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| From | "Michael Bennett" <mrhonorama@hotmail.com> |
| Subject | Re: More reading on FoW |
| Date | Thu, 12 Jun 2003 07:03:20 -0500 |
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I won't argue with you that it's pretty rare that an in-store performance
will get to the level of a regular concert. But that doesn't mean that an
artist can take a mulligan just for showing up. Earlier this year I saw
Nada Surf do an in-store -- those guys aren't in the John Wesley
Harding/Robbie Fulks peformance league, but they were relaxed, talked a bit
to the crowd, kept it real. Heck, one of the first in-stores I ever saw
(perhaps the first) was My Dad Is Dead (a/k/a Mark Edwards) -- this was
early in Edwards's career -- he looked like a geekier Ralph Nader (coke
bottle glasses, one leg shorter than the other, and so forth) and shy as all
get out, but he still put something into what he was doing.
The point is, the combo of a less than their best peformance and the feeling
I got that they weren't into doing it, made for something less than
entertaining for me.
Mike Bennett
Record reviews and more at http://fufkin.com
>From: "Sager, Greg" <greg.sager@bankofamerica.com>
>Reply-To: audities@smoe.org
>To: audities@smoe.org
>Subject: Re: More reading on FoW
>Date: Thu, 12 Jun 2003 03:52:30 -0500
>
> > 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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