Are you catching the Britney brouhaha Down Under?\u00c2\u00a0 Turns out she MIMES!<\/p>\n
She’s got to.\u00c2\u00a0 In order to deliver on the audience’s expectations.\u00c2\u00a0 She’s got to be the Britney from TV.\u00c2\u00a0 Perfect in every way.\u00c2\u00a0 Dazzling them with her dance moves.\u00c2\u00a0 And it’s almost impossible to dance like that and sing.\u00c2\u00a0 Have you ever talked to one of those fucks who calls you when he’s on the treadmill?\u00c2\u00a0 You wonder if they’re going to have a heart attack during the conversation!<\/p>\n
But what does the audience expect?\u00c2\u00a0 A show, a tightly choreographed presentation, something you watch and ooh and ahh to?\u00c2\u00a0 Or a musical performance, that penetrates your body and mind?<\/p>\n
Last time I checked, I didn’t see Widespread Panic on TV.\u00c2\u00a0 Look at MediaBase, they’re not in the Top Forty either.\u00c2\u00a0 By nineties standards, they don’t exist.\u00c2\u00a0 But it’s 2010.<\/p>\n
In the MTV-era, you had to look good.\u00c2\u00a0 Your video had to be visually interesting.\u00c2\u00a0 To the point where in the nineties, they wouldn’t trust so-called "artists" with creative issues, too much money was at stake.\u00c2\u00a0 Write with the usual suspects, the pros, to create something we know we can sell.\u00c2\u00a0 And we’ll employ one of the usual suspect directors to create a sleek clip.\u00c2\u00a0 Hell, if we don’t get it right, we’ll scrap it and redo it!\u00c2\u00a0 You only get one chance to make an impression.\u00c2\u00a0 If it’s not exactly right, you’re toast.\u00c2\u00a0 Kind of like the new album by Mariah Carey and the pushed-back opus by Alicia Keys.\u00c2\u00a0 The initial singles stiffed, and the labels wanted to whip up a frenzy in order to sell a hundred thousand albums right away!\u00c2\u00a0 Thus, the release delay.\u00c2\u00a0 If you’re phenomenally lucky, you can ultimately sell a million.\u00c2\u00a0 Still, you might mean nothing on the road.\u00c2\u00a0 Is this a game you want to play?<\/p>\n
Sure, there are old warhorses like Ms. Carey, but most of the acts are brand new.\u00c2\u00a0 Thrown up against the wall and then discarded.\u00c2\u00a0 They all have one thing in common.\u00c2\u00a0 They want to be FAMOUS!\u00c2\u00a0 They’re no different than the idiots on reality TV.\u00c2\u00a0 They want to appear on TMZ and Perez.\u00c2\u00a0 Then they’ll think they’ve made it.\u00c2\u00a0 But that making it is very different from the old paradigm.<\/p>\n
In the old days you played music to get out of the mines, to get away from having a boss, so you didn’t have to wear a suit and tie to work.\u00c2\u00a0 Shit, you ultimately have more freedom going to college and learning how to code than subjecting yourself to the starmaking machinery today.\u00c2\u00a0 Look at Justin Timberlake.\u00c2\u00a0 He sacrificed Janet Jackson.\u00c2\u00a0 He couldn’t admit he was complicit in Boobiegate and that it was no big deal.\u00c2\u00a0 He issued a lame mea culpa the same way a truant student tells a principal what he wants to hear.\u00c2\u00a0 Whereas the rock stars of yore had a foolproof reaction to bullshit, to the system…THE MIDDLE FINGER!<\/p>\n
Hell, John Lennon said the Beatles were bigger than Jesus and didn’t bother apologizing. He tried to explain, but the media wasn’t listening, because it was too dumb.\u00c2\u00a0 Whereas in the sixties, before the Born Again conflagration, there was no doubt the Beatles were bigger than Jesus.\u00c2\u00a0 But you can’t speak the truth.\u00c2\u00a0 Hell, you still can’t speak the truth!\u00c2\u00a0 Just look at our inane political system!<\/p>\n
Let me ask you…<\/p>\n
If I told you you could wear whatever you wanted, your jeans, your favorite shirt, hit the stage to adoring fans whenever you played and get all the dope and sex you wanted, would you say yes?<\/p>\n
This was the equation back in the golden era of classic rock.\u00c2\u00a0 And it was all centered on the music.\u00c2\u00a0 If you were good enough, you could rape and pillage across the world, for years, in the case of Robert Plant and Mick Jagger, FOREVER!\u00c2\u00a0 Just by being yourself, you earned the keys to the kingdom, you lived in an alternative universe, even better than the real one.<\/p>\n
Widespread Panic lives in an alternative universe.\u00c2\u00a0 One where everything the dying media says is important is irrelevant.\u00c2\u00a0 They hold the record for sell-outs at Red Rocks (with 32). They’ve been at it for twenty plus years, and they’re bigger than ever.<\/p>\n
Twenty plus years…\u00c2\u00a0 Many of the Top Forty idiots aren’t even that old.\u00c2\u00a0 Do we really think they know how to play?\u00c2\u00a0 That they’ve got something to say?<\/p>\n
