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(TV) Television in DC a review



Hi and hello everybody,

Philip invited me to join the group and post the below review of TV in DC. I
found that review in another lsit, Chalkhills which is dedicated to XTC (the
group, not the drug).

Greetings from Germany
Stefan

Date: Tue, 25 Mar 2003 14:09:49 EST
From: Hbsherwood@aol.com
Subject: Let's Dress Up Like Cops, Think What We Could Do!
Message-ID: <72.2be19a21.2bb2037d@aol.com>

So. Television at the 9:30 Club in Washington DC.... Yes.... Some Surprises
and some Observations.

Fed and watered, I arrived at the 9:30 just as Tom and the Boys were tuning
up. They were taking a *very* long time about it. I insinuated myself two
rows back from center stage, took off my sweater, and got ready to rock.

The extended tuning routine was a bit of a ruse: Through all the droning and
micro-adjusting I could already hear emerging the beginnings of "1880 Or So"
from their 1992 reunion album. The audience got restless with all the slow
buildup, which was, of course, exactly where Tom Verlaine wanted them. He
looked back at Billy Ficca, gave a little nod, and WHOMP the whole band gave
a big kick. Then...back to tuning and noodling. Someone behind me said,
rather stupidly, "You'd think they'd have tuned up before they came out
here." Then WHOMP, another kick. And another. Then they finally relented,
and
they were off.

Surprise #1: Richard Lloyd plays a *lot* of the lead parts that I thought
were Tom's.

Observation #1: A critic writing about Tom Verlaine's solo album
"Dreamtime,"
said something that's always stuck with me: That no matter how you feel
about
some Verlaine composition or other, there's always *something* in every song
that's just indescribably great. It might be something as simple as a
delicate little twiddle extracted from a guitar, or a big riff, or a vocal
mannerism, but there's always *something*. Two other artists have always
struck me as sharing this quality: Andy Partridge and Thomas Pynchon.

Richard Lloyd puts in a hell of a solo on "1880 Or So." His tone is meaty
where Tom's is glassy.

Observation #2: Tom plays a Telecaster, the same ax throughout the gig. His
glassy tone is modified through a row of pedals, which he dicks with
constantly. He gets really neat effects, both subtle and coarse, with delay
and reverb. Virtually never any chorus. At one point, Tom uses a Dremel
handheld drill to get some very groovy zooming sounds. Lloyd's more muscular
tone comes from two Stratocasters, which he trades off. He mostly leaves his
pedal rack alone. They play through identical Vox amps, almost certainly
AC-30's. Fred Smith plays a Fender Precision, bog-standard Gallien-Kruger
head, Hughes & Kettner cab. Billy Ficca's drums are, uh, cylindrical. He has
some cymbals. He's very fond of his hi-hat, and it rewards his attentions.

After "1880 or So," Tom says hi, and that they were going to do a
"rehearsal"
of a new song, a bouncy little thing that alluded to balloons, with a
cheerful little "Pop, pop" chorus. Then more of the 1992 album: "Call Mr.
Lee," certainly one of my favorites from that record. Again, Richard Lloyd
works out a hellacious minor-key solo: Surprise #1 above is beginning to
make
itself evident.

Observation #3: Never in the history of rock and roll have two guitars been
more beautifully matched than Tom Verlaine's and Richard Lloyd's. Not even
Lennon and Harrison at the height of their powers (and those powers were
considerable: try teasing apart the guitar parts in some of their pre-1966
songs and see what they're doing) could touch these two in creating
incredibly subtle textures with two sets of six strings.

Surprise #2: Tom Verlaine's stage demeanor is jokey, pleasant, and relaxed.
I
had expected punky smoldering and menace, I got a really nice guy. There
were
a couple of technical problems, a buzzing bass speaker, for instance, that
would have made a high-strung performer go all Superstar Supernova, and he
just laughed at them. Richard Lloyd is definitely Second Banana, never says
anything. Smith hardly moves -- or needs to -- easiest job on the planet.
Can't see Ficca behind his drums.

Surprise #3: Given this band's history of heroin problems, they are all
remarkably well preserved. Tom's face has always had that drawn-out junkie
look -- you would never expect that guy from that ultra-famous Robert
Mapplethorpe cover of "Marquee Moon" (
http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&uid=12:36:24|PM&sql=A5ns9kett7q7m)
to age gracefully, but he's managed it. His front teeth are nastily crooked,
and he has a slight speech impediment because of it, but I think the girls
still think he's sexy. Lloyd is very slightly chubby, looking well fed and
happy (he was the worst junkie of the bunch). Smith hasn't aged a day, looks
like he could rip your head off if needed. Ficca looks very much the same as
ever.

