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Saturday, Nov. 1st pt. 1
Woke up at ten a.m. to the
sound of knocking on my door. Housecleaning. Told them to come back in a couple
of hours. Got up soon, anyway.
Headed out at 1/4 to 12 without camera. Took some advice given to me yesterday
about my decision to walk to and from City Park (once I shuttled downtown, of
course) and went up Canal instead of Esplanade despite my previous failure.
Boy, were my legs glad to take a break once I got there. Perhaps I'll take the
bus tomorrow, I thought to myself, finally listening to some common sense. I
arrived about two-ish in the afternoon.
First thing i heard on the way in was a prince track playin'; Cross The Line
(from a bootleg, I guess - the song's not officially released, but is familiar
to fans), Part of a dj set i guess. I got searched and let in. Walked around.
Lots of vendors with stuff to sell or give away (useless promotional items like
keychains, bumperstickers). At least the food (not free) was handy, and the
ATMs (not free), and port-o-potties. The rest of the crap I could do without
- bongs, posters, stuff I can find at malls and flea markets. The ATM's charge
five bucks! I thought the one at the hotel for 3.50 was high.
The rock stage had some lame band (don't remember who), the small indie stage
had some singer backed with a dj (coolest spot in the park in the afternoon
with a nice small area of trees), the dance tent might've just finished a set,
so I went to the (hip-hop?) stage and caught a bit of Black Star (Mos Def and
Talib Kweli) already in progress. I always liked them, but they were great live.
Hip Hop acts are often great recording artists, but not so great live, generally
speaking. Was that mase from De La Soul with them? All he did was stand there.
Perhaps I missed something earlier. One of my favorite lines of the show; "too,
black, too strong; one cup of coffee to go". Humorous riff on an old Public
Enemy catch phrase. After they were done, Ii walked around checked the rock
stage (another lame band), dance tent (some rapper who'd just finished), the
indie (nothin' right now) and got something to eat, a crawfish cake; a pastry
with a little crawfish, rice and other stuff. Also got a Mountain Dew.
Enjoyed The Roots. I'd heard some of their live stuff and was aware of their
musical prowess. They're a hip hop band, whose musicians have played with a
number of notable artists. Still, they exceeded my expectations. Positioned
myself so I could check out either the stage or the big screen depending on
whether I was laying down or sitting. All of the instrumentalists were on point.
I found the bass player in particular to be quite a revelation. Amazing. They
touched upon quite a few musical genres in their set, did some classic hip-hop
covers, and Blackstar returned to join them. Great stuff.
Felix The Housecat did a dj set in the dance tent. Even though Ii am the lord
god of wallflowers, Ii found it strange that his set inspired very little dancing.
Like 5-8 and the majority of those performing glow stick acrobatics. The evening
was just beginning however, so perhaps it was just too early, and the kids hadn't
gotten their extacy buzz yet. I found myself a nice inflatable chair and gently
bouced and rocked till it was almost time for Iggy And The Stooges to hit the
Fuse stage. Whether things ever picked up in the dance tent with Felix or any
of those who followed, I can't say exactly.
Iggy and the stooges were pretty good, though his punk posturing kinda left
me feeling he was completly full a shit. I know they're pioneers of punk (or
so I've heard), but it appeared to be like an oldies show, where the performers
represent or re-visit an era that is no longer. Kinda like Brian Setzer. My
guess is he wants godfather status to a lot of those young punk-lite bands that
are kinda popular now. Like Neil young to grunge about ten years ago or whenever.
The first indication that something was wrong, was seeing the guitar techs and
roadies setting up for the band. Mic checks, making sure the guitars were tuned.
All that is good in the normal order of things related to making sure a live
performance goes the way it should, but is it punk? I don't think so. While
I listen to some of this type of music on occasion, and Iggy's Dog Food was
one of my favorite songs back in the eighties, I make no pretence to being an
expert on the stuff. Iggy did deliver the second greatest line at todays fest;
"you suck, just like the bands you like!" Sounds familiar, though.
Is that a Sara Silverman line? If it is, that's another minus for Iggy. Good
taste in comedianes isn't exactly punk either. Like I indicated, musically they
were good. Iggy did some Prince like gyrations, humping the top of an amp. Mostly,
he was kinda Mick Jagger, but less co-ordinated. Towards the end, he gave one
of his many fake sounding punk soundbites, this time talking about tv. "There
are two types of people, those on tv and those of us not on tv, and those of
us not on tv get shit on. You won't see us on tv". He says this of course
while being video taped (do they still use tape?) for a December broadcast (which
an announcer from Fuse reminded us of after the set).
Marilyn Manson. I love Marilyn Manson. Mechanical Animals is one of my favorite
CDs. While the two follow-ups are not nearly as good, they rock hard, and often
are to me what coffee is to other people on the morning commute to work. Manson
is known to most as a "shock rocker". He says, sings, and does stuff
that outrages folks and adds a bit of the theatrical to what he does. In the
context of the pop records he creates, these simple, raw messages fit the music
(also simple and raw) they accompany. His show was about as shocking and empty
as Cinemax porn to which many are disensitized. All of the slogans Manson throws
out inbetween songs sounds like the rantings of a 12 year old who'd forgotten
to take her Ritalin three days in a row, rather than a rebel against religious
authorities who has any clue as to what he's saying. Musically, there's also
a bit of a problem. It sounds right, pretty much, but that's it. I don't know
if I'm making sense here. Basically, there's no soul, no emotion to the performance
that I could ascertain, but it really didn't sound bad, and I could rock to
it, sort of. Things may've picked up in the dance tent, cuz the pulsating sound
of the bass drum from that area was bleeding into ours. Whether or not the X
had kicked in at that point, I have no idea.
I was initially a little nervious about being surrounded by kids, but there were people of all ages, well, not ALL ages, but enough folks old enough to not make me feel out of place. Iggy's pressence didn't hurt in that regard, and I don't think manson's did either as he seems to have many fans in their twenties and thirties.
Show was over by about 11 or twelve, I forget which, and I walked back to the quarter/downtown area and probably wandered for a while until my 2:45 Shuttle pick up. I didn't jot down any notes at this point so I have no recollection of exactly what I did between my wait and pick up. Tomorrow would be the last day for my use of the shuttle. Monday I'll use the regular bus.
© 2004 George-Williams Isaacs
