My great musical hero Peter Hammill does not play in the USA very often. I used to have a bootleg tape of him playing LA in 1978 and it was obvious from the crowd reaction that this was a rare and precious event. He was the second of my musical heros playing in 'Frisco in September. So I was particularly excited to find out he was playing over the water from me in San Francisco at the end of September. So, of course, we booked the tickets and went.
The venue seemed promising from the website, but I had reckoned without how different things can be in America....
This venue is called the Great American Music Hall, sounds good. However I'd say the people who run this place have absolutely no idea how to run a music hall, great or otherwise. I should have known what was going on when I was asked by their booking office if I wanted to buy a "Dinner Ticket or a Regular Ticket". Seems in America, you just can't escape food (in the same way you can't escape drink in Edinburgh). So you go into the venue and then realise that the people who buy the "dinner tickets" get the best seats, closets to the stage.
Worse are the army of people who work there, who seem to stand around and watch the audience just waiting to bark an order at them, or mutter a complaint. Seems like the "have a nice day culture" never reached the Tenderloin, where the Great American Music hall is. Sit in not quite the right place, or move a chair without their permission and the Great America Music Hall police are onto you. Welcome, we didn't feel - it was more like being back at school.
Even worse still, having given away the best seats to the people who buy their food too, the waitresses run around and constantly encourage you to buy drink from them as you are sitting waiting for the band to come on, with that old American euphemism - "you doing OK there"? For those of you outside of America, this means, buy my drinks and give me a tip!
Even more worse still, when the support band was on (who admittedly were terrible), the aggressive waitressing and even more aggressive great America music hall policing continued unabated, with the one of the waitresses shouting out a huge long list of drinks choices to a group of people and then wandering around shouting about who had ordered a plate of chips, effectively drowning out the support act from where we were sitting.
Incredibly enough, even more worse still, although the waitressing finally stopped during Peter Hammill's set, the bar and the Great American Music Hall police conspired to spoil the show as much as they could for us. The bar clinked glasses together, slammed the fridge door shut, and slammed the till door shut all the time and the Great American Music Hall Police (obviously being more Bon Jovi fans than the more cerebral Peter Hammill fans) got bored with the show and began to goof around with the waitresses and talk in loud voices to each other - effectively completely spoiling the more quiet parts of Peter's set - unbelievable.
As for Peter Hammill, he was great as ever. I first saw Peter Hammill live in London on the 14th of February 1988, over 20 years ago. Peter was 41 then and I was 21! Now I'm 41 and Peter is 61! It's always a spellbinding experience to see Peter live. I also was the ONLY PERSON THERE wearing a Van Der Graaf Generator t shirt - imagine that. One guy was asked me when I was in the queue for the toilet where I got it, jealousy is a terrible thing amongst Peter Hammil fans. At the beginning of the only encore Peter said "alas the night is young, but the singer is not" and someone in the audience shouted back - "neither is the audience". Quite.
Sadly though, due to the numerous shortcomings of the venue, this was one Peter Hammill gig I didn't really enjoy. Come on America, you can have a bar, or a restaurant, or a music venue, but if you try to combine all three, you end up with a mess like the Great America Music Hall. A visiting icon like Peter Hammill deserved better and I sure won't be back to your venue.
Sadly though, due to the numerous shortcomings of the venue, this was one Peter Hammill gig I didn't really enjoy. Come on America, you can have a bar, or a restaurant, or a music venue, but if you try to combine all three, you end up with a mess like the Great America Music Hall. A visiting icon like Peter Hammill deserved better and I sure won't be back to your venue.
3 comments:
Hello!
I went to that show, and I must say, I, along with my boyfriend must have been the youngest ones there. I sat at the oposite side, so thankfully all the bar sounds were drowned out completely, but unfortunately, when Peter mentioned losing his sister, a man sitting somewhere behind me said, "oh come on, Peter." He kept complaining, and the man in front of me took it very, very seriously, as he should have. He turned around and stared for perhaps a minute or so. It was quite serious and very distracting, but besides feeling a little out of place (before attending, I assumed it would be a mixed crowd, but apparently I'm the only in one my age with good taste) it was a great show. My first time seeing Peter and hopefully not the last.
Another thing, the states aren't all about food. It's about having a venue survive, they offer things besides music to appeal to everyone. And Peter Hammill is certainly not the type of act the venue is particularly familiar with.. Although they've had a lot of other great acts perform such as Michael Rother.
"Peter mentioned losing his sister,"
My understanding is that Peter never had a sister, just an older brother, who died many years ago. Peter doesn't talk about his brother's death, let alone written a song about it or mentions it at a performance.
I've caught PH solo at several bad venues. NYC's defunct Bottom Line had to be the worst, it was the same atmosphere as you described.
It was a restaurant as well as music venue. It was also a show case venue for new bands, The Police, Bruce Springsteen as well as Elvis Costello played there early in their careers.
No matter who played this club, there was always an element of the audience who were simply there to get drunk, eat and talk throughout the entire concert.
Because it was a showcase hall, many music industry people attended these concerts, they were the ones doing most of the drinking, eating and talking, they didn't care, their tickets were free!
There's nothing more annoying than trying to enjoy a concert with waitresses constantly obstructing your view and obnoxious drunks vomiting, especially if it's at a Hammill concert.
Lost his sister? Are you sure he didn't say his brother??
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