TOFOG in Portland (Part 3)
Aug. 21st, 2001 01:50 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
annathepiperEdited 8/22/01 8:58pm and 8/23/01 6:55pm, and added to LJ as a backdated entry 5/15/03 -- herein being the descriptions of the opening acts leading up to TOFOG's performance
The Comedian, or, "No, You CAN'T Have a Hershey's Bar!"
Russell Gilbert, the Other Russell of whom I'd already heard via Gruntlanders, was first on the stage. He came out with his pants riding down his backside, made a joke about "30 odd centimeters of crack", and got rowdier from there.
Cyn says that Australians are pretty raucous people in general, and if that's so, Russell Gilbert seemed a typical example of the breed. His humor involved tricks with cigarettes, a proposed fun trick to play on hitchhikers (get one of your mates to hide in the trunk, and then after you pick up a hitchhiker get him to bang on the back seat and scream, "HELP HELP, he's a psychopath!" while you make alarming faces at your poor passenger), and a story about American kids being "little buggers" and how he'd seen a noisy child pitching temper tantrums in a store because his mother wouldn't buy him a Hershey's bar. The punch line of this story was, pretty much unsurprisingly, wanting to whap the kid and bellow that he wasn't getting a Hershey's bar, and then to whap the mother and bellow that she should have whapped the kid one.
Some of the fans I'd seen talking about shows in Austin and Chicago hadn't liked Gilbert. Me, I don't necessarily think he was bad, though I don't personally care for his style of humor. But I did at least get mildly amused by him, so I can safely say that he did do his job. Also, his act wasn't particularly long, so there wasn't time to get bored.
Soon enough, he yielded the stage to the next act.
Danielle Spencer, or, "Ah, So She's a Coherent Tori Amos!"
I'd already heard that Danielle Spencer and her band would be touring with the Grunts, and initially found this interesting on the grounds that Danielle is a former girlfriend of Russell's (Crowe, that is, not Gilbert). He had in fact written one of the songs on Gaslight about her, a lovely ballad by the name of "Danielle", and so when I got the news that she would be touring with the Grunts I looked out for some word about what her act was like. I was bummed to hear that she'd gotten a chilly reception from the audience in Coffs Harbor in Australia, but glad to hear that she had gotten a very warm welcome from the audiences in Texas. One poster to Gruntland.com (a male one, who'd come to the show on the 18th with his wife) posted a very eloquent review of her performance and in short enjoyed her immensely. My online friend Boudicca who had attended the same show also spoke very highly of her, and so I'd gone to her web page to see if I could find samples of her music.
Her site had three samples in RealPlayer format, and Cyn and I played them all and pronounced them quite good. We all thought she was quite pretty as well.
She had three other musicians with her: a backup singer, a cellist, and a guitarist. Danielle herself played the keyboards, and periodically beamed out at the audience and graciously waved to us as we cheered for her. She sounded a little surprised and very pleased that we liked her, and mentioned that she was about to release her first record, which would only be sold in Australia though it could be ordered from her web site.
Her cellist was quite talented, and I loved the way Danielle's voice blended with that of her backup singer. I remember thinking at one point that it seemed odd to me that she had no one on percussion to keep the time -- a bit of my own experiences with making music in my jamming group coming to the fore, maybe. But her little ensemble went quite well without drumming of any kind, and although I personally don't often listen to the style of music she plays, I found it quite enjoyable to listen to and even sang a bit on the songs I recognized from her site. Cyn turned to me at one point and remarked that she'd worked out that the time signature on one of them seemed to be 12/8, so I wasn't the only one having musicgeek thoughts as we listened to her.
My attention wandered, but not much. The one time it did I noticed a roadie off to the left just offstage, leaning over a guitar and apparently tuning it. Though the roadie's back was to me from the angle I saw him, I could tell that the guitar he had in his hands had to be Russell's.
All in all we enjoyed her performance a great deal.
Break time, and Russell Gilbert came back out to encourage everyone to applaud and introduce the next act, an Aboriginal dancer who was there (as we were told) to bring a "message of peace".
I took the opportunity to dart off to the ladies' room, since the break was welcome indeed. On the way I bought another bottle of water, and while I was in line to wait to get into the ladies' room I noticed a bit of a disturbance at the nearby exit. I only caught part of what was going on, but I overheard what sounded like a security guard calling for female security to come do something about a blonde woman who was making a nuisance of herself.
