Show #204: Peter Gabriel in Madtown Part 2

Last week I received a request for the second half of the Peter Gabriel show from 1982 here in Madison and I am happy to oblige. The first part is here.


(Photo by Carlos Policella.)

This was recorded on 30 November 1982 here in Madison, Wisconsin at the Civic Center. It's a good soundboard.

Setlist:

Intruder
I Go Swimming
Lay Your Hands On Me
Solsbury Hill
I Don't Remember
San Jacinto
On The Air (Cut)

Download show

Peter Gabriel

Here's PG doing "The Rhythm of the Heat" in 1982.

Preview of New Porcupine Tree Concert Video

Here's "Way Out of Here" from Porcupine Tree's forthcoming live DVD.

Watch Rolling Stones Doc Online for Free

Just For the Record, a documentary about The Rolling Stones, is available online to watch for free. Part 1 can be found here.

Top 15 Progressive Metal Albums

Found here.

15. 5th Season by Dreamscape

14. Still Life by Opeth

13. Morningrise by Opeth

12. Ænima by Tool

11. A Pleasant Shade of Gray by Fates Warning

10. No Exit by Fates Warning

9. Universe by Planet X

8. The Spectre Within by Fates Warning

7. Deliverance by Opeth

6. Train of Thought by Dream Theater

5. Awake by Dream Theater

4. Operation Mindcrime by Queensryche

3. Awaken the Guardian by Fates Warning

2. Blackwater Park by Opeth

1. Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence by Dream Theater

Whoever put the list together sure likes Dream Theater. I think "Glass Prison" from Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence is a great song but I just couldn't get into the rest of the album. I like No Exit and some Opeth but I am really not familiar with either these albums or the genre as a whole.

Let the bickering begin!

Johnny Depp to Direct Doc About Keith Richards

Johnny Depp is set to direct a documentary about the life of Keith Richards.

A rep for Depp confirmed a recent report in the Serbian magazine Politika, in which he said he would begin work on the project next week. Depp and Richards have been friends for more than a decade. The guitar player also played Depp's father in "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End."

I wonder if they'll use subtitles for the footage when Richards is talking.

Joan Jett Unamused by Rush

Having just reviewed the new movie, The Runaways, I thought this was funny: Joan Jett bashes Rush:

In the new film biopic about the band titled The Runaways, Jett (played by Kristen Stewart) is derided by an unidentified rock group they’re opening for. She later retaliates by breaking into their dressing room and urinating on one of their guitars.

Jett doesn’t hesitate to identify the real-life inspiration for the scene.

“Rush! They sat on the side of the stage and laughed at us,” Jett says. “That sort of stuff pisses me off.”

The Runaways

Either The Runaways are very popular here in Madison or folks were lured by the exclusive one-night roadshowing of Floria Sigismondi's film, ostensibly about the band. Regardless, the showing was sold out and the theatre packed last night. In attendance were such local luminaries as Dave Zero, Kenneth Burns, Emily Mills, and Rob Thomas.

The film is based on Neon Angel: The Cherie Currie Story, a biography written by the band's lead singer. In this sense, the movie's title is a bit misleading as it has relatively little to do with The Runways and much more to do with Currie. Indeed, the opening scene is of a drop of blood hitting the pavement. The crimson liquid belongs to a young Currie who has ascended to menarche while standing on a street corner with her sister. We learn a bit about her less-than happy home life before being introduced to Joan Jett, a rebellious teenager who wants to rock. A chance meeting with the lascivious producer Kim Fowley leads to the formation of the band.

Fowley plays up the jailbait image of the band and this, plus the fact that the ladies had the chops, led to success. They toured, signed to a major label, and, generally speaking, lived the rock'n'roll cliché of drugs, booze, and so on. But after three years of touring and debauchery, Cherrie just couldn't take anymore and left the band to deal with her demons.

Sigismondi, who wrote the screenplay in addition to directing, naturally strays from a strict account of true events, but all-too often, it detracts from the story rather than making it more comprehensible and interesting. She made the decision to make Currie's friendship with Jett the focal point of her story. In the process, the rest of the band are legated to the background. We aren't told that the band existed prior to Currie's arrival (as well as after her departure). While this fact isn't really necessary to telling the story, knowing a bit of the band dynamic beyond Currie-Jett would have made things less awkward. Towards the end of the film, Lita Ford lashes out at Currie in a recording studio. It's a very tense scene but, until this point, Ford has been nothing but a cardboard cut-out so her anger basically comes out of the blue. It's basically the first instance of anyone other than Currie, Jett, or Fowley driving the story and it is awkward.

