Wednesday, March 07, 2007

middle aged man has strong reaction to rock and roll show

...as performed by slightly older, and also of course middle aged, men and women.

Last night we went to see David Kilgour and Yo La Tengo at the Corner. I didn't like David Kilgour's set at all, or rather, the only bits I liked were the rock out bits at the end of about 3 or 4 songs. Part of this I ascribe to his apparent desire to reference the sound of late 60s Dylan. It has come to my attention that I don't really like Bob Dylan's music that much. I guess the mid-to-late 60s is his best period but nevertheless: I don't like it that much. But I really don't like it when people feel they should base their sound on him, and particularly when people try to sing like him. I also don't like it when innovative artists lose their verve and gain a strong desire to become craftspeople doing work 'as good as' their heroes'. Anyway, really great drummer aside, I wasn't that into DK, but maybe I just wasn't in the mood.

It must have been about the 6th time I'd seen Yo La Tengo. I have always enjoyed almost all of their work, and I admire them very much. The first half of the show - from about 10 to about 11, up until they did the Beach Boys cover - was amazingly excellent. Just after that the whole thing totally jumped the shark. The second half of the show was a gruesome debacle that went on incredibly long and seemed to feature one song that may as well have been the sound of a peanut shelling machine with the cogs askew. It was woeful. Some guy about 1 1/2 years younger than me ran up to some other guy and said 'that was totally fucken incredible! that was the most amazing thing I've ever seen!' which it may have been but I doubt it, because it was shocking.

I conveyed this to the car on the way home and Shane said at least the encores were good and I agreed with him but I was telling a lie (inasmuch as I was faking agreement) because I just wanted to forget it all.

If more people went to Circus Royale more often, they would realise what a show was all about.

4 comments:

boy moritz said...

My two cents: Your constant requests for the dancing horses was really annoying. And personally I wuved what was in the cabinet of dr. kilgour. Dylan, mid-60s, really? Wareham, mid-90s more like. Georgia's drum sound annoyed me, as did the dearth of mistakes. Peace out, my brutha

David Nichols said...

Yes you said this as well but I thought there was a multiplicity of drum sounds. They were somewhat treated. There were also drum machines/ loops/ samples I think, or maybe this was just spontaneously generated stuff, which also made for rhythm. Yes, bring on the dancing horses.

Anonymous said...

More like this

boy moritz said...

Worst Luau Ever!

the early 70s was all juxtaposition

October 1970, everyone had their arms out in the air, from Barbra to, um, whoever that is on the left, to Thumbelina. This is from the Sprin...