So I went to Philly last night to watch Television. [Archive] - Audio & Video Forums

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Swish
12-30-2014, 05:02 PM
That's a long drive to watch television, right? Okay, it was the band (duh).

Yeah, I never thought I'd see this seminal punk band in my neck of the woods, or touring for that matter. They played at the TLA on South Street, which is basically an old movie theater with the seats removed.

The place was packed by the time the strange opening act was done 'playing'. It was a guy from Manhattan who told stories while another guy played (mostly) jazz type progressions on a guitar along with recorded drum and bass tracks. The stories were about doing drugs and the crazy people on subways. Yeah, it was rather boring.

Anyway, Television was all about Tom Verlaine and Richard Lloyd, but Richard left the band in 2007 and was replaced by the quite capable Jimmy Rip. The original drummer, Billy Ficca, is still with the band, and the bass player is Fred Smith, who replaced Richard Hell 2 1975 I think. Hell was too crazy for them and Verlaine sent him packing.

They opened with some intro I hadn't heard before (and doubt anyone else at this show did), then Prove It, a song that that everyone sang along to, and then '1880 or So', a highlight for me that included one freakin' awesome solo by Jimmy Rip. That old cat can really play.

Next were Elevation, Little Johnny Jewel, Venus, Torn Curtain, See No Evil, Persia, Guiding Light, and Marquee Moon.

Yeah, that's only 11 tracks, but a few included extended jams. They came back to do an encore but it was song called "I'm Gonna Find You" that I don't believe was ever recorded. No, they didn't play Friction or Mr. Lee, which was a bit disappointing to me.

While they're considered a seminal punk band, you would never confuse them with The Sex Pistols, The Ramones or The Stooges. They're technically proficient and eschew sound effects, instead focusing on intricate guitar patterns and melodies, and the odd but infectious vocals of Tom Verlaine.

While the show was relatively short, I left quite satisfied that I got to see them before they're gone from the scene.

Davey
12-31-2014, 10:01 AM
Nice. I was just listening to Verlaine's second solo Dreamtime a couple days ago, love that record. I have so many Verlaine records, I was really a huge fan back in the day. Even though I like them all, some of those records admittedly weren't all that distinctive, but his guitar sound always was.

Nina Nastasia in my ears right now. The Blackened Air, second half winding down. Beautiful record from any view. May have to play it again, love this record. She's been away for awhile, a few years now, not sure what's going on, not much online. There's a cool little John Peel archive video that they put together to celebrate all of the artists he really loved. One for each letter of the alphabet. 'N' is for...Nina Nastasia ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWNjoa4nLYo

And then later moved on to the very cool Advisory Committee from Mirah after listening to some Nina (and had to get in a listen to Dreamtime once again... did I already say I love this record? ...oh yea, I did, nevermind ...). I don't listen to this one from Mirah enough, she really brought it all together here. Got a little too much of the 2000s crunched sound, but still great.

But the best was yet to come. Leading up to the new year with one of my favorite debuts, Any Other City by Life Without Buildings. One and done, shame. But still one of my top favorites of the last couple decades, listen all the time, over and over. No idea what a second album would've sounded like, 2001 and they just missed the music blog explosion that might've saved them for another try, but no matter, time goes on. Coulda been 1981 instead of 2001, same sound and same result, stands up as one of the best regardless.