Toronto had those 2 guys and Maeve Gilchrist on harp, too. Great set. The audience was extra hott though - big reactions for every single solo. Neat to see her in a 600 capacity club... wonder if that'll be happening much more, now signed to a bigger label and whatnot.
― maf you one two (maffew12), Saturday, 9 July 2022 17:03 (one year ago) link
Wow---makes me wonder how far into a fairly high-profile Western Hemisphere career/possible stardom Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan might have gone, if he'd lived longer---she's got the advantage of (pretty much, of not altogether) starting her career in the West, in Brooklyn, I take it, and her (pretty much, if not altogether) Western Hemisphere line-ups are of her own choosing, it seems, dunno how much choice Khan had in recording with Michael Brook and so on, although there were several collections of the uncut, prewesternized voyages in the 90s: Shanachie's Greatest Hits, for example, and their wilder release, Intoxicated Spirit omg. I dunno about the Real World stuff, never listened much, but remember liking his cut w Eddie Vedder(!) in the midst of Dead Man Walking onscreen, however it may have fared on the soundtrack album. Devotional and Love Songs and Rapture had some okay Western sounds; there was maybe just one rock-ish track on the latter.
― dow, Saturday, 9 July 2022 21:24 (one year ago) link
Riley got a bit more of the spotlight than necessary I felt, a few times I got itchy waiting for Aftab to sing again while he soloed
have to agree, good as he was
some kind of electric...idk, something in the sitar family tree
I also wonder what it was, here's a bad photo I took, maybe someone can help identify the instrument:
https://i.imgur.com/PuMCQcW.png
― corrs unplugged, Monday, 18 July 2022 09:22 (one year ago) link
Ooh that is actually cooler looker than I realized in a dark & neon-lit club (Aftab made fun of the lighting at one point; I felt kind of bad for the tech, but they were pulling out all the stops to an absurd degree).
Still not sure what it is--I said "sitar family" because iirc it made a sustained, droning noise rather than a something more lute-like. It could be a really simplified veena maybe? I can't remember what his hands were doing while playing it though
― rob, Monday, 18 July 2022 14:56 (one year ago) link
I saw her last night in Ljubljana. Beautiful music, crystal clear sound. She could tone down the between-song banter a bit, which I felt broke the spell at times. By all means talk to the audience but I found some of her anecdotes rambling and not as funny as she thought they were. I just wanted them to get on with the music. Wonderful musicians [guitar & violin] + voice, though, obviously.
― giraffe, Wednesday, 10 August 2022 07:53 (one year ago) link
lol i loved her banter but can see what you mean
― maf you one two (maffew12), Wednesday, 10 August 2022 10:32 (one year ago) link
I like the idea, as mentioned on here upthread, that she likes to put her audience at ease. But some of her gags and stories were just lame or didn't hit their targets. Oh well, sorry to dwell on that aspect because it was otherwise a very special gig.
― giraffe, Thursday, 11 August 2022 06:44 (one year ago) link
I do agree it doesn't really benefit the music
maybe some of it is nervousness
but the music's so good it doesn't really matter
― corrs unplugged, Thursday, 11 August 2022 08:47 (one year ago) link
Here's a brief interview with her in this 'culture news' report on Slovenian TV, in which she comes across really well: https://4d.rtvslo.si/arhiv/kultura/174891899 [I'm in the background briefly!]
I love what she says about connecting with the music even though you don't understand the language. I love the idea of someone singing with gentle power in (what is to me) a completely unknown language.
― giraffe, Thursday, 11 August 2022 09:53 (one year ago) link
I see what you mean, giraffe, but I saw her last Saturday in Katowice and personally didn't mind her stage banter at all (though she didn't really tell actual anecdotes, more just was vibing with the energy in the room).
TBH it did initially take me out of it to see her being this down-to-earth chill performer pouring herself wine on stage, joking, and taking a selfie video with the audience but I suppose it was only because I had no reference point—I had never seen or heard her speak before, only listened to Vulture Prince a lot since last year, and probably subconsciously projected the heavy emotions in the songs onto the person behind them. So maybe I half-expected a solemn mystic singing behind a haze of smoke—but that's obviously on me!
