Weekly report

[allynh@calder.berkeley.edu (Allyn Hardyck)]

Echo and the Bunnymen / The Church @ Henry J. Kaiser Convention Center,
Oakland, 4/15

Little worried when I came in - haven't been to a Bill Graham presentation
since last summer, and when I showed up, remembered why - all trappings of
BIG TIME ROCK SHOW - big guys in satin tour jackets directing people around
(had me retrace my path twice before this guy got his facts straight ("Oh,
you have your ticket?  Go round to the other side of the building..."))
Guy saying "Lemmeseeyourticketdon'thaveitinyourpocketyourmouthhaveitin
plainsight" I stuck it right in his face he said "I said lemme see it not
eat it".  And the prepube crowd was out in force more than the last time I saw
them (Apr. 84 Warfield, SF), I guess w/ the Pretty in Pink soundtrack and
all.  The idea that most of the people in the building weren't even alive
when the inter-band music (`66 - early '69 Beatles) was released kinda shook
me.  Missed The Church due to idea that the show would start at 9 like the
last time (7:30!  Gotta start early so these kids can get back to Concord
before the KKK starts roaming the rapid transit stations)

Fog, big bank of bright lights, starry-type backdrop (used in a coupla songs)
and these boxes with plastic streamers blowing vertically, lit from within
the box.  Will's hair's shorter, Les looks chunkier, who's this guy on
drums and this Jimmy Somerville lookalike on keyboards?  And how much
longer is Mac gonna be able to keep his cabbage haircut before it starts
falling into his Guinness?  These people are starting to age (noticeable
nasolabial folds etc.), a little distressing.  He smiled.  Often.  He bantered
with the audience.  The songs were tighter, a little of that edge sanded
down.  Some cool echo and reverb effects though - not the sort of things
your home speakers could probably withstand.  Strobes.
The songs from the forthcoming album ("Lips Like Sugar" - they've
been into JaMC lately perhaps? - and "Satellite") promising.  Covers:
"Paint It Black" and "Soul Kitchen", snippets of "Garbageman" inside
"Do It Clean".  Did "Angels and Devils" but not "Silver".  Otherwise
the expected cuts, avoided _Heaven Up Here_ except for "Over The Wall"
which they did for their 1st of 4 encores (one song apiece).  Slam pit
opens up near end of set by stage (continuing the story of intelligent
concert-goers began at the Fall show) - Mac: "Hmm, that's novel."

Violent Femmes / Phranc @ Warfield Theater, SF, Apr. 19

Trendos not as notable here, but it sold out (anybody know if their Carnegie
Hall show did too?).  Phranc warmly recieved by audience, who sang along
when asked too, then started on their own - great songs about mud-wrestling,
the Pope ("that caped crusader"), South Africa, lying journalists and
coroners.  Dashed out to do an encore that got clapping all the way through.

Weird sensation to see the VFs for the first time after they'd been playing
around Madison all the time I was in high school, and now as fairly small
figures on a stage a long distance from me (10th row balcony).  Gordon
in bathrobe, Brian with shaven head and clericky cloak, Victor in cords
and buttoned shirt.  Horns of Dilemma featured several members of Club
Foot Orchestra, Snakefinger guested on guitar (specially during some bluesy
numbers).  Did every song off the first album (except "Promise"
and "Feelings").  Did "Country Death Song," "I Know It's True but I'm
Sorry to Say," "Black Girls," "I Hear the Rain", "Hallowed Ground".
Did "Children of the Revolution" but I don't know much about their 3rd
album, and frankly their older stuff got a wildly larger response than
their newer supposedly more commercial stuff.  They rushed through some
of the old stuff though.  The least serious band I've ever seen
(haven't seen the Replacements yet) - I thought
they'd never get through "Blister in the Sun," they kept starting, then
stopping to do "Iron Man," "Smoke on the Water," "Purple Haze," whatever Dead
song has to do w/ cocaine & Casey Jones ("Looka my [Dead] shirt!" - Gordon) -
old Presley tune, and they threatened to do some ELP...  During "Confessions"
a great cacophony of horns, 6 saxes, harmonica, valveless French horn.

allyn