Sinister: Posmodern rock songs

[Ruth McCurry]

I think it was Keith who put his finger on it when he said that a B and S
concert is like actually going to listen to some music rather than being
subjected to a heaving mass of sweaty bodies and 150 decibels. If I want
that, I can go on the Northern Line.

And then jon.g said what's wrong with gaps between songs? Like gaps between
teeth, absolutely nothing. I mean, has the Being-at-a-concert-experience
become so staid that people get upset if the `rules' are broken? Who says
that there should be a gap of approx 20 seconds between songs? If guided by
voices can play five songs in a row in 8 minutes with no gap at all, why
not have two songs separated by 4 minutes of amiable faffing, mumbling, and
wire-plugging. The only possible complaint could be lack of value for
money, but I've never felt short-changed by B and S, even after forking out
for a flight to Spain.

Perhaps pop music needs to mature a bit. It's only 40 years old, after all.
I just think it's frustrating that there's such a lack of experimentation
with the live medium. Plenty of bands experiment with the actual material
of music (you know, texas, del amitri, sleeper), but hardly anyone puts any
thought into how they present it to their audience. I'm not suggesting that
B and S are deliberately experimenting, they may just be alarmingly
incompetent, but what the hell? It's still wildly more interesting than
going to a thousand concerts by montrose avenue, morrissey, cornershop or
whoever. Perhaps I should try `dance' music. But drugs are cheating...

I recall seeing James in London in 1984, and they came on at the beginning,
sat in a circle on the stage, played 6 acoustic folk songs, then went off.
They were followed by an appalling Japanese synthesiser duo. Then James
came back and played an hour of normal stuff, and invited everyone on to
the stage at the end to sing Hymn from a village. They might suck now, but
that was a good night's entertainment by anyone's standards.

Anyone have any suggestions as to how the concert experience could be
developed?

Lots of love, have a good weekend,

DAVID
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
.     This message was brought to you by the Sinister mailing list.
.        To send to the list please mail "sinister at majordomo.net".
.  For subscribing, unsubscribing and other list information please see
.             http://www.majordomo.net/sinister
. For questions about how the list works mail owner-sinister at majordomo.net
.             Listen, this is pish, I think I'll leave
-----------------------------------------------------------------------