Actually, now that I think about it, her warmth and laidback attitutde provided a nice counterpoint to the gut punches served repeatedly in the songs (the performance of the actual music was absolutely top notch). She seemed genuinely lovely and like a cool person to hang out with, her band members (Gyan Riley on guitar and Darius Donovan Thomas on violin) too.
― ˈʌglɪɪst preɪ, Thursday, 11 August 2022 14:34 (one year ago) link
Lots of good points,ˈʌglɪɪst preɪ [How do you pronounce this?]. When someone you've never seen or heard live before walks up to the mic you have no idea what kind of person they're going to be and there's a measure of trepidation all round. When she started talking I was taken aback by the contrast between the solemnity of the music and the chilled comedy of the performer between songs (she was unbelievably relaxed at the mic). Maybe we were unlucky with the package of jokes we got... :)
― giraffe, Thursday, 11 August 2022 15:23 (one year ago) link
reminds me of Townes Van Zandt on some stages, going back & forth, stark ballads and zings
meanwhile,
Hugely honored to receive the Presidents Pride of Performance Award today wowwww thank you Mr.President @ArifAlvi and H.E US ambassador @Masood__Khan for the nomination— arooj aftab (@arooj_aftab) August 14, 2022
― dow, Sunday, 14 August 2022 22:52 (one year ago) link
Her tweet thread about touring and playing to large crowds but still losing money is getting attention
Touring has been amazing. We headlined a ton, had massive turnouts and have proven ourselves in all the markets. Yet still, running 10s of thousands in debt from the tour and I’m being told that it’s “normal”. Why is this normal. This should not be normalized.— arooj aftab (@arooj_aftab) September 6, 2022
― curmudgeon, Wednesday, 7 September 2022 17:50 (one year ago) link
This is after artists already lost so much income during Covid. Now post covid flights fuel visas taxes and hotel prices are outrageous, promoters afraid to raise ticket prices, audiences still nervous to go out… what a fking mess and we are expected to take the hit— arooj aftab (@arooj_aftab) September 6, 2022
― curmudgeon, Wednesday, 7 September 2022 17:51 (one year ago) link
I don't know all the ins and outs but it sounds like a lot of those things are outside anyone's individual control?
― Evan, Wednesday, 7 September 2022 17:59 (one year ago) link
Yeah, I mean, that's why it's such a depressing situation, there's not magic bullet solution. Raising ticket prices enough to cover all of those other cost increases is really unlikely to help, it'll just encourage more people to stay home.
That said, I don't know enough about her specific tour to know if this is indeed entirely representative. The "10s of thousands" sound pretty shocking for sure.
― a superficial sheeb of intelligence (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Wednesday, 7 September 2022 18:07 (one year ago) link
The magic bullet solution is twofold: to boycott streaming services and for everyone to get vaccinated
That tweet is ultra depressing. I mean she was on Obama's playlist for chrissakes
― Paul Ponzi, Wednesday, 7 September 2022 18:45 (one year ago) link
I read that more as a riposte to the idea that "touring is how you make money in the music biz" rather than a specific critique of venue prices, even if that seems like the only immediately available solution
― rob, Wednesday, 7 September 2022 18:46 (one year ago) link
obama should give $100,000 to everyone he puts on his playlist
― comedy khadafi (voodoo chili), Wednesday, 7 September 2022 18:46 (one year ago) link
or royalties on his next book
― comedy khadafi (voodoo chili), Wednesday, 7 September 2022 18:47 (one year ago) link
Not sure about other cities, but she played a pretty small venue here in the spring (~200), so am curious if others have seen "massive" turnouts. Tickets were only $31 all-in with venue fees and taxes. I have to imagine her audience is older, which means she can probably stand to raise prices and not lose as many, but I do think her demos have been slower to return to nightlife post-covid.
