Do Clothes Make the Man? Does The Venue Make The Band?

Wednesday, 3 March 2010 , 0 Comments

In 1993 I attended an Allman Brothers concert at the Great Woods amphitheatre in the suburbs of Boston. Little did I know that this would become one of the more infamous shows in the bands then 25 year history, one that would add fuel to the fire of the eventual firing of Dickey Betts . You see a couple of weeks before, after the band’s gig in Saratoga, NY Dickey tied one on, allegedly got abusive with his wife and shoved a couple of cops who responded to her call. Back in a NY courtroom the day of the Great Woods show, the band called Ozzy Osbourne guitarist, Zakk Wylde as a last minute replacement. To see this shaggy, 60s originated, jam band fronted by Ozzy Osbourne’s guitarist, clad in spandex and sporting a bull-eye guitar was at the very least bizarre. The leg-spread stance and up and down pumping guitar playing motion didn’t do much to diffuse the oddity.

Yet, it was a memorable event. In fact the whole thing was so memorable it was documented on the bootleg “Zakk Goes Wylde.”

The Allman’s fronted by a heavy meddler in full costume is the equivalent of Pearl Jam performing in tuxedos, Patti Smith in a debutante ball gown or Bruce Springsteen in a dress. Michael Jackson wore a faux military jacket and white glove, Mick Jagger still wears a belly shirt in live performance (yeah sure he just happens to experience wardrobe malfunctions that bare his midriff), Ozzy Osbourne wears a long black coat and a big cross, and Iggy Pop shows off a veiny torso while performing shirtless. That’s how you know all is right with the world.

Pairing the “man” with a wardrobe that doesn’t sync gets your attention. Can a pairing an artist and a venue induce the same reaction? Let’s get back to Iggy, here he is above performing recently at the Tibet House Benefit Concert at held at Carnegie Hall in NY City. Carnegie Hall is renowned for its acoustics and beauty and is one of the famous concert halls in the world. It was paid for by Andrew Carnegie and built to the home of the New York Symphony Orchestra. It’s hosted orchestras from around the world. One is not likely to associate Iggy Pop with Carnegie Hall. And yet there he was.

The Psychedelic Furs of “Pretty In Pink” Fame to this day is a band most comfortable sneaking onto stage in dry ice cloud and intense colored stage lighting. The band usually wearing sunglasses during the set. I caught one of their performances on a summer’s evening, outdoors. Thing was, it was still light out when the band hit the stage. They were so freaked out I thought I was going to see a Wicked Witch of the West melting first hand. On that evening The Furs were one post-punk fish out of water.

It was big news when the Rolling Stones played the Phoenix, a club in Toronto in 1989 and when Guns N Roses played the John Varvatos boutique in NY City earlier this month, but the venue is a much overlooked consideration for most concerts these days. This is particularly true for the miserable ampitheatres, awful sports arenas and horrendous stadiums which host the biggest names in the biz.

Going to see the Ramones, the Cramps or Talking Heads at CBGB in NY City was like going to the Louvre to see the Mona Lisa. The venue mattered. There were clubs that offered similar experiences through out the country, The Rathskeller (The Rat) in Boston, the Whiskey-A-Go-Go in Los Angeles and Mabuhay Gardens in San Francisco. Just as you wouldn’t expect to have seen the bands that played these venues play the pristine concert halls, you were unlikely to see acts like New Kids on the Block, `N Sync or The Backstreet Boys playing at The Rat.

If you need further proof of the importance of making a good pairing between the artist and the venue think no further back than a little Hollywood production featuring Jake and Elwood Blues. We learned then you’ve gotta work pretty hard to bring a hostile audience around.

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