sherouse@unc.UUCP (George W. Sherouse) (02/05/84)
I for one have all but given up on live (electric) music because: 1) Most bands have long since gone deaf and seem intent on causing me to join them in their misery. I don't think *ANY* concert is good enough to be the last thing I hear. 2) Most bands, no matter how sophisticated, seem incapable of ending a song without a standard "big rock 'n' roll finish". It makes me puke. 3) More often than not live performances amount to bored (boring) walk-throughs which are indestinguishable from the corresponding album tracks except for the inferior sound quality, minimal visual cues as to which verse we're on, and the obligatory RNRF (see item 2). In particular I have had this experience with Elvis Costello and James Brown, neither of whom has any excuse. 4) The price of a typical concert will buy 1 and 1/2 studio albums. I used the qualifier "electric" above pointedly. I have had quite positive experiences with acoustic and experimental performances. I am thinking in particular of Oregon, Fred Frith (the ultimate concert experience - Have you ever seen/heard someone drive a nail into a feeding-back guitar and encourage the feedback by bowing the nail with a violin bow, all without missing a beat or producing a dischordant sound? I have...but I digress), and of course live chamber music. The punch-line: "rock" concerts are for masochists. Count me out...with apologies to John Martyn who gives 110% *every time*. Good tunes to you... (the real) George W. Sherouse <sherouse@unc> "I got tired of counting all these blessings...and then I just got tired." Spot the quote...or was that Spot the dog. Creeping senility...