Tag Archives: live music

Fat, indulgent and stupid is no way to rock and roll, son

Music,

Let me preface this by saying, I didn’t see any of the Smashing Pumpkins shows in Chicago. The opportunity presented itself, and I passed. Was this an event? Absolutely. I’m a casual fan—at best—and I assumed (rightly, it turns out) I’d bear witness to a self-indulgent two-hour-plus tantrum, and decided I had better ways to spend my evening. (I don’t mind failure, so long as it’s interesting.)

Having read more than a few reviews of the Pumpkins shows here and elsewhere, I’m left with one conclusion: If you can’t say something in two to three hours, I’m not really interested in what you have to say in four to six.

Corgan and Co. planned to do four shows here, two performances at two venues. The first night of each stand was called “Black Sunshine,” and the second “White Crosses” and apparently you needed to see both to really get what Corgan was putting down.

There’s something particular about the form of artistic expression that is the live performance, from the moment the audience enters the performance space to the moment they head out into the night. During this time, the band and the audience enter into a contract together, and agree to make a statement on who the band is, and what they’re about in a larger sense, not just what you see in their promo materials or hear on their records. We might buy tickets thinking we’re trading money for audio/visual goods, but our presence there changes the performance in ways both subtle and deliberate, especially if you are one of those dipshits who yells out “Freebird”. We might not know what will eventually result, but both we and the band have our intentions.

As part of that contract, the artist owes* the band an attempt at a singular statement within that performance. So expecting an audience to see two of your live shows—especially when the tickets for those shows are expensive and hard-to-get—in order to truly understand your artistic vision of a single performance—is some bullshit. It would be like an audience member saying “I’m only going to applaud a little tonight. You’ll have a better idea of how much I enjoyed your show tonight when I come back tomorrow.”

I’ve got not problem with using individual live performances to create a larger artistic statement. It’s no different than an author writing many books about the same character, a television writer serving an overarching theme throughout several episodes of a season, or a visual artist painting many works to express their views on the fragility of life.

In all the previous cases, an artist is dealing with the structures of his or her expression. He or she should be encouraged—nay, expected—to push against those boundaries (and by all accounts, Corgan certainly did, going so far as to berate the audience as a calculated part of one performance). Ultimately though, if the artist can’t, or refuses, to express himself or herself within those smaller units, then they’re clearly of limited talent and discipline. Unless you can say something, you’re saying nothing.

As a side note, asking the loyal fans you have left to cough up considerable amounts of money in order to truly perceive your art is as mercenary a tactic as releasing multiple versions of your album in different stores. That’s not art, that’s capitalism.

* Yes, owes. If these matters are not worth discussing in these terms then music’s not worth caring about, and that’s not a world I care to live in, so onward goes the indulgence.

Note: This piece is dated now, but still one of my favorites.

Mavis Staples takes us there

Music, ,

I took a break from blogging due to the wedding, and was then busier than usual playing catch-up at work, and at home. Truth be told, I quite enjoyed all the relaxation, and grew rather used to not doing anything that didn’t have to be done.

I figured my next post would be discussing something quite monumental, for me, and that is the release of Mavis Staples’s Hope at the Hideout. The reason this is monumental for me is that a review I wrote on the TOC blog has been used as the liner notes printed in the CD insert. This marks the second of two liner notes-related goals I set for myself a long time ago: To be thanked in the liner notes of an album (which turned out to be May or May Not’s Bike EP) and to write the liner notes for one.

The story as to how this happened is uneventful: The publicist saw my review, she asked if they could include it as the liner notes for the album, I said yes, they did. Word for word.

I’m incredibly honored by this, and partly because of the timing. The CD comes out on Election Day. And the real story here is why it took me a while to post this. I intended to say more about tomorrow’s election; why I’ll be voting for Obama, how soul music factors into that; how I not only learned, but felt, U.S. history during the Mavis Staples show I wrote about; and why, despite the obvious ways in which Obama is not the Great Shining Hope so many people would like him to be, he is the candidate for those who wish to put “country first.”

But after a while, I realized I said it all in my review. It’s all there.

Do pick up the CD if you get the chance. It really was an amazing show. With the way digital delivery is rapidly usurping the physical product, I think I got my “liner notes” goal in just under the wire.

A Lollapalooza story you haven't heard

Music,

Lollapalooza is such a massive experience that it’s almost impossible to cover the full story of what happens there. Therefore, most people just end up covering the bands and/or any celebrity crap that goes along with it. When actual news happens – especially when it’s not related to the music – you end up dealing with organizers who aren’t prepared to deal with questions, not necessarily because they don’t want any bad press (although that’s part of it) but also because they don’t understand that real reporters have a job to do: Report the story that’s there. Just like asking questions about the actions of your government doesn’t make you an enemy of the state, asking questions about the story you’re being given by a promotional machine, doesn’t make you a hater of music and culture.

What happened during Rage Against the Machine’s set – inside the grounds of Lolla and out – has been mostly underreported or misreported (with the exceptions of the Sun-Times and Windy Citizen). But at least it’s been covered. There were likely many other stories that fell through the hole in coverage.

This was almost one of them.

I’ve got more thoughts on this, but I’m going to wait until there’s some follow-up first.

Update: As you can see, the post linked to above now includes a response from a Lolla spokeswoman who says “proper safety procedures” were followed. In addition, I’ve created a Flickr photo set of all the photos we have of the incident. You can view that here. I’ve asked some additional questions, which I’ve listed in the post at the TOC blog.

