The Good, The Bad, and The Pre-school Magician (Click for Video)
March 19th, 2007 posted by robb
The Good, The Bad and The Queen
Mod Club – 03.11.07
Rating: 7/10
Last Sunday was a night of anticipation for all Blur/Gorillaz, Verve, Clash and Fela fans alike. Given the odd falling of The Good The Bad and The Queen’s North American debut on a Sunday, it was interesting to see a packed audience at the Kool Haus on a cold night. For people like myself, excitement filled the air even as the show began with an extended vaudeville magician opening act. Yelps of “you suck,’ and ‘start the show already’ spewed from the crowd as the magician successfully bored the crowd with childish mind-tricks. The brainchild of Albarn? Most definitely.
Although each song sounded great, they would build up to the point where something had to happen, and never did (a lot like the album). This left the crowd frustrated, even though each song was accompanied by a hefty applause afterwards. Songs like “Herculean” and “The Good the Bad and the Queen” were definitely the stand out tracks; Albarn manned the grand piano at the center of the stage and commanded the audience while conducting the band of Simonon, Tong, and Allen. The banter with the audience was limited between songs, once where Albarn wanted to tell a story about his real, legitimate top-hat, but instead fell asleep at the wheel as hundreds of fans were left disappointed.
The lack of energy and excitement of an otherwise good performance was a let down, since they were the newest ‘Supergroup’ to hit the buzz charts. As for Paul Simonon, it looked like he was just waiting to rock out like the old days with the Clash. Unfortunately for him, Albarn’s strange brew of songwriting for this particular album prevented the rest of the band from doing what they do best; play as great musicians.
The show came to an abrupt end at 11:20, where they came back on stage and performed a b-side from the album that sounded like they’d never played the song live before. Too bad. Although it was nice to finally see Albarn “do his thing”, the music from this particular album left me wondering why such a great line up of musicians left us with such an unimpressive performance. My heart was broken. But maybe it’s just a case of the band members being too old to perform that way anymore, although Mr. Simonon still showed some signs of life. 7/10 is being generous, but I love these guys too much for what they’ve done on their own to give the show any lower of a rating.
REVIEWED BY: CRAIG HILL
Section: Uncategorized
6 Comments Add your own
1. Phil | March 24th, 2007 at 5:31 pm
Ouch
2. james | March 25th, 2007 at 11:39 am
Although I wasn’t at this show, and judging by these comments that certainly seems to be my own fortune, I’d like to say at least one thing viz. the Magician. It has been mentioned the act was rather pedestrian but I must confess at least some enthusiasm.
I feel I should at least always give “props” to acts that attempt to expand what has become the largely mundane modern concert “format”. By this I mean shows that utliize rudimentary lighting schemes, little-to-no theatrics or crowd interaction, and amount to nothing more than listening to an album under subpar acoustic conditions (let’s face it – most venues).
I for one miss the flamethrower and confetti cannons, which are only now sadly the domain of bands like Nickelback and even more sadly make the aborted Chinese Democracy tour I saw a four years ago one of the best shows I’d seen in years. I should mention that show also included a perplexing and completely umotivated nunchaku exhibition in lieu of the usual guitar solo (Slash eat your heart out).
The point being as ludicrous as it was, it certainly was entertaining even in its absurdity and has provided more memories and conversation fodder than three quarters of the concerts I’ve seen since!
Long live absurd concert theatrics!
J.
3. Robb | March 26th, 2007 at 9:50 pm
Concert theatrics are great, but even if there is little talent, you need to have enthusiasm. Take the Scissor Sisters show a few weeks ago. They had so much endless energy and enthusiasm coupled with their on-stage theatrics that we didn’t care that frontman Shears did more running like a jackrabbit on E than actually singing. We didn’t care b/c they were having a great time and entertaining us with their music and over-the-top absurd theatrics – In the middle of the set they pulled out a bazooka and shot bras into the crowd. How could you not go radio ga-ga over that?
It sounds that this show, however, was built on its grandious egos than acutal music merit, nor any enthusiasm for that matter. If they don’t want to be there, why should the audience want to be there? At least they get free beer; the crowd gets a bloody pre-school magician pulling rabbits out of hats.
-Robb
:eat drink and be merry:
4. Robb | March 19th, 2007 at 10:43 pm
You're too kind my man – ya could've given them a pitchfork 4.3 or something, but you were easy on 'em! Sounds like they used the Toronto show as a warm up for the bigger US shows in store for them.
As for having a cheesy clown? That's just ridiculous – at least put on a cool magician that does funky tricks, not some sideshow Bob… although sounds like Krusty's crew would've done a better job than this chap!
-Robb
:eat drink and be merry:
5. Phil | March 21st, 2007 at 6:36 pm
I don’t know how anything Damon touches can be less than a 10/10.
6. Jared | March 24th, 2007 at 12:30 pm
Craig, allow me to demur.
I was not expecting music from the Clash, the Verve, Fela Kuti and knowing Albarn was especially not expecting music from Blur. These four are all great musicians, and Albarn and Simonon specifically I have a special place for. What I WAS expecting was that these four musicians would play their album with some enthusiasm. What the concert turned out to be, instead, was bad music played badly. There’s no other way to put it.
The concert last maybe 70 minutes and this was both a blessing and a curse; a blessing because the shit music ended early and a curse because i realized that i’d paid 40 dollars to hear an album that I could listen to for free. THe music built and then fizzled away into nothingness. The only one who was awake was Simonon, who was unfortunately given so little to do that he probably could’ve taken a puff of his cig between each note he had to play.
With that idiot magician opening, it all added up to be probably the biggest letdown of a concert I think i’ve ever seen. It’s time to get off of our knees and stop sucking Albarn’s cock everytime he writes a song. HERE he failed. Maybe if someone was kind enough to tell him he’d to something better next time out.
I’ll give it a 2.
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