| COncerts andd the Concert Going Experience
This past month I have attended 3 concerts: KFRC Endless Summer, a Concert in Berkeley, and just last night the Barenaked Ladies w/ opener Nellie Mckay and warm-down act Alanis Morisette.
KFRC Endless summer:
Probably the strangest concert I've been to - The audience was at least three times my age, making it fun to watch somewhat older people onstage still rocking out to 60's and early 70's tunes. Acts included The Grass Roots, The Buckinghams, Chad and Jeremy, Hermans Hermits, and Tommy James and the Shondells. I enjoyed every act thoroughly, although a few acts seemed to feed off of the audience most.
The Buckinghams - Really yong looking lead singer, and crazy old man guitarist who stole the spotlight by muttering incoherent things into his mic in between songs and dancing around w/ his guitar. But when time came to perform the songs, he'd sing perfect harmonies. I want to be like that when i'm 100.
Chad and Jeremy - Very similar to Everly Brothers, Simon and Garfunkel (But in this case the Garfunkel could play just as well as the Simon, either way music is an Art), and were very partial to "the duo who started it all": 1/2 of the beatles. The John and Paul half. "What about George?" was our first reaction to the statement, but it has to be admitted that while George wrote many terrific songs, the most well-known (or just the MOST) songs were written by the Lennon/McCartney duo. They proceeded to do a beautiful cover of a Beatles song that at the moment i can't remember. The highlight of their set was the cover of "Desperado" but with new words making it about "Avocado" (You better let somebody eat you)
Herman's Hermits - Peter Noone - the "Herman" from the hermits must have been at least in his 60s but acted like a 20 year old, jumping around singing in his yellow shirt and too tight leather pants. His energy was infectious, and he probably made the set the most exciting of the night. WIth catchy oldies, he drew the audience into singalongs and often showed off his vocal talent by imitating other artists (eg. Rolling Stones) - not just vocally but the walk. It was great, songs were awesome, and got a CD signed by Herman. Songs that stood out were "Mrs. Brown You've Got a LOvely Daughter" and "I'm into SOmething Good", "henry the 8th" "There's a Kind of Hush" "can't you hear my hearbeat" "wonderful world" and songs i didn't know but were great nonetheless.
Tommy James and the Shondells - Admittedly the most popular of the bands (hence them closing the show) the Tommy James and the Shondells rocked it old school. Great arrangements of their classic songs: Crimson and Clover, Crystal Blue Persuasion, I think we're Alone Now, and Mony Mony. I enjoyed their sound, but did not interact with teh audience as much as the Hermits - Their songs stood for their whole set - And was surprised to see Tommy James playing his guitar in a very simple tuning, i can only guess it was open G or open D, or not even plugged in, because most of the chords he played were just 2 or 1 finger barred chords. Harmonies were great for their set, but we left early to beat the rush. They played mony mony two times, and then the concert was over.
Musicast Performance: This was a rockin' show in Oakland or Berkeley i can't remember, but i'm pretty sure it was Oakland, maybe in between. We came to see Shafter, and stayed for other bands w/ bad advice for names: Go on Red. But all the bands were very good and kept the audience into it. UNfortunately due to tech. difficulties, the vocals were low and it was hard to understand the singers, and sometimes couldn't heard teh melody/harmonies. But each band I'm sure would sound even better if the levels were fixed. It was a very weird situation to be in an audience of your age or a little older or younger, and w/ performers the same age - a very different venue and demographic compared to the KFRC endless summer. One thing that stood out to me that they shared in common was the ENERGY. Energy spread like wildfire when bands would perform in both concerts - and it was similar in that each band got a short set so there wasn't a single headliner. So that gave each band very little time to warm up to the crowd and visa versa, and once they did (and they all did), they played only a couple of more songs. I'm sure this was for time reasons, but after each performance (both here and at KFRC endless summer in concord) the audience was left on this buzz that the band who just finshed left with them. IF you imagine audience members to be gas, or liquid fuel (whatever you want), you can picture a band as a becon of light... in the form of an open fire. In the KFRC endless summer performane, teh songs were so classic and beautiful (plus the soudn was teched very well) all it took was a spark to re-ignite the energy in the audience.
