Monthly Archive for February, 2002

Ok, so con­trary to what you may be think­ing from my cam pic­ture, we weren’t actu­ally drunk at that point. The pre-​party was a bust because megger totally bailed and ben & jenna were both sep­a­rately late coming over. Oh well. that’s the last time I put up fes­tive pre-​party poster decorations.

The Goril­laz show itself was incred­i­bly good – the band played behind a pro­jec­tor screen, on which they pro­jected jamie hewett’s ani­ma­tions. I think most people were expect­ing to see the inner-​workings of the band from time to time, but they didn’t get their wish. You could def­i­nitely see damon albarn bounc­ing up and down as he sung, and I think I could make out a guitar player and drum set, but for the most part it was mys­tery, smoke and mirrors.

Because, we were stand­ing to the left of the pro­jec­tors, we could see how they put it all together from a tech­ni­cal point of view. Pres­ley got a set list from the guy who kept feed­ing Beta tapes into VCRs. Also, the sound board had a little tv screen that showed the per­for­mance back­stage – prob­a­bly because the sound-​guy was trying to do his job blind. So we did see a bit more of the band than most people.

I don’t know what hap­pened at Toronto – there are neg­a­tive reviews left and right. Rolling Stone appar­ently hasn’t read it’s own inter­views with Goril­laz, or else they would have real­ized that the whole point of the band is that the char­ac­ters are the group. Don’t expect a blur show. The Toronto Star gets it – they just didn’t like it. There are snide shots every­where – the show, the album, the phenomenon… All I can tell you, Toronto, is that Boston had fun.

Mean­while, why are the main­stream media still feed­ing on this? I totally agree with what Bono is doing, but this is an old story, and it’s making him into some kind of demi-​god. There will be a time cover story this time next year probably.

Tomorrow, Goril­laz rolls into the Avalon, and I have absolutely NO idea what to expect. From the Globe article:

Thirty of the col­lab­o­ra­tors – tech people, light­ing folks, musi­cians – will be on this tour, with, prob­a­bly, five or six humans taking the stage at Avalon. (Even the pub­li­cist at the group’s record com­pany, Virgin, doesn’t know exactly who will be there.)

So vote in my Goril­laz poll – 

I’ve got 4 tick­ets for the Belle and Sebas­t­ian show at the Orpheum in May. It’s so amaz­ing that they are coming back to the States, cos they really hate tour­ing. I saw them with Jason and Irene at the Morse Audi­to­rium in Octo­ber of 98, and it was one of the best con­certs i’ve ever been to.

(Ok, sorry. That was a bit much. He is my favorite Beatle) BUT, after the weird cir­cum­stances sur­round­ing Linda’s death, I was sur­prised to hear that George Har­ri­son died at Paul’s house in Los Ange­les. kind of.