Stars @ The Town Hall
Stars, originally uploaded by racreations.
Not the best quality video, but I decided to put this up anyway. Ehh.. blame it on my camera, my seat, but mainly my untimely ticket purchase which resulted in this last-row corner seat view. Such a slacker I am… I also meant to write this a long time ago but just kept putting things aside.
This was from October of this year (2007). At that time, I wasn’t fully aware of the popularity of this band. This show sold out quickly, and I almost didn’t make it because I waited too long before I purchased the ticket. It was a very good show. I think this band usually stays under the radar but when they are on the road, they always draw a huge fan-base.
I love this band. I’ve always been fascinated by the pop songs – the way they are structured and delievered are something I really wish to understand and learn. This is a fully-capable, 5 piece (6 during live performances as you see in the picture above) band of really talented musicians and songwriters who make good pop songs for a change. They offer songs after songs with such catchy and smooth parts that seem effortless at first, but I always realize how complex they actually are when I listen to them closely more than a few times or see them played live. From alternating male-female vocals to multi-timbral choruses, this band delievers so many elements that are missing in today’s pop music.
I feel that I can learn a thing or two from this band even outside the music universe. One is that if you focus on your core business, the rest will eventually take care of themselves. For example, this band’s core business is making good music which they are so focused on and devoted for. Hence the rest, such as ticket sales take care of themselves without much promotional wastes.
Another thing is that, honesty still counts in today’s bureaucratic and often religious society. I was reminded of this when Amy [Millan] stopped during one song (which I can’t remember the title now) and asked the band to start over. Her argument was that the song just didn’t sound right after about 30 seconds into it. I couldn’t really figure out what was wrong because I wasn’t getting the best sound from where my seat was. Amy however, hinted that some fans in front had that certain “this sounds totally weird” looks which the fans admitted when asked. So she convinced the band to start the song over.
At first, I think a lot of people felt confused and started to wonder if she was just trying to be difficult or something. But when she explained that it was actually the first time they were ever playing that particular song live and apologized by saying that it was her fault, people responded with a big cheer (and even bigger cheer after they finished the song again). I think people cheered because the band made it clear that they were there to play, and play it right for the fans above all reasons. This really made me feel hopeful and believe that [at least some parts of] our society is still descent enough to treat honesty as an integral part of humanity.
I think many societies have become so bureaucratic and religious that we have trained ourselves to deny any kind of mistake without proper reasoning. I think a lot of us try to avoid any kind of accusation by simply dismissing any kind of mistake even though we know for a fact that we fucked up. I’m not saying that it is ok to fuck up here: what I’m saying is that we are after all human beings and we can make honest mistakes. I mean, fucking up sure isn’t a good thing but even worse than that would be falsely denying the fuck up. Why? Because that’s when you make the same mistakes over and over again with no progress at all, which is common with a lot of people who abuse ideological powers in politics and religions.
So I apologize for rambling so much.. after all, I’m a human being. It is my fault, and I’ll try to fix it unless you actually enjoy my rambling. Well, to be honest, I don’t really care because… who the hell is reading my stuff anyway??? There, I was just being completely honest. Can I get a big cheer now? Oh wait, right… nobody’s reading this. Goddammit.