Lollapalooza (again) (and again…and again…)

Music,

I didn’t mention it at the end of the week, but hey: I’m at Lolla.

I’ve posted reviews of Witchcraft & Ting Tings, Sharon Jones, Raconteurs and documented some of general craziness, and the scary craziness like the fans outside rushing an open security gate during Rage Against The Machine.

You can read more reviews from TOC’s music staff on our blog, and follow along with the TOC Twitter stream as yours truly runs up his cell phone bill.

Pitchforkin'

Music

This weekend I’ll be at Pitchfork Music Festival all weekend. We’ve got a really solid feature up, including a hipster fest checklist that’s pretty amusing.

We also rolled out a mobile version of our Pitchfork feature at timeoutchicago.com/p4kmobile. This is the first part of our plan to roll out more mobile-friendly TOC sites. Plus, reviews and photos all weekend at timeoutchicago.com/blog and updates to our Twitter stream, too.

And we’re not done yet! We’re asking readers to send us their own texts, photos, and overheards to p4ktoc at timeoutchicago.com. We’ll be posting them to timeoutchicago.tumblr.com.

So yeah, lots of online experiments stuff this weekend. We’ll see how it goes.

Chicago promoter's ordinance tabled for now

Music

Thanks to a ramshackle coalition of the Chicago Music Commission, live performance venue owners, and grass roots cultural supporters – largely organized online – the Chicago promoter’s ordinance was tabled, for now. The ordinance will likely be brought up for a vote next month, but this time it will be the result of input from the local music industry. Supposedly. Statements on the issue and a follow-up interview with Alderman Brendan Reilly on the TOC blog.

Right before the ordinance was tabled, I posted an overview of some of the less-reported details about the ordinance, particularly how it would affect film exhibitors, comedy shows and storefront theaters. It’s still worth looking at today as the city’s been making every effort to cloud the effects of this issue.

The theory I alluded to yesterday about why this ordinance was seemingly pushed through so quickly got a little more ammunition yesterday, when it was revealed in a statement from Alderman Schulter’s office that explicitly said the ordinance was introduced at the behest of the mayor. Sure, you could say this is a money grab by the city, but it’s really about making the city “safe” for the Olympics. But does “safe” mean cracking down on crime or sanitizing the cultural offerings in the city?

I’ll have more later today on the TOC blog on the lessons learned from this ordinance fight, particularly how it relates to this week’s TOC cover story on Chicago protests – past and present. (We couldn’t have planned that if we wanted to, but oh the serendipity!)

Today's promoter's ordinance updates

Music

Yesterday, Chicago’s live performance community – including folks in the music and dance scenes – formed a critical mass of protest against the proposed promoter’s ordinance, which goes up for a vote in front of the City Council tomorrow. With all the talk about the influence of blogs and new media, which – despite a couple articles in the Sun-Times and Tribune – is where the real information about this story is coming out, you might be surprised to learn it’s taken this long. But the thing is, when politics is involved, things get muddled. People don’t realize how local government works, even in a political city like Chicago, and to really get to know a story like this, you need to delve into complex language and bureaucracy, and understand how governmental procedures work. More than one person – in the media and otherwise – sounded false alarms about how this ordinance was already a done deal.

But hey, even the city – and its aldermen – don’t seem to know the ordinance very well (see our Q&As with Aldermen Waugespack and Reilly on the TOC blog). The city’s been saying that artists won’t be precluded from promoting their shows, but that’s only if they do nothing but play and don’t deal with any of the “operational responsibility” of the show. Which is pretty much everything else.

We’ve had a couple conversations in the TOC offices about this ordinance, and what’s becoming clear to all of us is that this just doesn’t affect music and clubs, it also affects theater and comedy and any type of live performance in the city. Venue owners are just now figuring out how this might affect them. Non-profit theater owners are being told they’re safe, but that’s not how I’m reading this (and honestly, I’m about as much of an expert as anyone else at this point since I’ve talked to people on and off the record – who should know – who can’t tell me whether my interpretations are correct or not).

There’s also an open question of why this is happening now. I’ve got a couple theories, but if you operate from the point of view that everything that comes out of City Hall these days is about the Olympics, you can probably come up with a theory or two yourself.

In retrospect, maybe we should have done more analysis before now. So today, look for a post from me on the TOC blog about some of the detailed issues that are being overlooked on this ordinance. Also, I’ll be reviewing last night’s Swedefest at Schubas with El Perro del Mar and Lykke Li.

Chicago hates music?

Music

Yesterday I wrote a little something about the city’s promoter’s ordinance. Don’t let anyone fool you, this ordinance is not about safety, it’s about money. Money the city can’t get from promoters who sponsor shows at established venues (the city, of course, is exempt from these no licensing fees). And make no mistake: these aren’t cigar-chomping sleazebags, or people who operate unsafe clubs (note that the “impetus” for this proposal was the E2 disaster which can only tangentially be blamed on the promoters) these are people like…well, me, when I worked at Chicagoist and we would sponsor shows. Or Tankboy, or Gapers Block or any of the other individuals who put together bills and make this city’s music scene so great.

But as you’ll see if you read the post, I reserve most of my ire for the Chicago music community itself. For years now, differences among venue owners and other members of the community has prevented them from banding together as a group to prevent laws like this from passing. In fact, I wrote a variation on this post two years ago. I’ll be interested to see what actions are taken in advance of next week’s City Council vote.

Also, look for a review of last night’s Robyn show on the TOC blog later today.