When I sat down to write this post I was happy and full of joy. Then I started to look around the web for a photograph of the event in question and stumbled upon a few reviews… Now I’m angry. Not sad-angry. I’m pissed-off-rant-angry.
All the reviews goes something like this:
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet massive in the US, consectetur adipiscing elit. Grate ful Deads Curabitur in nulla vitae arcu bibendum imperdiet nec eget ante. In hac habitasse platea jam band dictumst. Fusce faucibus libero jazz a tellus consequat pulvinar. Proin vestibulum urna at est consequat fermentum. Curabitur extremely skilled musicians accumsan, metus a placerat varius fermentum quis, but it gets boring nulla est porttitor purus, ac cursus diam sem quis dolor urna at est. Vestibulum urna at est consequat but I get a feeling it’s for people who cares more about the quality of the TV than was actually on it. Lorem fucking dolor set.
See, I had a period in my life when I just hated people who wrote music reviews. I don’t know if it was due to the fact that I were on the receiving end a few times, or that I, in general, have a hard time respecting critics with low qualifications.
When it comes to music writers, in many instances, there’s a fine balance between being a journalist and a music enthusiast.
I’m not saying that you have to be a musician to write about music. But if you aren’t, you need to have the journalistic skill to articulate what you don’t like in a manner that doesn’t shift you’re not-so-good-music-knowledge into a bias I-don’t-like-this-so-they-are-shit.
How do you rate a concert if what you hear isn’t something you like, and you’re not capable of zooming out of the personal zone or skilled enough to judging the performance from a strictly musical angle?
When is a review a statement saying “this is not my cup of tea” and when is it a professional documentation of the quality of a performance?
I thought I had put all of this behind me. That I, past 30, could live in harmony even in a society where shit heads express their ignorance and get paid to do it.
There are just so many parts of these reviews that just amplify how the world would have been a better place if they didn’t attend the concert, or, at least, decided not to write about it.
An example extract from these reviews would be Dan Backman, who writes for SVD.se and Po Tidholm, who writes for DN.se. Both of these fellows decided to share with the world their qualified drum and rhythm qualifications by slagging of the drummer Carter Beauford.
Mr Backman claims that Mr Beauford never ever finds a groove “worth of it’s name”. Mr Tidholm writes something along the lines of; no matter what mood or atmosphere of the song Mr Beauford preoccupied himself with some sorts of non-stop sweeping masturbation on his 37 symbols and 63 drums and toms. Now that’s quality.
Mr Tidholm also ends his review by saying that people who like Dave Matthews Band are the sort who “care more about the quality of the TV than what’s on it”. Ooo, nice one. I’d almost like to turn that metaphor 180 degrees — sorry for liking music. An extra nice touch with his last statement is the fact that most people reading this review will undoubtedly be people who like Dave Matthews Band. Yeah, there are lessons to be learned here — this is how you build a fan base among readers.
Besides Dan Backman and Po Tidholm, also Anders Dahlbom, who writes for Expressen and Håkan Steen, who writes for Aftonbladet decided to chip in. They both had an opinions on the Bob Dylan cover “All along the watchtower”. Makes me assume they aren’t actually familiar with any of the Dave Matthews Bands material.
I’m convinced, that the 3200 audience attending this concert, not because they had to, but because they wanted to, can’t disagree more with these reviews/opinions. That the fact that Dave Matthews Band are a renown live performer and one of the biggest live acts in the US as well as a holding a high position on the RIAA top selling artists is not just a fluke, but a result of skills.
So… my review of this concert ended up being a long slag-off of other reviews… classy. Oh well. I’m sorry for the angry mood. But, I had to get this of my chest. I will leave my review part to the 140 character summary I posted in on twitter
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Oh, yeah, and I ended up steeling the photo from www.rockfoto.net.
