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[j4]

Two great gigs: Steeleye Span on Sunday, and Richard Thompson last night. Please poke me with tuit-studded sticks if I don't get round to writing something about them within the next couple of weeks.

Comments

[bellinghman.livejournal.com]

Thompson :- Magic.

[j4.livejournal.com]

Yep, my review will be along those lines, except a bit wordier. :)

sion_a was underwhelmed, but then he's not a lyrics person.

[sparrowsion]

I wouldn't say underwhelmed, just not raving madly. I think the lyrics thing is probably a large part of it (I can't really judge how good his lyrics are since most of the problem is that I have trouble hearing them) -- what does tend to interest me in music is the sounds being used, and one guy and his amplified acoustic guitar don't have a huge palette to draw on. Another thing is that he isn't flashily brilliant, and I think it's difficult to really appreciate how good someone like that is unless you have some kind of feeling for the instrument. And me and stringed instruments just don't get on.

[j4.livejournal.com]

I can't really judge how good his lyrics are since most of the problem is that I have trouble hearing them

You could look them up if you were interested...

one guy and his amplified acoustic guitar don't have a huge palette to draw on.

But, but...! Part of the thing I love is that he does vary his sound so much within that limited palette -- from hard rock to mean blues, from rippling finger-style to impassioned rhythm, from crystal-clear notes to a wash of sound.

I dunno what you'd describe as "flashily brilliant". If you're that good, you don't need to show off.

[hoiho.livejournal.com]

he isn't flashily brilliant,

He is if you're a guitar player!

[j4.livejournal.com]

I'm not a guitar player but to me "flashy" suggests the sort of things that you'd notice even if you weren't an expert music theorist or a skilled guitarist -- show-off stuff rather than just being brilliant, IYSWIM.

[hoiho.livejournal.com]

Hmm, there is that; bit it's what I'd call flash: well beyond the simple "how the hell does he do that". It's a recurring theme in reviews of his gigs, although perhaps of the electric stuff moe than the solo.

A lot of the really fast running-up-the-neck-while-playing-bass-line-chord-and top-melody sort of stuff that he does in the breaks, for example.

But then, a lot of the flash stuff that more, er, flamboyant guitarists do isn't actually all that difficult...

[j4.livejournal.com]

He managed to make it sound effortless, except when he wanted it to sound effortful. And then it was more passionate than flashy, IYSWIM.

[burkesworks.livejournal.com]

Depends on your values of "flash". The sort of high-end noodling that someone like Al DiMeola knocks out is bloody difficult to play, unless your name's John McLaughlin in which case it's not noodling[1].
On the other hand, if you're thinking more yer basic Page/Blackmore riff-ola stuff, most of theirs is technically not that hard. And let's not go to Michael Schenker and the stunt guitarist he keeps behind a curtain to play the fancy stuff that the German is incapable of reproducing live.
"Flash", though does not apply to Richard Thompson. That guy's guitar playing is so good that he doesn't need to do "flash". And the songwriting's just the icing on the cake.

[1] - unless it's the awful album he did with Carlos Santana in praise of Sri Chinmoy. Horrible guru-ridden seventies bargain-bin bollocks, worthy of filing next to "Busy Making Progress" or the Golden Avatar album, both of which used to crop up with alarming regularity in charity shops right next door to Klaus Wunderlich's Greatest Hits. Hilarious cover though; Chinmoy looks uncannily like a POW from Guantanamo Bay in his orange tracksuit.

[hoiho.livejournal.com]

Depends on your values of "flash".

Absolutely; but Thompson, great as he is, does grandstand sometimes.
He knows he's bloody good, as likes to show it.

Michael Schenker

I was thinking more of Malmsteen...

awful album he did with Carlos Santana in praise of Sri Chinmoy

"Love, Devotion, Surrender" innit?
Yup, I got my copy for 50p in a charity shop.
Gotta love those white suits.