Random Music Talk CXXI: Not this time, Crappy

[LemonMelon]

Jesca Hoop's album from this year is wonderful. I need to go back and listen to her older stuff because I Cobblered it with her discography.

 

[DaveC]

You have no idea.

C/P from Facebook:

Spoiler

This morning I find myself pondering a truly troubling quandary: how does one properly tell the tale of Yestival 2017?

For me, the story starts a little something like this...

Before we can start properly, allow me to set the scene. It starts with me, missing out on almost any sleep, sacrificing myself to the Got in order to be able to use the internet, for it is dark and full of spoilers. As a result, I was running on two hours sleep and a nap on the couch at work by the time I remembered I was supposed to attend a progressive rock concert that evening. Dismayed, I realized I was doomed to fall asleep during the show. I resigned myself to this fate. At 6:00 pm I was on the train, but with no idea the direction that evening was fated to take.

I could have taken it as a sign of ill portent that I ended up on a train with a broken sound system, that told me I was at my destination a stop early. I waited for Travis at that train station for 25 minutes before I realized I was at the wrong stop, causing us to be about 10 minutes late for Carl Palmer's set. That was to be the last bad moment of the day, until we got back home. The first thing that happened was that the show apparently sold very poorly. So our loge tickets on the upper level of the Microsoft Theater were upgraded to the center level of the ground level. They were far-ish back, but a great view, and we could hardly complain about our comped tickets.

Carl Palmer is, if you don't already know, the last surviving member of ELP (Emerson, Lake and Palmer. He's Palmer, in case you were wondering). He played about 4 or 5 songs, only two of which we were able to see. I was pretty sad, because he was the person I was there to see, and the little bit of his set I saw told me I was definitely missing out... On something insanely cringey. Palmer is the drummer from ELP, so I don't know how he handled vocals the rest of the night, but when we got there, he was just starting "Lucky Man" where he was joined by Todd Rundgren, who sang vocals. This was amazing, but I found myself noticing the video screens nearly immediately. This was because the corny prog video they were trying to show during the song kept getting interrupted by someone MOVING A MOUSE and making the timeline of the video pop up in the screens. For Palmer's final song, this video was then replaced by what can only be described as a video montage his 5 year old grandson must have made him. Palmer was playing this incredible drum solo, and I was doubled over laughing at windows movie maker transitions of a photo clip show from ELP's long history..... Where every picture zoomed in on Palmer's location in the photo. It can't be described, it was just hilarious. And of course the whole time the movie player timeline kept popping up on screen.

And just like that, it was over. Time for Todd Rundgren. At this point I made my Facebook status last night. Also my phone died.

There's no way to describe how insane Rundgren's set was. I'm not even going to try. He almost exclusively played new music. And that music is some kind of Meat Loaf - Erasure hybrid, backed by this 69 year old man, prancing around on stage, dancers behind him straight out of a David Lynch movie. I heard some of Utopia's music for the first time, and I was basically in awe the entire time... Discovering another band that was basically made for me is always fun. It was, as I said, beyond proper description.

Travis and I then went out to the concourse to get a drink, etc. We began to head back to our seats when Travis says, "I'm not ready to sit down yet, let's go back out," and we do. We're standing out in the concourse, just having a fun conversation about the evening so far, and anticipating the final act, Yes. It was just a nice night and we were both so happy. When suddenly, a man walked over to us and said, "you've been upgraded", and shoved a bunch of stuff into my hands and left, disappearing into the night. I looked down to see two tickets for 3rd row center, two meet and greet passes and a sheet of paper explaining how to use our pass, and how to recover our pictures the next day.

Travis looks at me like, "is this real?" and I'm like, "only one way to find out..."

Which is how we ended up watching Yes from about 5 feet away, and then met the band afterwards. I'm still waiting for the picture, but suffice it to say, that was one of the craziest nights of my life and Travis was able to meet one of his 5 favorite guitarists of all time.

Worth every second. Oh, and I never fell asleep, obviously.

And in case you were wondering, the bad thing that happened was, when we got home we discovered we were in the midst of a brown out, but that took care of itself long after I had passed out.

The end...?

