Re: (TV) Anyone planning to see Lloyd on Saturday 5/16?

[Phil Obbard <pobbard@yahoo.com>]

There's no nice way to put this -- it was not a great experience.

The Church is a nice venue -- small, good bar access, nice stage area, etc. I'd never been there before. 

I'd say about 70-80 people were in the club by 11:30, with about half up front by the stage. Richard went on around 11:45 PM. It was clear something was up, because Billy et al were gone, replaced by two young, clean-cut men on bass and drums. Richard mumbled into the mike about how "my band couldn't put up with me for a whole month, so they quit. These two guys are helping me out, and some of you already seem to know who they are". He did not introduce them by name, although a few people cheered for them. 

Richard then announced that they were opening with "Friction", and asked that no-one shout out any requests, because he had a 35-song setlist, and he didn't want any cheering between songs. 

Now, if I hadn't seen Richard working the club a bit beforehand -- saying hello to a few people, setting up equipment, etc. -- I would have thought he was drunk from the way he mumbled and slurred everything. He definitely was not drinking, and his guitar playing was as good (if not better) than previous times I have seen him live. But overall, the show wasn't much. The bassist and drummer seemed to know "Friction", but for just about everything else Richard was quickly teaching them chords, having the drummer start and re-start, etc. 

The setlist was nicely varied, I'll say that, with tracks from ALCHEMY, FIELD OF FIRE, RADIANT MONKEY, and several Hendrix songs. Unfortunately, the default playing style of the drummer was fast 'n' heavy, so many songs sounded similar, and Richard's mumbled/shouted vocals were pretty much indecipherable if you didn't know the words (and sometimes even if you did). Again, his guitar work was great, varied, and energetic, but it took on the same overall feel of the rest of the band as each song progressed.

In between songs, Richard would shout down audience members (typically with a few curses thrown in) ad hominem, even threatening to kick-in the teeth of one member of the audience, in response to pretty innocous comments. I should stress that this was not a rowdy audience by any means -- in fact, aside from some heckling at the beginning, they were pretty much quiet afterwards. One impact of his endless offensives was that the crowd thinned-out fast; within an hour, the crowd up front had noticeably thinned. Was this some piece of performance art? Who knows. The audience didn't seem to know what to make of the whole thing.

Early on, Richard had mentioned that he'd be selling CD copies of FIELD OF FIRE, RADIANT MONKEY, and the new Hendrix-covers disc (which I wanted to pick up). However, they weren't for sale anywhere, at least not during the show. About an hour in, Richard started complaining that his merchandise better be selling, because he was a starving artist and this was the only reason he was playing, etc., with a few curses thrown in at the audience. But as far as I could tell, his merchandise was still sitting in the box where Richard had left it an hour earlier -- untouched.

Anyway, at 1 AM, I gave up. I see today on Facebook that Richard thinks this show was great; I did not feel the same way (nor did most of the audience, if voting with your feet is a good indicator). 

--Phil






________________________________
From: "serovner@mindspring.com" <serovner@mindspring.com>
To: tv@obbard.com
Sent: Sunday, May 17, 2009 11:58:16 AM
Subject: Re: (TV) Anyone planning to see Lloyd on Saturday 5/16?

What's with the "new band" he mentioned on Facebook this morning?  Sounds like he did not play with Billy and his usual bass player last night?

------Original Message------
From: Russ
Sender: tv-owner@obbard.com
To: tv@obbard.com
ReplyTo: tv@obbard.com
Subject: Re: (TV) Anyone planning to see Lloyd on Saturday 5/16?
Sent: May 17, 2009 11:37 AM

Lets hear about it? I get the feeling it was eventful.


On Fri, May 15, 2009 at 12:52 PM, robin dunn <rdunnrn@yahoo.com> wrote:

> definitely worth it, even alone.
>
>
>
> > I saw him in Chicago. Definitely go
> > see him. It's 1/2 Television.
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