reviewing a band multiple times - do you ever run out of things to say?

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OK, I'm writing yet another live review of my favourite live band in the world. (Fonda 500). and i'm having a really hard time, because i'm find that, although there is very little that i love more than talking about how great and wonderful and worthy a band they are, i have already SAID every conceivable thing that i could say about them already.

how many ways are there to say THIS IS THE GREATEST LIVE BAND EVER, IF YOU DO NOT SEE THEM AND LOVE THEM, YOU ARE STUPID. (I have actually said this word for word in a review previously)? have you ever burned out on reviewing a band that you love, because you've tried to write about them too much?

― kate, Friday, 13 December 2002 14:47 (twenty-three years ago)

i am trying to put a different angle on this review, because the two shows that i saw in the past week were both Xmas shows, saying something about how xmas and rock should be mutually incompatible because xmas is about screaming infant JOY and rock is about cool - which is about detachment and therefore incompatible with displays of excessive emotion. because fonda 500, like xmas, are about total abandonment to screaming infant joy.

i'm having a real hard time making this article a proper review, and not a screaming diatribe about things that have nothing to do with the music in question...

― kate, Friday, 13 December 2002 14:50 (twenty-three years ago)

Who's it for? If youve not written abt them for these ppl before then write the usual; otherwise make it the screaming diatribe. Peasy!

I am doing the FT end-of-year thing now and have this problem massively.

― Tom (Groke), Friday, 13 December 2002 14:52 (twenty-three years ago)

Depending on how frequently you write about them, it might be okay to repeat yourself.
Remember that 85 per cent ( a made up figure from the top of my head) of journalism is about the content not the creator. I've always had a hard time writing about bands that I really love because there's so much personal hoo-ha in there that I don't think my readers really care about.
Y'know, trying to convince them that Band X really IS the best thing going without coming off like a drooling nutbar.

― Horace Mann, Friday, 13 December 2002 14:54 (twenty-three years ago)

It can be useful in this situation to talk to other people--i.e., someone else you went to the show with, perhaps--they might suggest a direction you hadn't considered before, maybe even provide you with some anecdotes or something. (Bringing other people into your reviews = almost always classic.)

Otherwise...uh, Greil Marcus & Mekons to thread!

― s woods, Friday, 13 December 2002 14:57 (twenty-three years ago)

"rock is about cool - which is about detachment and therefore incompatible with displays of excessive emotion"

what? quick somebody phone Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Little Richard, Paul McCartney, Jimi Hendrix, Roger Daltrey, Iggy Pop, Elton John, David Johanson, Little Eva, Joe Strummer, Leo Sayer, Cat Stevens, D. Boon, Linda Ronstandt, Darby Crash, Hugo Boss, Imelda Marcos, Jello Biafra, Bruce Springsteen, Robert Smith, Ian MacKaye, Isaac Hanson, Otis Redding and Jack White.

― Horace Mann, Friday, 13 December 2002 14:59 (twenty-three years ago)

I am doing the FT end-of-year thing now and have this problem massively.

I'd work on the assumption that the majority of people who casually read FT articles (and a Best of 2002 piece would certainly attract the casual reader) are not those who have read all your NYLPM pieces or are regulare ILXers.

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Friday, 13 December 2002 15:06 (twenty-three years ago)

i have only reviewed a F500 single for these folks before, so i could repeat myself. just hate doing it.

horace, i should say morelike "rock, 2002 retrofetishistic version" is about detachment and cool, therefore incompatible.

the ranting is actually coming out more interesting than the reviewing, so i may just go with it...

i am bringing in the opinion of another person, because i ran into Miss AMP and she tried to make me stay for the headliner, who she loved, and i left 20 seconds into the set, becuase they encapsulated everything I HATE about music, while fonda encapsulate everything I LOVE about music. it's a mystery to me how a person can love both...

― kate, Friday, 13 December 2002 15:07 (twenty-three years ago)

i like writing about the same bands/songs multiple times because it allows me to get into different specifics each time, and pushes me to pick up on things i might've missed the first time. i hate when everyone says the same 2 or 3 things about a band -- just try and come up with anything i haven't heard already, please.

the only problem is when i have a particular comment that i feel worth repeating every time i speak on the matter in case anyone hasn't heard me say it previously, in which case i feel like a soundbyte quipper, which i hate.

― Al (sitcom), Friday, 13 December 2002 15:10 (twenty-three years ago)

Kate,

I feel like I don't know you anymore. I think it's time I moved out. I'm staying at Colin's house until I can find a place of my own, preferably by the train tracks. I'll be by in the morning to pick up my duvet.

― Horace Mann, Friday, 13 December 2002 15:13 (twenty-three years ago)

HUH? AMP, is that you again?

― kate, Friday, 13 December 2002 15:15 (twenty-three years ago)

i am also procrasturbating like mad, because i have GOT to have this done by the time suzy comes home from her interview and demands her computer back...

― kate, Friday, 13 December 2002 15:18 (twenty-three years ago)

Hmmm. What about going into the mystery of that "500" in the band's name. Why not 1000? 1000 is twice as much as 500. Come to think of it, why not 5000?

― Paula G., Friday, 13 December 2002 15:24 (twenty-three years ago)

do you know, i don't actually know where their name comes from? i've never even asked. it's just one more of those totally random lovable things about them. you don't ask questions, you just go WOO-WOO!

am i alone in never really caring where bands get their names from? probably because i've been in enough bands to know that it's usually a process of elimination of finding the one thing no one hates, which is a guarantee that it will be totally meaningless in about 3 months.

― kate, Friday, 13 December 2002 15:28 (twenty-three years ago)

Yes, band names are usually v. meaningless to the band, but can sometimes add colour to a feature, but only if it's a "hey here's this new band" feature, and not "here's a band you should already know" feature.

― Horace Mann, Friday, 13 December 2002 15:31 (twenty-three years ago)

>>>it's usually a process of elimination of finding the one thing no one hates

I'm imagining a band practice where this method is used to write the songs themselves:
Jane: The chords for this one are E, C#m, A and then the chorus-
Dick: Wait, I don't like the sound of that C#m minor
Spot: And I don't like that A. I hate A.
Jane: Okay, this one goes E, E, E, E, E. And then the chorus, E, E...

― Paula G., Friday, 13 December 2002 15:35 (twenty-three years ago)

what are you talking about? this is how spacemen 3 composed some of their most classic "tunes".

― kate, Friday, 13 December 2002 15:46 (twenty-three years ago)

Matt - yeah I know that (I think most of the readers will be regular ILXers though), but writing which is boring for the writer is even more boring for the reader.

― Tom (Groke), Friday, 13 December 2002 15:51 (twenty-three years ago)

instant gratification... i love the web.

here it is.

― kate, Friday, 13 December 2002 18:05 (twenty-three years ago)

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