Lilith ([email protected])
Wed, 15 Jul 1998 23:44:56 -0400
Just back from 5 days in LA to see the resurrected Bauhaus 4 times in a
row. (Some of you will know who I mean. Some of you will be going
"huh?") I am afraid that, due to the fact that I was with friends whose
interest in U2 is minimal at best, my only contact with U2-sites was a
brief glimpse _I think_ of the building upon whose rooftop they did
"Streets With No Name." (I pointed it out to my friends as we drove down
the street, and they said "yes how nice" and whizzed up the street
before I could make them stop and get out. Wankers.) So I would like to
thank the people who sent me the address, even though I was not able to
get out of the car and have a U2 Moment.
Anyway, no sooner do I get home to download my several hundred emails
only to find that, among the usual arguments and such that someone by
the moniker "GG" has dared to attempt to besmirch the reputation of Jeff
Shirkey. All _I_ can say is I have received tapes from Mr Shirkey in the
past, all of stuff I had never seen before, all of stuff I never would
have been able to replace otherwise in _a million years_, including a
viddy from 1992 of a fan encounter outside the Lakeland Civics center
before their first Achtung Baby show (which replaced the tape that was
stolen along with my friend's videotape machine - hi, Jeff, it's me,
formerly [email protected]), all for no $$ except postage. Gee, I
guess I was _ripped off_ by not being charged fifty bucks by a
bootlegger. Dear Mr GG, would you have taken your alias from the late
"performance artist" GG Allin, whose greatest claim to fame was
defecating onstage?
Re: the controversy over Bono's voice. Mr Rob Okorn rather pompously put
forth the claim that Bono's voice was best during 1983-87. (I may have
the years slightly off, but I refuse to read his pretentious posts
again.) Well, I'm not the _expert_ Mr Okorn apparently is, but it seems
to me that _range_ is not the only thing that makes a voice (which is
why I'm not a Mariah Carey fan). There is also what I believe is called
"texture," which I think that Bono has gained, perhaps at the detriment
to the much vaunted "range."
The tiresome "they can't surpass the JT tour" argument has surfaced
again. Well, I saw that show twice (in Miami and Tampa), and it was
indeed a memorable show, but one can take minimalism only so far, and I
got real tired of that damn cowboy hat. I _like_ the "information
overload" of the AB, ZooTV, and POP tours, and no, I don't think that
the music was "overwhelmed" by the media display, nor did U2 seem
particularly "straightjacketed" by their shows subsequent to JT (as if
_that_ tour had been some kind of unplanned free-for-all). I guess that
I've had the luck to see them in Miami, where all their shows have been
powerful. Must be the Cuban coffee.
I'm with Nikki on the what's-the-deal-with-Madonna thing. U2 puts out a
"techno-influenced" album that, while not a vast 360-degree turn from
their usual sound, did throw in some new elements, and are reamed for
it; Madonna puts out same and is universally lauded. Well, maybe it is
because U2 dared to step outside the rigid boundaries of their
categorization as a "rock" band, while what Madonna is basically serving
up is more of her usual dance-pop with a few new beats thrown in.
She's back,
Lilith
http://www.concentric.net/~Ligeia
-- I dare you -- to be real; To touch -- to touch the flickering flame....
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.0b2 on Wed Jul 15 1998 - 20:45:04 PDT