bloodyrosemccoy (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
bloodyrosemccoy) wrote2010-02-07 05:57 pm
bloodyrosemccoy) wrote2010-02-07 05:57 pm
Swingin' Outta Nowhere
I dunno about you chumps, but my big entertainment even this weekend was a Big Bad Voodoo Daddy concert.
I’m a casual fan of BBVD ever since they mysteriously showed up on my iPod a few years ago. (I think it was Josh’s hard drive.) It’s that residual love of swing from being a bassist in the school jazz band, I think, and also because you can render me helpless with a good tom drum solo. God DAMN I love me some tom drums.
Granted, I hadn’t planned to go. But when I at work yesterday I remembered they were showing at Abravanel Hall, so I went directly there* after work, an hour before the concert, to see if there was a ticket left.**
There were three, back in the third tier, so I invited Mom and my sister to join me and incidentally bring me my opera glass. (I totally have an opera glass. It’s like a pair of binoculars, only less useful.) So we sat up there and made fun of the timpani guy’s warming up and then argued about the merits of the Blue Danube waltz and swore a lot, and in the second half when BBVD came on we clapped and danced in our seats. If I were on the second tier I’d have been a bit nervous about getting struck by a falling opera glass.
Also, we sang along to “Mr. Pinstripe Suit.” Culture!
And while I’m thinking of it, I have a question for all y’all non-Utahns: what do your audiences do during encores? Because around here, “encore” apparently does not mean “expected additional piece of music, unlisted upon the playbill, performed at the end of a concert should the audience demand it.” No, audiences at least around here seem to translate “encore” to mean “the part where the audience leaves en masse, ironically to beat the traffic, while the musicians are still playing in the mistaken assumption that you actually wanted to hear more music. And if you stay, you are talking on your cell phone because you’ve gone 45 minutes without using it and you are just going to DIE if you don’t stick the damn thing to your ear before the song is over.”
It’s extremely frustrating. Especially since the encore, “So Long, Farewell, Goodbye,” is one of my favorites from this band. It’s one of the ones I really wanted to hear.
In conclusion, it was a good concert. The tom drums alone were enough to make me happy.
*Well, almost directly. Turns out there was some big game going down the street at Corporate Logo Stadium. There was the usual parking runaround, the fascinating details of which I don’t care to go on about.
**Remember how Sherlock Holmes once pointed out that it’s highly unusual for Mycroft Holmes to break out of his orbit between work, apartment, and gentlemen’s club? This is sort of like that for me.
I’m a casual fan of BBVD ever since they mysteriously showed up on my iPod a few years ago. (I think it was Josh’s hard drive.) It’s that residual love of swing from being a bassist in the school jazz band, I think, and also because you can render me helpless with a good tom drum solo. God DAMN I love me some tom drums.
Granted, I hadn’t planned to go. But when I at work yesterday I remembered they were showing at Abravanel Hall, so I went directly there* after work, an hour before the concert, to see if there was a ticket left.**
There were three, back in the third tier, so I invited Mom and my sister to join me and incidentally bring me my opera glass. (I totally have an opera glass. It’s like a pair of binoculars, only less useful.) So we sat up there and made fun of the timpani guy’s warming up and then argued about the merits of the Blue Danube waltz and swore a lot, and in the second half when BBVD came on we clapped and danced in our seats. If I were on the second tier I’d have been a bit nervous about getting struck by a falling opera glass.
Also, we sang along to “Mr. Pinstripe Suit.” Culture!
And while I’m thinking of it, I have a question for all y’all non-Utahns: what do your audiences do during encores? Because around here, “encore” apparently does not mean “expected additional piece of music, unlisted upon the playbill, performed at the end of a concert should the audience demand it.” No, audiences at least around here seem to translate “encore” to mean “the part where the audience leaves en masse, ironically to beat the traffic, while the musicians are still playing in the mistaken assumption that you actually wanted to hear more music. And if you stay, you are talking on your cell phone because you’ve gone 45 minutes without using it and you are just going to DIE if you don’t stick the damn thing to your ear before the song is over.”
It’s extremely frustrating. Especially since the encore, “So Long, Farewell, Goodbye,” is one of my favorites from this band. It’s one of the ones I really wanted to hear.
In conclusion, it was a good concert. The tom drums alone were enough to make me happy.
*Well, almost directly. Turns out there was some big game going down the street at Corporate Logo Stadium. There was the usual parking runaround, the fascinating details of which I don’t care to go on about.
**Remember how Sherlock Holmes once pointed out that it’s highly unusual for Mycroft Holmes to break out of his orbit between work, apartment, and gentlemen’s club? This is sort of like that for me.
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It was bizarre. And awfully rude. The crowd had, in fact, been annoying the whole damn concert, and not in the expected "really enthusiastic people don't respect the space of those around them" way. If I'd had a flamethrower with me, there would have been many a charcoaled youth group, that day.
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Although points to your audience there for the extra irony of leaving after he'd informed them this was a bonus song, very special to him, that they would not hear anywhere else. That's some special rottenness right there.
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I was there with a friend who absolutely adored the group. I thought he was about to punch people, when they started doing that.
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I usually see a handful of people leave before the encore, but usually only a party or three. Usually they're the people who looked like not only did they NOT enjoy this show at all, but they don't really enjoy any show at all, ever. Concerts are just another terrible inconvenience in their terribly inconvenient lives.
For some reason these people always seem to have good season tickets. Go figure.
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...which is why, if I ever buy a season ticket, I'll simply go to all the ones that sound good and see if I've saved money at the end of the season. Resolved!
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(I heard stories that the Mahavishnu Orchestra used to tune their instruments and then just wait until the entire audience was dead quiet before starting their first and last pieces in the set.)
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If they did that here, everyone would be gone.
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and that is the weirdest thing I've ever heard of - encores are for "come back out here and sing some more, we're not *done* yet, did you *hear* me???"
...going to go dig out my bbvd cd and dust it off now...
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That "encore situation" is something I've never encountered, though... I've seen cases where the audience was clamouring for more in vain (which is really not cool, IMO), but never a case where the band was game, but not the audience - at least not en masse (there's always the isolated jerk who was clearly dragged there by his/her spouse and was making snarky comments throughout the concert).
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