Thursday, May 04, 2006

How to write a gig review

Paul Fuzz provides not only hilarious and incisive commentary on a popular culture issue (in this case the demise of good music journalism), but also provides a patented Paul Fuzz E-Z Do-It-Yourself Gig Review template.

Brilliant.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

"[T]he demise of good music" might have been a better subject.

Anna Lowman (annawaits) said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anna Lowman (annawaits) said...

Thanks for the heads-up, Lisa, you're a much more attentive blogger/reader than me!

JoeinVegas said...

Does this mean we can expect more inciteful reviews from you?

Lisa Rullsenberg said...

Okay, THAT is just annoying. I typed a comment, pressed enter and it all disappeared.

What I was trying to say in response to Joe was that to write better gig reviews I will have to get back in the habit of actually attending some gigs! Shame on me...

Paul 'Fuzz' Lowman said...

Aw, Lisa! You gotta get down your local plastic beer glass emporium & dig some new sounds, I don't think I've read any gig reviews on here & I'd be mighty interested to see what you come up with.

Most gig reportage is poor for one very simple reason; it's very hard to do it well. I love going to watch live music, and I love writing about it, but describing the experience without resorting to the formula outlined in my post is pretty tough. If you're reviewing a book or an LP you are expected to say what the text MEANS; apparently people do not think the same is true of reviewing live rock music; a list of what happened and in what order is generally enough. And if I read another review which begins "I arrived at the venue..." Jeez. OF COURSE YOU ARRIVED AT THE VENUE! IT'S SORT OF A GIVEN!! YOUR BEING AT THE GIG COMES AS A DIRECT RESULT OF YOU HAVING ARRIVED THERE AT SOME POINT!! THIS IS EXTRANEOUS INFOTMATION!! (I don't know if capital letters are regarded as rude in BLOGWORLD, I apologise if they are.)

Lisa Rullsenberg said...

Hi Paul
Hmm... well, I've not ENTIRELY been without gig reviews (though they have been more sparce than I would like... Cloud has some more on some of the ones we attended)

Still, here are some links for you to mock/read:

Sons & Daughters / Delgados

Roots

Mistys Big Adventure / Persil / Melys

Rufus Wainwright (where I first encountered Anna - albeit indirectly!)

Pere Ubu

Not much and I have been to others in the period of this blog - but lacking reviews ... sorry.

naso said...

Thanks lisa for attractive postings. These links are really helpful.