i was also very much looking forward to a performance of this absolutely blisteringly vicious rachmaninov piece, and had tentatively scheduled it for the friday (the 17th), but that would have no doubt depended on a number of factors, such as the weather and the ability to schedule things before or after it. skipping this was not an option, though. this is one of the most ridiculous pieces of music ever written, in any style, ever.

there's a caveat, and that is that i tend to be disappointed by american interpretations of rachmaninov, as i tend to find that they strip the music of it's idiosyncratically dour russian existential dread, and replace it with a sort of upbeat american exceptionalism. passages that should make you want to yell, or cry, or otherwise break down into some kind of terrible fit of discomfort tend to be replaced with much lighter emotions that you're more likely to just kind of shrug off. i know that rachmaninov spent some of his life here, but i do insist that americans do not get this guy.

the pianist set to perform the piece has a russian-looking name, but who knows what i was going to get.

i discuss this a little bit more here:
https://dsdfghghfsdflgkfgkja.blogspot.com/2017/01/mar-27-2014-you-want-to-know-why-we_4.html

the above performance was the one i pulled out as most acceptable, in the end. if you've never heard this, i suggest you sit down, first.

i am not familiar with the other two pieces on the bill and haven't spent any time with them, but may do so over the next few days. neither seems to be particularly compelling on first listen, but i'll let you know if i change my mind over the next few days.

if i had gone on the friday, this show would not have been done late and i would have been close enough to the tunnel to walk, so i would have had to make that choice. was there some reason to stay later? or, might i have scheduled the show on the saturday or sunday to line up a double bill, instead? i don't see anything obvious on the friday night or the saturday night.

however, i very well might have waited until the sunday matinee, in order to attend the glitch mob show (across the street) in the evening.

this has not been rescheduled at this time, but i hope it is included in next year's program.

after his recent delves into bass music and a hundred other things all at once, the new squarepusher record seems to perhaps be a return to his classic mid 90s sound, but it also lacks a certain level of intensity, opting instead for something more palatable to a chiptune audience. i almost wonder if he's been listening to something like oxykitten, or if some of this was written with a gaming audience in mind.

it doesn't matter. i missed them when they did movement a few years ago due to the setting (way, way too many people for something like this...and you had to buy a day pass, meaning it was about $70 usd), and wasn't going to miss this. it doesn't matter if the new record sucks or not - which isn't what i'm saying. i'm not sure that this guy is really capable of producing something that is bad, even if this does feel a little stagnant.

further, it's not like he comes over here to tour every couple of months, either. when i missed both 65daysofstatic and future of the left in 2013 while i was waiting for border documents, i had the feeling that it might be the only chance i get to see either of them. and, i don't think either have come back. i was dreading as much....

so, i'm very much shattered by the cancellation of this.

but, it is being rescheduled, thankfully, for december, and we will get our adventure around it at that time.

this show was on a thursday (the 16th), and i would have come home relatively early to be sure i was able to get to the rachmaninov show the next night.

bad religion hasn't changed much over the years, so i don't see what the point of reviewing the new record is, other than to ask whether...

well, ok. maybe, that starting line gives away my bias: they went through sort of a down period when they replaced the really efficient punk drummer they had in their far too short classic period (88-90) with somebody that had a more traditional corporate rock drumming style. they then spent a really long time making records that may have made some cogent points here and there, but didn't have the aesthetic feel or sound of punk rock records and consequently lost a lot of their fan base. i don't want this to be a purity attack, i'm just trying to get the point across that i lost interest, and i know why - they embraced cock rock drumming and, with it, a more muscular style that largely just left me flat out bored.

then, a few years ago, they went back to a punk drumming style, and the whole thing was instantly salvaged - they sounded like bad religion, again. or, at least, they sounded like so many of their fans want bad religion to sound like, even if we all know that they're listening to progressive rock records on the tour bus.

that down period, which is in truth most of their career, then got thrown down the memory hole. it never happened...and bad religion haven't changed in 30 years.

so, the question is - is the new record in their classic style, or is it toying with these cock rock structures that they got into in the 90s? it's kind of in between; it's not their worst record, but it's disappointingly unpunk, after the return to form on the last one.

chances are that you're probably more into the lyrics, though - and that hasn't changed much, and really isn't worth analyzing. if you're not familiar with bad religion, you should start with suffer and carry forward with it. if you never liked graffin in the first place, you probably won't like him much, now; if you're a fan, you don't need my analysis, you can come up with your own.

nobody likes trump. i'm just not sure if i like him less than clinton or not. but, you shouldn't expect any derangement syndrome here, or any baseless or emotional attacks. this band defines itself by it's appeals to reason, evidence and logic. in some ways, i'd actually argue that this is the right way to deal with trump, and the kind of opposition i'd be more likely to be more active in. but, he maybe loses the plot, in a sense, like the best stoics did at the end of the empire - of what value is a critique rooted in reason in a post-truth paradigm?

i'd still rather vent with syllogisms than with tears or screams, but to each their own.

this is from the previous tour:

given all that would i have showed up to the show here on the 15th?

i've been through this before with this band - the ticket prices tend to be a little on the high end.

the answer is probably not, no.

this was in ann arbor on the 10th, and there's a lot of reasons to think i wouldn't have actually made it there, including the distance and the fact that i've never actually heard of them before. but, it seemed interesting enough to check out, and one of the first things i learned is that they've apparently recently opened for mike keneally, which is a choice gig for any musically abstract band to land.

after several listens, i'm remaining non-committal about it. this is fundamentally singer-songwriter music with a heavy soul influence; the abstraction exists in the arrangements, and i'm not sure it really gets to where i need it to get to.

but, i haven't been to ann arbor in a while and, if the weather was nice, i might have used it as an excuse to get out to one of those legal dispensaries - and tell a story while i'm at it.

i wish i had more time to give it a deeper listen, and may actually do so in the upcoming days. given that i knew i wasn't actually going, i didn't find myself prioritizing it....

if the idea of soul-influenced pop with classical arrangements is interesting to you, though, this would be your thing.

this show was on the third, and is a band that has played at the far bar a few times recently, in scenarios that made it hard to get to. i've tried to be constructively critical of this, because i think it's moving in the right direction, even if it's still a little too conservative for me - i'd like to see them open up a bit, and embrace a deeper level of experimentation, rather than merely seem like an experimental act on the surface.

but, this show was at the closest bar to the tunnel, so i probably would have gone...

they were on first.

i don't know how long i would have stayed for the headliner, who seem pretty boring:

this was a friday night, so i'd be stuck with a choice to find an after-party or head home early. as i'd have been so close to the tunnel, i suspect i'd have taken the early bus out, but we can't be entirely sure.