[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

(TV) Words Not From The Front (of the Club)



Let me say at the outset, that this was a good show and attended by one of
the most enthusiastic audiences I 've ever been apart of. (No bozos (Bebos?)
yelling out crazy stuff or even requests.

 

I arrived too late to reconnoiter with Philip and Ty (and other Listers).  I
hung out on the sidewalk at around 8:10pm for a bit to see if I could spot
anyone I knew, and in a vain attempt to sell (or give away!!) my extra
ticket. The show was sold out.  By the time my girl friend and I went
inside, the warm-up act was finishing her final song (she went under
moniker, Lady Lamb The Beekeeper  It was extremely dark in the Paradise
after Ms Lamb, so despite my best efforts I could not locate Philip or Ty. 

 

I was more than a little concerned about my girlfriend (an inveterate
Folkie) and not much of a fan of rock music ----but she had been patiently
putting up with my incessant discussions of all things Television/Verlaine
for the past 20 months with aplomb.  I was more worried she might not be
able to stand in front of the stage with me for the usual interminable delay
between acts (so that the Paradise could sell more alcohol).  So, we
checked-out the upstairs/balconies for a place for her to sit in case her
feet/stamina (and ears!) gave out later. But I remembered that at the
Television show in March 2004, Ty had been in the balcony (illegally
recoding the show!), and he later said he eventually moved back downstairs
because of the mediocre sound quality up there.

 

So, the dilemma was this: 

would I abandon my love upstairs (or in the far reaches of the 1st floor),
so that I could selfishly fight my way to the very front to get into my
desired position in the very 1st row directly in front of Verlaine  ...with
my knee caps touching the low stage?   To my surprise the band walked out on
stage at 9:05! (in seeing Verlaine 3x and Television 2x before at the
Paradise, no show had ever started before 10pm!).  My dilemma was solved:
there was no time to abandon my love!

 

There was no tape of nice Church-bells nor Buddhist monk cymbals/chimes at
they came on stage as there had been for much of their 2013 World Tour.
Immediately, before they played a note of the ambient overture aka 'Swells'
, there was a major snafu with Verlaine's equipment ..... not sure if it was
his Vox amp or the cord to it. After 6 minutes, it was fixed and they began.
Alas, I think the initial delay caused Tom to perform a shorter than usual
'Swells' albeit he played some beautiful fillips and of course, the usual
crashing crescendos.

 

I opted for a compromise, we stood about 18 - 20 feet back a little to the
left.  Unfortunately, although we could see Verlaine (and his magic fingers)
from here, the sound left a lot to be desired.

 

To get a little ahead of myself, overall, I'd give the show a B (or a 7.5
out of 10); I'd give the peformances a 9.5 (Tom's demeanor a 10 ....he was
positively buoyant!), but the Paradise's sound system and the mic-ing of
Billy Ficca's drum-kit [way too loud to the point of overwhelming other
members of the band -- if I didn't know better I would've thought from where
I was standing that Ficca had a leaden foot]  mediocre at best ..... only a
5 or a 6.   But it could be that the sound quality of the Paradise might
have been a little better if we had moved more to the center and farther
back as where we were standing we were in a direct line (about 10 feet) from
a gigantic speaker hung from the ceiling .

 

After the show out in front of the Paradise, I ran into Ty and he said (I
think he said) from around the 4th row center the sound was ok.  In
hindsight, if I had stood touching the stage, all the direct sound from the
overhead speakers would have missed us (a good thing) .. and we would have
received more indirect and reflective sound akin to what the band itself
were hearing.  What's with your obsession with the sound you might ask.
Well, it definitely negated some of the show for me.  I like it loud
.....loud is good, but not distorted loud.  A specific example: Swells
segued into '1880 Or So' and Rip's long solo was painfully distorted and
*ruined*.

 

I'll leave it to the other attendees to give the exact set-list: but here's
what I recall:  

Swells/188O Or So / Prove It* / Elevation* / Little Johnny Jewel / Persia /
Guiding Light* / Venus /I'm Gonna Find You* / Marquee Moon / encore:
Friction.

 

Quibbles: I love 'Persia', but this version was (IMHO) jumbled, ragged, and
excessive (I kidded my girlfriend that to get through (survive?) this
version of 'Persia' she should try and think about one of Verlaine's
favorite Persian poets, Rumi. The surprise of the night was 'I'm Gonna Find
You'  [from the Ork loft 

Hell-era rehearsal tapes/video. I had been dreading this song after reading
posts from M M List members in the UK about how 'I'm Gonna Find You' had
stopped the show dead in its tracks. But, ironically, it was a definite
highpoint for me, and sung with great conviction  .... kinda like an old
almost a C&W number.  

 

Despite the audience cheering for 5 -min, the band did not return with their
usual 2nd encore on the 2014 Tour: Psychotic Reaction/Morphing into a very
slow, quiet, and delicate piece  and  Verlaine very softly, but very
poignantly singing the lyrics of 'Psychotic Reaction'!

 

If Television ever return to Boston, I can only hope that they play
somewhere else instead of the Paradise Rock Club.  Unfortunately, I have
been told by sources that Impresario Don Law , its owner (owner of 80% of
all Boston venues) has a stranglehold/monopoly on where acts play ,.... even
to the point of threatening bands' managers that they'll never again play in
Boston if  they don't play at his clubs.

 

Leo

 

 

PS:  My girlfriend, B. Claire, is now a convert and fan of all things
Verlaine.  So, overall, the night proved a great success. :> )


--------------
To post: Mail tv@obbard.com
To unsubscribe: Mail majordomo@obbard.com with message "unsubscribe tv"