Dave Mason
Harrah's Casino Voodoo Lounge
Maryland Heights (St. Louis), MO
Thursday, August 16, 2007
General Admission
$26.64
I have relationships with songs just like I have them with people. The more times you listen to a song, the better you know it (the deep ones, anyway). Sometimes when a song doesn't click with me immediately, after I see it live, it's like hanging out with someone and seeing a different side of them. Warming up to someone you didn't get at first.
Feelin' Alright from Traffic has been my insightful friend whom I turn to for advice. I had always liked this song and bought the 45 back in high school. I made a monumentally bad decision of where to go to college my freshman year. Small, close-minded, treated you like kids, way out in the boonies. It was so different than my brief college experience of living on Penn's campus when I was 16. That was freedom! The first verse summed up my feelings so well.
Seems I got to have a change of scene
Every night I have the strangest dream
Imprisoned by the way it could have been
Left you on my own or so it seemed
I got to leave before I start to scream
But someone locked the door and took the keys
The next year, I left Ursinus and transferred to Penn, my dream school. I also "broke up" with my longtime best friend A. She alienated a lot of her old friends, and I tried to stick with her. But I finally saw that she wasn't really my friend and hadn't been for a long time. The second verse of Feelin' Alright took on new meaning.
Boy, you sure took me for one big ride
And even now I sit and I wonder why
Then when I think of you, I start myself to cry
Just can't waste my time, I must get by
Gotta stop believin' in all your lies
'Cause there's too much to do before I die
Feelin' Alright was written by Dave Mason. There have been many different versions, but my favorite is the original, recorded by Traffic when Mason was in the band. This was the first Traffic song I ever loved. I had an epiphany about Traffic a couple years ago at a Steve Winwood concert, and they're one of my favorite bands now. But back when I was a teenager, I got to see Dave Mason when he was briefly a member of Fleetwood Mac in the 1990s. (Oddly enough, I saw the Traffic reunion tour 8 days earlier at the same venue.) Mason had a solo spotlight, and I was so hoping he'd do Feelin' Alright, but he did We Just Disagree instead.
I'm sure I had plenty of other chances to see him over the years, but I didn't care. But now, I was curious to see this other facet of early Traffic. Mason's songs with the band are so different than the ones by Winwood and Capaldi, not nearly as compelling, aside from Feelin' Alright.
We bought tickets to see Mason last year at a casino, but there was an ice storm the day of the show. I wasn't leaving the house that day, but I think the show took place. Thankfully, he came back less than a year later. We bought tickets again.
What can I say about this venue? It was the Voodoo Lounge at Harrah's Casino. It was general admission. We had dinner at the casino and were among the first ten people in line. As I was sitting there before the show started, I thought it was going to be the worst venue ever. We walked in, and there were rows of chairs facing the bar. I didn't get it. "Where was the stage?", I actually had to ask someone.
Wow, the stage was way up above in the bar, in a second floor loft-type space. There were seats on the floor by the bar, raised booths behind them that were all reserved for casino VIPs. Behind there was another raised area with more tables. The viewing angle would be better from back there, but further away. Instinct took over, and we chose front row seats. Only a few front row seats were taken, I didn't know if they would suck or not until the show started.
It turned out not to be that bad. Unusual, but still a good view.
Mason came out right around 8. I didn't know what to expect, and all I expected to know was any Traffic songs and We Just Disagree. Roy knew a lot more of his solo material, from hearing it on the radio. Roy tells me he opened with "Let It Go, Let It Flow". Mason talked to the audience, mentioning the stage setup was strange and that he was gonna do a song from the second Traffic album. The woman two seats over from me had been in line with us, and she and I both cheered. Her friend, sitting next to me, turned and said it was like hearing it in stereo coming from both sides like that.
The Traffic song was 40,000 Headmen. I knew this was a Winwood song, but I was surprised to read the liner notes that Mason is credited with nothing on the song - he didn't play at all on the studio version. Winwood did all the vocals, guitars, keyboards. Hearing this song so soon in the set was almost a relief, there were going to be Traffic songs. This version was pretty good, with the keyboard player getting a big role. At the angle we were to the stage, I could only see the keyboard player's head and I couldn't see the drummer at all. Mason did a good job, but he clearly doesn't have a voice as good as Steve Winwood's. Roy thought Mason's singing style and phrasing reminded him of Winwood's in places.
