Friday, August 24, 2007
Soft Rock Review
Went with the double ex fiance to the Crowded House concert at the Filmore yesterday and had a really great time. I've always been a Finn Brothers fan and Crowded House at one time had both and now has just Neil Finn, the younger brother, the band's founder. They were great. Let me elucidate.
The Parthenon in Athens has little details which make it look better. The columns, for example, are slightly fatter in the middle to nullify the optical effect which makes perfectly straight columns next to each other look thinner in the middle. The base of the building bows up a little in the middle along two axes for similar reasons; and there are other architectural tricks as well.
Crowded House does a lot of little things right and has learned the tricks which makes its satisfying, but less than exciting, music sound fuller and richer. Neil Finn sings well, even without the close harmony his brother, Tim, can provide and you could hear every word, some of which are beautiful. They layer the sound well, if that's the proper description, and have at times just the right amount of echo to fill out the sound. Their instrument playing, as far as I can tell, was no better or worse than the average band, it was the words and lyrics and the musical architectural details described, poorly, above which make all the difference.
The opening act was Fountains of Wayne, of whom I have heard but never heard consciously. I thought they were pretty good, but a real fan said he thought they just mailed it in. Even if they just mailed it in, it was pretty good mail for an opening act.
Crowded House didn't play my favorite song, It's Only Natural, from Woodface but they played all the famous ones, except for Chocolate Cake (because Tammy Faye Baker, mentioned therein, died recently, I suspect). They also let the crowd sing along a lot to the famous ones and we sounded OK, I thought. They did a couple of encores including an impromptu Happy Together by the Turtles, with most of the lyrics intact. It was, I thought, an appropriate song for how I was feeling.
The Parthenon in Athens has little details which make it look better. The columns, for example, are slightly fatter in the middle to nullify the optical effect which makes perfectly straight columns next to each other look thinner in the middle. The base of the building bows up a little in the middle along two axes for similar reasons; and there are other architectural tricks as well.
Crowded House does a lot of little things right and has learned the tricks which makes its satisfying, but less than exciting, music sound fuller and richer. Neil Finn sings well, even without the close harmony his brother, Tim, can provide and you could hear every word, some of which are beautiful. They layer the sound well, if that's the proper description, and have at times just the right amount of echo to fill out the sound. Their instrument playing, as far as I can tell, was no better or worse than the average band, it was the words and lyrics and the musical architectural details described, poorly, above which make all the difference.
The opening act was Fountains of Wayne, of whom I have heard but never heard consciously. I thought they were pretty good, but a real fan said he thought they just mailed it in. Even if they just mailed it in, it was pretty good mail for an opening act.
Crowded House didn't play my favorite song, It's Only Natural, from Woodface but they played all the famous ones, except for Chocolate Cake (because Tammy Faye Baker, mentioned therein, died recently, I suspect). They also let the crowd sing along a lot to the famous ones and we sounded OK, I thought. They did a couple of encores including an impromptu Happy Together by the Turtles, with most of the lyrics intact. It was, I thought, an appropriate song for how I was feeling.
Labels: Rock and Roll
# posted by Roger Fraley @ 12:25 AM 
