HW: Astoria Gig

[Jon Jarrett]

On Tue, 23 Dec 2003, Nick Medford wrote:

> On Wed, 24 Dec 2003 00:10:29 -0000, Richard Lockwood
> <rich at BEERPOWEREDNOISEFRENZY.CO.UK> wrote:
>
> >As far as I'm concerned, they ROCKED.  Yes, dull passages, but when they
> >rocked out, they rocked.  Seriously rocked.
>
> Agreed!

        I thought this was a party kind of gig. Not everything was that
perfect, but we all had fun anyway I think and the band seemed to enjoy
themselves. Not the sort of letter-perfect performances the previous two
parties were, and probably not releasable I fear (or perhaps I hope) but I
did enjoy it very much.

> >And, much as I love Huw, was his set a case of "HEY!  LOOK!  HUW CAN STAND
> >UP AND BORE EVERYONE SH1TLESS"?
>
> Not agreed!
>
> I thought Huw was superb- easily the best acoustic spot I've seen him do.
> Those were the definitive versions of Solitary Mind Games and Waiting for
> Tomorrow as far as I'm concerned- great fiery playing, and great to see Huw
> up and at 'em again.

        Huw has so far been the only acoustic player I can watch and not
get bored with. I remember the opening set he did at one of the Fairfield
Halls gigs, he had an uninterested crowd all talking as he started and by
the end he had everyone hanging on each note, enthralled. It was amazing.
He wasn't *that* good this time but I thought he was well worth the money,
and that his version of `Solitary Mind Games' then rather beat the one he
did with Spacehead at Walthamstow even though that had the power on. After
the times he's had recently it's really heart-warming to see him up and at
it. Why is though that so many of the people I see at the Standard are in
fact aged fate-scarred guitarists getting their pain out through
music? Can it be some factor of the audience, I ask myself... Anyway, I'm
all for Huw at the moment. Rich needs to listen to less Anal Cunt and more
Jefferson Airplane :-) Yours,
                              Jonathan

--
                Jonathan Jarrett, Birkbeck College, London
    jjarrett at chiark.greenend.org.uk/ejarr01 at students.bbk.ac.uk
  "As much as the vision of the blind man improves with the rising sun,
       So too does the intelligence of the fool after good advice."
       (Bishop Theodulf of Orleans, late-eight/early-ninth century)