Over the weekend, I was talking to someone who for some unfathomable reason went along to Mt Smart last week and stood in front of Bono for three hours. And then they asked me why I didn't.
I commented that apart from not liking anything they've ever recorded, if I wanted to be harangued by the sort of patronising smugness that sounds like the product of reading too many greeting cards, I'd much prefer to go along and see the Dalai Lama, thanks very much.
At which point another friend suggested I might like comedian Bill Bailey's pisstake of U2 guitarist Dave Evans. And he's right. I did. And you might too.
Looks like Dave liked it.
8 comments:
U2 are indeed the 'musical' equivalent of soccer: pretending and dull. I saw them with BB King in the early 90's (or there abouts)King was the show in spite of being constantly harrassed by Boner, and a force 500 mile an hour Athletic Park breeze.
(Disclaimer) I went cause of a chick who liked U2...
That was a brilliant performance (from the singer herself to all the band members - drummer, bass/lead guitars, keyboardist, synthesizer, sax, etc...). Also an excellent performance on the Cuban percussion and of course the voice of the singer including the rhythm & beat. Whenever the Glamorous Life is played & wherever I'm @ that specific moment, I just can't sit still. Whenever I come across U2's music being played (somewhere/anywhere), I usually fell asleep or wanted to lie down, since it is quite boring to listen to.
In 2004, I went to Sheila E’s concert when she came to Auckland. She was brilliant in both playing the Cuban timbales & the drums. Although she didn't do the hip-hop moves as she used to do in the 80s (considering her age now), Sheila E touched & still hit the percussion like she was God.
[First part of my message above which I forgot to paste it on top]
I agree there RW, U2's music is dull. I can't dance to their music since it has no hip-hop beat, unless I want to dance in an idiotic manner like this one.
Anyway, the following 80s classic is what I called real dance-music.
Glamorous Life
The Cuban percussion that Sheila E is playing on that glamorous life YouTube vid is called timbales similar to this one.
Any U2 fan here who went to their concert and don't fall asleep in songs like this Melbourne live performance, must be on drugs, because to be honest, it is unbelievable that anyone would have gone to that concert and not fall asleep in such below average singing and performance.
Where is the performance? None whatsoever. U2 were just practicing on stage as if they were practicing in their own studio. But, people pay top dollars to go see them (not) performing on stage. Yep, Bono was just standing there like a statue and he hardly moved around. The sponsors should have told the fans to take blankets & pillows because U2 is performing lullaby music.
The more of us that stand up and clearly say "U2 suck!" the more the silent majority are prepared to admit they agree...
Hip hop isn't for white people Falafulu, that's why we invented Rock music and Metallica, by the way, were f-ing fantastic at Vector the other month.
Put-up Bill Bailey taking the piss out of Billy Bragg with 'Unisex Chipshop'. It's a bloody classic.
James Stephenson said...
Hip hop isn't for white people Falafulu, that's why we invented Rock music and Metallica...
James hip-hop is just a generalization which applies to any music with a beat that is danceable with a pattern, whether it is black or white music, its just happened that it is mostly black-type beat that's danceable. I like rockers such as Rolling Stones/Mick Jagger, Elvis, Beatles, and others. You feel that you an move to their songs not in random manner but in a pattern.
U2's music is nothing of the sort. It is one dimensional, the guitars sound the same for all their songs. Believe me, if you look at the signal spectrum decompositions of say 10 unknown songs where 3 of those were from U2 and 7 unknown artists, I bet that you can visually tell from the spectrum chart (or on screen) which 3 are from U2, without even hearing those 10 songs in audio. I reckon that if my family played U2's music @ my dad's funeral (instead of hymns), the mourners wouldn't noticed. They probably thought, what a nice funeral songs.
Anyway, here is one of my favorite 70s white rockers.
Freedom come, freedom go by Fortunes.
Even with a classic rock song such as above, you can still do the hip-hop with the beat. None of U2's songs has any beat that is close to the Freedom come, freedom go song to be danceable.
Post a Comment