[By Subject] [By Date] [By Sender] [Prev] [Next]
Date: Mon, 22 Jun 92 21:53:03 CDT
From: davisonj[at]-remove-sdf.lonestar.org (John Michael Davison)
Subject: there's a mad old boy asleep on my floor
Dave writes:
> in birmingham, after the show, a redneck-looking 40 year-old from the audience
> came up to pete and drawled "son, you're too talkative, and y'all're too
> flamboyant up on stage". if you had seen this tour, you know that pete
> never moved, never spoke, and stared intently at his frets the whole show.
Not true. In Dallas, there was a 20-year-old Jazz Butcher fan (I think
her name was Melinda or Mildred...no, none of those...but it was some kind of
old-fashioned name that starts with an M...let's call her M.) who brought a
camera along to the show, hoping to get some good shots of the famous Pat
whatever-his-real-name-is. "Do you know if they would mind me taking pictures
during the show?" she asked me. I replied that I have a friend who is more
invasive than that. (He even makes recordings!)
When the show began, Pat accomodated the camera by moving close to the
camera, standing with one leg on the monitor nearby, and striking a number of
snapshot-ready poses. I was impressed; not a lot of entertainers would do
that.
Later on during the show, Pat began to get grouchy about a poor monitor
mix (supposedly the drums were too loud) and the fact that he was competing
against the sound coming out of the two adjacent dance rooms. It didn't help
his mood that the crowd kept getting thinner as the night went on, but
nonetheless it was inappropriate for him to talk one minute about how nice it
is just to play "pretty" music without all that rock and roll hyperactivity,
then start griping about the soundman "fucking off." Of course, for $6 a
ticket, the JBC weren't making enough money not to complain about things, but
whatever mood he was trying to create was not enhanced by his sharp words.
The other thing I noticed about the Dallas show was the lack of
promotion. The only thing I was in the _Dallas_Observer_ about the show was a
sentence that went something like, "From the U.K. to the U.S. comes the Jazz
Butcher at Club Clearview, etc." Nothing beyond that. There were some
die-hard fans there, most of whom found out about the show either by checking
the club listings in the _Observer_ or some similar entertainment guide, or by
word of mouth. Why was the promotion this poor? Were press releases issued
and ignored?
I guess that Pat is reluctant to capitalize on his association with
Love and Rockets and the Woodentops, presumably because he stands to lose some
friends of he started doing that. That's just a guess, but honestly, I don't
understand why stuff like that wasn't mentioned in the _Observer_. The turnout
might have been substantially better.
Speaking of ignoring things, upon being told that Dave Whittemore has
plenty of DAT recordings of Jazz Butcher/Jazz Butcher Conspiracy performances,
M. expressed an interest in getting in touch with this Whittemore fellow.
Since I didn't know Dave's address off the bat, I gave her my work number. She
hasn't called yet. Maybe she thought I was trying to hustle her...
Oh well; less duping work for Dave to do.
Ho ho ho, won't she be surprised when she sees my friend's name all
over the Jazz Butcher live album! Hee hee hee.
If anyone knows a 20-year-old Jazz Butcher fan from Dallas whose first
name starts with an M, give her Dave's address.
davisonj[at]-remove-sdf.lonestar.org {until August 21}