https://bit.ly/3mZnaZ5

Start at 1:33:33

I can’t believe I found this.

So I was driving over the hill, going through the SiriusXM channels over 300.

Used to be these were only internet stations, but if you’ve got a relatively new radio you can bring them in over the air in your car.

And I started with Road Trip Radio, #301, driving songs, and not all old.

And then I moved my way up to the dial to Jam On at 309 and I heard this.

Now you’ve got to know I’ve got a noisy car, but one of the best stereos extant. The best of Focal all around, an AVI subwoofer, a JL amp and an Alpine tuner. So what you’re hearing right now is not equivalent to what I heard, there’s no way to replicate the experience in front of your computer, or on earbuds, but in my car…

I’m done with politics, at least for the last week. I give up. I’m just thankful I live in blue California. It seems we’re going to go back and forth, from right to left, same as it ever was, but the parties and their beliefs are not the same as they ever were, but…this is a long explanation to tell you I haven’t been listening to news in my car, but music…well, at least when I’m not listening to Howard.

And I must admit I heard something on one of the modern stations in the 300s that appealed to me earlier in the evening, but it was this STS9, Sound Tribe Sector 9, track that appealed to me.

Used to be Jam On was further down the dial, but now that station is called “Phish Radio,” and people bitched when this happened, but maybe having two stations is better, especially when you can pull in both in your car.

Now the jam band scene… It peaked sometime in the nineties, but it still sustains, it even has its own festival, Electric Forest, never mind so many act-based festivals around the country. And jam band music is the opposite of hit music, it’s all about the live performance as opposed to the recording, a perfect fit for today’s experiential world. But, the media hasn’t caught up with the new world yet, it believes it’s about the limited Spotify Top 50 when nothing could be further from the truth, there are more genres doing better than ever before, but it is hard to climb the ladder and become ubiquitous and rich, so you’d better really like being a musician, because the money is not spectacular, then again if you read the reports on Astroworld you learned that music was just a feature, an element of Travis Scott’s empire. He’s built a business, which is the goal of so many Millennials and Gen-Z’ers, but for those of us who remember the old days, primarily before MTV created a monoculture, it’s all about the music and only the music.

Music is like pornography, you know it when you hear it. If you don’t like it, that’s fine, nobody likes everything, and now more than ever criticism means little, you can bitch but it falls on deaf ears, everybody’s having too much fun listening to the music of their desires.

So, once upon a time there was nothing more than the music, maybe some lights. And most of the venues had seats, you were there to listen, not to hang. You were in your own private reverie, merging with the performer(s) and their sound. When done right, it was a transcendent experience, you had no photographs, just a brain imprint and that was enough, you can still recite the details of great concerts the way golfers can replay every hole.

But in today’s multifarious world, it’s hard to find new music, playlists have not solved this problem, they’ve only confused it, never mind being imperfect. You want something new, but not finding an entrance point you give up and play the oldies, or just watch streaming television, but when you encounter something new you dig you’re elated.

Not that “Shock Doctrine” is new, the original studio version was cut in the aughts. But it’s just a blueprint for what’s come after.

Now looking at the SiriusXM readout I saw that this version of “Shock Doctrine” was performed live on the 9th of October, of 2021! Needless to say, it’s not on Spotify, probably never will be. And it wasn’t easily searchable on YouTube, but going through a million sites I found it. Which kind of amazed me.

Now the truth is it was the groove of this live performance of “Shock Doctrine” that got me. Not only did I feel comfortable, I melded with the sound, I was happy. This was not exterior, but interior. It pierced my body right down to my soul. I arrived at my destination yet I could not turn it off, I didn’t want the experience to end.

And then I started thinking about the experience, being at the gig, having the sound wash over me. And it’s only about the sound, not about the recognition of the hit, and every night the set list is different, the set is not set in amber.

So tune in at about 1:34:25 to hear what hooked me. The descending notes. Over and over again. Hypnotic.

Now this is not the only sound I like. I like acoustic singer/songwriter as well as metal. But this electric/synthetic sound is one that, when done right, resonates with me.

Now finding the concert online, I let the show play on beyond “Shock Doctrine,” and it was just as enticing, I became unmoored, on a journey. And sure, the beat is important, but it does not dominate, there are elements of melody, despite not being a hokey pop confection.

Hell, listening to STS9’s “Shock Doctrine” just makes me FEEL GOOD!

Trailer: https://bit.ly/3EZMSTp

If you want to detach from cyberspace and dive into real life…

Streaming television has been a boon for documentaries. Actually, credit Sheila Nevins at HBO, she nurtured the trend and now Netflix and other outlets have maxed it out.

Used to be you had to go to the theatre to see documentaries. Of course there were some on PBS, but their number was de minimis, as was the breadth of their subjects. Used to be a special treat. You read about a doc and you went to see it and then you were part of the discussion, as it wove its way through the public. The best example? “Capturing the Friedmans.” I remember leaving the theatre with more questions than answers, needing to discuss it, thinking about it for days. And then there was “Sherman’s March,” which I loved, and is recognized as one of the greats, but most people still haven’t seen it. Then again, you’ve got to appreciate the journey of a young man unsure about love searching for direction and his personal truth. And that’s what appeals to me most. The interior. What are people thinking. I must say, when I scan the landscape I don’t find many people I can identify with, I’m always looking to make connection.

