[Jandek] Re: greetings from indy

[No Help Forthcoming]

>From: "Jeremy Frey" <falcon_156 at yahoo.com> 
>Subject: [Jandek] greetings from indy 
>Date: Sun, 10 Dec 2006 12:32:43 -0800 (PST) 
>To: jandek at mylist.net 
>
>it looked beautiful, and it ended up sounding 
>stellar...

i was at this one. i agree with the former, dispute
the latter. i don't mean to be a naysayer, but this
was not a good show, unless you believe that
everything janky does is beyond criticism. i don't
blame him-- it seemed like he was saddled by four
musicians who had never heard his music and couldn't
care less. the bass player was the only one who even
looked in his direction, and seemed to be having fun.
the drummer was visibly bored, and rythmically
uninteresting, even compared to "john"'s drumming. the
viola player/singer was fine on her instrument, but
her singing was damn near atrocious. not "nancy"-like
(as you say) but closer to "open-mic nite at the
coffee bar"-- less jackie mcshee, more linda perry.
she did prove one aspect of jandek's music that i've
always loved-- no one can evoke the same drama from
the mundane as he can. there is an artistry involved
in making awkwardness and uncertainty palpable in
performance. she turned guilelessness into
tediousness.

the flute player actually stopped playing three sings
from the end and sat and waited for the performance to
finish. he stalked around and clicked his xylophone
sticks most of show, so it was actually welcome when
he finally tossed it in.

the lyrics continued the lateral move into literality.
aside from the first song ("if i unscrew your head/ is
it filled with sand?" "you walk into the river/
holding your hands up/ as if to protect something
valuable") and one song near the end ("i touch the
ground that you wear") almost all of the songs were
without symbolism/opacity. they made occasional
references to chance ("a flip of a coin brought me
here") but generally were direct. it was kind of like
a seance with a regretful ghost-- it was drama that
could not be (and was not) sold by any other.

i will not fault jandek for doing what he does; no one
does it better. he deserved a more sympathetic band
behind him than the square pegs i saw in indy.


nil.

"i appreciate a good failure more than a safe success."--harmony korine

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