Why i avoid free gigs in outside venues ?

[Van Basten II]

After watching Corkestra the other night, very fine band and great gig by the way, i elected still revigorated by that gig to check out some outside concerts. It was a warm and confortable Montreal night that makes you want to stay up all night. Went on the big scene to check out Bjokestra, was rather dissapointed gotta say. They are a big band who are doing covers of Bjork's music. Music and arrrangements were quite good, it reminded a little bit of the Brian Setzer Orchestra in terms of playfulness. Unfortunately the vocalist was not up to par, she basically was a Bjork wannabee, going for a clear voice and copying her intonations. Bjork's way of singing can be little hard to swallow if you're not in the good mood, so imagine a very poor copy.

But what really annoyed the shit out of me was to watch how people behave. Most of them kept talking like there was no live music, they are always a few people who behave in a way like they were the most entertaining people on earth and couldn't stand the idea of not having people paying attention to them. And finally they are the dumbasses, and actually it's almost an insult to dumbasses who wouldn't be that moronic. We had a brilliant genius during the show who thought it would a great idea to put on his head his glass of beer, i'd like to remind you folks this a very packed and tight crowd, you have to be careful how to move if you don't want to hit someone with an elbow or a bagsack.

Anyway back to my dumbass, when what was expected to happen did happen, for those who did not guess, the glass falling down and the contents splashing everyone in its vicinity including a few kids who will remember fondly in the future their first encounter with the golden beverage, the dumbass was pretty suprised that actually people went to confront him. All this brillant mind could come up with was it's not that big a deal.

If this was a fairy tale, the next thing happening would have been someone pulling out a knife and immediatly chopping the dumbass's genitals, to make sure he does reproduce anymore and then a mob would have clobbered him to a bloody pulp. Unfortunately this is not the case, kids had to pass the remainder of the evening smelling like John Daly after a golf game. And the dumbass had a grand evening and probably thinks he's the greatest shit in the city...

Edited July 3, 2008 by Van Basten II

[Aggie87]

If this was a fairy tale, the next thing happening would have been someone pulling out a knife and immediatly chopping the dumbass's genitals, to make sure he does reproduce anymore and then a mob would have clobbered him to a bloody pulp.

Sounds like a Brothers Grimm fairy tale!

PS - Corkestra AND Bjorkestra in one night?

[Van Basten II]

This is the Montreal jazz fest for you, a lot of different things going on, to give you an idea my last night schedule included Orchestra Baobab, the duo Yves Dormoy & Rodolphe Burger and finished with the outstanding trio of Renaud Fons-Garcia

Edited July 3, 2008 by Van Basten II

[Free For All]

PS - Corkestra AND Bjorkestra in one night?

.....and he didn't even mention the Dorkestra's concert. Maybe the beer dude was the leader.

[ejp626]

This is the Montreal jazz fest for you, a lot of different things going on, to give you an idea my last night schedule included Orchestra Baobab, the duo Yves Dormoy & Rodolphe Burger and finished with the outstanding trio of Renaud Fons-Garcia

Now I saw Orchestra Baobab at an outdoor festival just last week and it was pretty mellow with a lot of people dancing. True, there was an annoying neo-hippie who was showing that while white people can dance, dancing while pretending to be on magic mushrooms is an ugly thing that should be a misdemeanor at least. But a small complaint for an otherwise magical evening. Leading into the encore, the tenor sax player did a few bars of Summertime then Take Five. I wish the whole group had done Take Five, that would have been wicked. Instead, I think they ended with a song possibly covered by Bueno Vista Social Club with the chorus "recuerda me."

[Van Basten II]

PS - Corkestra AND Bjorkestra in one night?

.....and he didn't even mention the Dorkestra's concert. Maybe the beer dude was the leader.

[Joe G]

PS - Corkestra AND Bjorkestra in one night?

.....and he didn't even mention the Dorkestra's concert. Maybe the beer dude was the leader.

Storkestra, baby!

[Van Basten II]

This is the Montreal jazz fest for you, a lot of different things going on, to give you an idea my last night schedule included Orchestra Baobab, the duo Yves Dormoy & Rodolphe Burger and finished with the outstanding trio of Renaud Fons-Garcia

Now I saw Orchestra Baobab at an outdoor festival just last week and it was pretty mellow with a lot of people dancing. True, there was an annoying neo-hippie who was showing that while white people can dance, dancing while pretending to be on magic mushrooms is an ugly thing that should be a misdemeanor at least. But a small complaint for an otherwise magical evening. Leading into the encore, the tenor sax player did a few bars of Summertime then Take Five. I wish the whole group had done Take Five, that would have been wicked. Instead, I think they ended with a song possibly covered by Bueno Vista Social Club with the chorus "recuerda me."

Regarding the Baobab gig, they are a dancing band and the music is quite fine indeed. Another of those pet peeves of mine is that every time a "World Music" concert is held in Montreal we have all these people , mostly women in their 50s and their 60s who act like they are in a freakin' Club Med and behave like they're on drugs, dancing like crazies and act euphorically. Same thing happened when Tinariwen played last winter. Don't know what in the music makes them go wild that way. But there is a sociological study to be done with this kind of behaviour.

[Ed S]

I have to agree to a certain extent about the outdoor scene. Lots of loud talkers, lots of people who don't care about the music, lots of a-holes. I'll bet that 50% of the people there just come for a night out at the festival - and could not care less about the music.

Because of recent ankle surgery, my fiance was in a wheelchair. You would not believe the number of people who would walk in front of her, turn around to see if they were blocking anyone's view and upon seeing that they were - did not seem to care in the least. One of the biggest annoyances came during the performance of the group Sacbe - a straight ahead jazz trio from Mexico. It seemed like every ethnic Mexican in Montreal came to the show - and believe me - I'm all for and understand the ethnic pride thing. Flags were waving, the whole scene - kind of like during the World Cup. But apparently they had no idea that this was a JAZZ trio and were more than a little disappointed - and not afraid to say so. At one point, the piano guy/spokesperson had to say - listen - if you've come to hear mariachi - you've come to the wrong place!

Anyway, despite all that, I still had a great time and Sacbe were pretty darn good. Same can be said for much of the other stuff I heard. I've learned over the years that free outdoor concerts are as much a social scene as a musical one and have built up a tolerance for the a-holes. A beer on the head though..... I'm not sure about that one.