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More Glee Than a Barrel of Monkees
Jun. 20th, 2011 02:36 amThis weekend was pretty busy. On Friday evening, I went up to East Rutherford with ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
bethje to see a live Glee show. She'd actually seen it earlier in the week, because she's more the type who likes to see the same show multiple times. Really, I wasn't all that interested in seeing this one at all, but it was all right. Beth is really a fan of the show Glee, and I think it's all right, but don't love it like she does. I find it weird that some people who don't like the show complain that it gives a positive view of high school, but I've seen enough of it to know that it really doesn't. It looks to me like it was made by people who hated high school, and it shows. Now, maybe their presentation of glee club as a place that will accept all the losers isn't very realistic, but I guess I see "singing is fun" as sort of a secondary message. Primarily, I think it's more about hope in the face of the general crappiness of teenage life. Now, the people who say the show is disjointed and switches a lot between realism and goofy fantasy with little warning have more of a point. And I really don't get the use of prerecorded tracks and Autotune, because shouldn't a high school glee club NOT sound very polished? Aren't they kind of going against the general message by doing this? I guess they do what they can to sell albums, though. Anyway, the live show is a combination of performances of songs from the show and video clips featuring the stars of the show who are too famous to actually participate in the tour itself (i.e., Matthew Morrison and Jane Lynch). It was interesting to see, but I have to mention that our seats were pretty bad. We were in a position where we really couldn't see the screen OR the actual performers very well. Also, Beth suspects that arenas can bring out the worst, or at least the noisiest, in audiences. Is it really necessary to drown out the show with your screaming? It put me in mind of high school pep rallies, which were pretty hellish.
After the show, I got a few hours of sleep, and then had to get up for work really early in the morning. Once that was over, I took a nap, and then we headed off to Atlantic City for a Monkees concert at the Borgata. You may know them as one of the newest casinos in town, where they have a rule that cocktail waitresses who gain too much weight get fired. That makes me reluctant to spend any money there, but it's not like I gamble anyway. At the show, Beth and I ended up not sitting together, due to some complications with the tickets. She'd actually seen this show before on Thursday night, and had seen Monkees concerts several other times in the past. This was the first one I ever attended, and I really thought I should go since it might be the last time they'll go on tour together. It was a lot of fun, and aside from a bit of scripted banter, they basically just played one song after another for two hours. Actually, there was one bit specific to this show, where Davy Jones mentioned having to stay in the room next to Kid Rock's band. Beth told me this tour was the first time she'd seen "Daddy's Song" done live, as well as the first time she saw Peter Tork play the French horn on "Shades of Grey." I think it might be interesting to compare and contrast concerts from still-active bands with ones that get back together to play old stuff, but I don't feel like getting into it right now. There's definitely a different vibe, though. Oldies shows often feel more relaxed, and as someone who's gotten largely exhausted with standing-room-only shows full of overly active young people, perhaps that's a good thing for me.
bethje to see a live Glee show. She'd actually seen it earlier in the week, because she's more the type who likes to see the same show multiple times. Really, I wasn't all that interested in seeing this one at all, but it was all right. Beth is really a fan of the show Glee, and I think it's all right, but don't love it like she does. I find it weird that some people who don't like the show complain that it gives a positive view of high school, but I've seen enough of it to know that it really doesn't. It looks to me like it was made by people who hated high school, and it shows. Now, maybe their presentation of glee club as a place that will accept all the losers isn't very realistic, but I guess I see "singing is fun" as sort of a secondary message. Primarily, I think it's more about hope in the face of the general crappiness of teenage life. Now, the people who say the show is disjointed and switches a lot between realism and goofy fantasy with little warning have more of a point. And I really don't get the use of prerecorded tracks and Autotune, because shouldn't a high school glee club NOT sound very polished? Aren't they kind of going against the general message by doing this? I guess they do what they can to sell albums, though. Anyway, the live show is a combination of performances of songs from the show and video clips featuring the stars of the show who are too famous to actually participate in the tour itself (i.e., Matthew Morrison and Jane Lynch). It was interesting to see, but I have to mention that our seats were pretty bad. We were in a position where we really couldn't see the screen OR the actual performers very well. Also, Beth suspects that arenas can bring out the worst, or at least the noisiest, in audiences. Is it really necessary to drown out the show with your screaming? It put me in mind of high school pep rallies, which were pretty hellish.After the show, I got a few hours of sleep, and then had to get up for work really early in the morning. Once that was over, I took a nap, and then we headed off to Atlantic City for a Monkees concert at the Borgata. You may know them as one of the newest casinos in town, where they have a rule that cocktail waitresses who gain too much weight get fired. That makes me reluctant to spend any money there, but it's not like I gamble anyway. At the show, Beth and I ended up not sitting together, due to some complications with the tickets. She'd actually seen this show before on Thursday night, and had seen Monkees concerts several other times in the past. This was the first one I ever attended, and I really thought I should go since it might be the last time they'll go on tour together. It was a lot of fun, and aside from a bit of scripted banter, they basically just played one song after another for two hours. Actually, there was one bit specific to this show, where Davy Jones mentioned having to stay in the room next to Kid Rock's band. Beth told me this tour was the first time she'd seen "Daddy's Song" done live, as well as the first time she saw Peter Tork play the French horn on "Shades of Grey." I think it might be interesting to compare and contrast concerts from still-active bands with ones that get back together to play old stuff, but I don't feel like getting into it right now. There's definitely a different vibe, though. Oldies shows often feel more relaxed, and as someone who's gotten largely exhausted with standing-room-only shows full of overly active young people, perhaps that's a good thing for me.
