Musicianship vs Personality & Stage Appeal

[SpondonBassed]

6 minutes ago, mrtcat said:

Personally I think Este Haim has a great balance of playing and subtle communication with the crowd

I admire her subtlety.

[cetera]

4 minutes ago, SpondonBassed said:

I admire her subtlety.

Is that a euphemism?

[SpondonBassed]

4 minutes ago, Horrorhiker said:

Not really. I realise its all around but its when its done intentionally and in a contrived way that bothers me. 

I'm like that about relicing.

The word itself is abhorrent.  It's too much like re-lice-ing, in other words; putting fresh lice back in.  Premature ageing is regarded as a debilitating condition in humans for goodness sake!

I have to admit that it is used to good effect however where newness detracts from the overall image you want on stage.

[SpondonBassed]

13 minutes ago, cetera said:

Is that a euphemism?

I can't see clearly but it might be that she's pointing to her euphonium to alert the sound crew that she's about to go solo on it.

Edited March 15, 2018 by SpondonBassed

[petebassist]

17 hours ago, Bluewine said:

First of all she's a young female with not only a beautiful voice she plays soulful blistering leads reminiscent of the early 70 hard rock and blues genre. Were very fortunate to have a 60 plus following. 

Webring back a lot of memories for these folks. We have had instances where people will come up close to the band and sit on the floor to listen and watch, like the "old days". Our BL comes off sincere, she has a great sense of humor, and she can take control of the audience. They love her.

Sounds like you've got a great front person there, hang on to her!!

[Paul S]

11 hours ago, Bluewine said:

I like them, keep in mind this performance I believe is designed specifically for TV and David's audience.David's audience in not a club audience, it's mostly extremely wealthy people that would never go see a bar or club band.

Blue

Nope - I saw them at the O2 Forum Kentish Town year before last and he went through this entire repertoire of annoying gymnastics nearly every song.  Singer concentrates so hard on the athletics that everything else suffers - he ends up too breathless to sing properly, his timing goes way off so all the gymnastics end up at odds with what they played.  I think he thinks he is James Brown - in his dreams, I'd say.  I was massively disappointed and actually left early.  

[mrtcat]

15 hours ago, gjones said:

I always think vintage trouble are trying just a bit too hard.

 

 

Now you see I like that a lot. So much energy and real talent too. Trying too hard?? Maybe / maybe not but if you're on Letterman then you could do a lot worse than milk it for all its worth and be memorable.

[GreeneKing]

Agree with the rose tinted specs idea. There have always been bands with audiences that appreciate musicianship and listen with rapt attention to people just playing well. There have also been artists who get away with murder but put on a good show. The usual spectrum in between of course. 

I enjoy all these extremes but I'm aware that some punters get bored easily and need to be entertained by something 'flash'. Maybe that's what has changed in the age of instant gratification?

[chris_b]

8 minutes ago, GreeneKing said:

I enjoy all these extremes but I'm aware that some punters get bored easily and need to be entertained by something 'flash'. Maybe that's what has changed in the age of instant gratification?

Not so modern or different from the shows of The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown in 1967 or Screaming Lord Such in the early 60's.

[Paul S]

35 minutes ago, mrtcat said:

Now you see I like that a lot. So much energy and real talent too. Trying too hard?? Maybe / maybe not but if you're on Letterman then you could do a lot worse than milk it for all its worth and be memorable.

It works for one song and I can see that.  After 60 minutes it got wearing plus he got too knackered to perform properly and the whole thing went to ratshit.  I went there to listen to the music, not watch some badly timed gymnastics.  Maybe I am just too old to see stuff like this anymore!  

[Barking Spiders]

40 minutes ago, mrtcat said:

Now you see I like that a lot. So much energy and real talent too. Trying too hard?? Maybe / maybe not but if you're on Letterman then you could do a lot worse than milk it for all its worth and be memorable.

