Some rock bands don't know when to call it quits, and if you're a fan of music from yesteryear, this is usually a good thing. I love The Strokes, don't get me started on my Decemberists (great), I will cry when I see The Futureheads, and I bought the new White Stripes album today. But I still have a great appreciation for the trailblazers, the oldies, the pioneers. I love my Nuggets box sets, 1970s CBGBs, listening to the 60s XM station at work, and anything having to do with Mod. I've been lucky enough to see some of these artists live, but with this blessing comes the curse of Old Banditis, the disease a performer gets after having entertained the masses for over thirty years. Symptoms include: disavowing of popular material, newer material that is preachy and mid-tempo, embarrassing fashion choices, and the desire to turn a perfectly lovely three minute pop song into an epic solo-fest, wasting dozens of minutes of concert time.
After seeing Television's last show, I've now seen four bands/artists that suffer from Old Banditis, to varying degrees. Here they are, and a diagnosis of each.
Ray Davies (former frontman of The Kinks)
I saw Ray Davies on his tour to promote his first official solo album, Other People's Lives. Ray was extremely lively and generally pleasant (except when he laughed at me for suggesting he play "Victoria"). Ray's Old Banditis was in the early stages, showing up only in his clothes and decision to play his new songs. He changed from one oversized button down shirt to another, even changing his Converse a couple times. And the new songs, the very definition of mid-tempo and preachy, were tolerable since they were broken up by Kinks hits old and newer ("You Really Got Me" and "Lola", perhaps that's really old and old) and a medley of songs from the highly underrated Village Green Preservation Society. Ray embraced his Kinks past and put on a great show.
Diagnosis: Thriving with a mild case of Old Banditis.
David Byrne (formerly of Talking Heads)
I know absolutely nothing about David Byrne's solo work, but I know he didn't play much that I knew. He did a Cole Porter cover, "Like Humans Do" (the one Byrne solo song I know), and one or two Talking Heads songs. He did all this while dressed in seersucker overalls. So, right there, crazy clothes and total disavowment of old songs. I don't recall his songs going on too long and, even though he was probably focusing on new songs, they definitely weren't mid-tempo since I was boogeying on a pew the entire time (I saw the concert at The Ryman).
Diagnosis: Strong, but suffers from one of the worst symptoms of Old Banditis, forgetting your old material.
The Rolling Stones
The greatest rock and roll band on Earth is how they are described and, even from nose bleed seats in an arena, I felt it. The band plowed through their old hits and, since I saw them while supporting their greatest hits collection, they only bored the audience with one of the new songs from that set. The best part of the night had to have been when the band performed on a super small stage (15 x 15, at most) in the middle of the floor seats, right in the center of their crazy, baby booming fans. Mick even had a clothing rack on stage for which to change clothes as he saw fit. Actually, the entire band had many clothing changes, except for Charlie Watts who decided that throwing on a jacket was enough of a change. Still, as entertaining and marvelous as the show was, every single song became an epic; Honky Tonk women fighting in the streets, with devils and dice, solo after solo. Seriously, "Brown Sugar" is not "Stairway To Heaven." And thank God, to get a personal note in there about Lez Zeppelin.
Diagnosis: Ailing from Old Banditis, but gosh darnit their charisma fools everyone.
Television
Oh me oh my. I saw Television, legendary and highly influential punk band that paved the way for The Ramones, Blondie, etc., perform their last concert this past Saturday. All of them were dressed pretty dad-like, which is almost embarrassing considering the other three old bands I've seen went out of their way to just look extra special. But Richard Lloyd's replacement was wearing quite possibly the tightest jeans I've ever seen, adding an extra touch of embarrassment and, well, a big touch of something else. Ugh. The band is known for their, really, one and only album: Marquee Moon. The album is a classic, widely regarded as one of the finest ever made, and the band only sells t-shirts that have the album's title on them. Why the band then decided to only play 2 songs from that album, I'll never know. The grand total of songs I knew came down to 3, which is pretty ridiculous for a band that only has 3 albums and played a full set. The band instead concentrated on, yes, newer, mid-tempo, preachy rock, every one of those songs stretching out to over ten minutes. So, wow. That's all four bases covered. And I was disappointed. The feeling that came over the crowd when they played "Venus" third (third) was so amazing, I wish I could have felt that more.
