Webb Sisters - Los Angeles/San Francisco shows in Jan 2010

[goldstei]

hey, i'm in michigan today but will be in southern cal. tomorrow. it's called "california dreamin'" but one can get there. i'll mostly be in san diego, which is paradise anytime but especially in january when you otherwise live in the siberian midwest.

[donalagata]

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[MaryB]

hey, i'm in michigan today but will be in southern cal. tomorrow. it's called "california dreamin'" but one can get there. i'll mostly be in san diego, which is paradise anytime but especially in january when you otherwise live in the siberian midwest.

With this major snowstorm hitting/about to hit your area, I wish you luck in getting to California and hope you stay safe.

Edit - ooops, I'm 1 day off. Bob, hope you got there safely and without discomfort.

[goldstei]

i'm here in so. calif. let me know what's happening in michigan (ann arbor when i'm there)? how bad the storm?

bob

[MaryB]

The weathermen are all in a tizzy as usual. Columbus has 'severe weather advisory' and we were to be hit in a major way starting at midnight - I'm still waiting........Think all the snow went Pete's way to help out Frosty

[goldstei]

my ann arbor sources tell me about five inches there. hope mary and others stuck in the tundra are keeping warm! i get to hang out on the west coast before having to face reality again (if you can call ann arbor reality!) in a few days. now in san diego. saturday to long beach to see the webbs. than san fran and back home. no sightings of leonard during a brief stay in los angeles. does he still live there? or anywhere besides on the road?

[MaryB]

Hope we get a review of the Webb Sisters concert from you. Am loving all this snow! Wishing you an LC sighting.

[goldstei]

well.......i'll make it short, tho not too sweet. in sum, not a very memorable concert.

they sang for only about 30 minutes as an opening act for rufus wainwright. seemed to have a rocky start, tho it certainly got better, especially their final song, "a thousand stars." they did "if it be your will," but i thought their effort in long beach was not up to their wonderful standard set during the leonard concerts.

what explains my rather lackluster summary here? some possibilities:

1) i was pretty exhausted, as in the fourth day of a trip which started in l.a. with a good visit to a high school classmate, then moved to san diego for a bruising day of pitching book proposals and going thru scores of book exhibits at an historians' conference, then back to long beach, which i reached by light rail from the l.a. train station, a trip which took me through miles of ugly and barren one-story terrain that reminded me of hiroshima after the bomb, with all businesses shuttered and/or with iron bars and/or surrounded by fences topped with barbed wire and tiny mostly ugly houses on postage-stamp lots without lawns and considerable tension in the general atmosphere. my hotel was in a more upscale transitional neighborhood but i still had to buy my personal pan pizza hut pizza by swapping bucks for it thru a little door at the bottom of bullet-proof glass which protected employees and customers from each other. having recently visited cleveland, kansas city, milwaukee & st. louis, which are almost totally deserted at any time of day & night, its obvious to me that this country is in very deep trouble and that our ruling class and those of us, like me, who lead relatively comfortable lives, have not a clue about the struggle that perhaps 40% of our population is daily engaged in to survive. so i was not only exhausted but pretty pissed off, not a good way to enjoy a concert.

2) aside from their magical leonard concert "if it be your will" duets, i realized as the long beach concert began that i knew nothing about the webb sisters (even that they were, i gather, English, as had never heard them speak before, not to mention my unfamiliarity with the rest of their repertoire, including the words and whether or not they write their own stuff or even how to characterize it--folk? pop? enlish folk/rock?

3) having seen promo for the concert which only mentioned wainwright, i think much of the audience was baffled at who they were and what they were doing there, especially as they opened the concert w/o any introduction (and i mistakenly thought an accompanying guitarist was wainwright, obviously not knowing him from eve, much less adam). so the vibes were not warm, tho they did get a good round of applause after their final song.

4) leonard's production values were glaringly missing especially during their first song when the sound was terrible and the webbs seemed very nervous.

5) on the other hand, compared to wainwright, who was unbearably horrendous (i left after three songs, tho most people were there to see him), the webbs were not bad. but not bad ain't too good.

sorry to lay this on all you cohenheads.

bob goldstein

[MaryB]

Bob-

Thank you so much for this review - you said it like it was and I appreciate that. We have all been spoiled by the perfection, even with the imperfections which we eagerly embrace, of a Leonard Cohen concert. Bereft of that comfort zone, apparently the nerves start to set in, but The Webbs definitely thrive in the presence of the excellence that surrounds them in the LC setting.

Warmest regards,
Mary

Wish your trip turns into a 'sunny Elay'.

[asta]

Goldstei:
You must have been watching a totally different concert to me.
The Webb Sisters were as FANTASTIC as always !
The audience loved them !

What about the huge line to meet them and to get their autographs after they performed, and before Rufus took the stage? They appeared to have sold hundreds of their EP's. I bought one myself, so I was in that line to meet them too. So many people wouldn't have wanted to meet them / buy their CD if we had thought they had not performed well !

