From Che Sent Sun, Oct 4th 1998, 07:30
From Che Sent Sun, Oct 4th 1998, 07:30
At 06:23 PM 9/30/98 -0400, Christopher Fahey wrote: >>From: Che <xxxxx@xxxxxxxx.xxx> >> >>My guess is that your experience was more a product of venue & a "we're too >>cool to dance" NYC audience. > > Yes! Both! > > But there's one other thing: Rudolph "Dickhead" Giuliani. You see, he >has cracked down with some zoning and licensing laws from the 12th century >which pertain to where you can and cannot dance. Basically, there are only a >handful of nightclubs in NYC where, legally, you are permitted to dance. >Most people have been dancing in all kinds of places for years whenever the >groove hit them, but nowadays you can go to a bar and find the furniture >arranged inconveniently to discourage dancing so that the club owner is not >slapped with a $3000 fine. Or you may even be asked to stop dancing by a >club employee. The rippling effect of this is that spontaneous dancing in >bars is seriously curtailed throughout the city. Lameness reigns. > > (I hope all of you Americans on this list realize that every time you >vote for a Republican you are voting in favor of stopping people from >dancing. It's true.) OH MY GOD! This is like finding out that Seinfeld & all his friends really live in a giant trailer park. Hah! All this time New Yorkers have been scamming us that they live in a cool & sophisticated city. Now we know the truth! Man, I don't know whether to laugh or feel sorry for you. This is really ill. You'd think dancing would be a protected form of expression. Someone should take this to the ACLU. >>Personally, I don't understand how anyone >>could listen to this music & NOT DANCE! > > I was boogieing off-n-on until my lady showed up. We had some drinks and >puffnstuff and then we left. I really think you should cut the Ninjas some slack, dude. If I couldn't have danced at the show I wouldn't have enjoyed it a tenth as much. Like my grandmother says, "Never trust a man that doesn't dance". Same with cities - no way in hell I'd live someplace w/ such a bullshit law. > Well, first of all I would have been the only one dancing had I chose to >do so any time within the first 2 1/2 hours of the night. I like to tear it >up, but I guess I wasn't in the mood to 'break the ice.' I explored a bit, >had some drinks, returned to the main room and found that the scattered >beginnings of a decent sized dance floor had formed so I joined in. That's NEVER bothered me, but hey, I'm a weirdo, so I'll cut ya some slack. If you weren't in the mood, so be it. When I saw Autechre in Seattle (I think in '94), I was the only person dancing (Ok, I think one other person danced for one song). My impression was that everyone else was "too cool" to dance. Or maybe they just couldn't handle anything w/ a pounding 4OTMOFOF beat. Fucking idiots. I suspect that's why Sean & Rob stormed off stage after 20 minutes looking visibly pissed. >>One thing that's obvious from the tour reviews posted is that the artists >>have played different records from show to show. No artist I saw was >>ignoring the audience, meaning that their record choice was based on >>audience feedback. That makes it better than a mix tape done in a studio > > Agreed - a DJ plays for and to the crowd. But any good DJ would do the >same. Yeah, but I don't hear DJs spinning early Black Dog, Amon Tobin, Funki Porcini, or Squarepusher too often. I think taste should count for something. >>I'm beginning to get the idea that you're into music for something besides >>the music. > > > No, no, no! I was only pointing out two of the many differences between >listening to records at home ad going out to a concert... One difference is >that the artist might do something spontaneous and improvisational live, >something I would not ever be able to experience on a record. This show >strongly lacked that element, so I was (with tongue-in-cheek) hoping it >would make up for it with Difference #2, which is all the other things that >happen at nightclubs except the music (people, architecture, freaks, >drinks/drugs, visuals, food, clothes). The show didn't really even offer >that stuff to any great spectacular degree. The music is the most important >thing, but I'd be a liar if I said #2 was a non-issue to me - if the dance >floor was full of flailing longhairs with tie dyed shirts, or fist pumping >frat boys, or spastic first-time-jungle dancers, or all boys, I'd probably >sit it out too. I'll cut you some more slack. >>> Amon Tobin could hire a real band to reproduce his electronic >>>compositions and my bet is that it would sound fucking amazing. >> >>My bet is that it would betray the music. Tobin's music is for me the >>pinnacle of postmodernist expression - to play it with a live band would be >>a grotesque expression of nostalgia (and don't think for a minute that >>recycling old music & recontextualizing is based on nostalgia). > > > It's just an idea. I think you're right about what he does: his work is >conceptually rooted in the history of *recorded* music - it's relationship >to 'live' music is like that between a ghost and a rotting corpse. Great analogy. I think the sample he uses on that Funkungfusion track ("This song that you claim to be your own...could you hum a few bars?) is more commentary on his philosophy than just another yuck yuck sample. > How's this for another option: he rehearses for months on his powerbook >with a bunch of rack mounted decks and effects and samplers and all and >learns how to create some awesome live sound manipulations in real time. >Then he can go on tour and knobtwiddle for the crowds. If I were in his >shoes, I think I might have a bit of an ethical problem with the whole >concept of touring given his theoretical take on the studio nature of his >own music. (I'm trying to make some tracks at home, but I can't imagine >myself performing these in a million years, due to my lack of stage skill. I >loved that when RDJ tours he sits there and the two dancing bears do the >real show. Unlike RDJ himself, they were fun to while I was not dancing.) It's been a dilemma w/ electronic music for a long time. I've played both ends of the spectrum - years of total improv, a few shows of millivanilling, as well as the in between, performing composed music as accurately as possible w/ a little jamming thrown in. Personally, I think they're all valid, and can be done well or poorly (don't think millivanilling can be done well? Ru Paul opened for my band in 1986, just him/her/it on roller skates w/ a (dead) mike lipsyncing to a hissy cassette. Brilliant. I knew then that Ru Paul was starbooty). I don't Amon working a keyboard & twiddling some knobs would have enhanced my enjoyment any more than him working the turntables & twiddling some mixing faders. Sure I've heard most of what he played a hundred times, but I still managed to get something new out of it (great music is like that). But hey, I'm an old fart, I've seen & done it all, so I don't need a spectacle as long as I have a good time. You sound like you need to go to a Rush show or something. ;) May I share some sage advice? Having experienced live concerts on a regular basis for over half my life, having seen & heard everything from The Fall in a small club to The Grateful Dead in a stadium, I've found that the MOST IMPORTANT requirement for enjoying a live show is to walk in with NO EXPECTATIONS. Zero. I'm not saying this was your problem, but I'd just like you to remember this next time you go out. It can make a world of difference. > Well, okay, maybe they won't play "nothing but Amon Tobin & Funki >Porcini"... they might actually mix in music from other artists, maybe even >from other genres! And okay, maybe you might have to also pay $5 to get in >at some joints. But, yes, on any given night of the week there are probably >a dozen different bars open for free in which you will be able to hear >decent drum and bass for some portion of the evening. And over the course of >one week you'll find probably forty places for $5 or less that will play >nonstop drum and bass for a (illegal) dance floor. Quite a bit different from my pissant whitebread mountain town (ok, the mountain is an hour away). But at least I COULD dance legally, if I could only find some music to listen to. :) >>rock - rok (v.) - having a conventional and/or boring nature. ex: "Khakis >>rock". "That Rolling Stones show rocked". syn: suck. > > >I love this quote. Thanks - it's based on my own obvervations of the kind of mainstream crap that "rocks". Che