differing views on Supper Club gig

[Brendon Macaraeg <bqm1808@is.nyu.edu>]

WF wrote:
Explain exactly what there was to "get"? A no-talented guy litterely moaning
into the mike, song after song that sounded the same??? If you want to judge
his "music" as noise and say Pete makes noise, you could compare the 2 in the
same "review". However, these 2 guys aren't even close. By your saying that
he was so good, makes me realize that you can't even begin to understand how
great Pete really is...

Well, we'll just have to agree to disagreeing. Here's a postscript to my review
that I posted to the Sugar list:

-------------------------------------------------------------
I think Bob really had a missed opportunity last night
to convert some people and make some new fans.
"Fort Knox" and "Next Time That You Leave" [from his
new solo LP] on an electric (I've seen Bob use a Rickenbacker
and that would have suited these songs perfectly)
or played sparsely on a 12-string acoustic could have really blown
some people away.  The subtlety of the new solo  LP
was nowhere to be found in his delivery last night.
I wonder if he plays with such abandon because
he was just nervous or that's just the way it is
with Bob's "I'm doing it on my own terms"-approach
to the music biz? I mean I liked it because I know
the songs by heart, but playing to 
the already converted vs. the uninitiated are 
two totally different worlds.

On the other hand, in the grand scheme of things,
it probably doesn't make any difference as a lot
of the crowd was drinking a lot and or/getting 
stoned (the management of the Supper Club
insisted of sending this little cocktail girl out
into a PACKED floor to take drink orders! Gee, 
are we here to get wasted or listen to music?).
-----------------------------------------------------------

I understand if you didn't like it. It's hard to get into
someone's music if you don't know it. I often write
off opening bands/artists if I don't know them (but it's often happened
that I later rediscover them--Catherine Wheel being
a prime example). You're there to see the headerliner 
afterall. You just have to understand that Husker
Du's "Zen Arcade" is an important album to me, and much
of Mould's later work speaks to me. WF, have 
you honestly listened to a Husker Du/Sugar/Mould
solo LP all the way through? His opening set
for Pete IS NOT representative of his body of work.
Who did you want to see open? Michael Bolton? (ack!)
You should know that Pete probably chose Mould for these
shows and that Mould's solo acoustic gig last
year at the Academy was an inspiration to Pete 
to even do these solo gigs.
(he was at that show and is a fan of Mould) 

On a last note: I'd be more than happy to organize a tape tree of one
of Pete's shows this weekend and have corresponded
with several people on the list who planned to boot the shows on DAT.
I didn't as I didn't have time to pick up a borrowed DAT deck
after work. If one of you reading this did get a good DAT
copy made, let me know. I've been a branch leader on several tape
trees and have access to studio-quality DAT and analog 
tape decks to dub the branch leader's tapes.

Take care,
-B
=====================================================
                                    Brendon Macaraeg
               http://www.itp.tsoa.nyu.edu/~brendonm 
    Finger macaragb@acf2.nyu.edu for my PGP Public Key