It was magnificent. Voodoo Shilton is one exceptionally laid-back guy but don't take this for absence of feeling, he is not some jazz technician who has an 'endless scales' setting. Last night he showed that in a spectacular way.
Last week he debuted a song that had itched at him less than an hour before the show. He absolutely had to work it out before he started the set or it would haunt him and probably mess him up for playing anything else. Sure enough, he did that and I was very impressed with it (Blog: Phoenix and Voodoo Shining at the Circus)
He announced last night he would be doing the song again and I was thinking, hmmm, this will be a treat as I wonder what he did with it since last time. It starts out cool. And then all hell breaks loose. I know that's such a cheesy expression but, man, this was so not Voodoo that the reaction, I guess from everybody, was one of jaw-dropping astonishment. Just wow!
He shouted over the song, "WHERE'S THE PLANE?"
In those few words, there was the anger, anguish, bewilderment, and every emotion you could imagine regarding a tragic story that CNN has treated like a never-ending cash cow, thus exacerbating enormously the pain of those who really lost family or friends on that flight.
Perhaps I stretch it but I heard a metaphor for where are the prisoners, where are the torture jails, where are the off-shore tax havens, where are the people who do all these things, and, well, where's the beef. Cora was asking that question thirty years ago and she probably died before she ever got it.
WHERE'S THE PLANE
Where indeed.
Huge congratulations to Voodoo for many things about this song. It's not a surprise that he pushes forward but to do it so fast is shocking and awe-inspiring. Unleash the passion, Brother Voodoo!
Voodoo was a bit concerned about showing such anger from the stage but, what a shock, I have some thoughts on that. I submit that the best music comes during time of war. This is no endorsement of war but rather a recognition of the effect of stress (apparently) on everyone. You can see it in swing jazz from the forties, hippie rock from the sixties, whatever ... and you can also see how it decayed starting in the late seventies and was taken over by an endless stream of musicians and bands with absolutely nothing to say. Metallica is mad at something but no-one really knows what or even particularly cares, it's just really cool guitar playing. Hendrix had a major problem with machine guns and he left no question of it ... and that was the coolest guitar playing.
(Ed: what about Yugoslavia, Iraq, Afghanistan, etc?)
Regardless of what was in the news, no-one saw them as real wars ... and they weren't.
Anger is one of the passions and I believe it's a mistake to suppress it. Expressing it as Voodoo did last night was in the finest tradition of music, the sixties, Cat's Art MusikCircus, and every righteous protest there ever was. Congratulations.
Last week he debuted a song that had itched at him less than an hour before the show. He absolutely had to work it out before he started the set or it would haunt him and probably mess him up for playing anything else. Sure enough, he did that and I was very impressed with it (Blog: Phoenix and Voodoo Shining at the Circus)
He announced last night he would be doing the song again and I was thinking, hmmm, this will be a treat as I wonder what he did with it since last time. It starts out cool. And then all hell breaks loose. I know that's such a cheesy expression but, man, this was so not Voodoo that the reaction, I guess from everybody, was one of jaw-dropping astonishment. Just wow!
He shouted over the song, "WHERE'S THE PLANE?"
In those few words, there was the anger, anguish, bewilderment, and every emotion you could imagine regarding a tragic story that CNN has treated like a never-ending cash cow, thus exacerbating enormously the pain of those who really lost family or friends on that flight.
Perhaps I stretch it but I heard a metaphor for where are the prisoners, where are the torture jails, where are the off-shore tax havens, where are the people who do all these things, and, well, where's the beef. Cora was asking that question thirty years ago and she probably died before she ever got it.
WHERE'S THE PLANE
Where indeed.
Huge congratulations to Voodoo for many things about this song. It's not a surprise that he pushes forward but to do it so fast is shocking and awe-inspiring. Unleash the passion, Brother Voodoo!
Voodoo was a bit concerned about showing such anger from the stage but, what a shock, I have some thoughts on that. I submit that the best music comes during time of war. This is no endorsement of war but rather a recognition of the effect of stress (apparently) on everyone. You can see it in swing jazz from the forties, hippie rock from the sixties, whatever ... and you can also see how it decayed starting in the late seventies and was taken over by an endless stream of musicians and bands with absolutely nothing to say. Metallica is mad at something but no-one really knows what or even particularly cares, it's just really cool guitar playing. Hendrix had a major problem with machine guns and he left no question of it ... and that was the coolest guitar playing.
(Ed: what about Yugoslavia, Iraq, Afghanistan, etc?)
Regardless of what was in the news, no-one saw them as real wars ... and they weren't.
Anger is one of the passions and I believe it's a mistake to suppress it. Expressing it as Voodoo did last night was in the finest tradition of music, the sixties, Cat's Art MusikCircus, and every righteous protest there ever was. Congratulations.
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