OFF: Bedouin dates

[Carl Edlund Anderson]

On mån 8 feb 1999 18.52 -0500 sprawl <sprawl at BLACKBOARD.COM> wrote:
> So I guess Alan has written off the states, or he isn't doing well enough
> financially to swing it.

     No surprises there!  He's got a band with no actual album
which barely has recognition in the UK!  Small miracle he's doing
a second tour.  Consider the trouble HW has getting a tour in
the States--and they've a much bigger name than Bedouin.

     It is my great hope that Bedouin will do well enough to
make it to the States sometime.  Otherwise I'm unlikely to
see them again (barring the miracle of a job in Europe!).

     My advice is: travel!  See HW, Bedouin, or any of the Scandinavian
space-rock bands no matter what you have to do.  IMO, it's
limited genre, it might disappear in (smoke) the void tomorrow.
Hopefully not.  But I feel lucky to have seen the gigs I've
seen. If I'd been able to see the US Space Ritual tour in 73
(as opposed to simply being less than 12 months old ;) that
would cap it ... but there's little more that could!

> Well, having recently seen a vid, I hope if I get the chance to see him
> again, he will have realized that he
> NEEDS a vocalist, or needs to eliminate vocals.  And that he NEEDS to get
> rid of that phase shifter or flange or whatever he uses to cover up the
> music with that empty conch-shell noise.  Oh, and a drummer
> with an imagination would be cool too.
> Just my opinion.  It was a single vid, so I am hoping that it wasn't
> exemplary of what he is doing these days.

     Haven't seen any vids, so can't judge.  True, Alan is not
the greatest singer in the world, but I appreciate the trouble a
small band has hiring extra members!  Not sure about the noise
your refer to: sounded awesome live--very clear, very loud.  One
really appreciates his bass playing live with Bedouin.  I tried
to keep track of what he was doing, but in the end can only say
that he had changed the arrangements from the recorded versions
to suit the three-piece better.  Alan plays chords on the bass
much faster than I can manage.  Part of that is surely practice,
since I don't get nearly the opporuntity to play that I would like,
but I to some extent I have yet to find a fingering for bass
power chords that I'm happy with.  They seem either to have good
sound, and be difficult to zip up and down the neck with, or have
lamer sound and be easy to sweep up and down the neck with.  Sigh.
Always the way!  Must try again to take a close look on this tour.

Cheers,
Carl

ObCD: Bruce Dickinson, _The Chemical Wedding_

--
Carl Edlund Anderson
Dept. of Anglo-Saxon, Norse, & Celtic
St. John's College, University of Cambridge
mailto:cea20 at cus.cam.ac.uk
http://hea-www.harvard.edu/~carl/