the call of the great speckled concertgoer (+)

I'm too shy to do it myself, but I'm a fan of interesting things shouted out at live shows. (In well-chosen between-song breaks or while the audience and artist are playing the pre-encore game, that is.)

My favorite is "Play whatever you want!" I've heard it a couple of times, not counting when the friend I told about it has done it, too. (Hi, LB!)

I've also heard people call out for the entire side of an album.

I still think asking for Stairway to Heaven is funny, but only if I do it, which I never have and I never will.

I got a kick out of this three-parter (all screamed by one guy) after Richard Buckner left the stage at Schubas last Friday night:

"One more song!"

"Jesus!!"

"ONE MORRRRRRE!!!"

It was so earnest. It made me laugh out loud.

But Buckner doesn't do encores. Or interact with the audience at all. I've got concert recordings where he used to. And I remember occasional remarks from him when I first started going to his shows. But not any more. From what I've read, I gather he's been burned by crappy audiences.

I was a little relieved when this last show ended. Minidiscs hold 80-81 minutes of material. He played a little over 79. This wasn't the first time he cut it so close while I was recording. Whew! Unfortunately, I'd turned off the recorder by the time the cry I reproduced above was emitted.

(I've learned the hard way that if you go over the disc's capacity, you lose the whole recording.)

* * * * *

Now I've going to start implementing my new nighttime routine. Instead of watching the BBC News at 10 (rather than the local "happy talk" pseudonews shows) and then starting to wind down, I'll get into bed earlier and read some of the (non-work-related) articles I printed at work. (I don't have a printer at home.) I think the world will continue turning - or not! - without me monitoring it so closely, whereas I've already determined that the stuff I've printed - reviews, interviews, news analyses - is of real interest.

-- 1360