It's the little things that can brighten your day. Today, it's been the delivery of a T-shirt from Libertino, this phenomenal clip of Jon Spencer Blues Explosion in their prime performing on an Australian TV show and the discovery of Vansplaining.
Low's Alan Sparhawk has been reviewing bands' gear-loading skills and techniques with expertise and wry humour on Twitter for some time now, so the fact that it's blossomed into a video series makes perfect sense.
In Episode 1, he meets the fantastic Our Girl, newly arrived in Seattle, and immediately throws himself into action on roadie duties, helping them to lug their kit down to the basement venue. In amongst the candid behind-the-scenes footage that offers us non-musicians an insight into the unglamorous mundanity of touring, there's an eye-opening conversation about the exorbitant cost of coming to the US for non-American bands and some record store chat about Insane Clown Posse's celebration of the mystery of magnets. Credit to Alan's son for perfectly describing the purpose of effects pedals: "They're like Instagram filters, except for sound."
One YouTube commenter has been moved to say "Sort of can't believe this brought up feelings of missing loading in/out" - but, in light of the long, painful live music drought that we're all enduring, such sentiments are entirely understandable. And Sparhawk's comment as the band's van heads off into the night, bound for the next venue, is especially pertinent (and poignant) today, in the face of the Tories' naked antipathy to the arts: "[Musicians] are just trying to put some positivity and love into the world."
No comments:
Post a Comment