Re: (RL) Boston gig

[Joe Hartley <jh@brainiac.com>]

KWood@lightbridge.com wrote:
> My 2c on th' Boston gig:

Easier for me to comment on this than start from scratch - it's been a
loooooong day!

> Richard's set was a blast.  His vocals sound much better live than they do
> on the cd and they seemed to mesh with the music perfectly.

I think they worked better in a live setting as well.  I missed the
background vocals, though.  

> His guitar playing was volcanic and captivating, 

Damn straight!  There were moments when he was really ripping things up.

> and it was good to see him
> occasionally trade licks with the bass player, who was likewise a
> phenomenal performer.  I'd like to see more of that sort of musical
> interplay in the future. 

Well, not only was it not really that sort of gig, it's not that sort
of album.

>  The rhythm guitar player was very charming

Bibi is an absolute dear!  If I weren't happily married....

> A band should only (very) rarely be simply an extension of one
> person's vision, and that's perhaps at the very core of what bugs me about
> almost every solo project I've ever seen.  There's no Lennon/Mcartney
> tension to challenge, encourage or throw wrenches into the gears of one
> member's ideas, and I think it's that very tension that gives birth to true
> collaborative genious, and music, despite all the recording gear in the
> world, is a collaborative art once it hits that stage.

Well, RL's been there, done that.  This record and tour is a chance
for him to be the boss, to take the input from his session players and
use or discard those ideas as he sees fit.  Now, I agree with Kent
that the tension can create great music; as much as I enjoy Richard and
Tom's solo works, the Television records are better to me.  That can
be very wearing, though, and solo projects are a way for the artist to
get the control over the project.

> Unfortunately, but somehow perhaps justly, it is also that very tension
> that sends the members of great bands running for their home studios in the
> first place!

"It's not a home fucking studio!"  I had referred to it as a "home brew"
studio at one point (because Richard built it up himself) and he heard it
as "home studio" and went off on a tear about how it's not in his house,
he doesn't live there, and how people ask him how he made such a good
record in his bedroom!  It was Chris (I believe) who jumped in to point
out that he _did_ build it himself, so it was an apt description.  (Whew-
thanks!)  

> Anyways, that said, I was seriously entertained, and stood there gaping
> pretty much the whole damn time!  I shook Richard's hand at the end of the
> show and he was extremely friendly and disarming.

I enjoyed the show.  I think they felt a bit rusty at the beginning and
took a bit to warm up, but they're professionals, so it wasn't obvious.
I really didn't like the mix at all.  At times I had a hard time hearing
Richard's guitar, and his vocals were a bit low in the mix.  But I wasn't
there to hear him sing, really - I was there to hear him play guitar, and
I was _not_ disappointed!  He's got a real mastery of those strings, and
he made that clear over and over again.

As for the songs, he played most of the songs from "Cover" as well as
older faves like "Misty Eyes" and "Alchemy" (which was one of the high
points for me.  They did a crazy psychedelic version of "Hey Joe" that
was superb (but too short) and closed with "Good Times Bad Times."
Personally, I was disappointed with that choice because I've got this
long-standing dislike of Led Zeppelin, but he brought a lot of inventive
stuff to the rendition.

My first outing with the MD recorder was less successful than I'd hoped;
the show's rather distorted, but the chats with Richard and the band
done on the streets of Boston are much better.  Details to come when I
get to it.


======================================================================
                    Joe Hartley - jh@brainiac.com
      Whenever you find that you are on the side of the majority, 
                it is time to reform.  -  Mark Twain
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