(TV) Planes, Trains, Automobiles (& Buses & Cabs!) "Travel fulfills y ou, but the distance it kills you"

["Casey, Leo J" <CaseyL@VOLPE.DOT.GOV>]

-----Original Message-----
From: Philip P. Obbard [mailto:pobbard@yahoo.com]
Sent: Monday, October 08, 2001 11:33 AM
To: tv@obbard.com
Subject: Re: (TV) Bowery Ballroom show?

> Leo took notes, and I'm sure he'll post a 
> full run-down once he gets home.

Dennis, Philip and myself positioned ourselves to 
the left of Tom's microphone about 15 feet from 
the stage.  

Verlaine, Ficca and company arrived on stage at
8:15 pm----after about 5 minutes of fiddling with 
and adjusting lines and settings Tom stepped to 
his microphone and uttered: "This is going to be 
the most wacked show ever; we've only rehearsed 
for 2 hours. 

(For all you fashion mavens, Tom was wearing a 
purple long sleeved shirt with black pants; he later
remarked to the audience about his rhythm 
guitarist's 'outrageous' red shirt.) 

At approximately 8:20 the band began "Intro"
aka "Swells" (the quasi-tuning-up 'song"' that
Television opened with in the UK and at the 
Metro Chicago show last spring).  

Unlike those shows, however, "Swells" did not 
segue into the opening riffs of "1880 or So", but
instead drifted into a song called "Magic Tree".  
I believe the only previous performance of this 
song was at the 1996 Tramps show, and this 
was better version. 

Tom sang: 

Oh big tree 
Still standing. 
Oh big tree 
Still standing
Your leaves later to fall 
Leaving you alone ....

During one of the solos of "Magic Tree" Tom 
inserted a snippet of guitar lines from "Warm
and Cool"----I think it was from "The Deep Dark
Clouds".

Next was "Words From the Front"---one of the 
evening's stellar moments----marred only by 
Tom's microphone being turned up too loud, 
causing distortion and rendering unintelligible 
several of the lyrics (except to those in the 
audience who already knew them).  [The sound of
the Bowery Ballroom, except for the microphone 
gaffe on this one song was exceptional---very clear 
and considerably better than the sound of the 
Chicago show.]  Although "WFTF" 's  subject matter
is a letter written by a soldier about the horrors he 
witnesses during the Civil War, it felt very apt given
the occasion and recent events. 

Tom then told the audience that he and band would
be playing "a little Rumba" thing.  Its lyric started:  

It is well understood
It is well understood
It is well understood
That you're so good.

Despite the blandness of the lyrics----at least as
they appear in print---this Cuban dance number with
its lilting rhythms was effective at inducing many in 
the audience (myself included) to sway in place. 

As Philip has pointed out "Little Johnny Jewel" 
started out with great promise, but mid-way sadly
lost much of its steam and petered-out completely
at the end. 

"One Time at Sundown" had a few nice touches
----especially Tom's addition of the adverb ''safely' to
one of the song's original lines:  

Over and over as I walk home from work, 
That's when the sweet things come to life. 
Watchin the planes come down safely, 
Thinking of paradise..... 

But the musical deficiencies[?] of Alan Licht 
(rhythm guitar) and Patrick Derivaz (bass), or/and  
their unfamiliararity and unease with Tom's songs
were most transparent here, and took a terrible toll.  
Derivaz, especially, seemed quite nervous----a 
couple of times coming fairly close to bumping
into Tom with his instrument [yes, he did play on
"Warm and Cool"].  I almost cringed at his and 
Licht's musical foundering (although to lesser 
degree with Licht), and an audience member 
(an impatient SY fan?) made a loud, crude 'barfing'
noise during two of Tom's more poetic, tender 
vocal moments---albeit the noises' effect was more
comical than disconcerting).  [Billy Ficca, as Philip
has noted, was magnificent throughout the entire 
set; he was a rock.]

An instrumental was next----a new song that featured
fabulous *hard* rhythm strumming from Tom.

Then another new song "Wicked Charms", which
was probably the highlight of the show----great 
melody and guitar pyrotechnics galore from Tom.   
Two people about 10' to my left, who were frenetically
dancing throughout the entire show, went totally bonkers
during this song (and the previous instrumental).  

Tom sang: 
Wicked Charms ....
Some kind of heaven in your arms.
Wicked Charms .....,
Some kind of heaven in your arms.

Last was "Psychotic Reaction" (which Dennis 
recognized during its first nanosecond of guitar).  
The version was serviceable, but I would have 
preferred a song I hadn't heard Tom cover a zillion 
times in the past---one of his own, even if another 
new one (although I did love it when Tom spat out 
the *complete* lyrics without music at the very end,  
"Reeee---akkkt----shunn !).  Looking at my watch it 
read 9:30 pm, so the music lasted all of 65 minutes. 

