Gang Of Four.

ha i just looked at the quest website, and maybe it's not sold out! i'll have to think about this, the opinion on this thread seems to = they are on fire.

AGGGHHHGGGHHH

I totally understand that mentality, though! There's nothing wrong with liking the current "imitators" more than the original.

Well, I'm pretty sure Burma didn't have to fly all its band/crew/instruments over from the UK for starters (and the "tour out of Atlanta" story in Our Band Could Be Your Life shows they knew how to tour the US cheap and effectively). As for the Soft Boys, they had a deluxe reissue of a classic album and a reunion LP after 20 years on Matador, so I'm sure they got some money to tour. As for Thompson, I dunno. Does he travel with a band? If not, that cuts down on touring costs.

I don't buy most of that criticism but it was provocative.

Anyway, I've been thinking about going to see them, but I'm really conflicted about it. Could I get some elaboration here from the people who have gone to see them? What does it mean that they sound better now than they did in their prime? Are they still coming from somewhere near the same stance that they did back in the day, or is this just a payday for them? And does that matter? I dunno, maybe they've evolved into something better and I'd be missing out if I didn't go. Anyone?

I can say that Gang of Four live was probably the best rock show I've seen since the last time I saw Sleater Kinney (several years).

but they all gave shoutouts to david allen at the end

I found it hard to tell at times how much they were really enjoying it. Andy didn't seem very happy for some reason. It was wild to watch Dave, Jon and Andy move all over the stage at the same time and somehow avoid bumping into each other! You can kind of see why a band like that might not get along very well. Personally I love "I Parade Myself" so I'm glad they played that one. The way they played Damaged Goods sounded soo good - like they'd added a little something you couldn't quite put a finger on.

But $22.50 ticket price + $12.50 worth of Ticketmaster bullshit + $2.50 mailing fee + gas to Chicago + tolls + parking near Metro = $50 + time spent driving on freeway and in Chicago traffic, so I might sit this one out and just go catch the last film of the Ozu series that's playing on campus instead. But thanks for the advices anyway, y'all.

Gang of Four rises again

By alexander varty

Publish Date: 5-May-2005
The guys in Gang of Four have reunited for the first time in more than 20 years, and they evidently couldn’t be more delighted about it.

The guys in Gang of Four have reunited for the first time in more than 20 years, and they evidently couldn’t be more delighted about it.

Twenty years ago, Gang of Four bassist Dave Allen would have scoffed at the notion that he’d ever join singer Jon King, guitarist Andy Gill, and drummer Hugo Burnham in reforming the world’s best-ever agit-pop band. Even more risible would be the notion that in order to do so, he’d be working out with a personal trainer to make sure his middle-aged body was up to the rigours of the road.

“It’s really funny,” says the former U.K. resident, reached at home in Portland, Oregon. “When I was in my 20s, I did kind of mock the idea of Mick Jagger still playing when he was 50 years old, and now I’m doing it. It’s like, well, ‘Oops!’ People in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones—at Rolling Stones, even.

“So I began a workout regime with a trainer starting in February of this year, because after the U.K. tour I realized that I wasn’t as fit as I thought I was,” he continues. “Even though we pulled it off and it was great, I ended up catching the flu, and I just felt, ‘Well, shit, if I’m going to do this, I’m going to do it properly.’ But we’re all in good shape, really, although Hugo is more overweight than he should be. But that’s his personal choice. I mean, he didn’t go out and get a trainer.”

For a second, there’s a flash of the combative spirit that both animated the original Gang of Four lineup and that led to Allen’s departure in 1982. (King, Gill, and Burnham soldiered on with a string of replacement bassists until 1984.) Otherwise, the veteran musician sounds like he’s mellowed considerably since the days of “At Home He’s a Tourist” and “Damaged Goods” but not so much that he’s going to let the Gang of Four’s legacy be usurped by all the younger groups—including the Rapture, Franz Ferdinand, and the Faint—currently claiming them as a major influence.

“All these bands that the press talk about that are taking from the punky-funky-jerky sound of the Gang of Four… It’s all well and good, musically, but they’re not doing anything lyrically,” he says. “They’re not saying anything. Even with Bloc Party, which gets thrown around as an example of a good Gang of Four–sounding band, it just sounds like sloganeering. Which we were adamantly against, just vehemently against. We did not stand up and throw our fists in the air and go, ‘Kill the rich! Bring down the government!’ There was a certain subtle irony in everything we did.”

Irony, yes, and a degree of brutal physicality. So much so, in fact, that if the Gang’s Saturday (May 7) appearance at the Commodore Ballroom is anything near as powerful as its sweat-drenched appearance there in the early ’80s, a cathartic good time will be had by all.

Allen, for one, thinks the revived Gang can deliver.

“The job we have at hand, as we keep reminding ourselves, is that we have to be as good, if not better, than we were the first time around,” he notes. “So that was the immediate challenge we set for ourselves, and it worked. We’ve worked really hard in rehearsals; we’re very demanding on each other. But what’s also happened is that we’ve matured. We’re just as volatile, but we’re less quick to fly off the handle, which I think is very important. Now before we start attacking each other there seems to be more of a pause, and then we get some discussion going. But that just comes with age. Three of us have kids, for instance, and if you can handle that, you can handle a band, ’cause that’s just about as bad as it gets.”

hahaha

...yup...it was white with a black front door. jon king used a short baseball bat type club to utterly destroy it. again...i can't urge people enough to catch them should they play your town in the next two weeks. i was really surprised the commodore ballroom was not more than 75% full.

Did he start banging on it while it was on a platform of some kind and then continued to bang on it as it fell on the floor of the stage? What happened to the microwave on your end? I recall a roadie also conveniently moving the microphone closer when it fell on the floor.

xpost - brilliant! A destroyed microwave from Gang of 4! Next trend in music will be...toaster ovens on stage!

(You can like !!! better if you wish, though.. no one's going to stop you there)

(They were a really weird disco-punk band in that they fully integrated a Syd Barrett/"Nuggets" Acid Bubblegum element to their post-punk-disco that was pretty genius.)