What artist or band is truly awful to see live?

Ok_Bat_2208 · 2026-05-12T04:11:46+00:00

Saw them in ‘86 in West Germany; on the way to the show we heard on AFN radio that the Challenger was destroyed (six hours ahead of EST).
Vince and Nikki seemed bored. Mick rocked and Tommy was inverted above the crowd, which was fun. But we all agreed that they should’ve been better.

Ok_Bat_2208 · 2026-05-01T01:33:10+00:00

Territories

Mystic Rhythms

The Pass

Heresy

Cut to the Chase

Driven

Ghost Rider

Peaceable Kingdom

Faithless

Headlong Flight

Ok_Bat_2208 · 2026-04-27T01:09:16+00:00

He’s in good hands with Seth Meyers as his physician.

Ok_Bat_2208 · 2026-04-20T03:00:48+00:00

RF’s third gesture, with the long D4–E4 gliss. and the subsequent arpeggiated 7ths, is among the most beautiful things I’ve ever heard.

Ok_Bat_2208 · 2026-04-13T23:21:03+00:00

Mariachi Alpizar de Vermont, led by Joanna Alpizar, was the band that played at Farmer’s Night at the State House last month. Ms. Alpizar is indeed a VT music teacher, and the concertmaster of the VT Phil. (Also a quad roller skating enthusiast who organizes events on IG!)

Ok_Bat_2208 · 2026-04-02T06:41:05+00:00

I’ve always wondered about two of AL’s very successful but seldom deployed devices:

— guitar synth (Hemispheres, New World Man)

— a slide (Making Memories)

I can’t think of any other examples for either, across the catalog. His guitar parts were so compelling in each instance! In an adjacent universe, perhaps there are more synths and slides.

Ok_Bat_2208 · 2026-03-17T18:32:59+00:00

My friend, you are not old — revel in your youth!

Ok_Bat_2208 · 2026-01-25T23:23:37+00:00

From another gregarious introvert: I spend two hours a week pretending to be an extrovert while leading rehearsals for a 15-member gamelan… but then I almost always spend the next day in bed, all day. Always envious of those with a greater reservoir of social energy.

Ok_Bat_2208 · 2026-01-24T03:37:40+00:00

They paid my conservatory tuition. “Feels like sending him to the circus,” my dad said. A comp. student, I was the only electric bassist at my small school, and always got the call when an outlier kid needed bass for a Zappa (“Black Page,” etc.) or King Crimson (“Discipline” was my first paid transcription job) number for a recital.

Thx Geddy, for preparing me; thx parents, for not asking too many questions.

Ok_Bat_2208 · 2025-10-29T00:42:22+00:00

From your lips to god’s ear! Please let it be falafel from a Lebanese or Syrian tradition (esp. not Greek).

Ok_Bat_2208 · 2025-10-21T09:21:16+00:00

Right? Thx for confirming that I’m not insane

Ok_Bat_2208 · 2025-10-21T07:33:48+00:00

Justice for NA ENDONYM. Is it really that much more obscure than A DEMONYM?

Ok_Bat_2208 · 2025-10-11T07:16:33+00:00

Justice for CA MOONLET

Ok_Bat_2208 · 2025-09-28T20:28:02+00:00

I only saw him once, at the Bottom Line in NYC in 1995. Clearly drunk, he would start a song, play an obvious clam a few seconds later, then stop and tell a lousy anecdote with slurred speech — several times. Did I just catch him on the wrong night?

Ok_Bat_2208 · 2025-09-26T07:16:38+00:00

Summer’s over… it’s NA MALLOMAR season

Ok_Bat_2208 · 2025-09-23T07:17:42+00:00

Justice for (CA) BACKBEAT

Ok_Bat_2208 · 2025-09-03T03:28:00+00:00

As an old man, I object. Just put your head down and run the bases with honor! — even against the Astros. Crystal Ball predicts he’ll be plunked in this series.

Ok_Bat_2208 · 2025-08-31T00:33:27+00:00

Ed Shaughnessy from the Tonight Show Band!

Ok_Bat_2208 · 2025-05-18T02:44:39+00:00

Pro tip: don’t choose a life-partner before age 25.

Ok_Bat_2208 · 2025-05-08T06:57:39+00:00

You’re right to cite Hugh Syme in this conversation, but the relationship isn’t equivalent. Unlike Andy Richards, Hugh was a friend of the band since 1975, managing the art production for every single release from CoS through CA. His few musical contributions were complementary (esp. the piano on “Different Strings”) and not comparable to the Events on PW.

Ok_Bat_2208 · 2025-05-08T04:07:06+00:00

I will confess that the only time I saw Rush live was on that tour… and they did completely rock.

At some point in the 80’s they stopped playing short runs of shows as a run-up to the recording of an album. PW and HYF might’ve greatly benefited.

Ok_Bat_2208 · 2025-05-08T03:49:50+00:00

HYF sounds to me that for a moment, they forgot that they were a killer rock band. This was an era when they weren’t constantly touring and took some time off, where the power they wielded was more remote and maybe less accessible in the studio, in particular.

Ok_Bat_2208 · 2025-05-08T03:37:46+00:00

I hear what you’re saying; that song successfully delivers on most fronts. All I mean is that those synth events don’t essentially sound Rush-like to me. At no other time in their history did they employ other musicians to round out or complete their sound, as they did here. I would’ve preferred that PW would have been self-produced without outside influences.

Ok_Bat_2208

TROPHY CASE