I came back out again just in time, for by the time I emerged the dancer was on stage. It took me a bit of effort to get back to Cyn and Rhiannon, since some of the audience wouldn't let me through even though I kept calling that my friends were over there, and calling Cyn's name. I did finally make it back, though, pretty much just as the dancer was getting started.
Burnum Burnum, or, "The Message of Peace"
There is a considerable amount of bravery, I think, involved in being willing to get on a stage in America clad in very little more than a loincloth and daubs of mud. For that alone I must applaud Burnum Burnum, the dancer who was the second act of the evening.
Some of the commentary I'd seen about this gentleman from those in the Austin shows was negative, and that was a shame -- because I also think that the gesture of bringing a message of peace to the audience was a thing that should also be applauded. It was a strange sort of note to have in the evening, but I am not sorry I saw it in the slightest. I cannot remember whether he was introduced by name -- I know his name now ('now' being defined as 7/19/02, when I am updating this part of my writeup to properly reflect Mr. Burnum Burnum's identity!) only because I learned it after the fact -- but his appearance and his performance were absolutely memorable.
The spotlights played across his form in lurid shades, and there was something raw and elemental in the systematic way he pranced back and forth across the stage, now gesturing skyward, now crouching down like a creature of the wild. As he danced, a didgeridoo droned in the background while sticks clapped out a rhythm. Between the lighting, the music, and his dancing, the experience was almost dreamlike. And again, kept short enough that there wasn't time to get bored, though I am speaking from the perspective of someone who actually enjoyed what she was watching.
Another break. Gilbert returned to brace everybody for the impending coming of the Grunts... and the spotlights began to show a whirling TOFOG logo on the curtains that had been erected on the stage. Not long after roadies began to emerge in force to dismantle the curtains in question, which revealed the Grunts' instruments all ready and waiting. Many of the women in the audience began to ogle the roadies, and a couple of them, it has to be said, were quite fetching. Cyn and Rhiannon wished they had signs that said "Hey Russell, Where'd You Get the Crew?" and "Give Us the Crew and No One Gets Hurt!"
More than once we saw roadies fidgeting with both Russell's black guitar and Dean Cochran's red one, which only added to the building anticipation.
And at last... with the audience beginning to seethe... the Grunts took over the stage.
The Comedian, or, "No, You CAN'T Have a Hershey's Bar!"
Russell Gilbert, the Other Russell of whom I'd already heard via Gruntlanders, was first on the stage. He came out with his pants riding down his backside, made a joke about "30 odd centimeters of crack", and got rowdier from there.
Cyn says that Australians are pretty raucous people in general, and if that's so, Russell Gilbert seemed a typical example of the breed. His humor involved tricks with cigarettes, a proposed fun trick to play on hitchhikers (get one of your mates to hide in the trunk, and then after you pick up a hitchhiker get him to bang on the back seat and scream, "HELP HELP, he's a psychopath!" while you make alarming faces at your poor passenger), and a story about American kids being "little buggers" and how he'd seen a noisy child pitching temper tantrums in a store because his mother wouldn't buy him a Hershey's bar. The punch line of this story was, pretty much unsurprisingly, wanting to whap the kid and bellow that he wasn't getting a Hershey's bar, and then to whap the mother and bellow that she should have whapped the kid one.
Some of the fans I'd seen talking about shows in Austin and Chicago hadn't liked Gilbert. Me, I don't necessarily think he was bad, though I don't personally care for his style of humor. But I did at least get mildly amused by him, so I can safely say that he did do his job. Also, his act wasn't particularly long, so there wasn't time to get bored.
Soon enough, he yielded the stage to the next act.
Danielle Spencer, or, "Ah, So She's a Coherent Tori Amos!"
I'd already heard that Danielle Spencer and her band would be touring with the Grunts, and initially found this interesting on the grounds that Danielle is a former girlfriend of Russell's (Crowe, that is, not Gilbert). He had in fact written one of the songs on Gaslight about her, a lovely ballad by the name of "Danielle", and so when I got the news that she would be touring with the Grunts I looked out for some word about what her act was like. I was bummed to hear that she'd gotten a chilly reception from the audience in Coffs Harbor in Australia, but glad to hear that she had gotten a very warm welcome from the audiences in Texas. One poster to Gruntland.com (a male one, who'd come to the show on the 18th with his wife) posted a very eloquent review of her performance and in short enjoyed her immensely. My online friend Boudicca who had attended the same show also spoke very highly of her, and so I'd gone to her web page to see if I could find samples of her music.
