RE: so cal gig spam--Review of Performance

["future perfect" <artists@hazardfactor.com>]

I appreciated the honesty that Gary showed- I wish more reviews were that
honest. I don't think it is necessary to have a background on the artist to
critique them, the critic (or looping fan, in this case) knows what he/she
likes based on their own musical experience. I know I (and most other
people) can listen to a CD/live music by an unfamiliar group and give an
opinion. He just happened to type his out. Personally, I am  not a fan of
the 'I am so avant and out there' music, so it was interesting to see
someone type out something which resembles the conversation I may have 
while
watching a concert of this kind.. Remember, Stu did post his show to the
list (so perhaps someone would go and talk about it later?).
Bad reviews come with the territory- I have gotten a few. The will of any
type of artist will win over the feelings generated by a bad review. Lets 
at
least be thankful the avant/noise fans out there haven't yet screamed 'you
just don't get it, man!'

Dave Eichenberger- guitars.loops.devices
http://www.hazardfactor.com



>
> Gary,
>
> I can see that you obviously didn't enjoy watching Stuart's band. the
> problem as I see it with a review like this is that it's without context 
>-
> I've not seen any posts from you that spell out what you do like, which
> would help us to evaluate what you don't, if you see what I mean.
> For those
> of us reading this, we could interpret your review as 1) the informed
> opinion of a critic well versed in the musical currency of
> Stuart's band, 2)
> the rather common experience of many people when encountering aggressive
> free improv not based on melody or conventional harmony,
> 3)somewhere between
> the two...
>
> This is not intended to invalidate your opinions, just to suggest that we
> are all careful that there is context in our critique, and I would 
>usually
> recommend as a course of action giving the artist the benefit of
> the doubt -
> I tend to be reticent to write off a particular performance or
> artist unless
> there appears to be a wealth of information in favour of my opinion from
> other people who are knowledgeable about what the artist is 'trying' to 
>do
> and are able to critique their ability to reach those goals. Of
> course, this
> is art not science so even then there are things that I like that get
> villified everywhere and vice versa things I hate that lots of people I
> respect love.
>

>