― Indexed, Wednesday, 7 September 2022 18:57 (one year ago) link
yeah, i think what she is saying there is "hey i'm doing pretty well and still drowning, help our industry is dying"
obviously i don't think bands playing shows is ever going to disappear, but the one-two punch of predatory streaming and COVID may take out a lot of them ... probably already has and we just don't know it yet.
adding this after seeing Indexed's post: yes, her interpretation of "massive" and proving oneself in markets may be different than others'.
― alpine static, Wednesday, 7 September 2022 19:00 (one year ago) link
Well, feeling guilty, I just bought VP on vinyl. Didn't realize it had finally been released.
― Indexed, Wednesday, 7 September 2022 19:33 (one year ago) link
bummer for sure
usually would not advocate for patronage but the margin on a vinyl is not great afaik, so I imagine sending ~2 dollars directly could possibly benefit as much as buying a 30 dollar vinyl
touring should not have a negative margin
― corrs unplugged, Thursday, 8 September 2022 08:07 (one year ago) link
I wanted to buy Vulture Prince at her gig - I like buying directly from the artist where possible - but they were charging 40 euros. I want to be a good fan and support her but I couldn't justify spending that much on an album.
― giraffe, Thursday, 8 September 2022 12:07 (one year ago) link
Not that that detracts from what she's saying.
― giraffe, Thursday, 8 September 2022 12:10 (one year ago) link
I find it hard to believe that many artists are touring at a loss right now, let alone a loss of “tens of thousands” of dollars
― zacata, Thursday, 8 September 2022 12:34 (one year ago) link
yeah, for a three piece... I dunno, should be possible to pay hotels and travel expenses
but then again, it's the music biz
remember when I first read abt members of TLC filing for bankruptcy at the height of their immense commercial sucess (but I digress)
― corrs unplugged, Thursday, 8 September 2022 13:07 (one year ago) link
I think they played a lot of festivals, which I could see not paying super well (?). Also, on her list, "visas" stood out to me. I don't know if she has US citizenship or not, but especially if she doesn't, I imagine that is pretty expensive
― rob, Thursday, 8 September 2022 13:24 (one year ago) link
I see she has a European tour coming up. Possible that they have just had to pre-book (and pay for) lots of plane tickets, visas, hotels, etc. in advance of getting paid?
― Indexed, Thursday, 8 September 2022 13:50 (one year ago) link
I thought festivals (and colleges) were the big money makers on tour? That's what I have always heard.
― Paul Ponzi, Thursday, 8 September 2022 13:53 (one year ago) link
― rob, Wednesday, September 7, 2022 2:46 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink
Her wording in the two tweets shared above kind of conveys that feeling popular tweets often do where people are meant to be whipped up to "take a stand" against some oppressive societal system or power ("This should not be normalized" & "we are expected to take the hit") so while I agree with you about their likely intention I was a little unsure myself, hence my own initial response. Also I do wonder how universal her experience is, not to push back against it or anything but there are a lot of baseline variables depending on who you are, where you're going and what you need to bring with you.
― Evan, Thursday, 8 September 2022 15:44 (one year ago) link
― zacata, Thursday, September 8, 2022 7:34 AM (four hours ago) bookmarkflaglink
why is it hard to believe that artists are touring at a loss?
― comedy khadafi (voodoo chili), Thursday, 8 September 2022 17:14 (one year ago) link
festival guarantees are much much smaller than a regular gig for all the small font artists. if an artist wants to book hotels instead of sleeping in cans or buses, a 20+ day tour can run up thousands of dollars, even if all three band members share a room.
the venue also takes home 50% of the door and 100% of the bar for the vast majority of artists who aren’t at the superstar level. and in rooms like the ones aftab is playing, you basically have to sell out to see any money at all
― comedy khadafi (voodoo chili), Thursday, 8 September 2022 17:17 (one year ago) link
50% of the door is a generous estimate that not every artist gets, they usually just get a flat guarantee (given the budget that a lot of small venues work with, that number is prob much smaller than you think it is) and the promoters get the ticket proceeds
― comedy khadafi (voodoo chili), Thursday, 8 September 2022 17:20 (one year ago) link
Lots of venues take a percentage of merch sales too
― mizzell, Thursday, 8 September 2022 17:26 (one year ago) link
which is bullshit
― Paul Ponzi, Thursday, 8 September 2022 18:17 (one year ago) link
Do they really? Not just when they provide a merch person?
