Pink Floyd saves the world.
I saw little bits of that Live 8 thingy. I saw it because it was pretty hard to get away from, little bits because most of what I saw was crap. indicative of how self indulgent the whole thing was, you could SMS or log on to their web site and they would put your name on the banner that scrolled across the bottom of the screen. For the whole fucking show. I can see how GWB would be watching from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue and see Herbert McFuckstick's name scroll across the feet of Destiny's Child and get straight on the hotline to Condy, telling her to stop bludgeoning people into line democracy and to get over to (what's that place called again, Rumsfeld?) Africa and tell them we've paid their Mastercard off.
I don't know if I've gotten old in the last twelve months or if it's been a gradual development that has slipped beneath my radar, but most musical acts these days suck arse live. I don't mean that the songs are bad (I'll save that one for another day), I mean that these bozo's just can't perform them. And the sound engineers are receiving money under false pretenses. It sounded like the music was being played on somebodies stereo three doors down. Shitful.
The Who can still cut it - in short bursts. I've seen video of recent Who shows and Daltrey runs out of steam. Townshend is still brilliant, though. I miss John Entwhistle. Two real surprises for me were Robbie Williams and Keith Urban. I'd never buy either of their recordings, but I'd go to their shows. Urban 'cause he can play guitar a lot better than most people who get paid to do just that and William because he can really put a song across. He's one of those people who are better on a stage than they are in a studio.
Far and away the best of what I saw was Pink Floyd, even if Roger Waters is a prat. There music may well be self indulgent and loved or loathed too much, but by The Lord Harry those old codgers can still play - and sing - it. Dave Gilmour sounds as good as he did twenty five years ago, even if he did describe the experience as "like sleeping with your ex-wife".
I don't know if I've gotten old in the last twelve months or if it's been a gradual development that has slipped beneath my radar, but most musical acts these days suck arse live. I don't mean that the songs are bad (I'll save that one for another day), I mean that these bozo's just can't perform them. And the sound engineers are receiving money under false pretenses. It sounded like the music was being played on somebodies stereo three doors down. Shitful.
The Who can still cut it - in short bursts. I've seen video of recent Who shows and Daltrey runs out of steam. Townshend is still brilliant, though. I miss John Entwhistle. Two real surprises for me were Robbie Williams and Keith Urban. I'd never buy either of their recordings, but I'd go to their shows. Urban 'cause he can play guitar a lot better than most people who get paid to do just that and William because he can really put a song across. He's one of those people who are better on a stage than they are in a studio.
Far and away the best of what I saw was Pink Floyd, even if Roger Waters is a prat. There music may well be self indulgent and loved or loathed too much, but by The Lord Harry those old codgers can still play - and sing - it. Dave Gilmour sounds as good as he did twenty five years ago, even if he did describe the experience as "like sleeping with your ex-wife".
posted by Dirk at 3:29 pm
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