Now THAT was confusing.

For those of you lamenting the end of personalization, the end of human contact, let me suggest you go to the live gig.  Then again, the hoi polloi now think a live gig is some spectacular where people ready for embalmment trot out replicas of their hits to tape, with a backup keyboard player to hit the high notes.

Then again, the more intimate gig lost its flavor when they took the seats out of all these clubs in the name of rock and roll, in the name of touching your partner.  I don’t know about you, but I’m not eager to have some sweaty, inebriated soul rub up against me, no matter what the sex.  I yearn for the old days.  When the venues had seats.  That you could sit in and contemplate the music, where you could RESPECT the music.  It’s no longer about the music, but the scene.  And there was no scene at last night’s Feeling gig because there was a giant disconnect.  You see the band had the illusion that L.A. was just another hamlet in the U.K., and those in attendance, other than those right down front singing along with this unreleased here band’s material, were under the illusion that this band was hip, the cutting edge, and that’s a laughable concept.

We’ve got two kinds of music in the U.S.  The disposable and the credible.  The disposable is all about looks, image, manufactured personality, the record is constructed AROUND them.  Whereas with the credible, it’s the opposite.  No one believes the disposable has any talent.  And if someone crosses the DMZ (the demilitarized zone for those not Vietnam savvy), they’re no longer seen as credible.  Now more than ever, it’s a badge of honor to like something obscure.  In an age where your personality has no purchase, you fly your freak flag high (after getting your tattoos and piercings, making you ultimately just like everybody else.)  As for crossing over from disposable to credible…presently IMPOSSIBLE!

Whereas the U.K. is different.  They don’t take music so seriously.  It’s something that’s always going to exist in this island nation.  A given like TV and milk.  It’s a staple, not a religion.  Hell, most of those hard rock English bands revered here?  They oftentimes don’t/didn’t mean shit in their mother country.  Up until recently there were weekly music papers, advancing this or that act, and then cutting them down seemingly minutes later.  It’s a giant game.  Kind of like their football.  An addiction.

And this addiction encompasses all kinds of genres.  All umbrellaed under one radio station, a handful no matter how you slice it.  Everybody’s in it together in the U.K.  Whereas in the U.S. we’re as spread out intellectually as we are physically.

So, if you want to be credible in the U.S., at this point, you chart your lineage back to the Ramones, and then along the continuum through Nirvana.  It’s about what’s in your head, your ATTITUDE, not your skill.  Oh, there’s the hippie/jam band circuit.  But it’s important in that world to never do ANYTHING catchy, for fear of having a hit and losing you audience.  Sure, Dave Matthews broke this rule, but no one else has.  Do you see Jon Popper/Blues Traveler doing a lot of business today?  Never mind the Spin Doctors, seen as a joke by the scene.  Their crime?  Too much success too fast in the MAINSTREAM!

As for the disposable…  The whole era of the sixties.  When a faceless band like the Association could have monster hit singles that everybody loved…  Or Bread.  They don’t exist.  Oh, we had Matchbox Twenty for a while, but if they went on the road today, they’d be lucky to sell out theatres.

But everybody’s in it together in the U.K.

One rule of the U.S. disposable…  You CAN’T have talent.  And if you can sing, you can’t write, and certainly can’t play.  You’ve got to be lacking.  But what if you’re not?

We had the boy bands.  And they made some damn good music.  Just listen to the Backstreet Boys’ "Millennium".  It even rocks.  It’s meaningless, but ear-pleasing.  But unacceptable to the cognoscenti.  Whereas as soon as Justin Timberlake starts acting black and signs up with the producer du jour, HE’S credible.  Confused yet?  I certainly am.

All this is a lead-up to the point that the Feeling can not only sing, but PLAY!  And certainly at least co-wrote the tunes.  Which have hooks.  We’re not PREPARED for this in the U.S.

Oh, there were cute boys in the band.  The lead singer looked like a younger Tom Cruise.  And he not only played his Les Paul, he hit every note.  But he thought he was in a cabaret in the U.K.  He connected with the audience not a bit.  You’d have thought it was a TV show, for the cameras only.  But there was no transmission, this was it.

The little he spoke to the audience exhibited no identity, and no connection.  It’s great to be here!  Cheers!  Come see us again!  What did he think, he was the Beatles in ’64?  And it’s not like he was nervous.  He was totally calm.  The disconnect was palpable.

