous, smiley manner, before a really, really sedate crowd. I felt like we were in a time warp. I have a copy of Led Zeppelin’s BBC Recordings and one thing I always find jarring is that after each song, you get this smattering of polite British applause. Like, “Immigrant Song,” right? Followed by this ~Clap, clap, clap~; “Jolly good, then. Right-o.” Well, maybe no outright “Right-o”’s, but the “Right-o”’s are implied. They’re there. That’s how Wednesday night’s show was.
And yeah, the almost-zero-deviation-from-the-albums thing was weird, too. One of the people I went to the show with saw this as an asset, but gosh darn it, it’s good to see some elasticity, some creativity up there on the stage. Can’t say they weren’t good, though. Yes, they seemed like nice boys.
And yes, I didn’t write this till today because I got home after the show and had a visit from Old Man Insomnia and so was walking around with like, an hour sleep all day yesterday, till I finally crashed at (yes,) five o’clock and slept till morning. So there.
Labels: music
posted by Alice at 3:34 AM
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