[Ron] There was an energy so intense at that show. It was thrilling It scared the sh*t outta me.
[Arlo] Dynamic Quality will do that to you every time :-) I've always like live music rather than recorded music for the same reason. This depends greatly on the performers, of course. Jourgenesen definitely had (and maybe still "has", just don't know personally) an amazing stage presence. You can say this about so many of the great rock artists, from Jim Morrison to Ogre (Skinny Puppy), from Buddy Holly to Joey Ramone. And its also why I've always like "bar venues" (apart from the ale) over colleseum-arena shows. While there is a certain awe in sitting among several thousand Night Ranger fans waving lighters to the slow beat of "Sister Christian", give me the immediate in-your-face slam dancing at a Suicidal Tendencies gig. I read an interview with Johnny Rotten once discussing "punk" and how the early progenitors of the movement refused to even play venues where there was an elevated "stage". This was a critical reaction to the "separation and elevation" of the artist from the audience. While contemporary acts like the Rolling Stones were being hoisted onto every larger and more removed stages, the Sex Pistols demanded to be symbolically equal with their audience. Indeed, this may have derived from the progression of early punk shows where the various "acts" would often share equipment, and at the close the band would simply "trade places" with a group out of the audience who then became "the performers". This breaking down the duality of "audience" and "artists" is a feature not simply of punk music. One of the hallmarks of early comedy skit shows was a dissolution of the invisible wall between the audience and the stage, often turning the audience into a part of the skit (e.g., the Andy Kaufman/Michael Richards skit on Friday's). Other artists, like Art Spiegelman, have used similar devices in their art, either "appearing as himself" inside the story, or in the case of "Open Me, I'm a Dog!" where a dog is turned into a book depicting his being turned into a book but including a plea that the book is really a dog. [Ron] On the opposite side, I'm on a Alice Donut kick at the moment. [Arlo] I've been listening to two Canadian bands a lot lately, Sloan, and The Tragically Hip. I've not seen either live yet, something I hope to do one day soon. Moq_Discuss mailing list Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org Archives: http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ http://moq.org.uk/pipermail/moq_discuss_archive/