As was the constant din of the L.A. crowd there to be impressed and not.

The Feeling belonged at the Key Club about as much as I belong at a black tie dinner.  They needed to be at a sit-down club.  But those don’t exist.

And their record not being released yet, maybe just available on iTunes (released as an EP sans their great "Never Be Lonely" on 10/3), their target audience is not in attendance, only hipsters, checking out the next big thing.

And in a modern era where you can hear four songs on MySpace, the label’s not releasing the full-length until March in the U.S.  Talk about a lack of spontaneity.  What, they’re gonna build it on the road and then wait until after the Christmas rush to appeal to youngsters who are going to forget this band after they have one or two hits?

But there’s a din.  You can’t get noticed.  You have to line up your marketing.

Then again, the only way to counteract this is to be credible, and right down to their English everyday clothing, these guys weren’t credible.  They were a curio.

And the sound was too loud.  Because, after all, this is rock and roll, and a club, that’s the rule, right?  Win through assault, subtlety is for pussies.

And the second-rate material, and there’s a bunch of it on "Twelve Stops And Home", was boring, and made you want to go home.  I mean if the guy bonded with us, created some intimacy, and then played the songs in an intimate way, but there was no intimacy here at all.

They didn’t start with it, but soon in the set they played "Never Be Lonely".  I’d like to tell you I was filled with testosterone, thrusting my arms in the air, but it was creepy.  Like sitting in on something fake.  A band doing a facsimile of their big hit, losing all charisma in the process.  "Never Be Lonely" is a record.  And when played live, it lost all its magic.

The magic of 10cc was they were in on it with us.  Poking fun at the mainstream by playing with the form.  Whereas the Feeling seemed to believe in their faux performance, and reminded we Angelenos of every fake act that ever made it over there and never crossed over here.  Not only the Stock/Aitken/Waterman acts like Rick Astley, but Robbie Williams too.  These acts just make us feel superior.

Then again, unlike our hit acts, these acts are polished, and in some cases talented.  So when the Feeling played "Sewn" it wasn’t quite a tour-de-force, but one could believe in a way one never does when they see Justin, Beyonce and just about everybody on the American hit parade.

How long did these guys rehearse?  How did they get so GOOD!  They’re not supposed to be good.  That’s for long-haired guys who practiced guitar in their bedrooms and never got a date during high school.

I came alive.  My body started to move.  I started singing along involuntarily.  I didn’t want the song to end.

And it didn’t.  The guitars soared.  Every vocal note was hit.  You wanted everyone to share in the joy.

But then the act went back to cabaret mode.

It cannot be illegal to make hit music.  Good vocals singing memorable songs.  With great melodic changes.  No, I’m not talking about those beat hits we have today.  Something more akin to the Backstreet Boys.  Who were NOT like New Kids On The Block.  Both might have been manufactured, but the latter’s material sucked.  I dare you to sing ONE NKOTB song.  Whereas I can sing "Quit Playing Games (With My Heart)" and "I Want It That Way" right now.

But the Backstreet Boys couldn’t and still can’t play.  And the big hits were written by middle-aged men across the pond, WAY across the pond.  Isn’t there an INHERENT credibility in being able to write, sing and play your own memorable tunes?

I guess not.  That’s not an open avenue in the U.S.

In the U.K., it’s a viable option.  But the issue of credibility doesn’t weigh so heavily there.

"Never Be Lonely" and "Sewn" are hits in anybody’s book.  Will they make it on Top Forty radio here?  I doubt it.  And if they do, the Feeling will be seen as empty as Jessica Simpson and the other airheads.

We loved not only 10cc, but Stories and so many other bands that made/played melodic rock.  Hell, what about Badfinger?  Hell, what about the BEATLES!

If the Beatles were debuting in America today, they’d be seen as a joke.

Then again, if they were playing the Key Club, they would have demonstrated some personality, some cheekiness, an identity/loop for us to grab our velcro hooks onto.  Whereas the Feeling slid right off of us.

Some magic music.  It’s right there in the record/disc/MP3.  Hear it twice and you not only want to hear it more, you find yourself singing the tunes all through the day, and wake up with them on your lips.  Can you say the same about what is paraded as credible in the U.S?