6 & 7 July 2013 (Days 187/8) – Catch Up Viewing

It was a strange weekend.  “M” and I did a lot of things around the house we’d been putting off for a while, did shopping, went to Ikea and watched both of Robert Downey Jr’s Sherlock Holmes flicks.  I was obviously aided by the Bulldogs playing in Canberra (an underwhelming  4 point win against cellar dwellers Greater Western Sydney) but it doesn't explain how I was able to fit in watching a number of DVDs.

(AV 19) The Black Crowes – Who Killed That Bird Out On Your Window Sill…The Movie (1992)

This is really clever movie.  It gives fans an idea of the band of the height of its fame through combing a number of different sources including documentary type footage, an MTV Unplugged appearance, video clips, news footage, concert footage, montages and live in studio footage.  Collectively these cover all of the best tracks from their classic first two albums.  Their best known tracks, Hard To Handle, She Talks To Angels, Thorn In My Side,  Remedy and Sting Me are all represented by their official videos and so the surprises come elsewhere.  The studio performances of Black Moon Creeping which starts the movie and Sometimes Salvation are pretty impressive but the absolute standout is a live performance of Stare It Cold.  Shot at, presumably a festival, before a huge crowd on a sodden field in Moscow, the band to rises to the challenge of winning over both the crowd and the armed soldiers deployed as concert security.

(AV20) The Black Lips – Live In Israel (2007)

This is a DVD shot in a Tel Aviv club that was included as a bonus “Australian Tour Edition” disc with my copy of their studio album Good Bad Not Evil.  Reputedly an outrageous live act, any antics are kept on the cutting room floor, keeping the emphasis firmly on their take on garage rock.  Three of the five tracks, I Saw A Ghost (Lean), Cold Hands and a storming O Katrina! come from Good Bad Not Evil.  (The other tracks are Boomerang ad Dirty Hands.) The performance is a suitably sweaty one that is lapped up by the Israeli audience.  But, as all of the cameras are kept firmly on the band and up close, any advantages that could derive from filming in the relatively exotic location are lost.  Indeed the gig could really have occurred anywhere at any time.

(AV21) The Who – At Kilburn 1977 (2008)

I love some of the things written on DVD covers.  In some ways they’re like descriptions of houses up for sale which are flagged as has having “great renovation potential” when it has practically collapsed.  The cover of this DVD states this “…is a holy grail for fans after decades of anticipation”.
Hmmm! I suspect what should have been written that for true fans of The Who, this is the release they’ve been dreading for decades.  It captures Keith Moon’s second last appearance with the band, the show being put on to allow concert footage of key songs to be filmed for inclusion in their The Kids Are Alright documentary.  Rather than trying to explain what actually happened, I’ll let The Who’s biographer Dave Marsh tell the story:

“The Kilburn show was a disaster.  Moon hadn’t practiced “in three years” (in John’s [Entwistle] words), and he was a nervous wreck, distraught at having to face a public appearance in such gruesome physical condition.  For the first time, there was no way to conceal his weaknesses: They showed in his potbelly and in his playing.

The rest of the band was almost as nervous…….”That was the first time I can remember being drunk before a show”, said Entwistle.  Between their ragged playing and the necessity of stopping and starting while camera angles and lenses were changed, the show was such a negative experience that no one could have blamed them if none of The Who ever took a stage again.”

(Dave Marsh, Before I Get Old. The Story Of The Who. First paperback edition 1983, page 494)

Some of the band are certainly nervous; Moon frequently speaks between numbers seemingly using his renowned charm as a form of apology for his appearance and performance and Pete Townshend is a ball of nervous energy.   Despite Moon, the DVD starts off OK, mainly because the producers cut out all of the between numbers guff.  I Can’t Explain, Substitute, Baba O’Riley and Entwistle’s marvellous My Wife are good enough, although I’ve seen and heard these tracks done better elsewhere. An attempt at a medley of Tommy tracks is such a disaster that Townshend cuts it short only for Moon to beg the band into playing, of all things, Tommy’s Holiday Camp.  Shakin’ All Over and My Generation are, at best, passable, but Who Are You is a complete mess probably due to a dramatic rearrangement.  Won’t Get Fooled Again starts off fine but seems to lose momentum as it proceeds. (The same can’t be said of the awesome version capture at a subsequent performance – Moon’s last appearance – that ends The Kids Are Alright.)

But there is a very positive reason for buying this.  There is a second disc that captures a live performance of the band at the Coliseum, a London opera venue, towards the end of 1969.  Unfortunately the picture quality is nothing better than adequate (which probably would have prevented a release on its own) and the producers have been clever enough to include it here.  Watch this awesome performance – split evenly between tracks from Tommy and earlier tracks – and you can see and hear just why the Kilburn performance is so disappointing.  And Keith Moon is so astonishing here that you’d swear they had changed drummers.  Remember him this way.

(AV 22) The Gun Club – Live At the Hacienda 1983/84 (2006)

This DVD contains footage of two shows at the legendary Manchester venue taken a year apart and shows this legendary cowpunk band at full throttle.  The footage is nothing more than adequate and is focused once again just of the musicians; I suspect the tapes were probably made by venue staff.  Collectively, the band powers through some of their best material.  The 83 show, featuring Jeffrey Lee Pierce seated at the edge of the stage for much of the gig, comes out swinging with the lethal combination of Fire Of Love followed by their cover of Creedence’s Run Through The Jungle.  Fire Spirit,  Death Party and Sex Beat are among the remaining tracks but the relentless nature of the playing does become a bit wearying by the end. 

The 84 show, which appears to have previously seen the light as a standalone video called Preachin’ The Blues, is a better paced show and all the stronger for it.  Pierce this time is not seated and plays guitar on a number of tracks starting with the brilliant opener Hey Juana.  Sex Beat and Fire Of Love get another run and Preachin’ The Blues is inspired, arguably the best track on the entire disc.  The closing trio of Goodbye Johnny, Give Up The Sun and Sleeping In Blood City is magnificent.