There were some more songs that Roy recognized that I didn't. Some new songs too. Most of the songs were new to me, and the newly written ones fit right in. I know I've mentioned here how hard it can be to listen to a lot of unfamiliar material. That just wasn't the case this night. Very well paced, eclectic set, with music ranging from country rock to guitar jams. He kept my attention the whole show. They played We Just Disagree midway through the set. Good version of All Along the Watchtower. I learned that Mason played on Hendrix's classic version of this song.
Dave said he was going to play another Traffic song. It was Dear Mr. Fantasy. Very different version than Winwood's, the melody was reworked a little and Mason spoke-sang the lines. He also played around with the phrasing on the vocals, and it kind of annoyed me because it was hard to sing along to. The women next to me got up to dance. I didn't want to block people's views, but what the hell. I danced for the second half of the song. Big cheers for this one.
The set was fairly short, and the band came back out to do Feelin' Alright. Yes!!! It was nice to finally hear this one live. I think it was closer to the Joe Cocker version than the original laid-back Traffic one. One of the band members gestured for us to stand up, and we all did. I think my favorite song of the evening was Dear Mr. Fantasy.
Was that it? The concert started at 8 and it was only 9:20. We didn't leave our seats in case there was a second encore. No, that was it. The show seemed like a good length, there were plenty of songs and no filler. Nice to be done at a show so early on a work night. Some of the band members had come out, but no sign of Mason. Roy asked the woman at the merchandise table, and she said Mason comes out to meet fans sometimes, but not this night. We headed out. Roy drove me back to my car, which I left at my office, and we both drove home.
Tuesday, August 21, 2007
Sunday, August 12, 2007
California Guitar Trio
California Guitar Trio
Blueberry Hill - Duck Room
University City (St. Louis), MO
Sunday, August 5, 2007
General Admission
On the Guest List! :-)
The California Guitar Trio are three former students of Robert Fripp's Guitar Craft school, Paul Richards, Bert Lams, and Hideyo Moriya. They've been together for 16 years now, and play a wide mix of music - classical, rock covers, surf guitar, original pieces, and Fripp-inspired music. They have a pretty good following in Philly, but are still building an audience here in St. Louis.
I first saw CGT when they opened for King Crimson on the THRAK tour in 1995, multiple times. I counted it out, and I think I've seen them a total of 15 times or roughly once a year. They're always nice to see live and they consistently put on a good show. I got burnt out on them and started skipping some shows when I lived in Philly. They played St. Louis for the first time a year after I moved here, and it was nice to see someone familiar in town. Now, the shows feel more like seeing old friends. These days, I would not miss a show intentionally. Plus, Roy and I have been helping them out by manning their merchandise table at the local shows. That's been fun too.
Some of the fun of CGT is the other people they play with. Two of the times I saw them were with Tony Levin on bass, and he is one of my favorites. CGT are also working with Jon Anderson!!! on a guitar concerto. We traveled to San Francisco last year to see CGT perform it with an orchestra. We were hoping Jon would be there too, but no such luck.
CGT had not played locally in a couple years, but they booked a show at Blueberry Hill. We made a day out of it, inviting our friend Dirk over to hang out at our place and then walked over to BBH for dinner. We were sitting in the "new" section of the restaurant, which is also the entrance to the basement club, The Duck Room. We saw Paul Richards walk up from the club. He saw us and came over to chat for a bit. They had just arrived a half hour earlier and he was too busy to join us for dinner. I felt pretty pleased with myself - what could be cooler than the musician you've gone to see walk over to talk to *you*?
Ralph couldn't join us earlier, but he came by before we finished dinner. We all talked for a while. At 6:30, we were due down at the club to set up the merchandise area. There was a guy in line already, but no staff there and the door was unlocked, so we walked right in. On our way down to the club, someone did ask what we were doing there. Oh, I'm doing merchandise for the band. And that was it. I brought a printout of Bert's e-mail detailing the time as "proof", but it wasn't needed.
