Sorry I missed ya last night. Grimsley came over and wanted to tell me all about his experience at the Whisky A Go-Go where he went to see Nita Strauss (lead guitarist for Alice Cooper and solo artist). We both like Nita, and Grim is a huge fan. She is an excellent player and has good stage presence for The Coop. I had told Grim I wouldn't be going to the Whisky show - which was a solo set for Nita in support of her new album - because with my job being what it is, I can't do late night club shows. Grim went anyway, because he lives for rock shows and is willing to put up with a lot of what I now consider in my older age to be hassles or disadvantages of going to such shows.
For me, I don't wanna wait around until 11pm anymore for the main act to go onstage. Been there, done that, many many times. I don't wanna stand in place, surrounded by my fellow Sardines, for a couple hours watching endless opening acts and getting my ears pummeled. Been there, done that, got tinnitus in my right ear and don't wanna make it worse.
So, while I do love The Whisky as a club (everyone is super nice and it has a great vibe), and I love my own rock n' roll heritage, I am at the point in my concert going career where if the hassle outweighs the enjoyment, I won't be going. And that is the case for most club shows, for me. "Must See" bands are an occasional exception, i.e King's X, Alcest or Eric Johnson. But all three of those acts go on at reasonable times anyway, with no opening acts or one at most.
So Grim told me his story, of working his butt off all day, being really tired, but still feeling the need to drive down to Hollywood to see Nita, and no doubt she is worth seeing. But Grim didn't consider the above mentioned factors. So Nita, who was supposed to go on at 10:30 (way too late for me), didn't end up going on until 11:20. Grim said she was shredding but he couldn't hear her leads because the bass and drums were cranked way up in the mix. That problem is a standard one in clubs, where volume is given precedent over sound quality, and unless a band has their own sound man, you are doomed to get your eardrums blown out.
This was happening to Grim. He couldn't hear Nita's guitar, he had waited until 11:20 for her to go on, and he was dog tired when he got off work, hours before he even went down there. Grim is 65. That is not "old" old, for us rock fans (and we keep in shape), but it is old in the sense of "why am I putting up with this BS anymore"?
For me, I've done it. I've gone to Runaways shows at The Starwood when nobody had a car and we had to take the bus down to Hollywood, and then after the concert was over we had to sit at a table in Ben Frank's nursing a plate of French Fries until the earliest bus for the Valley left Sunset Boulevard at 3:45 in the morning.
That was Rock 'n Roll. And it even sucked then, but it was worth it to see the shows. DJ and I used to drive down to the Long Beach Arena the night before Judas Priest tickets went on sale at the box office, because we wanted to get front row tickets. So we would get there at midnight and sit in the cold all night long until 10am when the tix went on sale.
That too, was Rock 'n Roll. But I did it, I've been to somewhere around 800 concerts, and I don't need to do it anymore.
Nowdays, I like concerts that begin no later than 9pm, on time and with no opening acts. Even better, I like shows at the Downtown Theater district venues that always start at 8pm, or similar shows at the Greek Theater. Last Sunday I saw Cameron Carpenter at Disney Hall, which started at 7:30. There was no opening act, I wasn't Sardined in a club with a blaring bass heavy sound system, the audience not only didn't make a peep during the performance, but there was nary a cell phone in sight. The sound was phenomenal (state of the art classical acoustics), and I was watching one of the greatest musicians I have ever seen.
So - for me, now that I am pushing 60 - that is Rock n' Roll nowdays.
The genre of music isn't what is important, just the hassle factor.
Grim, who is seven years older than I and has been to at least one thousand concerts, is still willing to put up with all the Stuff. But he often regrets it, and so all of this was to tell you that he left the Nita Strauss concert only twenty minutes after it began, and he loves Nita.
I listened to his tale thinking, "hmmm....I could've predicted that".
Well, as Jim Tyler (a maker of custom guitars) once told me, "You gotta bleed for rock n' roll". He told me that when I mentioned that a guitar he built for me was heavier than I had expected (and I still have that guitar). He was right about bleeding for rock; you do gotta do that.
But I've done it, and now, for me it's the other way around. When I go to a concert nowdays, I am seeking a transfusion. A transfusion of musical lifeblood, nothing more and nothing less.
Don't need no hassles nor ear damage.
Grim, however, will keep on going to these kinds of shows, and in a way I admire him for doing that, because he wants to keep his ethos alive. I had many of my greatest concert experiences in my teens and twenties, and at some shows I reached the highest of spiritual heights, from which I have never come down even though the memory is 30 to 45 years distant.
But I have also moved on, and acknowledged the things I never liked about rock concerts even when I was 15 years old. I never liked that fans were treated like cattle at some shows, or that you had to stand like a sardine at others. I did it anyway because I loved my bands, and those shows are badges of honor for me, and are legendary beyond belief.......
But why would I want to try and replicate them in this day and age?
That's all I am asking.
I know I must sound like a curmudgeon but I am really a pleasure seeker, and I will see you in church in the morning. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
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