A Long, Long Way to Go

It’s Labor Day, but there’s still a lot of work to be done.

That became painfully obvious three nights ago when I went to see someone perform at a pretty well-known spot for live music here in the area.

Not the headliner, mind you.  He was terrific.  He put on a great show, had a lot of energy and enthusiasm and interacted well with the crowd.  His songs are entertaining and he mixed in just the right amount of cover songs and, as importantly, chose the right cover songs as well.  He is someone that is already having a notable degree of success and is surely poised for more.

The opening acts, on the other hand, were where I was left shaking my head.  The old saying, ‘So close but yet so far’ quickly comes to mind.

Getting an opening slot for a performer the caliber of Friday night’s headliner is, in itself, something those acts could hang their hats on (including the first one, who actually wore a hat on-stage).  You get in good with him and maybe you become a regular opener as he continues to get booked around and out of town.

The first performer had an interesting sound vocally, although her speaking voice needs work.  When talking to the audience it was way too fast.  Coupled with a fairly high pitch it made for probably only about half of what she was saying coming through clearly.  And no, it had nothing to do with anything the sound guy was or wasn’t doing.

The second opening act was a guy-girl duo.  The appearance of the male screamed, “I want to look like (tonight’s headliner),” which was in direct contrast to his singing, which told me, “I want to be Michael Bublé.”  His partner sang and played, gulp, ukulele.  I grimace at her instrument choice because – it’s my blog, I get to express my opinions – too many females seem to be picking up the ukulele for the wrong reason.  I honestly feel that they’re popping up like Starbucks locations because it has become the ‘in’ thing right now.

If the above paragraph constituted all they’d done, you’d have a reason to say that nothing horrible was done and that these are just opinions and not facts that point toward there being lots of work still to be done.  But next is when I tell you what transpired after each opener left the stage.

The first came out and sat in the front row, and proceeded to be a huge distraction.  From incessant conversation to mauling her partner, it became increasingly difficult to give undivided attention to the stage.  I’m not a prude and can tolerate a little PDA now and then, albeit tastefully, but know your limits.

The second opening act finished and came off stage and proceeded to sit in the first row as well – and follow the first one’s lead, both in terms of affection and conversation.  As in, right in full view of the headliner.

When they were on-stage they also plugged their music – almost ad nauseam – in terms of being available on iTunes.  Knowing that on that platform they’re going to lose a percentage of the sales to Apple, I looked at their website to see why they wouldn’t be plugging their music being for sale on there, where they’d get to keep 100% of it.  Well, it’s because it’s not on there.  Why you can purchase it (electronically) from a third party but not the artists themselves is beyond me.

In the words of Phil Collins, “And it would seem we’ve still got a long long way to go.”