A collection of essays from various scribes – be they songwriters like New Pornographers head Carl Newman to well-known novelists like Max Allan Collins – about going to concerts seems like a interesting idea. The thing is, THE SHOW I’LL NEVER FORGET: 50 WRITERS RELIVE THEIR MOST MEMORABLE CONCERTGOING EXPERIENCE is a bit hit-and-miss.
Maybe I’m just a jaded concertgoer myself, since the days of me standing around smoky clubs are long gone; seeing countless indie rock bands over the years does that. The main problem with a lot of the essays in editor Sean Manning’s collection is that these shows have happened many years prior to them being written about, so you know memories can be fuzzy and confused.
You get essays about the early Rolling Stones and Beatles concerts, along with a historic James Brown show. But there are some glaring omissions in this book. Why no Bob Dylan? I mean, it’s not like the guy does not tour. Or – love or hate them – The Grateful Dead, which always has been a band much better in concert than on album.
Then, of course, a good chunk of the writing has nothing to do with the shows themselves. Case in point: Thomas Beller spends a few paragraphs about The Kinks, with the rest of the essay being about how he punched a cop, then got a tune-up by some other cops. Actually, one of the hits of the book is Dani Shapiro’s take on a Bruce Springsteen show she saw back in 1978, then years later being up for an audition in a video that would become a huge career-starter for a young actress long before she had FRIENDS.
Gene Santoro’s essay is about the best show he ever saw and how it would change weekly until that fateful night he saw Jimi Hendrix play with Buddy Guy. Then you have the aforementioned Newman talking about seeing Redd Kross early in his life, which still influences his own output to this day. It ends with a very funny epilogue. Collins recalls his love for Bobby Darin when he went to see Kevin Spacey do a tribute show. To me, Collins looks like he probably has a Farfisa organ in his home which he pounds on during bouts of writer’s block, wailing out hits like “96 Tears” over and over, rather than the likes of “Splish Splash” and “Mack the Knife.”
Other highlights are Luc Sante’s decription of the infamous Public Image Ltd. show at the Ritz back in ’81 – a show, incidentally, that a high School teacher of mine went to and would go off about every once in awhile in study hall, so it’s nice to hear a diffrent perspective. Then there is John Albert’s story of an early Black Flag gig, showing the youngsters out there what a real punk show back in the day was like.
Some essays just fell flat. To me, Chuck Klosterman is an awful hack, and with his descriptions of a Prince show, I’ll still stand by that proclamation. You get the king of pompous, Rick Moody, with a essay about John Lurie and The Lounge Lizards, which I lost interest in real quick, despite being a fan of Lurie.
And the book wouldn’t be complete without a smattering of the hipsters checking in, like Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore talking about some Glenn Branca show, and other essays about other esoteric artists who hold no appeal. I’m no better, because I could have referenced shows I thought were amazing, but it’s so subjective.
Essentially, that’s why I predict THE SHOW I’LL NEVER FORGET has a tough road ahead of it. My guess is that this will be given as a gift by people who have no idea what to get their friends, thinking, “hey, my pal’s got a huge music collection, so they’ll probably like this.” –Bruce Grossman
Buy it at Amazon.
Discuss it in our forums.
Related posts:
- The BOOKGASM Experience
- Forget Sudoku! Do you Kakuro?
- Mystery Writers of America Presents Death Do Us Part: New Stories about Love, Lust, and Murder
- The Thinking Fan’s Guide to the World Cup
- The Secret Society of Demolition Writers