From what you suggest in your 'review' ,- respectfully - you don't seem to know much about these highly successful artists.
They were the BBC Album of the week and also the BBC Single of the week. STING loves them so much that they are singing with STING on his new album.
They are highly successful OUTSIDE of touring with Leonard (although I am sure that they love and appreciate touring with Lenny)
All of Leonard's band are individual and well - known stars / performers. That is partly what makes Leonard's complete band shine so well.

I was at Charley & Hattie's LA gig on Tuesday and that was a brilliant success too. Goldsei - you say you had a bad day, and you even left Rufus's set after a few songs !
Nobody else seemed to leave. Rufus was fantastic too.
Do you not think (like we all sometimes have) that you just had a bad day, and this has reflected in such a negative review that you have printed on the forum of both The Webb Sisters and Rufus.

I read that the New York Post have The Webb Sisters amongst the 'one's to watch' in 2010. I think you are rather individual in your perception of these talented songwriters / musicians - but, of course, we can't all like every artist we see and hear.
I am like most of the audience last night who obviously thought they were great. So much so that I have booked to see their next date in LA that is listed on their website (January 18) ASTA

[goldstei]

i glad the previous post-er enjoyed the show. everybody has their own experience and i'm glad yours was better than mine. until the end of their set the applause for them was barely more than polite. the folks next to me had no idea who they were and were pissed off as they were expecting rufus. i like his dad(loudon wainwright iii) a lot but found rufus comletely unbearable, tho the crowd was there for him and definitely enjoyed him (the applause for him was six times greater than for the webbs).

i've been to nine cohen concerts and the webbs' "if it be your will" is always the highlight for me. i came expecting to really like them and that's another reason i was so disappointed. as mentioned in my posting, in my view even their "if it be" last night was nothing like their cohen performances.

as mentioned in my post, i was tired by the time i got to the concert, knew nothing about the webbs aside from their leonard performances, and also completely appalled at what i saw on the way to the concert hall. as i said in my post, this certainly could have affected my reaction. but the prior poster also was no doubt affect by the context of their day also. my opinion isn't worth any more than theirs, but it's not worth any less either. viva la difference!

bob goldstein

[goldstei]

i have no idea what this means; i posted only on leonardcohenforum.com

Do you not think (like we all sometimes have) that you just had a bad day, and this has reflected in such a negative review that you have printed on the forum of both The Webb Sisters and Rufus.

[Mabeanie1]

I read these exchanges with great interest. Good on you Bob for posting your review of the show as you saw it, even if it wasn't wholly glowing for whatever reason.

Speaking personally, if I had the opportunity to go and see the Webbs I think I would probably do so out of curiosity but it would only be curiosity. I think their harmonies are just right for Leonard's band and their voices blend perfectly with Sharon's rich velvety tones but I am not a fan of their version of If It Be Your Will, which is far too sugary sweet for my taste and accompanied by desperately unimaginative guitar and clarsach playing. I would like to hear that there is a lot of different stuff in their own set but I suspect it may be more of the same so probably not one for me.

Wendy

[asta]

Actually, The Webb Sisters are ROCKERS - especially when with their band. As well as their beautiful harmonies and 'chilled' songs.
If one is 'curious' about their music, check out their albums, but (of course) we can't like every artist that is out there.

For Goldstei - In contrast to your impression of Rufus Wainwright, there is fantastic review of Rufus' concert in the LA Times today (the reviewer obviously didn't choose to walk out after Rufus third song)
.....and seems to have thoroughly enjoyed it. He also gave a complimentary comment on The Webb Sisters in the review too. 'Support' acts often don't even get a mention. ASTA http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/music_b ... eater.html

[goldstei]

again, i'm glad at least some others enjoyed the concert than i. perhaps another issue was seating. from where i sat in the balcony, you couldn't see faces (and, unlike Cohen concerts in large venues there were no videos). and the sound, tho tolerable for songs, was so poor you could barely make about any spoken remarks, so i didn't even know the webbs were selling stuff at the break between their set and rufus. there was no introduction at the beginning or explanation about this, so many in the audience, including myself and my neighbors didn't know either who the webbs or their accompaniest was and/or how long the break would be and/or that they well selling cds then (i assumed it would be very short and then rufus would start). as mentioned before, the applause for the webbs was very tepid/polite until their last song (thousand stars), for which they got a good round of applause, but hard to tell if for the song (very good) or because audience was waiting for rufus. no contest that rufus got a warm reception, far more warmer than the webbs, who clearly had been a last-minute addition to the program ( not on programs ads for rufus, which i saw with my own eyes, and not posted originally on the webbs site). no doubt this contributed to the problem of audience confusion and what seemed like webb's nervous beginning tho i have no reason to doubt some in audience liked them and bought their stuff during the confusing break between sets (i've never heard of this kind of set-up as usually music of all performers who perform at a concert is sold at the end).

my last posting on this--glad astra enjoyed the concert as did no doubt others. and i didn't ever say webbs were bad, just that concert was non memorable. still my memory. in fairness to rufus, i thought his performance of cohen in the "i'm your man" movie was also awful so wasn't surprised on that point!

bob goldstein