Cant see any problem with that at all. Much rather that than ubertw@t  Lame Gallagher with his head up towards the mic approach and just standing there snarling 

[Dad3353]

12 minutes ago, chris_b said:

Not so modern or different from the shows of The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown in 1967 or Screaming Lord Such in the early 60's.

... or Hawkwind, or The Pink Fairies, or Nice (well, at least they could play, I suppose...) or Gryphon (who definitely could play...) or T-Rex... The list is long...

[GreeneKing]

1 hour ago, chris_b said:

Not so modern or different from the shows of The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown in 1967 or Screaming Lord Such in the early 60's.

Careful. I know a lovely man who was one of Arfur's Kingdom Come and he's an accomplished musician

[chris_b]

4 minutes ago, GreeneKing said:

Careful. I know a lovely man who was one of Arfur's Kingdom Come and he's an accomplished musician

They were when I first saw the Crazy World of, Drachen Theaker on drums and Vincent Crane on Hammond. Both impressive players.

[GreeneKing]

4 minutes ago, chris_b said:

They were when I first saw the Crazy World of, Drachen Theaker on drums and Vincent Crane on Hammond. Both impressive players.

(Julian) Paul Brown is my friend.

 

[Dad3353]

Not questioning any of their musical abilities; I saw all of 'em many times 'back then'. It's the 'show' that got many (most..?) of 'em renown, fame and 'fortune', though. If they'd been even less than average players, their pictures would still have made the papers, I reckon.

[Bluewine]

12 hours ago, SpondonBassed said:

I'm wondering how you're all going to get away with performing Oh Danny Boy in Arriba Mexican Restaurant on St Patrick's night.

I'd watch out.  Just be sure those green enchiladas aren't just last year's masquerading as Irish.

I kind of wish we could play Oh Danny Boy.

Blue

[Bluewine]

11 hours ago, mrtcat said:

Now you see I like that a lot. So much energy and real talent too. Trying too hard?? Maybe / maybe not but if you're on Letterman then you could do a lot worse than milk it for all its worth and be memorable.

Would some of you agree that their are some punters who are completely detached from music and art? And when they see an act like Vintage Trouble they go bonkers and and think it's simply fantastic. 

I can't say I'm a big VT fan, but I like them and can appreciate their hard work. Yeah, to me it seems a little over the top, but what they're doing is not easy.

Do people still use the term "bonkers" anymore? 😁

Blue

Edited March 16, 2018 by Bluewine

[mrtcat]

5 hours ago, Bluewine said:

Would some of you agree that their are some punters who are completely detached from music and art? And when they see an act like Vintage Trouble they go bonkers and and think it's simply fantastic. 

I can't say I'm a big VT fan, but I like them and can appreciate their hard work. Yeah, to me it seems a little over the top, but what they're doing is not easy.

Do people still use the term "bonkers" anymore? 😁

Blue

Yeah of course some people are only impressed by the visual and so bands like vt make them go nuts but that's because people are all different. The thing is, for me, the music was very good too. If the music was poor then I'd feel like their performance might be plastering over cracks.

Like I mentioned in a previous post - bands that can balance a great musical performance with a good engaging show will always win for me. I absolutely cannot bear seeing a band where members (regardless of what instrument they play) seem disengaged or motionless. Don't get me wrong, that doesn't mean they all need to be bouncing about. They just all need to have a bit of charisma. It's hard to explain, I mean look at Pino Palladino - he doesn't move much but he looks so comfortable in his own skin and relaxed but he's pretty much always looking up and watching the rest of the band or the audience. He's engaged in the show. You can tell he's enjoying it. He's got stage presence without having to move too much. 

If you're using "bonkers" then you're probably spending too much time on British forums lol.

[SpondonBassed]

6 hours ago, Bluewine said:

Would some of you agree that their are some punters who are completely detached from music and art? And when they see an act like Vintage Trouble they go bonkers and and think it's simply fantastic. 