Her site had three samples in RealPlayer format, and Cyn and I played them all and pronounced them quite good. We all thought she was quite pretty as well.
She had three other musicians with her: a backup singer, a cellist, and a guitarist. Danielle herself played the keyboards, and periodically beamed out at the audience and graciously waved to us as we cheered for her. She sounded a little surprised and very pleased that we liked her, and mentioned that she was about to release her first record, which would only be sold in Australia though it could be ordered from her web site.
Her cellist was quite talented, and I loved the way Danielle's voice blended with that of her backup singer. I remember thinking at one point that it seemed odd to me that she had no one on percussion to keep the time -- a bit of my own experiences with making music in my jamming group coming to the fore, maybe. But her little ensemble went quite well without drumming of any kind, and although I personally don't often listen to the style of music she plays, I found it quite enjoyable to listen to and even sang a bit on the songs I recognized from her site. Cyn turned to me at one point and remarked that she'd worked out that the time signature on one of them seemed to be 12/8, so I wasn't the only one having musicgeek thoughts as we listened to her.
My attention wandered, but not much. The one time it did I noticed a roadie off to the left just offstage, leaning over a guitar and apparently tuning it. Though the roadie's back was to me from the angle I saw him, I could tell that the guitar he had in his hands had to be Russell's.
All in all we enjoyed her performance a great deal.
Break time, and Russell Gilbert came back out to encourage everyone to applaud and introduce the next act, an Aboriginal dancer who was there (as we were told) to bring a "message of peace".
I took the opportunity to dart off to the ladies' room, since the break was welcome indeed. On the way I bought another bottle of water, and while I was in line to wait to get into the ladies' room I noticed a bit of a disturbance at the nearby exit. I only caught part of what was going on, but I overheard what sounded like a security guard calling for female security to come do something about a blonde woman who was making a nuisance of herself.
I came back out again just in time, for by the time I emerged the dancer was on stage. It took me a bit of effort to get back to Cyn and Rhiannon, since some of the audience wouldn't let me through even though I kept calling that my friends were over there, and calling Cyn's name. I did finally make it back, though, pretty much just as the dancer was getting started.
Burnum Burnum, or, "The Message of Peace"
There is a considerable amount of bravery, I think, involved in being willing to get on a stage in America clad in very little more than a loincloth and daubs of mud. For that alone I must applaud Burnum Burnum, the dancer who was the second act of the evening.
Some of the commentary I'd seen about this gentleman from those in the Austin shows was negative, and that was a shame -- because I also think that the gesture of bringing a message of peace to the audience was a thing that should also be applauded. It was a strange sort of note to have in the evening, but I am not sorry I saw it in the slightest. I cannot remember whether he was introduced by name -- I know his name now ('now' being defined as 7/19/02, when I am updating this part of my writeup to properly reflect Mr. Burnum Burnum's identity!) only because I learned it after the fact -- but his appearance and his performance were absolutely memorable.
The spotlights played across his form in lurid shades, and there was something raw and elemental in the systematic way he pranced back and forth across the stage, now gesturing skyward, now crouching down like a creature of the wild. As he danced, a didgeridoo droned in the background while sticks clapped out a rhythm. Between the lighting, the music, and his dancing, the experience was almost dreamlike. And again, kept short enough that there wasn't time to get bored, though I am speaking from the perspective of someone who actually enjoyed what she was watching.
Another break. Gilbert returned to brace everybody for the impending coming of the Grunts... and the spotlights began to show a whirling TOFOG logo on the curtains that had been erected on the stage. Not long after roadies began to emerge in force to dismantle the curtains in question, which revealed the Grunts' instruments all ready and waiting. Many of the women in the audience began to ogle the roadies, and a couple of them, it has to be said, were quite fetching. Cyn and Rhiannon wished they had signs that said "Hey Russell, Where'd You Get the Crew?" and "Give Us the Crew and No One Gets Hurt!"
More than once we saw roadies fidgeting with both Russell's black guitar and Dean Cochran's red one, which only added to the building anticipation.
And at last... with the audience beginning to seethe... the Grunts took over the stage.