I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: DAVE MATTHEWS-Tiny Desk Concert #760 (June 27, 2018).

Dave Matthews Band superfandom is one of those entities that I just don’t get.  I know they had a pretty big hit back in the day, but I was really shocked a few years ago that they had a following like Phish with people seeing him/them dozens of times.

I don’t really dislike them, but I don’t really like them either.  I appreciate the musicianship and chord progressions that they play but I have a hard time with his lyrics–when they are not (somewhat) insightful, they are awfully questionable.

But to me their sound isn’t unique enough to build a fellowship out of.  Perhaps it’s a live thing and you have to see it for yourself.

So here is Dave himself–just him and his acoustic guitar(s). He sings five songs.  I don’t know if this is like heaven for DMB fans or if they prefer the whole live shebang.

He talks about getting used to singing

by himself since he is touring with his band:

We sound good at the moment but more importantly we feel good.  It’s a different feeling to play by myself.  I have to get used to it, you know first you have to get used to being alone because I’m used to having [various mugging over-the-top sounds and faces about a band making big rock sounds] but for me it’s just [makes wimpy sounds of playing a tiny guitar] a little thing”

This leads to uproarious laughter.  And that’s the one thing I don’t like about this Concert.  The music is fine, his voice sounds fine, but he is mugging for the audience so much and, presumably all Daveheads (or Dmbheads?–I kid) are hanging on his every word which they all deem hilarious.  I hate being with sycophantic fans who think any statement is a gut buster (this happened recently with someone I saw live–not every statement is one to quote on instagram).

The first two songs are from their new album.  After the first song, “Samurai Cop (Oh Joy Begin),” he complains about his voice even though it sounds fine:

“Singing shouldn’t be such a struggle.  Some people make it look so easy [sings nonsense in operatic style]. I’m like [ggggg ggg].”  Crazy laughter ensues.  After “Here On Out,” he states inexplicably, “That was a close one” and the laughter rolls on.

Dave plays a full five songs–nearly 25 minutes:

when Matthews shed his backing players to swing by the Tiny Desk for a solo gig, he couldn’t just knock out three songs and bail. Instead, he played a set so long — so defiantly un-Tiny — that his between-song banter could have filled a Tiny Desk concert on its own.

“Don’t Drink the Water” is probably my favorite Dave song.  I especially love the way the song is mostly mellow but then turns into a great dark section at the end.  Indeed, it’s the dark section that I really like, not so much the earlier part.

He says that “The last administration sent a bunch of artists to Havana to have a party.  I’m not sure if that’s was the goal… [hamming it up] go down there and… culturally…. vibe.”   I wish he’d elaborated more on that.

There’s two final songs, “Mercy” and “So Damn Lucky” on which he hits some great powerful falsetto notes.  His voice is really quite good in this setting.  I suspect this is probably a real treat for fans, so if you;re one, you should check it out.

[READ: July 3, 2018] “Little St. Don”

When you have a subject who is so contemptible so utterly crass and repulsive, a “person” who does the most unconscionable things and still manages to have supporters, it is impossible to make him look bad.

Even if you are trying comedy.  How do you try to make someone look worse than they actually are when they are lower than scum, when they treat people like animals, when they think it is okay to mock the handicapped, to brag about grabbing women, when they are willing to let people die for their own insipid and un-thought-through ideas?

This living piece of excrement has a sudden flash to destroy the lives of thousands of people and two days later decides to blame it on someone else.  And, for reasons that no one can explain, people actually believe this liar, this clearly unsound lunatic.

So how does a subtle and thoughtful writer go about making comedy about this lying dictator?

Well, Saunders gives it a try.

And he succeeds.

This piece is actually funny. Until you remember that the things that Little Don has done in real life are so much worse than the things Saunders comes up with, that laughing at him is a futile gesture until he is behind bars.

Saunders writes the story in a mock Biblical tone (hence the St. Don).  The first story here is that Little Don is in the “fullness of his years” and people ask him to judge a woman accused of adultery.  Don began “attempting to know the hearts of the people.”  And so he makes a decision that will get people to like him.  Which is all pretty accurate except that it gives Don too much credit.

Another story shows him not attempting to heal a blind man despite spitting in the dirt as Jesus had done.  He was just spitting.

The rest are stories of young Little Don trying to upstage everyone.  Clamoring for attention at a funeral, claiming that he was more popular than Jesus was when he was in school, probably.

There’s some childhood racism and then some lying about cheating, “and yet still he retainethed office.”

St. Don was continually pulling of these miracles, to the amazement of the people, especially those on the left.  And the center.  And those on the more reasonable right.  And even those on the far right, numbering among them even then those who had acquired much gold supporting Little St. Don, such as, for example, his chief scribe, St. Sean of Hannity, might be heard to mutter in the privacy of their dwellings, as the hour grew late, “Wow, how long can this hustle keep going?”

It ends with Little Don calling ICE on an immigrant worker as a prank with his pal Little Stephen Miller.

The ending conceit is great.

Little Don turned on the TV and heard the words of Jesus from a preacher:

“Suffer the little children and forbid them not to come unto me, for theirs is the kingdom of Heaven.”

And he took these words to heart, and would recall them, and abide by them, wisely, years later when there were some issues at the border, but only a few of the words, like the first four.

How can he still be in office?  Impeach the Motherfucker already.  Or better yet put him and his cronies in jail.