The story is also distinctly cavalier when it comes to time. An intertitle at the beginning tells us it is 1975 and another prefaces the aftermath by noting that what follows is 8 months later. But the rest of the film is very disorienting and it feels like everything happened in a relatively short time span as opposed to over the course of three years. There's nothing given to indicate when events happen in relation to one another excepting that Event B happened at some indiscernible time after Event A. Friendships evolve and mature over time but that of Currie and Jett felt like it happened over a summer. Their relationship rarely felt like it went anywhere and the film did precious little to show how it changed owing to previous events. Time is overly compressed in The Runaways and not delineated to allow the audience to make connections and see changes over the course of years.

My final criticism is really more of a disappointment. I felt frustrated that, for a movie about a rock band, music was given such short shrift. Other than a couple token scenes involving Jett, the role music played in the lives of the characters was ignored. Did it motivate them or was being in a band just a side job they did in between bouts of drug use?

Dakota Fanning and Kristen Stewart give great performances as Currie and Jett, respectively. Plus Michael Shannon chews some fantastic scenery in his over-the-top portrayal of Kim Fowley. But their performances are largely wasted by a film that gives a portrayal of Currie's friendship with Jett that is both narrow and shallow. In addition, anything that isn't about Currie seems to happen incidentally. Most of the band members are ignored as is music as a factor in their lives; and the impact an all-girl band had in the mid-1970s is basically glossed over. There's little sense that the band existed at a certain time and place and that these contingencies would have much of anything to do with why they're important enough to warrant a film.

The Runaways features some great acting, great music, and some alternately touching and funny scenes but, in the end, these elements aren't able to keep the movie from feeling hollow.

Post Script: Director Floria Sigismondi was supposed to have been in attendance last night but was unable to be there. In her stead we were treated to Cherie Currie herself. She seemed genuinely pleased to be there, excepting the cold outside, and happily fielded questions from the audience. By the end, I got the impression that she had come to grips with her past and seemed quite at peace with herself. She and Joan Jett remain friends and she told us that some Runaways performances are not out of the question.

I posted a concert by The Runaways here.

Reviews by Madison luminaries listed above:

Emily Mills
Kenneth Burns
Rob Thomas

I Don't Care What the Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences Thinks

My buddy Arch directed me to an article at the Milwaukee outpost of The A.V. Club which notes that polka is no longer a Grammy category.

According to The Recording Academy, polka isn’t “representative of the current musical landscape.” (You know, like Herbie Hancock’s Joni Mitchell tribute album, which beat out Kanye West, Foo Fighters, and Amy Winehouse for Album Of The Year in 2008.) It is the only category among 110 to get the boot this year, so it certainly looks like the academy is picking on polka.

Unfortunate, but no big surprise here - this was announced last year. And exactly how did Jimmy Sturr win the award every year except those when Brave Combo (above) had an album out?

Sure, polka is not part of the current mainstream musical landscape but it certainly remains a part of the American musical landscape. This rejection by the music establishment only confirms that polka is the true indie/alternative/underground music. (Along with progressive rock and any other musical genres I like that everyone else hates.) Some examples of traditional and not-so traditional:

The Polkaholics (Chicago)

Brave Combo (Texas)

The Happy Schnapps Combo (Green Bay)

Polkafinger (New York)

Steve Meisner (Whitewater)

Sex With No Hands (San Francisco)

And for progheads who still wanna party down on Pączki Day, there's Polka Floyd from Ohio who do Pink Floyd covers including a mean version of "Fearless".

House of Ticketmaster to Merge With House of Live Nation

"And to think, Smithers, you laughed when I bought Ticketmaster. Nobody's going to pay a hundred-percent 'service charge.'"

The DOJ has given the go ahead for the merger of Ticketmaster and Live Nation.

Live Nation and Ticketmaster, the two biggest players in the $4.4 billion worldwide concert business, received U.S. Department of Justice approval Monday for a merger that is likely to affect every live-music fan, artist, agent, manager and promoter.

I have absolutely no idea if we customers are going to get slapped with another $5 surcharge or not. I don't know how this will affect which performers come to town or not.

Here's some reactions, &c:

Firstly, Greg Kot talks to Jerry Mickelson of Jam Productions, an independent concert-promoter in Chicago. In reply to a question about how his business will be affected, Mickelson responded:

It has already affected us. Before SFX came along [in 1997] we used to do 160-plus arena concerts a year, now it’s down to 30, 40. If [Live Nation-owned] House of Blues keeps expanding and builds critical mass at amphitheaters, we’ll start to lose smaller shows. They have tremendous leverage in that they can buy tours. They’ll say to an act, if you want to play a big amphitheater show, we have to get all your indoor shows too. Or they can say, we want an indoor tour or you won’t get a great deal on an amphitheater show. That’s what monopoly power can do.