Here, however, each band had to come out w/ a flamethrower, and a little gasoline of their own to pour out on the audience in case they weren't gas or liquid fuel already. Either way, the same result occured: Band comes out and lights the audience on fire (figurativley). if Endless summer was the past, then this would definately be the future. Admittedly, I'm not a HUGE fan of this type of music, in that i don't watch concerts like these typically, but I think i know what good music is. and this is good music. If a song has good arrangement: instrumentally, melodically, and rhythmically then it is good. If the song has all of the above PLUS performed/executed well it is a great song. That night was definately filled with good music. Not specifically my type of music, but good music nontheless.
3rd concert (drumroll please): BARENAKED LADIES (w/ Alanis Morisettte and Nelly Mckay pronounced Muh-Kai)
This was the only band of the many this month that I had seen before. I will now spend a whole long paragraph about how I fell in love with BNL, so if you already know it or don't care to read, skip down. In July 1998, i believe, i heard One Week. Not on the radio, mind you, but on MTV or VH1 i'm not sure. I was really into anime then, and when the line "gotta get in tune w/ sailor moon cuz that cartoon has got the BOOM ANIME BABES, that make me think the wrong thing" i was hooked. This was corky rock at it's best. Nonsenisical lyrics? ALright! Soon after, BNL hit it big w/ Stunt their then new album, recieving a Grammy...nomination. But even if they didn't win, they won many more Canadian Equivalents, the Juno. And 1.4 Junos CAN equal 1 Grammy USA.
Anyway, I bought the album, didn't like it, then liekd it, long story short i ended up getting all their albums before seeing them live once. I had heard rumors of the live experiene, but it had escaped me to see them.
Fast forward to yesterday.
Nelly Mckay opened and sounded great, played a handful of songs, and a smaller handful w/ bassist Jim Creegan and sung a duet with Steven Paige co-lead singer of BNL.
Yesterday was the 3rd time i'd seen them and after everytime i see them i come out being an even greater fan than before, their live show is so infectious, they've got the setting the audience on fire thing down pat, and they've even allowed themselves to be burned onsage too, making fun of each other, the audience, and security. Their wit and excellent musicianship has won them a great following, and many converts. The live show had a great selection of new and old songs - Beautiful Melodies sung by Steve or Ed and awesome 4 part harmonies, and occasional 5 part (like in For You, One Week Folk Version, and I live with it everyday, and Hello city - ok more than occasionaly) The concert was a blast, and they sounded awesome live. They remain my favorite band around and I can't wait to see when tehy come back in september.
OVerall the concerts were great, but the concert experience was what made it a unique experience. The one person who was with me through all three concerts was Carolyn. As someone who loves music just as much as I do, Carolyn was the perfect concert buddy, singing along her harmonies to songs, even songs w/o harmony, making up her own, and remembering it for the trips back when I'd sing the melody to a song and she'd remember her cool little harmony part, even if the words were lost to us, and the lyrics came out "I want to eat your babies/face"
Her taste in music seems to be very similar to mine in that she enjoys good music, and doesn't discrimiate against any type of music. She has taught me more about the 80s than I can remember and mroe about melodic singing and adding a harmony than I can actually do. But it's still good to know that someone is out there with that kind of talent. Not just a talent to sing, (she can belt out a lead beautifully), but also can add an unobtrusive harmony, one that adds to the song, rather than a distracting offkey-harmony, which i like doing. Being at the concert with her and seeing her jot little cute notes of the setlist in her tiny composition book makes me thankful that she is there at the concert with me. And yesterday was her first time at a BNL concert, and i think she loved it. Even teh songs she didn't know, i'd write it down for her in her tiny composition book, and she laughed at all the right parts, and she sang harmony too all of the parts, someties adding atricky third harmony on certain songs that should think about adding that tricky harmony. I wish that she had a mic and sang w/ them and then they'd hear how good it is and ask her to run off and join the ladies, and she'd be the only lady in the barenaked ladies. I'm glad that if there was one thing that I dragged her to, that she was dragged to somewhere she had a good time. I'd just like to thank my concert buddy for being there with and for me, and that I had a lovely time this July, that was the basic gist of the blog thing if you didn't catch the forshadowing 4 chapters ago. Thanks.
~Justin |
