More Festival Festivities
Why do event promoters use thirty-year-old photos in their advertisements? John Cale's got to be like 70, so I'm not fooled. For Xmas, M. got me tickets to the show at the Enmore theatre. This is a nice, civilized venue, often putting on the best local, national, and international rock concerts anywhere in town. Cale put in a hard-rocking set, covering pretty much the full span of his early career, up to and including Sabotage. In some ways this was disappointing. I appreciate his early stuff, but it's largely characterized by screaming, crashing finishes after an extended period of seeming to be incapable of bringing the song to a conclusion. His pop sensibilities were perhaps a bit more honed later, and that might have been to the good for this set. Still, with a full band backing him, it was a relief that it wasn't to be a repeat of the last few shows I saw, with him reprising his catalog on solo piano. And thank goodness that his 90's turn into "classical" composition wasn't featured. Songs for Drella and his Dylan Thomas song cycle were dreadful. So, all up: a good night out and a fine performance from a grand old man of rock.