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ivan@stellysee.de
| From | AdamGhost@aol.com |
| Subject | Re: American Hi-Fi VS Fountains of Wayne |
| Date | Wed, 10 Sep 2003 12:45:42 EDT |
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I'm with ya, up to a point, and Ira summed things up very well. But I also
like what Stewart said about what a musician "owes" the audience, because it's
not as if the audience owes the musician anything. A musician deals with
apathy every day of his or her life. I think it's good if a performer interacts
with his/her audience, signs autographs, etc., but keep in mind that the
musician is probably tired, homesick, and well aware that most of the audience that
expects so much of them will forget all about them in a year or two.
Sometimes it's just too much for the guy up there playing to go the extra mile,
particularly if he/she is a shy dude.
I'm not trying to start a flame war here, just throwing another perspective
out there. Certainly, as an audience member AND a musician, I generally prefer
bands who project a good attitude and communicate. But playing devil's
advocate, it's sometimes difficult to be everything an audience wants you to be at
all times, and it can feel like it's not a fair balance. The whole
musician-audience paradigm is a fascinating give-and-take and both sides should,
ideally, show up and play ball.
<< People go to see rock shows to HAVE FUN and ENJOY THEMSELVES. OK there are
exceptions, but bands that purvey melodic, harmonious music are all about
having a good time - feel good music if you like. Having a good time can
be made tricky when the band are clearly not enjoying playing. And are
actively telling their audience that they hate doing live shows and that
they'd rather be somewhere else. That ain't shy, that's rude. Fine if you
are in a confrontational punk band (you can easily imagine Pistols' fans
lapping up Johnny Rotten's rudeness, whether genuine or staged) but not
fine for power-pop. Remember the Beatles in Hamburg doing the "mak schau"
for their audience? I think what I am trying to say is that people expect
purveyors of certain types of music to behave in a certain way onstage, and
it jars greatly when they don't. Besides, a mate of mine saw FOW playing
in London a while ago and thought they came over as a bunch of arrogant
tossers - he won't buy their stuff anymore, so we have some corroberation
with Rick's viewpoint. >>
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