Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site mit-eddie.UUCP 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)