I can't say I'm a big VT fan, but I like them and can appreciate their hard work. Yeah, to me it seems a little over the top, but what they're doing is not easy.

Do people still use the term "bonkers" anymore? 😁

Blue

'Bonkers'?  Yes.

The word was brought back to popularity most effectively by Dizzee Rascal just a couple of years ago.

You are right about there being folk who don't connect with music much in their lives until they see something captivating as well.  It's the reason Music Videos are such a good marketing tool.

There are even some people who never get anything from music.  They never listen to it by choice and when it is on they don't regard it as being different from the other background noise in their lives.  Sad.  It is rare but I've heard an interview with someone so afflicted.

Unimaginable to you or me but real none the less.

Edited March 16, 2018 by SpondonBassed

[operative451]

Vintage Trouble - i think you have just found my new favourite band for me!  But then they had me at the opening guitar riff, the jumping around is just a bonus!

I just went to see this lot:

 

 

I guess its as much about theatre as musicianship?  There's room for both i guess?  I mean, i loved going to see the Dap Kings and Sharon Jones because of their whole old-school show-biz 'Hey there ladess and gennulmen!' shtick as much as the musuc but equally was quite happy with the JAMC just standing there hunched over pedal boards going 'WOHHAAAAARRRGGGGEEEE!!!!' ;D

[Count Bassy]

On 14/03/2018 at 16:35, petebassist said:

Of course if the crowd's getting a little bored you can always set fire to your instrument.

Even better: set fire to your guitar while getting a blow job!

[petebassist]

8 minutes ago, Count Bassy said:

Even better: set fire to your guitar while getting a blow job!

If I remember correctly this photo is from the Kings Pub in old Nice, which a few years ago had great local rock bands playing on weekends, and me & my mate used to go there. Can't remember when 'Slash' turned up ;-)

[Horrorhiker]

On 3/15/2018 at 09:28, SpondonBassed said:

I'm like that about relicing.

The word itself is abhorrent.  It's too much like re-lice-ing, in other words; putting fresh lice back in.  Premature ageing is regarded as a debilitating condition in humans for goodness sake!

I have to admit that it is used to good effect however where newness detracts from the overall image you want on stage.

Yeah its definitely not cut and dry. While I hate anything that's trying to be something else, tribute bands don't bother me at all. And I'm not entirely sure why.

With relicing, I just don't get it. However I do agree that everything looking brand new can be equally as weird, especially with what would be considered as a 'hard working' band. 

I've seen several cars just lately where the paint job and general aesthetic is that the car is totally rusted and straight out of a scrapyard, the motoring equivalent of a heavy relic bass. I can appreciate the work that goes into that to some extent, but I really do not see the point. My car looks like that anyway and it cost me next to nothing. Do those heavy relic cars get washed? I would feel like a massive hypocrite washing one of those. 

I saw an interview with Billy Gibbons ages ago and I believe I'm right in saying that he had a new guitar relic'd to look the same as an old guitar he wanted to retire. This is one of the few scenarios where i can actually see the point. 

All manner of psychology going on here. It'd be an interesting topic for a dissertation for someone. 

[SpondonBassed]

44 minutes ago, Horrorhiker said:

...All manner of psychology going on here. It'd be an interesting topic for a dissertation for someone. 

Indeed.

On the subject of personality (OP) clothing can mark you out.  My own psyche feels smug when I see those pre-washed and pre-worn but brand new jeans.  I've always worn the ar5e out of mine through daily wear and tear.

Manufacturers can't replicate that sort of wear but do the punters know the difference?  Do they 'eck!  They put good money down on clothing that is not as new.  The same punters would likely sniff at the notion of buying actual second hand clothing too.  Even if they did the clothes still don't hang in the same way as they would've if worn only by one body.

Few notice any difference and that's okay.  When it's not okay and that line between genuine patina and starkly obvious wear and tear purely for effect has been crossed, I walk.

Each to their own.