Category: Music

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While the stage hands were setting up for the Alanis Morissette concert last night, we noticed a sign on the stage that looked like this:

Caution: Trip Hazard

As far back as we were sitting, we couldn’t read the words, (although “Caution” was obvious, and since it was next to a bundle of cables and showed an off-balance stick figure, the meaning was clear) but it stayed up during the show, and eventually the cameras caught it in the background, and we could read it.

At that point, or possibly after the end of the song, I leaned over to Katie and remarked, “You know, ‘Trip Hazard’ sounds like a good name for a band. Or maybe an action hero.” She replied: “Can you imagine Trip from Enterprise in a superhero costume?”

And there was much laughter.

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The Orange County Fair usually has some pretty good concerts lined up. Last year, they were all free with admission, but this year, they opened up a separate venue and kicked up the price. Tonight it was Joan Osborne and Melissa Etheridge, which was a very cool concert. The volume got turned up too high too fast, but each of them put on a good show. I have to say, Melissa Etheridge has the most expressive face I’ve seen on a vocal performer in a while. They had two huge HDTV screens showing whatever the cameraguy of the moment was focusing on, and when it was on her, she could get a round of screaming out of the audience with just one note and an eyebrow. This concert made me sorry I didn’t pick up any more of her CDs during the big Wherehouse closeout a few months ago. Ah well, there are sales ahead….

The title of the post, by the way, is a misheard lyric from “I Wanna Come Over;” the real line is “To hell with the consequence.” We ran into another opportunity for humor during “Bring Me Some Water” when Kelson pointed out that not only did she already have a bottle of water, but someone had put it in a little holder on the mic stand–which was visible on the video screen. Of course, my brain started writing alternate lyrics. (Apologies to all necessary parties, including those of you who don’t know the song.)

*****

Somebody brought you some water
Can’t you see it’s there on your stand
You took it off the stage, right there at the front corner
A minute ago, with your hot little hand

Somebody brought you some water
Think I saw you sippin’ before
The music’s got my mind, and the music’s got my soul
But tonight I think logic, I think logic’s out that door

*****

Side note: They have some damn yummy fruit at the Terri’s Berries booth right by the theater. Must remember this for the Alanis Morissette concert in two weeks.

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I used to like choir. Once upon a time, it was fun and entertaining and I enjoyed going. That time is not now.

For the first part of this semester, we were hammering away at Mozart’s Mass in C Minor, so that 9 of us could go sing it in Hawaii. And while that was all fun and shiny, the fact that we still had a little more than a month of class left was problematic. Our director does have a point that the choir needs to be visible and give more concerts so that we get some of the precious little money to be had around the community-college scene. However, the way she’s decided to be visible is really getting some of us steamed.

Simply put, the music she’s having us do is CRAP. We got ELEVEN new pieces the practice after the Mozart concert, and fully half of them are the type that need twice the time we’ve got and half the accompanying repertoire. Since then, we’ve received two more pieces, one of which was a shock because I actually knew it and the other of which was a shock because it was actually pretty. That brings the total of good songs to what, four? Not counting the piece she hand-picked a group to do and ended up with me anyway when one of them walked. (I’m still snickering about that one.) Add to this the fact that we have yet to hear most of these all the way through and correct. How are we supposed to work toward doing these songs well if we don’t know what they’re supposed to sound like?

Two things I don’t think she realizes:

1. We have lives. We have jobs. We have commitments that are not choir and that, frankly, come first. And when we have a goal of six hours of practice outside of class set for us by someone who is demonstrating that she doesn’t give a shit about our lives, those of us who can’t meet it aren’t going to bother trying.

2. People all around the world are more likely to do a thing when they enjoy it. And for adults to be told, in relation to an activity they ostensibly do for recreation, that they must do it a certain way whether they like it or not is NOT conducive to cooperation or to adaptation.

What I’m really hoping for is that when everybody’s gotten there tomorrow night, she asks if we’ve practiced the six hours and dismisses everybody who admits to not having done it. And if that happens, what I hope is that over half the choir is dismissed and that it’s the good half.

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A few weeks ago I purchased Precious Things: The String Quartet Tribute to Tori Amos from Amazon. I was looking through my recommendations tonight and started finding all these string renditions of popular music, including…

The String Tribute to Nirvana.

This had me laughing, but then I looked further down on the page:

Buy this album with String Quartet Tribute Nine Inch Nails ~ Various Artists today!

WTF?!? Nine Inch Nails string tribute?
Hmm… I wonder if anyone has done a string album for The Who.

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I had a slightly jarring experience on my way back from lunch today which provides a perfect introduction to something I had already planned on writing. I absent-mindedly tuned my car radio to a station that until this week had been an English-language rock station and was briefly surprised to hear a commercial in Spanish. I then tuned to a Spanish-language rock station, and was surprised to hear a song in English. (It was by Shakira, who usually sings in Spanish – and IMO, her Spanish work has been considerably better than the English songs she’s released so far.)

This week’s passing of Cool 94.3 marks the fourth time in just three years that I’ve lost a station from my radio presets. It’s becoming harder and harder to turn on the radio and hear music I like without sitting through too much that I don’t.

Musically I’m down to Star 98.7, which suffers from the binge-and-purge method of playlist scheduling (play the hell out of a song until the audience is sick of it) and an increasing shift toward personalities over music. I can’t hear any music during my morning commute because they run the extremely annoying Jamie and Danny show, and during my evening commute Ryan Seacrest spends more time talking than playing music. To make matters worse, Continue reading →

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Driving back from the Tori concert, fortified with Frappuccinos, we were trying to figure out the distribution of songs per album. Kelson commented that there were several from singles, and that she could probably release an album of just B-sides and have it sell well, which prompted us to start naming all the B-sides we could. At one point we were stuck, and then we came up with her version of “Smells Like Teen Spirit.” I started singing the chorus, Tori-style, and a few seconds after I stopped, Kelson said, “You know, it just proves how out of it I am……right after you started, I was about to try to turn up the volume.”

I definitely need to sing more.

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Tori Amos concert last night – second in two weeks at the same theater. It was interesting to compare the differences in the two shows. Security, for instance: at the Counting Crows show, security consisted of shining a flashlight into people’s purses and bags as they walked in. At the Tori show, everyone also had to walk through metal detectors. (As Katie pointed out, Adam Duritz probably hasn’t had problems with stalkers.) Another change was that the Tori concert had video screens to zoom in. The most interesting difference was that last week’s not-quite-a-mosh-pit up front was filled with rows of seats.

It was a very good concert, even if the sound balance made it hard to understand the already difficult-to-hear lyrics (although this has been true of just about every concert I’ve ever attended, with the exception of Weird Al at the Greek Theater). She was set up in the center stage with a grand piano on one side and an organ on the other, close enough that she could just sit on one bench and turn around to switch quickly – something she did on several songs. On a few of them, she actually would play the organ and piano simultaneously, one hand on each! Behind her and to each side were her guitarist and drummer.

She had a good mix of songs from Continue reading →