CGT weren't ready for us yet, they were still soundchecking. In other words, oh my god, we just got to mosey in and sit down to watch the soundcheck! They were playing the end of one piece which I thought sounded like a reworking of Blind Faith's Can't Find My Way Home. Roy thought I might be right after I pointed it out. (Maybe I just have that song in my head since we saw Winwood and Clapton do it last week. It turned out to be a new song called Andromeda.) They also did part of Tubular Bells (which Roy recognized before me), and the opening notes of Echoes. But still, we were there and we belonged there. We got to see about 15 minutes of our private show. If they ever tour with Jon Anderson, I have to do this again!
Hideyo gave me his digital camera and asked me to take some pictures of them during the soundcheck. Unfortunately, the light was too low and the shots looked pretty bad. You can see for yourself. He used one of these shots in his tour diary at http://cgtrio.proaudiowebsites.com/cgi/viewroadcam.paw?465.
After the soundcheck, Bert came over. We had about 10 minutes to get set up before the doors opened. I inventoried the CDs and tshirts. Their sound guy Tyler organized the table display. They only brought three of the CDs to sell and limited sizes on the tshirts. Literally only one XL sized shirt. It went first. People started filing in before we were really ready. Also before we had received any money to use as change! Roy gave someone some of his own money as change before Bert brought over some fives for us. They were doing something different this time around - recording their show and burning copies of the live CDR after the show. It was $15 and the best seller by far. We were set and the guys went upstairs for dinner.
I enjoyed talking to people coming up to the merch table. One guy had only heard of them through the radio program Echoes and had never seen them live or heard any of their albums. Another came with a friend and bought the live CD before he had ever heard a note of music. Another was visiting from Costa Rica and was excited to find out they were playing here this night. Roy and Ralph started talking about some comic book movie coming out and I shooed them away from the table - I couldn't play the extroverted salesperson if I had to talk over them.
The show started around 8:30. CGT opened with Yamanashi Blues from their first album. Some other familiar songs were Eve, Miserlou (the Dick Dale song used in Pulp Fiction), and Whitewater. The crowd seemed pretty attentive. They also played a classical piece using a method called circulation - each guitarist kept the melody going by playing every third note.
Their show featured four rock covers - Tubular Bells, Echoes, Bohemian Rhapsody, and Freebird. I'm torn on this. I really like the songs, how they sound, hearing stuff that's familiar, but I'm afraid doing so many will make them look like a novelty act. All of us in the crowd sure seemed to like them.
During the show, we didn't need two people manning the table. Roy sat in front with Dirk and Ralph. He came back to relieve me midway through and I took his seat. Bohemian Rhapsody is usually a highlight, with the crowd singing along. But the crowd wasn't singing. Hideyo turned the microphone towards the audience and gestured to encourage us to sing. Ralph and I sang, but not too loud, because well, I know the words, but have trouble with notes and timing and a lousy voice and those things. Most of the rest of the crowd was silent. I headed back to the merchandise table before the encore.
After the show, we were busy. Lots of people were buying the live CD and lining up to wait for the CDs to be burned. I get the feeling the band has been doing their own merchandising at some of the other shows this time. Hideyo was working the CDR duplicator keeping track of how many CDs were sold while he was signing autographs. Paul was handing out the discs. I could have helped with that. There was now a big bottleneck by the table and exit to the club. The CDs were $15 and so many people were paying with $20s that we were running out of fives again. I sent Roy over to the bar to get some more. I felt weird pulling this big wad of money out of the purse to search for change, and I began to keep my hand on the money purse at all times so it would be safe.
I was eyeing the live CDs. There were three left. I figured they'd give me one as a thank you, but I didn't want them to run out first! Hideyo handed me one and said "For you". I thanked him. When I asked Bert to sign it, he said "You didn't pay for this, did you?" He also gave me their new best of compilation Highlights and the last remaining live CD. I had been telling Ralph to buy it, but now I just handed it to him.
The crowd thinned out. Bert and I started to do the inventory. At all the shows where I've done merchandise, I've always worked with Bert on it. I guess that's his part of the duties. He offered to do the accounting at the end, but seemed relieved when I said I'd do it. We counted up everything and I calculated what we should have earned. Then I counted the money. We were off by $10 in our favor. Damn. Bert said it was close enough.
We chatted a while; it's nice to be in a situation when you actually have time to get to know someone better and aren't just making small talk. Bert moved to my home state of Pennsylvania in an area I know well - my dad used to have business trips to this town and I have some good friends who live nearby. I asked him about his work with Jon - they e-mail every once in a while and did a show together last year. He said it was nice to visit with Jon, very mellow. I don't know how long we talked, but afterwards, Roy asked me just what we were talking about. He wanted to join in, but was standing around talking to Ralph during that time.