After "Mr. Lee," they finally get to what most of the audience is here to
see: The chiming guitar-hero stuff from 1977. First off it's "Venus de
Milo."
I am *very* happy during this song.

Observation #4: This band (literally) built the stage at CBGB. I mean, they
convinced owner Hilly Kristal (http://www.cbgb.com/history1.htm) that they
represented the first wave of a new scene, and they helped to actually
construct the stage that the Ramones and Patti Smith and all them played on.
During "Venus de Milo," for the first time ever I hear (ah-HA!) the germ
that
would become the early Talking Heads. That martial thrum-pum-pum of the
verse
(surrounded by those glassy arpeggios) is a direct and obvious influence on
"Psycho Killer," "Love Comes to Buildings on Fire," and all the rest of
those
buildings-and-food songs, as if David Byrne had been watching in the wings
at
a Television gig and though, "OK, I'll do it like that, but without the
five-minute guitar solos..."

"See No Evil," absolutely my favorite song from the Whole New York Punk
Thing, certainly had my fist pumping in the air. Again, the damned solo was
played by Richard Lloyd, destroying a cherished notion. Yes, it's 25 years
on, a whole lot of water has gone under the bridge, but that sentiment, "I
understand all destructive urges/They seem so perfect/I see no evil!" has l
ost none of its urgency or potency. Plus, there's a war on... "I get your
point... Oooooh, you're so sharp!"

Other songs done: Guiding Light, Prove It, Rhyme, Beauty Trip.

Observation #5: These guys pull off the Aimless Noodle better than anybody.
It's not egocentric Grateful Dead-ish Aimless Noodling; it's highly focused
Aimless Noodling, the sort of Aimless Noodling you do when you know you've
got some laserlike point to get to....

Ah. And here it is. Tom looks back at Fred: like to kick things off,
maestro?
Fred gets ready, Tom gives two little bomp-bomps on his guitar, everybody
recognizes it, it's "Marquee Moon," yay!!!! And Fred's bass cabinet goes
bzzzzzzzzzttttttt. Fuck. Tom realizes the moment's shot, stops, lets Fred
smack his amp, he's back in business. Tom laughs. His lack of uptightitude
is
very reassuring to the crowd, and everybody relaxes a bit. Tom starts off
again with the tune.

Observation #6: Television's "Marquee Moon" is an extremely important song
in
the history of rock and roll. How many songs were *mechanical* before
"Marquee Moon"? Mechanical in that square-wave, hard-edged, herky-jerky way
that New Wave music became? Yes, Kraftwerk was already mining that lode, but
they were synth weenies. Eno, yes. (And who championed Television? Why,
Eno!)
How many *guitar* songs were mechanical? And how many afterward? Devo? How
about the first three XTC albums? The first two Talking Heads albums? (And
Eno loved 'em all!)

This tune is godalmighty powerful.... Tom (finally) takes a solo, and he
just
builds it and builds it and builds it.... The climax of "Marquee Moon,"
where
the whole band has assumed Tom's one-two-three, one-two-three, one-two-three
ppattern (which screams out the song's core pulse), is the most brilliantly
wonderful thing I have seen on a musical stage in literally decades. As
close
to an orgasm in sound as you can get without actually getting messy. Then
they release the incredible tension they've built with all those glorious
open-string guitar chords, back to noodling, only to build it up again two
more times.... Christ, what a band!

Encore: "Little Johnny Jewel." Nuff Sed. Oh -- and they finish with the most
demented version of the Count Five's "Psychotic Reaction" ever performed
anywhere. Obviously completely off-the-cuff, every instrument playing in a
different time signature and key, Tom strangling the vocal, stuttering and
moaning: "I feel depressed, I feel so bad/'Cause you're the best girl that I
ever had..." And laughing his fool head off at the sheer ridiculousness of
it.

If Television does nothing else, it stands as a mighty monument to the
incredibly rich possibilities of two-guitars-bass-drums. So much came after,
so much is *still* coming after, Television, but they stand as a high-water
mark -- nobody ever did the arty-garage-band thing quite as beautifully as
they did, and so much that can be measured against their example fails the
test.

Harrison "It's Yonki Time!" Sherwood

PS: It isn't Chalkhills by a long shot, but there's a quite decent
Television
fan site at http://www.marquee.demon.co.uk/
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