Diagnosis: Straight up dead from Old Banditis.
After seeing Television's last show, I've now seen four bands/artists that suffer from Old Banditis, to varying degrees. Here they are, and a diagnosis of each.
Ray Davies (former frontman of The Kinks)I saw Ray Davies on his tour to promote his first official solo album, Other People's Lives. Ray was extremely lively and generally pleasant (except when he laughed at me for suggesting he play "Victoria"). Ray's Old Banditis was in the early stages, showing up only in his clothes and decision to play his new songs. He changed from one oversized button down shirt to another, even changing his Converse a couple times. And the new songs, the very definition of mid-tempo and preachy, were tolerable since they were broken up by Kinks hits old and newer ("You Really Got Me" and "Lola", perhaps that's really old and old) and a medley of songs from the highly underrated Village Green Preservation Society. Ray embraced his Kinks past and put on a great show.
Diagnosis: Thriving with a mild case of Old Banditis.
David Byrne (formerly of Talking Heads)I know absolutely nothing about David Byrne's solo work, but I know he didn't play much that I knew. He did a Cole Porter cover, "Like Humans Do" (the one Byrne solo song I know), and one or two Talking Heads songs. He did all this while dressed in seersucker overalls. So, right there, crazy clothes and total disavowment of old songs. I don't recall his songs going on too long and, even though he was probably focusing on new songs, they definitely weren't mid-tempo since I was boogeying on a pew the entire time (I saw the concert at The Ryman).
Diagnosis: Strong, but suffers from one of the worst symptoms of Old Banditis, forgetting your old material.
The Rolling StonesThe greatest rock and roll band on Earth is how they are described and, even from nose bleed seats in an arena, I felt it. The band plowed through their old hits and, since I saw them while supporting their greatest hits collection, they only bored the audience with one of the new songs from that set. The best part of the night had to have been when the band performed on a super small stage (15 x 15, at most) in the middle of the floor seats, right in the center of their crazy, baby booming fans. Mick even had a clothing rack on stage for which to change clothes as he saw fit. Actually, the entire band had many clothing changes, except for Charlie Watts who decided that throwing on a jacket was enough of a change. Still, as entertaining and marvelous as the show was, every single song became an epic; Honky Tonk women fighting in the streets, with devils and dice, solo after solo. Seriously, "Brown Sugar" is not "Stairway To Heaven." And thank God, to get a personal note in there about Lez Zeppelin.
Diagnosis: Ailing from Old Banditis, but gosh darnit their charisma fools everyone.
TelevisionOh me oh my. I saw Television, legendary and highly influential punk band that paved the way for The Ramones, Blondie, etc., perform their last concert this past Saturday. All of them were dressed pretty dad-like, which is almost embarrassing considering the other three old bands I've seen went out of their way to just look extra special. But Richard Lloyd's replacement was wearing quite possibly the tightest jeans I've ever seen, adding an extra touch of embarrassment and, well, a big touch of something else. Ugh. The band is known for their, really, one and only album: Marquee Moon. The album is a classic, widely regarded as one of the finest ever made, and the band only sells t-shirts that have the album's title on them. Why the band then decided to only play 2 songs from that album, I'll never know. The grand total of songs I knew came down to 3, which is pretty ridiculous for a band that only has 3 albums and played a full set. The band instead concentrated on, yes, newer, mid-tempo, preachy rock, every one of those songs stretching out to over ten minutes. So, wow. That's all four bases covered. And I was disappointed. The feeling that came over the crowd when they played "Venus" third (third) was so amazing, I wish I could have felt that more.
Diagnosis: Straight up dead from Old Banditis.
So, be careful out there, oldies fans.
1 comment:
I saw a picture of That Guy from Dinosaur, Jr the other day and he was looking ROUGH. He's probably twenty years younger than Ray Davies but looks just as old. Lucky for me, I never liked that band.
Solid list.
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