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Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!cmcl2!seismo!harvard!think!mit-eddie!nessus
From: nessus@mit-eddie.UUCP (Doug Alan)
Newsgroups: net.music
Subject: Re: Robyn Hitchcock Live!!!!  (Also Salem 66 & Scruffy The Cat)
Message-ID: <4931@mit-eddie.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 11-Aug-85 17:43:56 EDT
Article-I.D.: mit-eddi.4931
Posted: Sun Aug 11 17:43:56 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 14-Aug-85 00:46:47 EDT
References: <4858@mit-eddie.UUCP> <483@linus.UUCP>
Distribution: net.music
Organization: MIT, Cambridge, MA
Lines: 78
Keywords: Additional comments

> From: cv@linus.UUCP (Chris J. Valas)

[Regarding Robyn Hitchcock live in Boston...]

> I was sitting at the second table on the left from the stage, and I
> was as electrified as Doug.  However, he seems to have been suffering
> from the 'time flies when your mind is being devastated' syndrome.

I guess it's always possible.  I timed it by looking at my watch, but
who can read such trivial things as numbers under such circumstances?

> Hitchcock played for at least 50 minutes:  I know because I have a
> beautifully clean boot of the show.  (Now who's gloating, Doug?)

Ooh, you lousy no good bastard!

>> [Me:] I also want to tell you about one of the warm-up bands:
>> Salem-66.  They are really good.  [ details deleted ] It was a nice
>> surprise to see Salem 66, because I had no idea they were going to be
>> a warm-up band for Hitchcock.

> Have you got friends in this band, Doug?  Do you get a percentage or are
> you sleeping with the drummer?

That might be kind of nice, but no I don't know anyone in the band.  I
just like them!

> They had two good songs out of perhaps eight or nine interminable and
> indistinguishable attempts.  The lead guitarist could barely stumble
> along on her instrument and I'll try not to flame her too much for her
> voice, or should I say her lack of voice?  The drummer was adequate
> but spent much of her time looking as bored as the audience.  She
> *was* bored:  the music wasn't going anywhere and she had little else
> to do but keep time.  (But not too fast, or the lead guitar wouldn't
> keep up.)  Enough!  Mail these people to a folk festival.  I'll pay
> postage.

Foo!  Well, yeah, the lead guitarist can't play very fast, and doesn't
sing in tune, but so what?  I'd rather see a group who aren't perfect
instrument players do something interesting with what they've got, than
a group of really talented instrument players wasting their talent on
something cliched and trivial (like Scruffy The Cat).

>> The other warm-up band was Scruffy The Cat.  The audience seemed to like
>> them a lot, but I didn't.  They do country-style Rock 'N Roll and
>> rockabilly and rock.  It's was okay, but I'd rather have been doing
>> something else (I guess my horrible musical predjudices are blaring
>> through...)  They definitely played their instruments very well (five
>> guys: drummer, guitarist, guitarist / singer, bassist, banjoist /
>> keyboardist), and they did some psychebilly that seemed okay, but ....
>> "yawn" really.

> Were you at the same show?  Oh, right, Robyn Hitchcock.... You must
> have been busy getting a beer when Scruffy the Cat was on.  They
> played more real rock and roll and had more fun with the crowd in four
> minutes than Salem 66 could muster in a full set.  It's too bad
> Swift's doesn't believe in dancing (they'd sell a lot more beer, too)
> because there would have been a danceFEST if there had been any room
> for one.

I just can't stand Rock 'N Roll!  What can I say?  It all sounds to me
like I've heard it all a billion times before.  I guess I just don't
like "fun" music, either -- I'd rather listen to something that makes me
think or stimulates my imagination.  I'd rather listen to music in a
pitch black room with headphones on while sitting on a sub-woofer, than
go out dancing.  Some "fun" music is good, though, like the B52s and the
Tom Tom Club, because there's more to their music than just being "fun".

> At least we agree on the *important* things.  (Kate Bush, Robyn
> Hitchcock, and Joy Division.)

Yup!!!

			"Some say that heaven is hell
			 Some say that hell is heaven"

			 Doug Alan
			  nessus@mit-eddie.UUCP (or ARPA)