Concerts which disregarded the Dramaturgy of Rock

First, sorry for the delay, right now I'm going slightly crazy with the whole grad school thing.  (When tomorrow becomes late next week, I know I have problems) That being said...

Two weeks ago I saw two of my personal favorite musical acts, for VERY cheap (I paid $30 for what was $80 worth of tickets, but that's neither here nor there), and both of them provide plenty of fodder for discussion about some of my Dramaturgy of Rock concepts, as well as a general discussion of rock.

Stars @ the Avalon, Oct. 1st:

One of my favorite bands of the last four years, Montreal's Stars have a tendency to invert the concert experience, which creates a greater cathartic feeling for the audience.  What I mean by this is since they A: Place their biggest commercial hit (Ageless Beauty) second in the set (caveat, it could be argued that half of Set Yourself on Fire could be construed as their biggest hit, but for the sake of our current argument, we shall postulate that Ageless Beauty is the current strongest song) and B: Always end their shows with something a bit down-tempo, the experience is counter to concert structure (Hits late, end big, fast and loud, etc.), but the journey the audience has taken allows them to leave the space in a feeling of relief and beauty, rather than exhaustion and exhilaration.  Also, the dual lead singers (Torq Campbell and Amy Millan) lyrically play off one another in many songs, to the point that if staged, this could perhaps be even more interesting (One More Night, with a bit of Choreography could be fantastically sadistic).  

David Byrne, Santa Barbara Oct 4th: 

One of the most theatrical concerts I have seen in a while, all without any projections, moving lights, or any other tricks of modern stage craft.  What David did have was a troupe of three dancers making different songs into movement pieces, with major interaction between the dancers and the environment of the rock and roll stage.  For example, during the Talking Heads classic, I Zimbra, the three dancers were constantly shifting the relationship between the backup singers and their microphones, forcing the singers to be as mobile as the dancers, and even lie down on the stage whilst the dancers held the microphones to the singers' mouths. Musically, Byrne is often interesting, and the new album, co-written with Brian Eno, is some of his strongest material in years, but by adding the human element of movement and dance, it made this one of the most hypnotically invigorating music experiences that I've had in a while.

more later

The John Lautner Retrospective @ The Hammer

So the Architecture of John Lautner is quite beautiful.  The concepts of space and the incorporation of the natural landscape around has definite parallels with one of his early mentors, Frank Lloyd Wright.  Despite the awesomeness of his work, the presentation of his work at the soon to close retrospective at the Hammer Museum leaves much to be desired.  If you look at the Hammer's website, you can currently see the gallery and how the work is presented, which is rather static.  The arrangement of the drafting throughout the center of the rooms, interspersed with models made me feel more like a client rather than a viewer of art.  The one aspect of the show that attempted to break the static nature of the exhibit was the presence of video montages of various Lautner designed homes.  These silent series of images troubled me on two separate fronts, first being the odd voyeuristic feeling that it gave me the viewer, and secondly, the way the galleries were lit it felt as if the video content was slightly washed out by the rest of the exhibits' lighting.  The one aspect of this retrospective that I did not experience, but would more than likely change my feelings about it, were the arranged site visits of Lautner designed buildings.  These were rare (only 4 during the entire 3 month installation), and quite expensive (cheapest being $55, and two were only available to $125 donors to the museum, and still cost another $145), I understand that these would be difficult to set up, but they priced out many students and other architecture aficionados.    

more writing tomorrow... later

Last Weeks Viewing Part 1

So last week...

I came down with an insomnia cold.  Did that deter me from consuming a bunch of music and arts though?  The answer is of course no... A play by play list of what was seen...

Tuesday night: Dodgers Game and then CSS and Tilly and the Wall at the Mayan...

For a class in acoustic environments, we were semi-required to go watch a game at Dodger Stadium.  This particular game was a complete joke, as the Dodgers had an absurd 7-1 lead by the 3rd inning, so much so that I just left after the top of the fifth inning, so I could sprint to the Mayan Theatre to see...

Tilly and the Wall and CSS.  Tilly and the Wall are undeniably cute, with a clog dancer providing a large chunk of the percussion and rhythm for the band.  An effective gimmick, and the more dance-y direction they seem to be going in (as opposed to a more roots-y-pop) can possibly pay some pretty large dividends.  CSS, on the other hand, hit the stage like a bullet out of a gun, and after 55 minutes of sheer energy, you were lucky if you were left standing.  So you are warned.

Rock out Wednesday: Brazilian Girls - 

Rather unimpressive.  Perhaps this was due to the fact that I wasn't feeling particularly well this evening, perhaps it was because I had won 2 tickets off KCRW and no one came with me, hence a failed +1 crisis.  The music was OK, the energy seemed a bit too down tempo and chill from the stage, also the projection and video content was just passive and lame (I know the music is at times down tempo and chill, but for me it felt like a going through the motions type of show).  Frankly, a rather unmemorable evening.

Friday night debate:

Needless to say, I made a drinking game out of watching the debate, being anytime John McCain pissed me off, I drank.  As you could assume, I got pretty shitfaced pretty quickly.  As far as my thoughts on the debate, I thought that Jim Lerher was an effective moderator, trying to get them to speak to each other, and to an extent succeeding.  The other fact which has been well documented is the fact that John McCain simply refused to look at Barack Obama, it was just frustrating for all.

Well, that ends part 1.  The further viewing which will be discussed in the next installment:  

The Civilians new documentary musical - This Shining City

The John Lautner retrospective at the Hammer Museum

An Evening with Robert Wilson

The VP Debate

Stars

David Byrne

Upcoming viewing: 

Madame Buterfly @ the LA Opera

Elevator Repair Service

possibly Gogol Bordello

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