What if they missed the opening act but heard that the guys did a great job?

depends on who they heard it from surely mathieson. if it was the band's manager..............

The thing that shits me the most is when they're like . . . "yeah, I didn't see any of the support bands cause I was next door having a few drinks, but I was told they sucked".

WHO ARE THESE PEOPLE???

what's an 'opening act'?

what's an 'opening act'?

A sword swallower, or one of those girls with the ping pong balls

We really don't have much in the way of decent live reviewing in this country at the moment, for a number of reasons both economic and social.

patrick emery is good

so is steve anderson

On average its some kid who wants a name on the door, and has no journalistic experience . . . which it damn obvious when you read the review.

I remember Brett Oaten's reviews in Drum back in the early 90s, where he kept getting bagged for describing what the band members were wearing

No pay. No skill.

Most of the time I don’t like when reviewers personalise it and it shits me when they try make it all quirky…but sometimes they pull it off and can be sorta amusing.

i know why. but i still don't fucking care.

I blame Lester Bangs. I love his stuff, but all his imitators kinda blow

steve anderson is a great live reviewer

some live reviews i read i think "what the fuck were u at the same show i was?"

for example this one where i know (not being a wanker) but we kicked arse and then the band afterwords the crowd dispersed

however if u read the review - we were just bogan rock - the second band "had the audience enthralled"

but half the audience had gone to the bar

just seemed like her review was to push her own agenda

that shit is fucking lame

Ahem. Lester Bangs blew too.

he wasn't really a live reviewer though was he.

i mean he was a rock critic - in that he critiqued rock music

which gives him artisitc licence to be an asshole.

so you read the wolf & cub review in the drum too?

worst ever.

fucking oath.

Yeah, the melodrama of "being there" doesn't tell me anything about what the performance was like. Maybe it sets the scene or whatever, but live reviews are one of the things that put me off "rock (music) journalism".

nicko_ -

please feel free to read the vast wealth of crap i have thoughtfully interposed among the actual discussion. if you do, you will find out that i do not leave an impression that i give anything near a flying felch about reviewers or other people's opinions of performance art. this is why i am so despised by those ratbags who consider their droppings worthy of the attention of the general public, who i also reserve a special contempt for.

pissing and moaning in the key of h,
kandos

surely, to do that one has to understand the craft/technical aspects of delivering a performance?

hang on - the review is for what purpose then? Is it from the perspective of a punter to appeal to other punters, or from the perspective of a musician and serving the musician's interests? If I go to a show, I don't usually think about what amps and pedals they're using, or any technical sound issues other than whether I think it sounds / looks cool and whether I am enjoying myself or getting something out of it.

russian/horse - i always apologised to bands if i missed their slot (happened about 3 times i think) and was always fair - even if I thought a band were fucking dogarse bad, i would find a way to balance out their shortcomings with something positive - even the backhanded compliment of 'punctuality' or shit. i never used it as an excuse to grandstand my own way with words via character assassination.

haha, i love that my throwaway line got me included on that retort

oh christ - the number of times I door bitched and saw reviewers turn up not five mins before the headliner came on stage. Cunce, get your shit together.

kuro: I thought only musos read live reviews anyway. So yeah, that stuff is relevant.

kuro, i reckon reviews are for all of the above that you mentioned.

if the reviewer is good, this stuff can be covered - they just have to restrict their gushing/slating, which is the hard part, as it involves ego compromise.

thanks anon...

nicko, you're right - see my point earlier. If it's well written, they can write about anything that happens on the night (within reason), including technical aspects, preceeding events, the singer's haircut, the crowd, the immediate afterwards, the venue etc.

Maybe good reviewers are just few and far between....

surely it depends on who you're writing for? if you're kicking around Guitar magazine you're going to want to know about amps and as many chord formations as possible. if you're writing for Uncut you'll have to be able to relate everything back to 1967, because everything that's happened since is just incidental to that year. if you write in the Brag you're clearly mentally disabled anyway, so noone will think the less of your dronings in between the hilariously bad pictures.

chuckle

"maybe you are expecting too little. why should street press aim so low?"

Because paperclips are more expensive than a lifetime's subscription to the Drum Media?

I like reading reviews of my band in street press, but only out of passing interest. A 'true artist' doesn't give a fuck at all (not that I consider the shit we pour out to be art).

wait, wait - i'm not talking about what chord inversions or techniques someone uses (though that may be relevant, depending on the artist - try reviewing kaki king without talking about tapping or slap techniques); more about actually knowing how to describe a mix instead of just saying 'the sound was shit' or something - about being knowledgeable about music itself, rather than just saying 'what happened was'.

why should the lowest common demoninator be a reason to suck?

streetpress is low level information and entertainment.

i really dont think i'm doing anything important other than telling people who might be interested if something was good or crap.

but it will be the first (and maybe last) feedback some indie bands ever get...

but nicko - for most regular punters like myself, the sound is either gonna be shit or not shit, you know? There's either a not-so-great mix or a mix where everything seemed to work out fine.

sorry monty those comments weren't towards you. your writing makes sense which is alot that can be said of your colleagues. damn my spelling is terrible.

no offence taken, yeah.

yeah, i suppose, kuro. i just wish people (not you) in general just didn't want to be spoon fed or have everything be so easy, you know? shit worth having is woth making effort for.

anyway. said way too much already.

i just wish people in general just didn't want to be spoon fed or have everything be so easy

oh I know, that is 75% of my job...