As everything was wrapping up, I found Paul to get his autograph on my new Highlights CD. He asked me what I thought of the new songs. I'm so bad with song titles and knowing what's what. I mentioned liking Andromeda, and that when they were playing it during the soundcheck, I thought it was Can't Find My Way Home. He said he knew the song and would listen for that next time.
We are so lazy. Ralph wanted to borrow a CD from us, so he drove us home, all three blocks, and Roy ran upstairs to get it for him. It was still only about 11pm, pretty early for a concert night, but I was pretty excited by the whole night and it took me an hour until I was ready for bed. I told work I would be in late the next day, but I woke up before the alarm went off and got in only a half hour later than usual.
There is a downside to getting into a concert for free. I didn't receive a ticket stub to add to my collection! I have stubs for every concert going back 20 years. I can only think of once that I even lost a stub. Ralph kindly mailed me his. I will add it to my scrapbook.
ETA: Paul Richards has corrected me on my songs. The song in the soundcheck I thought sounded like Blind Faith was really a song they were rehearsing but did not play in concert. It is Monte Montgomery's Six String Wooden Friend. Thanks Paul!
Blueberry Hill - Duck Room
University City (St. Louis), MO
Sunday, August 5, 2007
General Admission
On the Guest List! :-)
The California Guitar Trio are three former students of Robert Fripp's Guitar Craft school, Paul Richards, Bert Lams, and Hideyo Moriya. They've been together for 16 years now, and play a wide mix of music - classical, rock covers, surf guitar, original pieces, and Fripp-inspired music. They have a pretty good following in Philly, but are still building an audience here in St. Louis.
I first saw CGT when they opened for King Crimson on the THRAK tour in 1995, multiple times. I counted it out, and I think I've seen them a total of 15 times or roughly once a year. They're always nice to see live and they consistently put on a good show. I got burnt out on them and started skipping some shows when I lived in Philly. They played St. Louis for the first time a year after I moved here, and it was nice to see someone familiar in town. Now, the shows feel more like seeing old friends. These days, I would not miss a show intentionally. Plus, Roy and I have been helping them out by manning their merchandise table at the local shows. That's been fun too.
Some of the fun of CGT is the other people they play with. Two of the times I saw them were with Tony Levin on bass, and he is one of my favorites. CGT are also working with Jon Anderson!!! on a guitar concerto. We traveled to San Francisco last year to see CGT perform it with an orchestra. We were hoping Jon would be there too, but no such luck.
CGT had not played locally in a couple years, but they booked a show at Blueberry Hill. We made a day out of it, inviting our friend Dirk over to hang out at our place and then walked over to BBH for dinner. We were sitting in the "new" section of the restaurant, which is also the entrance to the basement club, The Duck Room. We saw Paul Richards walk up from the club. He saw us and came over to chat for a bit. They had just arrived a half hour earlier and he was too busy to join us for dinner. I felt pretty pleased with myself - what could be cooler than the musician you've gone to see walk over to talk to *you*?
Ralph couldn't join us earlier, but he came by before we finished dinner. We all talked for a while. At 6:30, we were due down at the club to set up the merchandise area. There was a guy in line already, but no staff there and the door was unlocked, so we walked right in. On our way down to the club, someone did ask what we were doing there. Oh, I'm doing merchandise for the band. And that was it. I brought a printout of Bert's e-mail detailing the time as "proof", but it wasn't needed.
CGT weren't ready for us yet, they were still soundchecking. In other words, oh my god, we just got to mosey in and sit down to watch the soundcheck! They were playing the end of one piece which I thought sounded like a reworking of Blind Faith's Can't Find My Way Home. Roy thought I might be right after I pointed it out. (Maybe I just have that song in my head since we saw Winwood and Clapton do it last week. It turned out to be a new song called Andromeda.) They also did part of Tubular Bells (which Roy recognized before me), and the opening notes of Echoes. But still, we were there and we belonged there. We got to see about 15 minutes of our private show. If they ever tour with Jon Anderson, I have to do this again!
Hideyo gave me his digital camera and asked me to take some pictures of them during the soundcheck. Unfortunately, the light was too low and the shots looked pretty bad. You can see for yourself. He used one of these shots in his tour diary at http://cgtrio.proaudiowebsites.com/cgi/viewroadcam.paw?465.
