Last night I went to see Gomez at the Avalon.\u00c2\u00a0 Jason Colton tracked me down.<\/p>\n
Do you know Jason?\u00c2\u00a0 He used to work with Paluska handing Phish.\u00c2\u00a0 Now he’s moved on to Coran’s operation, Red Light Management.\u00c2\u00a0 And, in addition to looking after Mike Gordon, he’s taken on Gomez.\u00c2\u00a0 Which is why Jason was in L.A.\u00c2\u00a0 But not at the Avalon.\u00c2\u00a0 When I duly called him when we arrived I found him at In-N-Out.\u00c2\u00a0 He couldn’t venture all the way to L.A. and not partake.<\/p>\n
We ensconced ourselves in the booth behind the board and waited for Jason to arrive.\u00c2\u00a0 Catching David Ford in the process.\u00c2\u00a0 Who quite rapidly won over the assembled multitude, changing them from whispering hoi polloi to fans.\u00c2\u00a0 Funny when you realize someone’s got talent, after enduring too many wannabes with MySpace sites as I do.<\/p>\n
After Mr. Ford finished, twenty minutes after Jason arrived, we went backstage.\u00c2\u00a0 To hang with one of the three writers in the band, one of the three guitar players, Tom Gray, who thanked GOD they were off Virgin.\u00c2\u00a0 He told me he loved my list of "Don’ts".\u00c2\u00a0 And that it was all about relationships.\u00c2\u00a0 With friends, ANYTHING was possible.<\/p>\n
Funny, you forget it’s about FANS!\u00c2\u00a0 And that’s who was at the show.\u00c2\u00a0 Bobbing up and down to the numbers, getting in the groove.<\/p>\n
Jason said it was a struggle.\u00c2\u00a0 Breaking a band that had already been broken.\u00c2\u00a0 But they’d gotten "How We Operate" in the finale of "Grey’s Anatomy".\u00c2\u00a0 And they sold in excess of 8,000 records the first week, and over 5,000 the second.\u00c2\u00a0 There was something THERE!<\/p>\n
And one is reminded how the world has shifted.\u00c2\u00a0 From radio to the gig.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s all happening at the gig.\u00c2\u00a0 There’s a vibrancy absent from the airwaves, an IMMEDIACY, that resonates, makes you feel alive, part of a COMMUNITY!<\/p>\n
When the show was over we ended up in the upstairs bar.\u00c2\u00a0 Where Jason started waxing rhapsodic about roadfood.com<\/a>, how he didn’t leave home without consulting it first.\u00c2\u00a0 And he’d had this SCRUMPTIOUS barbecue over the border in North Carolina, on his way to Asheville.<\/p>\n And after hearing about Jason’s attendance at piano camp in Bennington two years before, we headed out.\u00c2\u00a0 And on the way home from Felice’s, in the middle of the night, I heard something unmistakable.\u00c2\u00a0 Emmylou Harris and Mark Knopfler.<\/p>\n I bought "Grievous Angel" when it was released.\u00c2\u00a0 But I never purchased a single Emmylou Harris album.\u00c2\u00a0 I own every Dire Straits record, I believe it’s about "Making Movies", not "Brothers In Arms", you can’t eclipse "Romeo & Juliet", and I LOVE Mark’s playing on Dylan’s "I and I", but his solo trips of the past few years have not enraptured me.\u00c2\u00a0 Oh, there was one great track on the last record, "Boom, Like That", but the rest of the record didn’t make me want to play it again, and if I don’t have that desire, you’ve lost me.<\/p>\n So, I didn’t have high hopes for this Knopfler\/Harris collaboration, and listening to Emmylou’s vocal I was reminded of the references to her in Barney Hoskyns’ "Hotel California" and how much I just didn’t get it and THEN, Mark started to WAIL!<\/p>\n It’s not about technique, it’s about FEEL!\u00c2\u00a0 And Mark Knopfler lays\u00c2\u00a0 down in the groove like a BMW motorcycle on a mountain road.\u00c2\u00a0 He locks on, you know he’ll never drift off the apex, never fall, he’s EMBELLISHING!\u00c2\u00a0 Without flash he draws no attention, but over time you realize THIS GUY IS FUCKING GREAT!<\/p>\n And then Emmylou comes back in wailing herself.\u00c2\u00a0 Like she’s about to reach orgasm, without all that control she normally exhibits.\u00c2\u00a0 And then the two of them are singing together and it feels like the backyard barbeque of your dreams, like being in a club thinking how you can’t WAIT to get home and tell everybody you know about your AMAZING EXPERIENCE!<\/p>\n And then Mark’s at it again.\u00c2\u00a0 And suddenly, it’s 1985 all over again.\u00c2\u00a0 But the music sounds dated not at all.\u00c2\u00a0 Sounds as fresh as the "Walk Of Life", but MUCH BETTER!<\/p>\n Oh, I read the endless reams of hype, I knew the album was coming out, but I didn’t need to hear it, but now I knew as soon as I got home I had to DOWNLOAD IT!<\/p>\n But then it got better.\u00c2\u00a0 Emmylou and Mark put down their mics.\u00c2\u00a0 And Mark went ALL OUT!\u00c2\u00a0 But the magic was enhanced by the piano playing underneath.\u00c2\u00a0 And then just when you thought the record was over, it WASN’T!\u00c2\u00a0 The whole band quieted down.\u00c2\u00a0 And the piano player suddenly emerged on top.\u00c2\u00a0 It was like a bunch of minstrels were suddenly leaving town and I didn’t want to see them go!\u00c2\u00a0 I just stared at the readout, hoping the track wouldn’t end.<\/p>\n It’s this passion that careers are based on.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s THIS passion that breaks records.\u00c2\u00a0 A NEED to get closer.\u00c2\u00a0 Knowing that what’s coming out of the speakers is made by MUSICIANS, that it’s not the product of a committee, but straight from the artists’ souls TO YOU!<\/p>\n First I googled.\u00c2\u00a0 I found Mark Knopfler’s U.K. homepage, which didn’t allow me to hear anything, but was offering live downloads in a PC-downloadable format only.\u00c2\u00a0 I ask you, what kind of machine did they MAKE this record on?\u00c2\u00a0 A MAC!\u00c2\u00a0 Find a musician using a PC and you find someone either not Net-savvy, or not happening, or BOTH!<\/p>\n So, I went to MySpace.\u00c2\u00a0 After firing up my P2P app and starting a download.\u00c2\u00a0 Knopfler has no site.\u00c2\u00a0 Not the real Knopfler anyway.\u00c2\u00a0 But a FAKE Knopfler does.\u00c2\u00a0 THAT’S a fan.\u00c2\u00a0 Somebody who establishes a site JUST to exhibit his favorite act’s music.<\/p>\n And the reason I was googling was to find a place where YOU could hear the music.\u00c2\u00a0 In case you’re not P2P savvy, or don’t want to waste the time.<\/p>\n