No encores, unless you count Tom, shortly after 
"Psychotic Reaction", returning to the stage to be
his own roadie, bending down to dismantle his 
effects, all the while smoking a foot-long cigarette, 
OK,  I exaggerated---an import cigarette longer than
an unsharpened number 2 pencil !  (Tom, they'll be the
death of you and your music.)

Despite the musical constraints Tom was operating
under, his playing (and Ficca's) carried the day (or 
should I say night).  Tom seemed quite comfortable
and happy---even during the barfing-noise sequences.

Now how about a Television show in NYC?  And how 
about a real show/tour with Tom accompanied by a
more appropriate backup band---starting with Fred
on bass.  

	Leo


PS:  My trip to the Bowery Ballroom turned into 
something closer to an odyssey.  Not trusting 
Boston's notoriously unreliable subway, I was able 
to get a car ride from my brother [at 11:30 am] from 
my house to Logan Airport.  Little did I know that 
my trip to meet Philip, Dennis, and Dan at Dennis' 
Old Devil Moon restaurant on E. 12th street would 
take me 6+ hours.  

The Delta Shuttle people on the phone had instructed
me to arrive at the airport 2 hours before my 2:30 pm 
flight.  This proved to be total waste as there were no
lines, no security delays, nor shuttle seating advantage
to arriving so early.  

But while sitting on the unmoving plane at 2:35, I 
figured something was amiss, and then we were told
that a woman had 'freaked out' when she heard about
the bombing of Afghanistan and left the plane without
informing anyone.  We were ordered to get off the plane
since no one saw her remove her carry-on baggage.  
After a one and a half hour delay we departed at 4pm 
on a different plane.  

Within 40 minutes we were on the ground at La 
Guardia, and I was told I could take any bus there
to Manhattan.  But after 45 minutes busing across 
town on 125th Street I figured had to be wrong, and 
asked the bus driver how far south in Manhattan this 
bus went.  He said only to 120th St., so I jumped
off right away at Lenox Ave. & E. 125th St. to take
the #2 train south to 12th. 

But the #2 train I took was not an express, and so
it stopped at a station every 3 or 4 blocks.  After
a half hour of doors opening and closing, exasperated
at this slow rate of progress, and frantically looking 
at my watch, I gambled and got off around 44th St.
 
I waved down a cab and told its driver that a 
handsome tip awaited him if he could get me to
511 E. 12th St. as quickly as humanely possible.  
For some strange reason my young driver informed
 that he was not the least interested in my tip, and 
proceeded to drive at a very deliberate pace.  

"Thirty lights in a row,
Every one of them green,
How it reminds me
Of your souvenir from a dream."

Except when you're late and every one of our
thirty in a row was red.

Breathlessly arriving at the restaurant at 6 pm, I 
spied Philip, our beloved MM Listmaster and Bowie 
rarities fan extraordinaire, sitting at the bar, leisurely
leafing through the Sunday Times----and with a new 
(at least for me) goatee.  Then I'm introduced to 
Dennis, and then shortly afterwards Dan and his
woman-friend (sorry her name escapes me) arrive.  

But Philip had warned me on the phone at La 
Guardia that he was concerned that there was a
real possibility that Sunday's scheduled Bowery 
Ballroom (BB) Benefit would be postponed due 
to fear of terrorist acts of reprisal at the U.S. 
bombing of Afghanistan.  

But a live voice finally answered at the BB, 
and told Philip that the Benefit was still on.  
Mentally and physically exhausted, I wolfed down
one of the Old Devil Moon's specialties:  spicy Tofu
Jerky---and let me tell you it hit the spot (and this 
from a tofu aficionado)----with yams, cornbread, and
two large glasses of lemonade, while Dennis regaled 
us with tales of past and famous customers:  
Catherine Deneuve and Rufus Wainright, while at the
same time Philip tried to talk Dan's friend into writing
a weekly (Village Voice?) column about how she 
arrived at her decision to move out of NYC after 28
years.

I was so relieved and happy that the Benefit had not
been postponed after my multi-modal trip from hell that
I might have given the Benefit a more positive review than
either Philip or Dennis might have.  On the other hand, 
since my 6 hour return saga via AMTRAC starting at 
1:30 am and ending via Boston's subway at 6:30 am 
subway to Milton, MA, put me completely 'thru the ringer'
even more (oh, the sacrifices I make in the name of music!),
I believe my pre-concert giddiness and easy-to-please mindset
was basically cancelled-out by my return trip, making my 
above critique pretty damn objective overall.     

PPS:  Lee, where in the BB were you standing?
--------------
To post: Mail tv@obbard.com
To unsubscribe: Mail majordomo@obbard.com with message "unsubscribe tv"