After the soundcheck, Bert came over. We had about 10 minutes to get set up before the doors opened. I inventoried the CDs and tshirts. Their sound guy Tyler organized the table display. They only brought three of the CDs to sell and limited sizes on the tshirts. Literally only one XL sized shirt. It went first. People started filing in before we were really ready. Also before we had received any money to use as change! Roy gave someone some of his own money as change before Bert brought over some fives for us. They were doing something different this time around - recording their show and burning copies of the live CDR after the show. It was $15 and the best seller by far. We were set and the guys went upstairs for dinner.
I enjoyed talking to people coming up to the merch table. One guy had only heard of them through the radio program Echoes and had never seen them live or heard any of their albums. Another came with a friend and bought the live CD before he had ever heard a note of music. Another was visiting from Costa Rica and was excited to find out they were playing here this night. Roy and Ralph started talking about some comic book movie coming out and I shooed them away from the table - I couldn't play the extroverted salesperson if I had to talk over them.
The show started around 8:30. CGT opened with Yamanashi Blues from their first album. Some other familiar songs were Eve, Miserlou (the Dick Dale song used in Pulp Fiction), and Whitewater. The crowd seemed pretty attentive. They also played a classical piece using a method called circulation - each guitarist kept the melody going by playing every third note.
Their show featured four rock covers - Tubular Bells, Echoes, Bohemian Rhapsody, and Freebird. I'm torn on this. I really like the songs, how they sound, hearing stuff that's familiar, but I'm afraid doing so many will make them look like a novelty act. All of us in the crowd sure seemed to like them.
During the show, we didn't need two people manning the table. Roy sat in front with Dirk and Ralph. He came back to relieve me midway through and I took his seat. Bohemian Rhapsody is usually a highlight, with the crowd singing along. But the crowd wasn't singing. Hideyo turned the microphone towards the audience and gestured to encourage us to sing. Ralph and I sang, but not too loud, because well, I know the words, but have trouble with notes and timing and a lousy voice and those things. Most of the rest of the crowd was silent. I headed back to the merchandise table before the encore.
After the show, we were busy. Lots of people were buying the live CD and lining up to wait for the CDs to be burned. I get the feeling the band has been doing their own merchandising at some of the other shows this time. Hideyo was working the CDR duplicator keeping track of how many CDs were sold while he was signing autographs. Paul was handing out the discs. I could have helped with that. There was now a big bottleneck by the table and exit to the club. The CDs were $15 and so many people were paying with $20s that we were running out of fives again. I sent Roy over to the bar to get some more. I felt weird pulling this big wad of money out of the purse to search for change, and I began to keep my hand on the money purse at all times so it would be safe.
I was eyeing the live CDs. There were three left. I figured they'd give me one as a thank you, but I didn't want them to run out first! Hideyo handed me one and said "For you". I thanked him. When I asked Bert to sign it, he said "You didn't pay for this, did you?" He also gave me their new best of compilation Highlights and the last remaining live CD. I had been telling Ralph to buy it, but now I just handed it to him.
The crowd thinned out. Bert and I started to do the inventory. At all the shows where I've done merchandise, I've always worked with Bert on it. I guess that's his part of the duties. He offered to do the accounting at the end, but seemed relieved when I said I'd do it. We counted up everything and I calculated what we should have earned. Then I counted the money. We were off by $10 in our favor. Damn. Bert said it was close enough.
We chatted a while; it's nice to be in a situation when you actually have time to get to know someone better and aren't just making small talk. Bert moved to my home state of Pennsylvania in an area I know well - my dad used to have business trips to this town and I have some good friends who live nearby. I asked him about his work with Jon - they e-mail every once in a while and did a show together last year. He said it was nice to visit with Jon, very mellow. I don't know how long we talked, but afterwards, Roy asked me just what we were talking about. He wanted to join in, but was standing around talking to Ralph during that time.
As everything was wrapping up, I found Paul to get his autograph on my new Highlights CD. He asked me what I thought of the new songs. I'm so bad with song titles and knowing what's what. I mentioned liking Andromeda, and that when they were playing it during the soundcheck, I thought it was Can't Find My Way Home. He said he knew the song and would listen for that next time.
