I finally seen 'em: The English Beat at Berbati's Pan. Portland OR. Dec. 6, 2008.
It was a good show. I've been a fan for years, especially of the album Special Beat Service which I rank as one of the top albums of the 1980s. (It's made my shortlist of "perfect albums", i.e. albums that have not a dud song on them.) Anyway, even though Dave Wakeling is the only original Beat in the line-up, it was great to see them. The musicianship was outstanding, and the ska energy infectious. Only a couple incidents dampened things a bit: a fight in the crowd, and Wakeling's overheated response to a heckler. Why give them anything? But it was big of him to come out after the encore and apologize. And one great thing that happened: After the show, as K and I milled around near the stage waiting to see if an acquaintance could get us to meet Wakeling (it never happened, alas), I noticed one of the band members hand a roadie a tremendous wad of cash--and I mean a wad: balled up bills forming an even bigger ball. I wondered what it was all about. The next day I read on Wakeling's website that during the band's rendition of the song "Tenderness" it has become customary for audience members to throw wadded up bills on stage for distribution to certain charities. Good on 'em!
~
Washington State Poet Laureate Samuel Green will visit the Clark College campus tomorrow as part of the Columbia Writers Series (which yours truly is the director of). I'm eager to hear him. Here's a taste:
"If You Had to"
If you had to make the quill
pen in the old way, stripping
the feathers, cutting the well,
splitting & shearing the tip
off clean; if you had to grind
the ink, holding the cake
straight against the stone,
circling until your wrist ached
to get the proper tone of black;
would you wonder, as you sat before the paper
what sort of poem was worthy of your labor?
Ciao,
CD
It was a good show. I've been a fan for years, especially of the album Special Beat Service which I rank as one of the top albums of the 1980s. (It's made my shortlist of "perfect albums", i.e. albums that have not a dud song on them.) Anyway, even though Dave Wakeling is the only original Beat in the line-up, it was great to see them. The musicianship was outstanding, and the ska energy infectious. Only a couple incidents dampened things a bit: a fight in the crowd, and Wakeling's overheated response to a heckler. Why give them anything? But it was big of him to come out after the encore and apologize. And one great thing that happened: After the show, as K and I milled around near the stage waiting to see if an acquaintance could get us to meet Wakeling (it never happened, alas), I noticed one of the band members hand a roadie a tremendous wad of cash--and I mean a wad: balled up bills forming an even bigger ball. I wondered what it was all about. The next day I read on Wakeling's website that during the band's rendition of the song "Tenderness" it has become customary for audience members to throw wadded up bills on stage for distribution to certain charities. Good on 'em!
~
Washington State Poet Laureate Samuel Green will visit the Clark College campus tomorrow as part of the Columbia Writers Series (which yours truly is the director of). I'm eager to hear him. Here's a taste:
"If You Had to"
If you had to make the quill
pen in the old way, stripping
the feathers, cutting the well,
splitting & shearing the tip
off clean; if you had to grind
the ink, holding the cake
straight against the stone,
circling until your wrist ached
to get the proper tone of black;
would you wonder, as you sat before the paper
what sort of poem was worthy of your labor?
Ciao,
CD
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