Not that I have any children, never mind ones adopted from China.

That’s the story of “Found.” Three Chinese children, cousins, adopted at birth, in search of their story.

The three are so normal. Not that they don’t experience racism. But they always wonder…where do they come from? When the doctor asks about familial diseases there’s only a question mark, but now there’s DNA testing.

I haven’t done it. I’m unafraid of finding half-siblings, my father wasn’t that kind of guy. And my older sister looks like my father and my younger sister and I look just like my mother so there’s no doubt about our biological lineage. It’s just that…I don’t really want to make contact with any found relatives. Does that make me a bad person? Maybe it’s growing up in a female dominated extended family, being the only boy. All grown up I can now see I could have said no, but I never did. I remember spending Thanksgiving with my mother’s brother’s family in Stamford on a rainy day, wearing an itchy turtleneck, staring out the window. Who was I gonna talk to? Then again, in my family, you hewed the line. Not that it was narrowly rigid, but when my parents laid down restrictions, insisted on behaviors, you obeyed or paid the price, which started out as the hand and then evolved to the belt and then the hairbrush.

So, you’ve got three Chinese girls in different situations. One, raised as Jewish going to a Jewish school. Another the daughter of a single parent. Another the daughter of divorced parents. In Seattle/Phoenix, Oklahoma and Nashville. And on one level all teenagers are the same, on another every family is different. So you’ve got these girls deposited in life situations they had no part in choosing and that’s the world they live in. Strange.

Not that they’re all not happy with their families. Then again, what else do they know?

So, they go in search of their roots.

They employ Liu Hao in Beijing to excavate their story.

Hao is the star of the film. As one teen immediately says upon seeing her, she is beautiful. But she’s dedicated to being a genealogist. In America, if you’re beautiful, you’re supposed to be an actress, or an influencer. But Liu is college educated and loves her job, doing her best to make connections.

Liu spreads the word, seeding pictures into the landscape, and then waits to see what comes back. She gets responses from families that gave up their girls under the one child per family law. And when she goes to visit them, the interest and then pain they express…whew! Can you imagine giving up your baby at birth? Who then lives in an orphanage in some cases over a year waiting for adoption?

Yes, Liu also researches where the babies were left and what orphanages they were in, and even the “aunties” that took care of them.

So on one hand you’ve got the DNA search.

On another the contradiction between the girls’ modern lives in the U.S. and their parents’ less than modern ones in China, and…

There are so many differences. One of the Chinese women predicts that all the adopted girls will have long hair, which they do, that’s the American way. But not in China, most of the women have short-cropped hair.

And in the U.S. today China has been demonized. Yet so many of the products we use, like our computers, are manufactured there. To see the footage of cities and rural areas is utterly fascinating. These are people, just like you and me, speaking a different language, having a different life, but at the core the same. Makes me want to go. Then again, I want to go everywhere and meet everyone.

So the girls venture to China…

This is not a Netflix extravaganza, this is a movie, just a tad longer than an hour and a half. And “Found” is not sensationalistic, like “Tiger King.” No, “Found” is about regular life. In reality, the three Chinese girls just want to be happy Americans. But I resonated with Liu Hao the most. How much can she be making being a genealogist, not much, but she loves it! If you’re educated today in America, you’re expected to pursue the money. Wasn’t like that when I went to college, my parents didn’t care what I studied as long as I passed. College was about broadening your horizons, it was not a finishing school preparing you for the working world.

But today if you don’t go for the bucks you can quickly fall behind, and you don’t want to live in America without bucks, you want that profession, otherwise… It’s the lower, uneducated classes who are taking risks, making music, going on reality television shows…sure, some wealthy, educated people participate too, but it’s a lark, not everything if it doesn’t work out, and it almost never does, they get back on track while those of the lower classes fall back into…unfulfilling, low-paid jobs and maybe drink and do drugs to numb the pain.

The longer you live, the more you realize so much of what you’ve been told is b.s. Like achievement, moving up the ladder. At the end of the day there is no summation, life is not a test, you don’t get a grade, in truth you grade yourself, and the sooner you wake up to this the happier you will be.

Liu Hao loves talking to the people. Getting their stories. Those who abandoned their children.

That’s what I love best, getting people’s stories.

And there are plenty of stories in “Found.”

I really dug it.

Who would you pick to be the drummer of the fantasy band?

This is not necessarily the best drummer, but the best drummer for a BAND!

Tune in today, Novemver 9th, to Volume 106, 7 PM East, 4 PM West.