We are so lazy. Ralph wanted to borrow a CD from us, so he drove us home, all three blocks, and Roy ran upstairs to get it for him. It was still only about 11pm, pretty early for a concert night, but I was pretty excited by the whole night and it took me an hour until I was ready for bed. I told work I would be in late the next day, but I woke up before the alarm went off and got in only a half hour later than usual.
There is a downside to getting into a concert for free. I didn't receive a ticket stub to add to my collection! I have stubs for every concert going back 20 years. I can only think of once that I even lost a stub. Ralph kindly mailed me his. I will add it to my scrapbook.
ETA: Paul Richards has corrected me on my songs. The song in the soundcheck I thought sounded like Blind Faith was really a song they were rehearsing but did not play in concert. It is Monte Montgomery's Six String Wooden Friend. Thanks Paul!
Tuesday, August 7, 2007
A Spreeful Noise
The Polyphonic Spree
w/ Videology
The Pageant
St. Louis, MO
Saturday, August 4, 2007
General Admission
$18.00
I'm still not sure what I think of the Polyphonic Spree. Roy and I first heard of them a few years ago. They opened for David Bowie and were getting a lot of press. We had a different opening act for our local Bowie show, but Roy was curious. He bought their album. I watched the live DVD included with their CD and thought it looked interesting.
I think they played here a couple years ago, but my parents were visiting then so we didn't go. They came back, and to the Pageant. Just down the road and across the city limits into St. Louis from our home in University City.
I've been through enough uncomfortable shows with smoking and bad sitelines that I have a whole slew of coping mechanisms. The Pageant can be bad when it's set up for limited seating and smoking - I only really enjoy it if I'm in the front row of the pit or up in the balcony. The raised front row of the seated section is alright, as long as I'm sitting at the end and not next to a smoker. I like to breathe, people! The line for over-21 early entry seating is in the bar and opens at 5. We got there a little after 6 and were first in line. I guess they weren't expecting too big a crowd, because the balcony was closed. We grabbed a space in the front row of the seated section. I had to admit, they do a decent job with air circulation, but I still wish it would just go non-smoking.
I'm still confused about the opening act. The show was billed as Polyphonic Spree with Videology. There was no opening act, but there was a screen showing 1980s-current alternative music videos. We saw Beck, Bjork, and the Buggles. I enjoyed them, but they got draining after a while because of the bass turned up so loud. Apparently this was Videology. But I went to Videology's myspace page, and it listed the Pageant show as postponed due to illness. I wonder what we missed. I was thinking that I wished this music had been considered dance music rather than the thumping-bass stuff which leaves me cold. And it was cool to see all the college kids singing along with Trevor and Geoff on Video Killed the Radio Star.
I guess the other fans knew what to expect. There were not a whole lot of people there after the doors opened. I was worried about the turnout. But more people showed up, so the seats were mostly full and the dance floor was crowded. The doors opened at 6:30pm and the band finally went on after 9pm. That was a long wait.
I wanted to like Polyphonic Spree better than I did. My friend Kathy saw them in Philly and said they were amazing. She also said they reminded her of Yes, although she doesn't like Yes. She described it as a "fullness of sound" and agreed with my comparison of multi-part harmonies and happy major key sound.
But I got bored. Maybe it was too soon to go to another concert of unfamiliar music. The band did have a full sound, but I don't think that was a good thing, it was a wall of sound and hard to discern what was being played. There were about 20 people on stage, and I kept mentally comparing this to Brian Wilson's Smile tour with a similar number of musicians and type of instruments and music played. But Smile had the best sound I had ever heard at a concert - you could look at every musician and hear them discernably in the mix but also hear the impact of the full band. The sound at this concert was so different. At first I blamed the venue sound, but Roy thinks they were going for this effect. He liked it a lot better than I did. I didn't like the singer's voice either.
The show seemed to end kind of early, only an hour. I was kind of happy about this. They came back for an encore and I found myself singing along. Wait a minute! I don't know any Polyphonic Spree songs. Scanning the lyrics through my head, this was Nirvana's Lithium. This was seriously weird. It sounded like a happy singalong. This is not supposed to be a happy song, but I was getting into it anyway. The lyrics to their other songs are such the opposite, happy positive things like Reach for the Sun. I didn't understand the juxtaposition lyrically or why they needed to make Nirvana sound happy.
