Recently a friend and I attended the Spoon concert at Radio City Music Hall, a show I enjoyed but my friend did not, which, of course, led to a discussion of what we did and did not like about the performance. This conversation, in turn, led me to devote even more time to the contemplation of the aesthetics of live Rock music.
Setting aside the obvious—everyone can agree that an enjoyable show will have good sound quality, will be skillfully performed, and so on—a band and the audience will often have differing expectations for a show. Yes, at the most basic level an artist wants to produce, and the audience wants to witness, a quality performance, but to each party, ‘quality’ is defined by different characteristics just, as seen in the previous paragraph, the definition will vary from person to person: some want only to hear the hits, some want to hear the musicians expand and improvise, others only want to get drunk and dance around awkwardly. The same is true for bands: some perform only hits (like The Rolling Stones), some expand and improvise (The Mars Volta), and some only get drunk (Modest Mouse). Then there are bands that simply perform solidly every time out, like Dead Heart Bloom. (Yes, I added the previous sentence to gratuitously plug my friend’s band, whose website can be reached here)
I enjoyed Spoon because their performance aligned with my preferences for what a concert should be, which I can best define by contrasting Spoon with their opening band, Deerhunter, who, with little stage presence, delivered a set of sound-alike songs built from droning guitar effects, monotonous beats, and indistinguishable lyrics. Spoon, on the other hand, showing no drop off in the quality of their live performance as compared to their albums, moved effortlessly through a set that ranged from acoustic to electric to effects and synthesizer driven songs. Without gimmicks and without histrionics, they simply played with the confidence of a group of solid musicians with twenty years experience.
That’s right twenty years. I was stunned when I learned that a band I’d only become aware of in the last few years had been around for so long, but this fact also makes a lot of sense. Spoon is an old school Rock and Roll band, who worked their way up like bands did in the Sixties: touring and playing small clubs for years while perfecting their sound. Of course, this is not how things are done anymore. A decade ago The Strokes received a massive recording contract only a few years after their first live performance. Now, a band can record a song as soon as they finish writing it, and then sell the recording on the Internet.
“But, Black Beard, isn’t this the ideal?” you ask. “Didn’t you write just a few months ago that the direct distribution the iPad and other digital readers would offer writers was a good thing?”
Well, yes, I did write that, but consider this: in 1996 the literary magazine Granta released their list of the best American writers under the age of 35, which is like the Democrat or Republican party releasing a list of the most likely future presidential candidates under the age of 25: one or two may pan out, but the majority you’ll never hear from again. I believe what Ha Jin—who didn’t even begin writing fiction in English until he was in his thirties—once told me, which is that a writer doesn’t reach the peak of his ability until he is middle-aged. In other words, your first record/book/whatever matters a lot less than your fifth or six.
