Capital. It fails us now?
It’s 8:00 on a Tuesday and I could hop the bus and be outside The Warfield in a matter of minutes scalping tickets for Gang Of Four. I loved their show in May and they recorded two of my all-time favorite albums, but something stops me, just as something stops me from scurrying after Go4′s new album of re-recorded classics, Return The Gift. It seems odd that a band that made its myth by critiquing the listener’s and the band’s relationship to Capital is so actively repackaging, re-touring, re-playing, Re-Spinning. I realize that the re-recordings are in fact part of a continuing effort to Stick It To The Man, but there has to be a better way than asking the same people to pay for Sticking It again and again. (I thought that was Elvis Costello’s job.) Surely most of tonight’s crowd will be people who attended one of the two Fillmore shows. So at best, it’s playing to the choir (and shaking them down at the same time), and at worst, well, I’m going to give them the benefit of a doubt and not go into the worst.
In any case, for those of you who have their curiosity piqued by this whole Return The Gift thing – it’s got a dollar in the cover, get it? – Silence Is A Rhythm Too has a couple of MP3s and some good commentary.
Silence Is A Rhythm Too: Return The Gift
UPDATE: This show was canceled. So there went a whole lot of hand-wringing for nothing. Must be a blog.