Roy said he liked the whole presentation as well as the music. It was a spectacle. There were some parts he thought were predictable, but it didn't bother him. For me, musically, the sound needed more dynamics. They did put out a lot of energy and it seemed sincere, but it left me cold.
The encore section lasted as long as the main set. It also included the chorus of Ride Captain Ride. The show ended at 11:20pm. We walked home. Thankfully it wasn't as hot as it was when we walked there during the day.
w/ Videology
The Pageant
St. Louis, MO
Saturday, August 4, 2007
General Admission
$18.00
I'm still not sure what I think of the Polyphonic Spree. Roy and I first heard of them a few years ago. They opened for David Bowie and were getting a lot of press. We had a different opening act for our local Bowie show, but Roy was curious. He bought their album. I watched the live DVD included with their CD and thought it looked interesting.
I think they played here a couple years ago, but my parents were visiting then so we didn't go. They came back, and to the Pageant. Just down the road and across the city limits into St. Louis from our home in University City.
I've been through enough uncomfortable shows with smoking and bad sitelines that I have a whole slew of coping mechanisms. The Pageant can be bad when it's set up for limited seating and smoking - I only really enjoy it if I'm in the front row of the pit or up in the balcony. The raised front row of the seated section is alright, as long as I'm sitting at the end and not next to a smoker. I like to breathe, people! The line for over-21 early entry seating is in the bar and opens at 5. We got there a little after 6 and were first in line. I guess they weren't expecting too big a crowd, because the balcony was closed. We grabbed a space in the front row of the seated section. I had to admit, they do a decent job with air circulation, but I still wish it would just go non-smoking.
I'm still confused about the opening act. The show was billed as Polyphonic Spree with Videology. There was no opening act, but there was a screen showing 1980s-current alternative music videos. We saw Beck, Bjork, and the Buggles. I enjoyed them, but they got draining after a while because of the bass turned up so loud. Apparently this was Videology. But I went to Videology's myspace page, and it listed the Pageant show as postponed due to illness. I wonder what we missed. I was thinking that I wished this music had been considered dance music rather than the thumping-bass stuff which leaves me cold. And it was cool to see all the college kids singing along with Trevor and Geoff on Video Killed the Radio Star.
I guess the other fans knew what to expect. There were not a whole lot of people there after the doors opened. I was worried about the turnout. But more people showed up, so the seats were mostly full and the dance floor was crowded. The doors opened at 6:30pm and the band finally went on after 9pm. That was a long wait.
I wanted to like Polyphonic Spree better than I did. My friend Kathy saw them in Philly and said they were amazing. She also said they reminded her of Yes, although she doesn't like Yes. She described it as a "fullness of sound" and agreed with my comparison of multi-part harmonies and happy major key sound.
But I got bored. Maybe it was too soon to go to another concert of unfamiliar music. The band did have a full sound, but I don't think that was a good thing, it was a wall of sound and hard to discern what was being played. There were about 20 people on stage, and I kept mentally comparing this to Brian Wilson's Smile tour with a similar number of musicians and type of instruments and music played. But Smile had the best sound I had ever heard at a concert - you could look at every musician and hear them discernably in the mix but also hear the impact of the full band. The sound at this concert was so different. At first I blamed the venue sound, but Roy thinks they were going for this effect. He liked it a lot better than I did. I didn't like the singer's voice either.
The show seemed to end kind of early, only an hour. I was kind of happy about this. They came back for an encore and I found myself singing along. Wait a minute! I don't know any Polyphonic Spree songs. Scanning the lyrics through my head, this was Nirvana's Lithium. This was seriously weird. It sounded like a happy singalong. This is not supposed to be a happy song, but I was getting into it anyway. The lyrics to their other songs are such the opposite, happy positive things like Reach for the Sun. I didn't understand the juxtaposition lyrically or why they needed to make Nirvana sound happy.
Roy said he liked the whole presentation as well as the music. It was a spectacle. There were some parts he thought were predictable, but it didn't bother him. For me, musically, the sound needed more dynamics. They did put out a lot of energy and it seemed sincere, but it left me cold.
The encore section lasted as long as the main set. It also included the chorus of Ride Captain Ride. The show ended at 11:20pm. We walked home. Thankfully it wasn't as hot as it was when we walked there during the day.
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