Phone #: 844-6-VOLUME, 844-686-5863

Twitter: @lefsetz or @siriusxmvolume/#lefsetzlive

Hear the episode live on SiriusXM VOLUME: siriusxm.us/HearLefsetzLive

If you miss the episode, you can hear it on demand on the SiriusXM app: siriusxm.us/LefsetzLive

Thank you for your comments.  As a 55 year old metalhead who has attended hundreds and hundreds of GA shows with thousands of kids, mosh pits, and often violent behavior I know this kind of tragedy can be avoided. I spent many years on the road with Slayer, who has historically had some of the most aggressive and violent crowds out there. There are many ways to limit this kind of problem. One example are barricades (think breakwaters off-shore) that break up the density of the crowd (running both parallel and perpendicular to the stage) always helped. The trick is the people in charge have to take the possibility of such a problem seriously and be proactive. Slayer had a specific person on the road who was trained in doing this and would have a conversation with the entire venue security staff before every show.  I think often at non-metal shows this kind of preparation does not happen.

Thanks

Marc Paschke

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at GA shows in the UK and Europe, in arenas, there are often barriers across the floor so that only a maximum number of people are allowed into each section.  No price difference, first come first served.  Prevents overcrowding in any one section.

And, yes, the labor shortage is one of the biggest problems, in so many industries.  Tour after tour, concert after concert, I see people desperate for more local workers.

Hadn’t seen an issue with gate-crashers in years; that does seem like something that should be under control.

Toby Mamis

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It’s not just festivals.

We saw Phish at the Gorge this summer. First night, a security crew walked off (we were later told) closing down a venue exit gate after the show. While this was a minor inconvenience to a few thousand people, in 25 years of concerts I had never seen that happen, and it smelled like a much larger, lurking staffing issue.

James Coburn

Rose Ganache

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The video you linked to only shows a portion of the mayhem at the gates. Start watching at 1:42 and you’ll people literally being trampled.

https://youtu.be/eKzcNZ7m43k

Ty Velde

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I worked the Travis Scott concert in Detroit before Covid.

I am in my 60’s and remember looking down on the floor with the mass of young people and being very concerned.  They moved as one swaying forward, back, side to side.

At the time I thought this is so dangerous. Then I thought, I must be getting old because I probably would have been down there as a teen.

But I would say the people in charge of safety must have felt the same way and every concert like this they breathed a sigh of relief nothing bad happened.

At the Twenty One Pilots it was the same. They started lining up early for early entry. It was cold so they all had heavy jackets on. Then they rushed the stage to get as close as they could. Then spent a couple hours there waiting for the warm up act to finish to see Twenty One Pilots. Trying to hang on to a bunch of jackets and getting hotter and hotter.

These are young people who have not ate or drank much in their quest to not miss out.

I was working the service desk that night next to the medic office and quite a few from up front ended up there. Some had fainted, some just  exhausted and could not get out of the pack. They would send in medical to get the out and bring them up.

They know this is happening and has been a disaster waiting to happen for years.

Lily Morozow

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Safe standing needs to be a thing yesterday. Look into them for soccer stadia. Put 4 barricades across the crowd, have a rough capacity for each section, and let people through until it’s full. Crazy to me that this isn’t already in place. Sad to hear about this but these kinds of things can and should be prevented in the future.

Thanks,
Adam Sliger

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After Roskilde, “D” barriers were made mandatory at Australian festivals that had no seating (ie had mosh pits). And we have waaay less attendees than the staggering ticket numbers sold in the US. Is this not a regulation over there? I guess we prefer to kill the vibe rather than kill our concert goers…

Megan Butler

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Mott the Hoople Kings College 5/3/1974, opening act Queen.  There was a scary crush of people before doors were opened.  I thought I’d be crushed, there were injuries.  Inside, glass bottles being thrown onto the stage until the band had to threaten to walk off.  I remember venues requiring assigned seating ever since.

Susan Rad Dorsey

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Back when my Dad was in the concert promotion business, he refused to do festival seating; he just didn’t think it was safe for the fans. Thousands of shows and no stampedes. He was proven right in 1979 and again several times since.

Michael Weintraub

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Ten years ago after the Indianapolis roof collapse, production managers, touring professional and production vendors started the Event Safety Alliance, to enacted guidelines and safety standards for all aspects of the concert touring industry.

There is a lot of great stuff on this web site.

Take care,

Kent Black

https://www.eventsafetyalliance.org/

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Hi Bob,

I just read your post regarding the deaths and injuries at Astroworld.

I want to bring your attention to the work of the Event Safety Alliance, ESTA and the TSP.

Please take some time to read ANSI ES1.9.

ANSI ES1.9 – 2020 Event Safety – Crowd Management

https://tsp.esta.org/tsp/documents/published_docs.php

I hope you can share this with your readers.

https://tsp.esta.org/tsp/index.html

https://esta.org/

The Event Safety Alliance® (ESA) is a 501(c)(6) non-profit organization dedicated to promoting “Life Safety First” throughout all phases of event production and execution. We strive to eliminate the knowledge barrier that often contributes to unsafe conditions and behaviors through the promotion and teaching of good practices and the development of training and planning resources.

Best,

Boxer

Jahn ‘Boxer’ Hardison

Treasurer, Event Safety Alliance

https://www.eventsafetyalliance.org/