What does the diehard Tuller with nothing to do and little funding do? Simple. He attends a Fairport Convention outing (that, as it turned out, had neither Dave Pegg nor Dave Mah-attacks on drummery).
Oh well. What followed was a collection of your standard latter day Fairport Faire (at least, it was more Full House than What We Did..., albiet with a modernish flair): that is, a bunch of somewhat samey, rarely memorable, but also toe-tappin', and sometimes gorgeous merry medieval tunes. There was a fiddle, probably the best dude, a guitar dude, and a mandolin dude. Pretty damn metal. Dude.
My favorite bit of Fairport trickery was, much like on Full House, a couple of kerry dances plastered together in instrumental form. However, the three guys were also pretty good at stage banter (they rarely missed a chance to slip in an amusing reference of their new album). They were pros too; the guitarist's top string snapped in twain for the penultimate song, but he carried on.
(the following one paragraph is best read by diehard Whistler fans only)
A fairly important aspect of the show was the fellow in the row behind me; a gentlemen with a sort of beretish hat, a goofy vest, little shades and an awesome 'stache. Yep. I dubbed him "Ian clone" or "Ian II." It was desire to bug this perfect stranger after the show, and demand a photograph with him. However, he left about halfway through the first part of the show. Sad really. I shall have to ask Ian about "Ian Mark 2" in my next email.
Another highlight from the event was a number towards the end, some sort of harvest song. However, it was eventually turned into "Summertime (and the living is easy);" really a chance for fiddler dude to show off his mad technique and dick around with the echo. Quite fun that.
The last number was the fourth song off the second side of their second album. For that one, they grabbed another (past?) member of the band who borrowed "the flashiest guitar [he] could find" to finish the show.
Anyways, I really don't know the band well enough for a thorough comment, this was really just a little revenge on my part for not reporting on the Ian Anderson show I saw last year (in August though, was I here yet?). Still, thanks McCabes for crafting your fine guitars and giving me a place to hang out and tout my make believe band; thanks also Fairport. I'll look ya up next time, and I promise I'll get Unhalfbricking next thing I do.
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Fairports Live at McCabes, USA
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The Whistler wrote:
