I wake up today and I feel even worse. Throat, head, head, ears even appear to be
clogged with phlegm and my voice is reduced to a croak. I can’t read or concentrate, ruling out
work, reading or any form of conceptual writing.
The last thing I want to do is lie in bed and listen to music. I really need to be mentally active in some way
which reduces my options to watching DVDs.
Fortunately, I’ve developed a reserve of music DVDs that
I’ve yet to watch and so have an opportunity to do some catching up. In between spells of sleep, I manage to
watch:
(AV 23) Ramones – Raw
(2004)
This is a documentary based largely on films shot by Marky
Ramone during his last 8 years in the band.
Interspersed with this is a live performance shot for Italian TV in 1980,
a primo performance of 8 tracks, news reports and other items. (The Italian show can also be played as a stand alone
item on the disc.) It doesn’t hold together all that well – there’s really no sense of any
theme or narrative arc to hold it together – but individual bits and pieces are
worth viewing. Among these are scenes
shot from the inside of buses and cars of insane, mostly South American, fans,
a performance of Take It As It Comes with The Doors Robbie Krieger on guitar
and a visit by the band to the Melbourne Zoo.
(AV 24) Jimi Hendrix
– Band Of Gypsys (2011 re release)
This is a documentary put together by the Hendrix
Estate. It tries to argue that Jimi’s
break up of the Experience in favour of an all black trio marked a significant
evolution in Jimi’s appeal to Afro American audiences. I’m not entirely convinced by this argument
which is very much undermined by some of the content of the documentary. It
makes perfectly clear that the band was put together under pressure from
elements in the Afro American community and that band’s only gigs at The
Fillmore on 31 December 1969 and 1 January 1970 were held to meet a contractual
commitment for a live album (i.e Band Of Gypsys, reissued as the 2 disc Live At
The Fillmore East). Even more importantly,
a number of the talking heads attest that at this stage of his career, Jimi
wanted to do nothing more than record in the studio with as many different
musicians as took his fancy. Interspersed
throughout the documentary are 8 performances from one of the gigs. A DVD option allows these tracks to be played
on their own in full, resulting in an one hour performance. Irrespective with how you view the historical
impact of the shows, this musical footage and content is riveting
(AV 25) Nick Cave And
The Bad Seeds – The Abattoir Blues Tour (2007)
With the exception of this year’s gig at the Myer Music
Bowl, this was the only Cave tour I missed in about 20 years. The gig to have seen on that tour was the one
at the Melbourne Town Hall but it sold out very quickly and I didn’t want to
hear this band at the other tour venue, Festival Hall. The footage of this show explains why. Disc 1
was shot at The Brixton Academy in London and incorporates a gospel choir in
much the same way as the Town Hall gig, I believe. Disc 2, shot at The Hammersmith Odeon also in
London would have been in the vein of the Festival Hall show. Naturally, tracks the Abattoir Blues/Lyre Of
Orpheus albums are highlighted with only a handful of classics thrown in. There’s nothing especially significant about
the release other than being a professionally shot and edited film of one of
the world’s great live outfits.
By the end of the day, my situation worsens. Something
appears to have happened to the heating again.
After her return from work, I set up “M” with the ladder and she ascends
into the ceiling. The unit is fine but a
section of the heating duct has collapsed.
It’s in a spot I cannot reach and, in any case, I’m not well. What else can happen?
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