― Evan, Thursday, 8 September 2022 18:35 (one year ago) link
No, the venue usually gets the money from the merch person. They count everything in during load in and recount it after the show. It's a really shitty practice.
― Paul Ponzi, Thursday, 8 September 2022 18:44 (one year ago) link
I have never understood why bands don't just load more merch in during the opening band. I guess you'd have to be pretty attentive to keep track of it all (ie "why is there more merch here now than when you started?")
― Paul Ponzi, Thursday, 8 September 2022 18:45 (one year ago) link
I actually don't know how widespread it is, but Stereolab recently posted that there were only 2 venues on their upcoming tour which don't take a cut.
xxp
― mizzell, Thursday, 8 September 2022 18:46 (one year ago) link
That is such a bullshit practice that needs to be shamed out of existence, ASAP. I've seen a couple of impassioned arguments FOR the practice from small venue owners that bemoan how much things cost for them, but none of it was enough to convince me.
― a superficial sheeb of intelligence (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Thursday, 8 September 2022 18:52 (one year ago) link
My most detailed peek into touring band finances was a band some friends were in that used to tour Europe playing mostly small theaters. 8 piece band in a bus plus a sound person, driver, and merch person. Pre-pandemic they would come home with some money, let's say $5 - 15k per person depending on the length of the tour. Not great money at all if you're trying to live on it, and can't take a a full-time job so you can tour a few months out of the year. But definitely not losing tens of thousands of dollars.
I'm sure things are worse now in terms of missed shows due to travel snafus and COVID, lower turn-out and sales, etc. But I'd love to know how much worse, ie does that explain everything or are there additional factors in Aftab's situation.
― change display name (Jordan), Thursday, 8 September 2022 18:59 (one year ago) link
I see she's booked to come back to the Washington DC area in April 2023 on a bill with Vijay Iyer, and Shahzad Ismaily all together in a collaborative project called Love in Exile at the fancy suburban Strathmore Music Center in Maryland that I think holds 2,200 people. $23 to $68. Not sure they will fill the place, but maybe she gets a sizable guarantee?
― curmudgeon, Friday, 9 September 2022 03:05 (one year ago) link
recent conversation i had with two booking agents suggested that Europe for jazz/"world" is good guaranteed money, US is not.
― i cannot help if you made yourself not funny (forksclovetofu), Friday, 9 September 2022 06:19 (one year ago) link
this is insane? does that go for both US/EU?
― corrs unplugged, Friday, 9 September 2022 06:31 (one year ago) link
xxpost To have an idea of what you might be for with Love In Exile, scroll up to where I posted the link to their streaming concert: click on that, then click on the Vimeo you'll see, as I just now did: seems fine, although I didn't try to play the whole thing. Mainly because, as I said in my comments then (May, 2021), I sometimes got frustrated by the knottier, lengthier piano traffic patterns, despite the excellent vocals and bass---piano was effective at times as well, but judging by posts about recent shows, seems like she still gives her colleagues a lot of space---and Vijay is my least favorite of the people she's performed with (although he's always been an effective anchor-to-axis-and-back for Burnt Sugar). But she's mentioned a Love In Exile album that was finished a while back, and I would like to hear it---for one thing, maybe studio budgeting etc. would rein him in.
― dow, Friday, 9 September 2022 06:47 (one year ago) link
Time to spill the beans … https://t.co/a1OrLh39Gg— arooj aftab (@arooj_aftab) November 18, 2022
― big movers, hot steppers + long shaker intros (breastcrawl), Sunday, 20 November 2022 13:33 (one year ago) link
Definitely looking forward to that at Big Ears.
― a man often referred to in the news media as the Duke of Saxony (tipsy mothra), Sunday, 20 November 2022 15:28 (one year ago) link
looking forward to hearing that
― “Cheeky cheeky!” she trills, nearly demolishing a roadside post (forksclovetofu), Tuesday, 6 December 2022 05:38 (one year ago) link