2006-12-11
My entire being vibrates with delight.
I was reading jambands.com's "Look Back at 2006," wherein they interview various musicians about the year, when I read a quote so amazing that I experienced a feeling akin to schadenfreude but more like schadenfreude plus waffles. Asked what he remembers most about 2006, New Riders of the Purple Sage's Buddy Cage reports:
"RatDog at Radio City Music Hall, 'co-headlining' (that's a fucking howl!) with the String Cheese Incident. If I were in SCI and had to 'share the stage' (yet another bullshit, self-serving euphemism) with a band so clearly more talented, I would throw up in utter humiliation after hearing Weir's performance and try to reshape my future plans in the music business. RatDog simply blew them out of the fucking state of New York that evening. The skills that Weir has hammered out in all the years with the Dead are manifest in that. If there's a phoenix that can rise out of the Grateful Dead experience it would be RatDog. Even the SCI fans were cavorting around the theater in facsimile fashion, as in Emperor's New Clothes, pretending SCI was the real thing when the whole sorry scene came off as some usurpers to the Grateful Dead working on the fantasy that if you 'do the moves' the talent will follow. Wretched. Just because you've missed a couple decades of insanely fine music; maybe you felt you were born too late; could be you feel cheated and intend to embrace your own version of 'groove' regardless of the vacuousness of said groove; chances are you need to create your own scene (cause ya wanna). None of the above excuses you from putting up with less – get it together, do the work, the research. And boogie on! Go for the quality."
I think my heart just grew three sizes larger. And...cosigned!
"RatDog at Radio City Music Hall, 'co-headlining' (that's a fucking howl!) with the String Cheese Incident. If I were in SCI and had to 'share the stage' (yet another bullshit, self-serving euphemism) with a band so clearly more talented, I would throw up in utter humiliation after hearing Weir's performance and try to reshape my future plans in the music business. RatDog simply blew them out of the fucking state of New York that evening. The skills that Weir has hammered out in all the years with the Dead are manifest in that. If there's a phoenix that can rise out of the Grateful Dead experience it would be RatDog. Even the SCI fans were cavorting around the theater in facsimile fashion, as in Emperor's New Clothes, pretending SCI was the real thing when the whole sorry scene came off as some usurpers to the Grateful Dead working on the fantasy that if you 'do the moves' the talent will follow. Wretched. Just because you've missed a couple decades of insanely fine music; maybe you felt you were born too late; could be you feel cheated and intend to embrace your own version of 'groove' regardless of the vacuousness of said groove; chances are you need to create your own scene (cause ya wanna). None of the above excuses you from putting up with less – get it together, do the work, the research. And boogie on! Go for the quality."
I think my heart just grew three sizes larger. And...cosigned!