But you guys can have the bonus version of the story, which I didn't want to put on Facebook, and that is:

Spoiler

Re-read it knowing that I popped an edible right before Carl Palmer.

that's insanely awesome. i couldn't believe my luck last week when i got comped from the nosebleeds down to the lower bowl for kendrick lamar (they blocked off the top few rows and moved everyone down, guess the expensive seats didn't sell that well), but your luck is something else. so cool

 

[LemonMelon]

I told Steve Howe to get Siberian Khatru back in the setlist the next time they tour. He seemed receptive to the notion. I should have asked him if he was into Battlestar Galactica.

Geoff Downes was preoccupied with merch sales and was happy that I bought a shirt. I clowned Todd Rundgren for putting a song in his set about t-shirt sales, but he didn't seem to get the joke. Oh well. I don't expect the headliner to watch the openers.

The current lead singer of Yes is the result of Geddy Lee being cloned in 1985 and is apparently the biggest Yes superfan in the world. I've never seen anyone happier to be on stage before, except maybe that one woman that grabbed Bono's ass.

 

[martha]

The Suburbs is a better album that I remembered it being.

 

[namkcuR]

A tad strange. Probably some emergency like you guess, maybe a text from the babysitter that her fee went from $30 to $50 when she added the pizza ordering fee and the rummaging through the closet fee. (or a text that the kid was sick).

Either way worked out well for you & Travis.
I've seen some odd things at shows such as my first Elevation show (Boston 1 the night before the infamous hole in the heart sit down protest) a group of about a dozen were front and center on the rail for PJ Harvey, and all marched out of the heart together chanting something like "we gotta go" (don't really recall the chant) opening up the most prime spot in the building for others for U2. It got me a tad closer as a result so I was fine with it. (went from about 10 feet in front of Edge to about 6 feet in front of him when everyone shuffled to fill in the void, great view of the Angry Edge guitar smash at the end of Gone).

Just a random thought, but I wonder if that could've been a reference to the end of that tour's rendition of The Fly, where Bono would chant 'Gotta go, gotta go, gotta go' after the music stopped?

 

[namkcuR]

Was listening to The Soft Bulletin yesterday. Still not my favourite Lips record (that's Embryonic) but fuck it's an amazing record. The production is breathtaking at times.

Soft Bulletin is good, but I think I prefer Yoshimi.

 

[cobl04]

I've never been big on Yoshimi. Struggles under its own weight.

 

[Axver]

Just a random thought, but I wonder if that could've been a reference to the end of that tour's rendition of The Fly, where Bono would chant 'Gotta go, gotta go, gotta go' after the music stopped?

People who leave after the opener chant the lyric from a live reinvention by the headliner that most people in attendance haven't heard yet?

 

[namkcuR]

People who leave after the opener chant the lyric from a live reinvention by the headliner that most people in attendance haven't heard yet?

I missed that they were only there for the opener. Also, people who get on the rails probably have heard bootlegs of previous shows from the tour.

Anyway, it was just a lighthearted random thought. One probably has nothing to do with the other.

 

[Hewson]

Just a random thought, but I wonder if that could've been a reference to the end of that tour's rendition of The Fly, where Bono would chant 'Gotta go, gotta go, gotta go' after the music stopped?

Actually now that you say that, I think that may be what it was.

 

[Hewson]

People who leave after the opener chant the lyric from a live reinvention by the headliner that most people in attendance haven't heard yet?

It was late enough in the first leg that they could well have attended other shows. I don't think they left the concert altogether, just vacated their spot front row center, obviously more concerned with looking up Polly Jean's leather mini skirt than looking at Bono's package.

 

[cobl04]

The best song of the year now has a video.

 

[LemonMelon]

Had nothing going on so I'm finally building a database of artists I've seen live, using my RYM ratings. Just finished D and up to 78 artists.

I spend waaaaaayyyyy too much money on festivals. Most of the truly memorable gigs on this list were smaller shows.

 

[david]

God damn the new LCD Soundsystem.

So much good music came out in the span of 7 days. Not counting the new Taylor Swift.

 

[Mack_Again]

speaking of the show, I'm thinking of going to CHON show it'll be fun, right?

 

[Hewson]

Had nothing going on so I'm finally building a database of artists I've seen live,
.

