RTP-area local music and culture

[grady <grady AT ibiblio.org>]

Yawn. Look, it's another old fogey complaining about Twitter (and look, 
how cute, he's misusing the word "twat" to be funny. You make that up 
all by yourself?). One is left to wonder: how does he know about these 
dozens upon dozens of tweets if he hasn't been using Twitter himself to 
keep up?

I haven't written a "decent show review" in probably a decade, if not 
longer (some folks would argue "never"), and I honestly have very little 
interest in doing so in the future. Show reviews don't benefit anybody 
other than those folks who didn't go to the show, and I don't 
particularly feel any sense of obligation to them.

(I *do* try to remember stuff I've seen/heard for later, when I write a 
preview the next time the band comes through town. Those have actual 
utility, unless the show is sold out weeks in advance)

In most cases, "show reviews" are like one part actual rundown of the 
show, and then maybe 2-3 parts cultural commentary about the band(s) and 
etc. And what with all the coverage of Merge & this festival, I think 
we've had quite enough cultural commentary on this one.

Which leaves the rundown part. How much detail do you want? If you're 
looking for visual descriptions, you can hit flickr and search on 
xxmerge and I'm guessing you'll find a few hundred close-up photos of 
every freaking moment. If you want video, youtube is probably already 
packed, and if not, they were shooting 5 cameras worth of (720p) Hi-Def. 
There *will* be video of this at some point.

If you're old-fashioned and you want it in words, I'd argue that reading 
*good* tweets by a group of people who actually put some thought into 
them will give you a pretty good picture of what happened, and from a 
wider set of perspectives than just one.

I mean, what more is there to say other than "the following bands 
played, in the following order. Some of them clearly hadn't played in 
10+ years, but it was a party atmosphere & nobody seemed to mind the 
clams all that much. Some others were much more on top of their game, 
and they played really well, to a room full of people who seemed 
dead-set on adoring them even if they'd never heard them before that 
night, which is perhaps what happens when you pay 150 fucking dollars to 
go to a show"?

In any case, I think it's a safe bet that bloggers (you've heard of 
them, right Todd?) like Grayson, and the Triangle Music people, and 
probably a few dozen whom I don't even know, will provide way more 
postgame analysis than you would've gotten even 5 years ago. I know I 
saw multiple people scribbling feverishly in notepads.

If, you know, that's your thing.

xoxo

Ross

p.s. good luck on the miracle ticket thing. They told passholders to get 
inside by 10 or risk having their spots given away to walk-ups, so if 
nothing else, you might be able to get inside at or after 10.

Todd Morman wrote:
> The worst thing about Twitter is that it's robbing us decent show reviews by 
> folks like Ross. Instead we get dozens upon dozens of twats about Stephen 
> Merritt and that moth. Jesus, people, your children are going to laugh at 
> the idiocy of that 140-character limit.
>
> Anyway, due to an unforseeen and happy concatenation of events, there's a 
> great chance I'm going to be at the Cradle tonight. Merge XX is going to 
> give me a perfect chance to test my old standy Chapel Hill Scene Rule #283: 
> No matter how big the band, and how sold-out the show, you can *always* get 
> a ticket by standing outside the Cradle for an hour beforehand.
>
> todd fingers crossed prayer on lips morman