Bob Lefsetz has his own opinion and gives no quarter to people who whine about high ticket prices.

And you’re sitting there at home, bitching about ticket add-ons.

Like Deep Throat said, FOLLOW THE MONEY!

The money is generated by the acts. And if Live Nation won’t pay the acts, then AEG or JAM or IMP will. So, there’s no downward pressure. The acts rule.

But the acts don’t want to APPEAR greedy, so they utilize Ticketmaster to generate more dollars. By adding fees, that are kicked back to themselves, or starving concert promoters, or utilizing TicketExchange/platinum packages to in essence scalp their own tickets. Because, you see, the acts are greedy, they want more money! But they don’t want you to know this…

The ticket brokers are up in arms, knowing that the acts and Ticketmaster want to squeeze them out, getting all that revenue for themselves, utilizing paperless ticketing amongst other techniques. So what do the ticket brokers do? They start a Website, http://ticketdisaster.org/, imploring you to block the TM/LN merger. Why? So you can buy overpriced tickets from them!

But you are angry. Because ticketing is a disaster.

Mainly because the acts are afraid to tell you the truth, that they’re breadheads. They take the money from AmEx for pre-sales, they form fan clubs so theoretically you can get good seats, even though you’re paying extra for this privilege.

Radiohead to Scratch Peter Gabriel's Back

As I noted previously, Peter Gabriel's latest effort is going to be an album of covers called Scratch My Back. On there is his take on Radiohead's "Street Spirit".

Now the back scratching is going the other way with Radiohead announcing that they are to cover Gabriel's "Wallflower" from his 1982 album Security/PG 4.

"Thom wanted to do a version of Wallflower, which I'm very curious to hear," Gabriel said in a podcast on his official website. "I think that was an important track for him when he was 14."

Hell May Have Frozen Over

The word on the street is that Keith Richards is off the sauce.

Seriously, the hard-living Rolling Stones icon has apparently been off the alcohol for four months.

"There’s no guarantees that he’ll stay off it – but he’s doing really well so far."

What prompted this amazing turn of events was seeing bandmate Ronnie Wood getting into drinking very heavily recently.

I never thought I'd see this in my lifetime. Or his.

The Return of...

...the Birotron? The last I heard of it was on Tormato by Yes and then I never saw it anywhere again. Rick Wakeman should be happy.

New Rock Festival for Milwaukee

It looks like Kyle Pfister should be happy: the organizers of Milwaukee's Summerfest have a new festival for all the indie rock lovers.

Summerfest officials announced Friday the creation of a new alternative and modern-rock festival that will be held Friday, June 4, and Saturday, June 5, at Henry Maier Festival Park.

The yet unnamed festival is intended to kick off the summer festival season and appears to be a replacement of sorts for the now defunct RiverSplash festival, which had a 20-year run.

Who Knew Vernon Reid Like Porcupine Tree?

He really digs Fear of a Blank Planet, amongst other great albums.

Man or Astro Man? Reunites for SXSW

The A.V. Club has the skinny. They'd better get those theremins out of cryogenic suspension as well.

I posted a Man or Astro Man? show here.

Hey Listener! Leave That High-End Stereo Alone

An interesting article by an audio engineer/musician on all the bullshit in the home stereo world - "Audiofoolery".

As a consumerist, it galls me to see people pay thousands of dollars for fancy-looking wire that’s no better than the heavy lamp cord they can buy at any hardware store. Or magic isolation pads and little discs made from exotic hardwood that purport to “improve clarity and reduce listening fatigue,” among other surprising claims. The number of scams based on ignorance of basic audio science grows every day.

Reviewer Under Pressure

This week's Isthmus, Madison's alternative weekly newspaper, carried an installment of its "Tell All" advice column entitled "We deserve better" in which one Gustav Mauler is critical of Lindsay Christians, the fine arts reporter for 77Square, the entertainment/culture division of our daily newspaper conglomerate. In short, Herr Mauler doesn't like Christians' classical music reviews: "In place of informed, perceptive analysis, Christians provides nonsensical metaphors and fuzzy impressions."

Ms. Christians gives her rebuttal here. In it, she defends herself by saying: 1) "I dispute the idea that a newspaper, online or otherwise, is the place for extensive analysis."; 2) "I’m not writing for classical music experts."; and 3) music reviews are not "authoritative" as Herr Mauler would have it.