I wish I had done this a long time ago. I save most of my ticket stubs (and always opt for hard tickets when available), but here's some holes in that collection from the 80's and there's some acts especially openers I'd have difficulty recalling.

 

[u2popmofo]

Martha, I just realized that Black Lips had a new album come out earlier this year. I have sinned against music.

Also, gas is completely sold out here. if you hear of a Mad Max like character roaming the Dallas wasteland with a musket and a French bulldog this weekend, you'll know who it is...

 

[martha]

I listened to some of the BL album and was unimpressed. I was also unimpressed with them live a few months ago. Some key members left and it sure sounds like they're gone.


Sent from my iPhone using U2 Interference

 

[cobl04]

OH MY FUCKING GOD Roger Waters is touring!!!!! I was worried I'd never get to see him, I missed the last tour because I was in fucking Thailand omgggggg im so happy ������

 

[Axver]

David Gilmour needs to tour. I would think about going to see him.

 

[kabigon]

Nosebleeds are $100+ and anything decent is $2-300+ urgh

 

[Mack_Again]

David Gilmour needs to tour. I would think about going to see him.

didn't he already tour for his solo album? i saw an ad for his concert film where he performed in Pompeii

 

[Axver]

didn't he already tour for his solo album? i saw an ad for his concert film where he performed in Pompeii

I'm sure he has toured, just not recently in Australia.

 

[LemonMelon]

There's a good chance we may never do DI again, at least not without a sizable uptick in site traffic, but I've been working on a playlist for fun over the past week and thought you guys might enjoy the result if you're looking for some new artists to listen to. I put an unholy amount of time into the sequencing too, because of course I did:

https://open.spotify.com/user/1286885392/playlist/7hWYUr9bjY9bLuNunvS3mk

Skews extremely modern: about 2/3 of the songs are from the 2010s, with particular emphasis on the past couple of years, so it could be useful for finding some new stuff. If you don't have Spotify, it should be easy to rebuild this on any other streaming service. There's nothing particularly difficult to find in there.

 

[cobl04]

I'd say there is a 1000% chance we never do DI again, but that looks real nice. Might listen to it, I'll add it to me list.

 

[cobl04]

I'd never really experienced the whole family members with shit opinions thing until we had this stupid fucking postal plebiscite on same-sex marriage. Now I'm seeing family members who I have always dearly loved continuously sharing "traditional" marriage views and it's absolutely heartbreaking. I can't take my mind off it.

 

[martha]

I'd never really experienced the whole family members with shit opinions thing until we had this stupid fucking postal plebiscite on same-sex marriage. Now I'm seeing family members who I have always dearly loved continuously sharing "traditional" marriage views and it's absolutely heartbreaking. I can't take my mind off it.

It's awful. A cousin I really like(d) has turned into a Trump supporter who was looking for "objective" sources of news last summer. I don't really ever want to see her again.


Sent from my iPhone using U2 Interference

 

[Axver]

I'd never really experienced the whole family members with shit opinions thing until we had this stupid fucking postal plebiscite on same-sex marriage. Now I'm seeing family members who I have always dearly loved continuously sharing "traditional" marriage views and it's absolutely heartbreaking. I can't take my mind off it.

I'm still wondering where the fuck all these no voters are. Even some distant relatives who normally share horrid right-wing political memes (one recently shared something praising Pauline's burqa stunt) haven't gone near the "traditional marriage" shit. I'm quietly pleased

I'm sure I'll be disabused of this soon, and it will be yet another reason why Facebook is a total hellscape.

 

[cobl04]

With every day that goes by the more I become convinced of the fact that the no vote will get up. A lot of people who would vote yes aren't going to because they can't be bothered voting and posting it. All the people who feel like they want to vote no will go to the effort. And that's going to outweigh those of us who vote yes. I hope I'm wrong.

 

[Axver]

Even if half the people in favour of yes can be bothered, it'll pass.

But I don't think we need to worry. I fully anticipate the high court will strike down the postal survey. Certainly on my reading of the relevant legislation this is not legal, and to permit the survey would enhance the authority of the executive over the legislature to a degree neither desirable nor anticipated in the constitution.