go-betweens

martino · Post by **martino** » Mon May 12, 2003 9:08 am

i was at the go-betweens concert last friday at the majestic centralstation in darmstadt and my, they were so incredibly good. this is the kind of concert i do not get to often enough.

the sound was crystal-clear, they played their songs in their typical tight, spartan style, the vocal harmonies were just right, and the bass player was sexy and competent. they finished the set after the fourth encore with robert forster's famous albatross dance, to whoops and screams of their massive regional fan base.

anyway: robert forster: this guy is one of my personal heros. looks like a cross between bryan ferry, monty clift and that presidential candidate whatshisname kerry, he has the kind of presence that lights up the room. a funny thing happened though: three quarters through the set, he called over to the bar and asked for an espresso, saying "i am just so fucking tired". it took another three requests until he got it though, "now how is my expresso doing" and all that, but when he finally got his coffee, he said "this is the advantage of being a rock star: all you have to do to get an espresso is ask for it", which was witty but untrue: he should have pointed out that in germany, even rock stars get bad service (but of course, he is much too charming for that kind of a remark).

at the concert, i met an old school chum who used to be the manager of the now-bankrupt tommy musical theater house near frankfurt. he told me that pete townsend and roger daltrey had come to town for the first few nights of the musical and it was my chum's job to entertain them.

mostly, he took them to a local lousy-but-popular disco, the dorian grey, and get this: nobody, really nobody, recognized daltrey or townsend -- none of the young suburban crowd knew who the hell they were. for townsend, this was just fine, since he is so hard of hearing he can hardly hold a conversation without you shouting at him anyway.

daltrey, who is the epitome of the nice bloke, found his anonymity immensly amusing and drank a whole lot. so this is also the advantage of being a rock star: you can enjoy it when nobody knows you.

Post by **mccutcheon** » Mon May 12, 2003 6:25 pm

yes they are a good band right up there with The Chills, The Clean and The Bats.

marky · Post by **marky** » Sat May 17, 2003 3:27 am

Well, with all due respect, I can't really compare the Chills, Clean or Bats with The Who, though they were all good bands and definitely listed in order of importance to me. I didn't care for The Who live, but Who's Next is f***ing amazing. I was really into a large portion of Pete Townsend's solo work, too. Was shocked and disappointed to hear of his recent court case...which I don't dare go into. It left me scratching my head to say the least.

Oh well, they left some great music behind.

It's the craziest thing but I got this craving to see live Shakespeare outdoors recently and it turns out there is a performance in a park this summer.
I can't imagine why I got that urge, but I was thrilled to see there was an easy way to accomplish that.

marky · Post by **marky** » Sat May 17, 2003 3:55 am

I have to give my respect to the Go-Betweens, definitely, but I just never bought any of their records. I will concede there are some songs I know of them that I would consider classics. I
ran into many people who were crazy about them.

But I like my music real dark and post-punk and/or funky, man. Rawly produced, 1980, that's what gets my groove. The sound of an echoed live drum kit can do wonders. I'm glad Fila Brazilia understand.

Hail to the birth of "goth" music.