Saturday, August 15, 2009

Summer Pledge Drive, Vol. 2: The Garage Bands

8/10/09 Show
For my second Summer 2009 Pledge Drive show I decided to follow through on a show idea I'd had for years: 2 hours of vintage 60s garage band rock. I'd been putting it off because I wanted to do it right (lots of research, creating a good show "flow", plucking out the best 2 hours out of the many hours of fitting music, etc.), and I think it worked well as a pledge drive show. Strangely, I got more positive comments than possibly ever for a show, but I also only raised $85. Oh well, I had a blast.

I could go on and on about how much I like this genre of rock, but this quote from influential rock critic Lester Bangs pretty much says it all,
What is more American than the garage band? Call up a bunch of your buddies, get some six-packs or some weed, plus a guitar or two, a bass or drum kit, and you've got instant fantasies about instant stardom. Of course, at certain times and places, fantasy and reality have intersected, and that is part of what rock is all about. Given that the greatest garage bands could barely play, we may assume not only that virtuosity has nothing to do with the form, but also that the utopian dream of everyman an artist can come true right here, in our suburban land of opportunity-the ultimate proof that rock & roll is the most democratic and all-American of art forms

Many of the songs on the playlist came from the famous Nuggets compilation, but you also heard tracks from MOJO Magazine compilation and several vinyl tracks from The Sonics and also The Vampires. Check out the full playlist

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