This isn't the first time Christians has been taken to task for her review of a high culture spectacle. Before this, it was over her review of a production of Faust.I feel Christians' pain. I'm a reviewer myself, not only here, but also at the Green Man Review where I spill forth my opinions on music, books, and audio dramas. I know exactly what it's like to be out of one's depth, such as when I attempt to give my thoughts on Nordic folk music, a genre with which I have only a passing familiarity. So I sympathize with her.

On the other hand, I also have some agreement with Gustav. Christians is wrong to conflate authoritativeness with "some kind of 'final word'" and then deny that music reviews should be either. Speaking with authority needn't imply that one's words are the whole story with nothing more to be added. Instead, it implies that the words of the speaker or writer are born of familiarity and experience. I personally can't fault Gustav for wanting to read reviews written by someone who has attended performances of the music at hand by multiple orchestras conducted by multiple conductors with various soloists over the course of years of studious listening who brings all of this experience to bear on any given Madison Symphony Orchestra performance.

I think Christians is also wrong in saying, "I dispute the idea that a newspaper, online or otherwise, is the place for extensive analysis". Not so much for the comment itself but for implying that extensive analysis is what her critic was after. Gustav is probably more interested in reading reviews such as this one from the New York Times. Here's an excerpt:

Not that this Schoenberg work is particularly difficult once you get into it. The variations form makes for a clear structure, which Schoenberg fills with wildly varied and colorful orchestration, surprising twists and even tinges of humor. He also offers a melodic hook beyond the elusive tone rows, a theme historically used to represent and honor Bach (B flat, A, C, B natural, or in German nomenclature, B, A, C, H), stated in the Introduction and developed into a vast fantasy in the Finale.

Either A) this doesn't count as "extensive analysis" or B) Christians doesn't think it has a place in the New York Times. Personally, I don't think this is "extensive analysis" but it is certainly something more than some casual reflection. Furthermore, a newspaper is a fine place for such a review.

One doesn't have to be one of Christians' "music experts" to get something out of this review but it certainly requires a familiarity with Western art music. Parts of it won't make much sense unless you have some passing knowledge of Arnold Schoenberg's innovations with tonality. But you don't have to be a music expert. When the reviewer wrote the first sentence about the work not being particularly difficult, he knew that most of his readership would at least know that much of Schoenberg's music has a reputation for being difficult listening. Extensive knowledge of atonality is not required.

Gustav has a point: not everyone who reads the newspaper needs their hand held through everything. There are, in fact, listeners out there who would like to read a review which assumes that the reader has a base of knowledge about the subject already similar to how universities generally assume that incoming students have a base of knowledge from high school that can be built upon. I mean, do pop music critics ever feel the need to explicitly say that The Beach Boys made surf music?

It is clear that Gustav's expectations are not being met and are not in the sights of Lindsay Christians and/or her superiors at the paper. It has been my experience that classical music reviews have their own style. I have always assumed that those who read them do so, not out of passing fancy, but because of a love of the music. These people are familiar with the Basic Repertoire and perhaps beyond it. In other words, I have always assumed that the expectations of those who read classical music reviews go beyond the casual newspaper reader.

Just as each type of music has its own set of conventions, so too does reviewing. When reading Gustav's complaint, I couldn't help but think that Christians writes her classical music reviews in a way that is expected from those of popular music. Descriptions such as he "pulled phrases out of his instrument like strands of yarn" are all the rage for pop music but aren't the material from which classical reviews are sewn. From my limited experience as a writer of reviews and my fairly extensive experience as a reader of them, it seems to me that editors of pop music reviews can't get enough metaphors, alliteration, or flowery language.

John Noyd's column at Maximum Ink, Slipped Discs, is either this idea taken to the extreme or an epic parody. Witness the line "Ticklish, rippling innocuous concoctions topped with whimsy and wisdom" the likes of which is the norm for him. I will have to ask John about this next time I see him. For my own part, it seems that my reviews which contain an abundance of things like "the song resembles a rave at a Middle Eastern abattoir" are the ones singled out for praise.

Christians was right when she wrote "If you send eight critics to a single show, you will get eight completely different impressions of that performance" but that doesn't mean that all eight impressions lead to reviews that are equally good, valid, or worthwhile. I personally hope she keeps it up because I like her writing in the various areas she covers and she will only learn more and become a better writer/reviewer as she gains more experience. It's too bad that Capital Newspapers is either not interested in or cannot afford to retain someone like Jacob Stockinger to act as a mentor to Christians. Instead the company, for whatever reason, has gone the route of populating its newsroom with jack-of-all-trades which works perfectly well for some things but also means that other areas suffer.