Re: The '89 Tour, CFNY, & The QUAD '96 Tour

["Scott Schrade" <schrade@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

> The general public saw CFNY and was astonished at what they saw - 
> Pete on electric loud and crunchy - windmilling, machine gunning and 
> jumping, a drummer who didn't just keep time, the best bass player on 
> the planet and a youthful looking "middle singer" who didn't have his 
> best voice, but still sang his heart out.

Yes.  I think there was a "Wow, I thought this band was washed up" kind
of reaction to CFNY.  Perhaps brought on by the memories of the '89 tour.
Very possible.

> I missed the Quad tours of 96/97 - shame on me.  

Yeah, you missed a nice, elaborate production of what is many Who fans
favorite album.  I saw two of those performances - one night in MSG &
later, the Cleveland show.

The MSG performance was better - Phil Daniels & all - but Pete did favor
the Cleveland audience with some electric guitar during the encore.

> but I'll always wonder what that tour would have sounded like with just the 
> five piece and some backing tapes.  Certainly all the Quad we saw in 2000 
> and 2002 didn't need back up singers and horns did it?  

Good point, but you never know.  Attempting the QUAD tour in '96 using
backing tapes very well could've been a repeat of some of the disastrous
moments of the '73 tour.  With backing tapes, all it takes is one little slip or 
missed cue & the *entire* song is completely botched.  Besides, the whole
point of the QUAD '96 tour was to use the backing musicians to free them-
selves from the constraints of the backing tapes.  People can react.  Tapes
can't.

And I think there are certain songs on QUAD which are simplistic enough
not to need backing tapes or backing musicians, hence the inclusion of 
several on the subsequent tours.  But conversely, many of the songs on 
QUAD need that layered, complex sound in order to be recreated proper-
ly.

> Chime in please.

BONG !  There ya' go!  


- SCHRADE in Akron