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Tonight I watched Television. Not television!

 
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jefflewis



Joined: 21 Nov 2005
Posts: 1485

PostPosted: Sun Dec 01, 2013 7:29 am    Post subject: Tonight I watched Television. Not television! Reply with quote

They were great!
It was at the new Rough Trade Shop music venue in Brooklyn, I think this was the opening weekend of the store/venue. The store didn't seem so great - just a standard selection of modern CDs and LPs, at expensive prices. But the music venue in the back of the shop is quite nice - it's 300 capacity, which is bigger than Mercury Lounge but not as big as Bowery Ballroom. I think 300 is about the same capacity as Maroquinerie in Paris or the Knitting Factory in Brooklyn. A good size - not too big, not too small - and a nice square room with a high stage and a balcony. Like a miniature version of the Bowery Ballroom.
When it was announced that Television was going to perform two nights at the opening of the shop the tickets sold out immediately, like literally immediately! My friend Jon Lewis (no relation, he's the comic book artist who does True Swamp), he's a massive Television fan, he was waiting on his computer at 10am when the tickets went on sale, and the tix were STILL sold out before he could hit the "buy" button! I thought maybe I could be the opening act for the show, since no opening act was announced... so I asked the guy I know who books those shows if I could be the opening act. He said that there was already an opening act, but he told me he'd put me on the guest list! So that was nice. My drummer Heather managed to get herself a ticket so I met her there.
I didn't even know that Richard Lloyd was no longer in Television, but Tom Verlaine and the bassist and drummer are still all the original guys. Still, I was disappointed to hear that there was a new guy replacing Richard Lloyd (since 2007 or so), since Television is a real "guitar band", and so much of their sound is all about the combination of Verlaine and Lloyd's guitars. But they were still totally great! Probably as good as ever, or better. I'd never seen them before so who knows. Lloyd's replacement is this guy named "Joey Shred" or "Jimmy Rip" or something like that, and he was really quite good. He was about the same age as the rest of the band, so it's cool he wasn't just some young dude. And he's a very serious guitar player, obviously he would have to be in order to be in Television, but he did a really good job. However, he was still a bit on the "professional" side of things, obviously a very pro guitar player, and not quite the artist that Tom Verlaine is on the instrument. Verlaine didn't play much on the first couple songs, so he gave the impression of perhaps no longer being as good a guitarist as he was in his youth in the 70s. But as the evening went on he played more and he was really phenomenal. He didn't even use any guitar pedals - like Dave of the Wave Pictures - Verlaine used just a tuner, and a tube-screamer that he kept on the whole time for his tone. Yet even without pedal sounds, he got more sounds and ideas out of his guitar than just about anybody I've ever seen play guitar. Constantly searching for interesting melodies, and even though he had a number of flubbed notes it only added to the sense that he was really engaged in guitar playing as a real art, a serious quest for new paths, new colors and shapes. He gets a lot of use out of his volume knob, fading notes in and out, wiggling the volume. There were about three songs that went something like 15-20 minutes long each, totally awesome to see these guys stretching out on those excursions. Billy Ficca, the drummer, who has also drummed for Lach, and the Waitresses, was so awesome too. So quiet and understated and interesting and crazy.
What a good show! Even without Richard Lloyd I would definitely say that Television is a must-see band. Wish I had seen them before 2007 when they still had the full original line-up, but oh well.
And Tom Verlaine's voice and attitude are still totally cool and quirky, great stage presence, strange shy guy.
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misshelenc



Joined: 23 Nov 2007
Posts: 943
Location: Cardiff, Wales, UK

PostPosted: Mon Dec 02, 2013 12:21 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I'm glad you had a nice time. i didn't know they had changed members or anything so thank you for the education.
I thought about going to see a band last night but didn't feel like it when it came to it. Tonight I watched a bit of an old Pulp gig on Sky Arts, mostly wishing I had skinny Jarvis legs. Not quite as fun or interesting. Sorry.
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vollsticks



Joined: 24 Jun 2015
Posts: 39
Location: Grimsby, UK

PostPosted: Wed Oct 14, 2015 4:12 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Wow. Lucky barstard!

"Joey Shred". Heh.

Whadda band. Have you (Jeffrey) seen that Tim Hensley comic about Paul Verlaine? It was for that Fantagraphics book of illustrated interviews, I've completely forgotten the name of it but you should be able to find the comic pretty easily. It's drawn like those old Dan DeCarlo Archie comics. "Heroin is the Mother drug" is one of the speech balloons I remember from it...I fucking love Tim Hensley's stuff.

Jeff, if somebody said to you: "you can only draw comics/ art or do music but you can't do both, if we find out you've erred from your original choice you'll be killed instantly", and you knew they had the power to back it up, lets say "GOD", then which creative pursuit would you choose? NO COP OUTS!
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