Now I won’t say the Panic show was without visuals.\u00c2\u00a0 There was a giant disc behind the band that featured geometric shapes, turning and twisting like at the Fillmore.\u00c2\u00a0 And there was a plethora of animated spotlights.\u00c2\u00a0 But the attraction was the music, plain and simple.<\/p>\n
Nobody dressed up for the gig.\u00c2\u00a0 The audience looked just like me.\u00c2\u00a0 Wearing jeans.\u00c2\u00a0 Getting psyched up for the gig had nothing to do with makeup, nothing to do with outfits, it was about head space.\u00c2\u00a0 Were you willing to show up, relax your mind and float downstream?<\/p>\n
Aided by substances both legal and illegal?<\/p>\n
Sure, everybody seemed high, whether each and every one of them was or not.\u00c2\u00a0 You see, they wanted to be set free.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s what the music used to do, that’s what you’re missing at the Britney show.\u00c2\u00a0 Britney’s delivering a movie, Widespread Panic is delivering a dream.<\/p>\n
There was a drummer and a percussionist.\u00c2\u00a0 A keyboardist dropping in delicious fills.\u00c2\u00a0 Dave Schools held down the bottom like he had a monopoly on mud in the delta.\u00c2\u00a0 But what was most fascinating was the guitar interplay between John Bell and Jimmy Herring.<\/p>\n
Jimmy’s amps said "Fuchs" and "Tone Tubby".\u00c2\u00a0 This was not generic, the equipment had been hand-selected, to deliver this exact tone.<\/p>\n
There was no click track, nothing was prerecorded.\u00c2\u00a0 But the band instantly found a groove and laid down in it, pulling the entire audience along.\u00c2\u00a0 And the electricity was palpable.\u00c2\u00a0 It was like every attendee was plugged into a socket, causing them to twist and turn, jump and groove to the music.<\/p>\n
Music.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s what’s been sacrificed.\u00c2\u00a0 You didn’t used to go to the show to hear the expected, but the unexpected.\u00c2\u00a0 The band was good enough to pull you along whether you knew the material or not.\u00c2\u00a0 It was an ADVENTURE!<\/p>\n
That started at 8:15 and ended at midnight.\u00c2\u00a0 You couldn’t complain you didn’t get your money’s worth.<\/p>\n
So here’s the part where you tell me what Widespread Panic is missing, how it can be changed into a Goliath, a household word.\u00c2\u00a0 But the band DOESN’T GIVE A FUCK!\u00c2\u00a0 Don’t you get it?\u00c2\u00a0 THEY’RE DOING IT THEIR WAY!<\/p>\n
And their way is pretty good, better than yours, because almost a quarter of a century in, they can still work, they can still live the lifestyle, they can still feel the rush of the audience’s applause.<\/p>\n
You can play the old game.\u00c2\u00a0 But it doesn’t pay the dividends it used to.\u00c2\u00a0 Rihanna may be big in the mainstream, but more people want to see Widespread Panic.\u00c2\u00a0 If not today, definitely tomorrow.<\/p>\n
We’re rebuilding.\u00c2\u00a0 And we’re starting with music.<\/p>\n
It’s a much slower build.\u00c2\u00a0 Flash, explosions, sexuality get instant attention.\u00c2\u00a0 But do you really care who won the third season of "Survivor"?\u00c2\u00a0 "Big Brother"?\u00c2\u00a0 The endless string of one hit wonders run together.\u00c2\u00a0 Those who make music first and foremost, who follow their instincts, their creativity, are the ones who stand for ages.<\/p>\n
You may get screams at a Britney show, but you don’t get the passion you experience at a Widespread Panic gig.\u00c2\u00a0 At a Panic show fans feel the music.\u00c2\u00a0 They want to get closer.\u00c2\u00a0 They don’t want to watch, they want to be a part of it!<\/p>\n
And listeners are key.\u00c2\u00a0 Great performers feed off the energy of their audience.\u00c2\u00a0 How can you do that when your entire act is on hard drive?<\/p>\n
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Are you catching the Britney brouhaha Down Under?\u00c2\u00a0 Turns out she MIMES! She’s got to.\u00c2\u00a0 In order to deliver on the audience’s expectations.\u00c2\u00a0 She’s got to be the Britney from TV.\u00c2\u00a0 Perfect in every way.\u00c2\u00a0 Dazzling them with her dance moves.\u00c2\u00a0 And it’s almost impossible to dance like that and sing.\u00c2\u00a0 Have you ever talked […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2379","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-live-shows"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p96vPs-Cn","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2379","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2379"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2379\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2380,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2379\/revisions\/2380"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2379"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2379"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2379"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}