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| From | "Sager, Greg" <greg.sager@bankofamerica.com> |
| Subject | Re: More reading on FoW |
| Date | Thu, 12 Jun 2003 03:52:30 -0500 |
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> Date: Wed, 11 Jun 2003 09:54:12 -0500
> From: "Michael Bennett" <mrhonorama@hotmail.com>
> To: audities@smoe.org
> Subject: Re: More reading on FoW
> Message-ID: <Law14-F12tI41zLSdvL00068084@hotmail.com>
>
> I didn't have as much fun at the in-store -- I've seen FoW twice and they
> are a good live band with great songs -- they will never be top rank stage
>
> performers. And I've really enjoyed the two Chris Collingwood solo sets
> I've seen. Collingwood was apparently affected by a cold or allergies, so
>
> his vocals were off a bit. But what was getting to me was that there
> wasn't
> much engagement with the crowd -- which, BTW, Collingwood did pretty well
> as
> a solo performer. They were pretty perfunctory, playing out of obligation
>
> more than anything else. I also got a sense that they (particularly Adam
> Schlesinger) seemed just a tad uncomfortable on stage. Most of the energy
>
> came from the 100 + folks in the crowd (littered with Auditeers and
> Chicago
> popsters like Greg, Tammi, Patti, Jocelyn, Dale (who was working the event
>
> for EMI), Kevin, Chris Grey, Kirk Fox and Mark Watson, among others).
> Hopefully the few other in-stores they do will be better.
>
Hey, it was an in-store, Mike. I never have much in the way of
expectations for an in-store, because I've never seen an artist or band even
come close to what would be a transcendent performance at one of them, by
anyone's standards. "Obligation" and "perfunctory" are pretty much the usual
terms doled out in conjunction with such events, at least in my experience.
I just don't think that most artists view an in-store in the same way as a
concert. Any performers out there in Audities Land feel differently?
The closest I've seen to an in-store whose musical values went
beyond the this-is-not-a-big-deal level would be a couple of entertaining
and vigorous in-stores done by solo artists, one by Robbie Fulks and the
other by John Wesley Harding. But those are two guys for whom standing in
front of a crowd alone, armed only with an acoustic guitar, is their natural
milieu, anyway. And I've seen club shows by both Robbie and Wes that easily
put those in-stores to shame.
Frankly, the fun in the FoW in-store for me came just from hearing
the *Welcome Interstate Managers* songs in a live setting for the first time
(even if only via a creaky acoustic duet) and in building up my expectations
for the actual FoW tour this summer.
Gregory Sager
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