Philzone.org - Philzone Phansite Community Discussion Board: Setlists and Reviews: Non GD Related Reviews: Archive: Pj harvey...beacon theatre 10/10

great show but embarassingly short...she went on at 910...ended at 1010..came out for a 10 minute encore....i just dont understand how a performer can expect the public to accept such..makes me respect the allman brothers and phil lesh and widespread panic etc....that much more

Always surprised that some fans will tolerate such short sets...the other side of the coin is that we're just spoiled

Some fans don't WANT more.

Short attention span generation!

I just don't understand why artists go to all the trouble of touring if they're only going to play for an hour. It takes time to set everything up and get everybody in and all. I always end up thinking, "You're already here and it sounds great, so what else do you have to do?"

Jazz is styled this way as well, but at least with them they put alot into the 1:15.

As you say, no matter what you think of any given jam band, they PLAY and give the music time to fly, or FAIL! But at least they're putting it out there.

Kinda the same with bands that play the same set over and over for a full tour, why would they want to do that? To each his own, ya know?

i go to see tons of shows and recently i have been very disappointed with such short shows....i guess i could accept it if i was paying 20 dollars but when i pay a lot of money for acts such as harvey and joe walsh recently i expect them to play more than 70 minutes....i would think out of pride they would want to....and i totally agree about the bands that play the exact same setlist for 100 shows in a row...they could do it in their sleep..and sometimes i think they do!

i am a big jazz fan and yes the shows are short but that is due in large part to the economics..they have to play 2 or sometimes 3 shows in an evening because most of the jazz clubs hold about 100 people....no such excuse when you are playing the beacon theater

I don't think these comments about the shortness of the show (at least in relation to PJ Harvey's show last night) are really fair. For that matter in relation to a couple of other shows I've seen recently -- The Meat Puppets and John McLaughlin. I was at the Harvey show last night as well.

Harvey first. Her voice is her primary instrument. She was probably singing for at least half the show and her singing is not exactly in the department of something that is easily done.

Did it occur to anyone that in order to sing at that level both technically and emotionally might take a lot out of you physically? I bet if she sang that way for too long it would shred her voice out and she'd start to sound like Joplin or .... Tom Waits. Let's give her a little credit regarding the length of her set. She did a lot with her voice last night -- singing out of her register in soprano on a lot of the new songs & then there were a couple she belted out old style. I know there was one (the title escapes me at the moment) where she was singing at such a high volume I almost had to cover my ears because of the decibels.
Sure, a lot of decisions in places about length of set are pure commercial greed but I don't think that's what is going on here.

I saw McLaughlin recently at Town Hall and I'd say the show was also about an hour and a half ... but what an hour and a half.
Same for the Puppets at Luna Lounge.
Sure I would have liked to hear more, but that's not really the point.
It's got to do with how much you have to say, in the way you say it and in the nature of what you are saying, not in how long it takes you to say it.

The nature of Lesh and the Grateful Dead is that the thing being said needs to expand into a several hour time frame to really be said. That's part of the power and uniqueness of their musical theme. It's a different thing being said with Harvey and these others and I don't think it is because of some outside force to any great extent (maybe a little bit) that their shows are the length they were. McLaughlin in particular because from what I've seen on the show trees all his shows have been about the same length and he "said" an amazing amount of stuff when I saw him. Give the artists some credit.

Myself, I've got plenty of attention span so that's not the reason the length of the shows doesn't particularly bother me. I used to love the experience at a Dead show back in the 70s when I started seeing them and it would seem like they played forever -- the music never stopped. But expecting every show I see to be that specific kind of experience is just plain silly.

You can bet I'll be at the Nokia at Halloween time though hoping for four hours of soundz!!!

This attitude about length reminds me of those folk back in the day when Dylan would open for the Dead who would complain about how Dylan didn't stretch it out the same way as the Dead did when he played. "Whatever" is what I thought then and do now.

listen,bruce springsteen will be at madision square garden next week running all over the stage,singing his heart out....literally giving it everything he has for close to 3 hours...i cannot accept that harvey couldnt play for more than 70 minutes...that is absurd!...i said the same thing about joe walsh at the beacon recently when he played about 80 minutes including encore....for the prices peopel pay for the shows it is disgraceful....as one of the earlier posts said,it almost seems crazy to spend all the time and effort getting everything ready for barely an hour performance...

Then don't accept it.

Doesn't change my mind about what I wrote though.

Sure I see what you're saying but think it's comparing apples and oranges like I wrote before since Harvey's voice is the instrument here and not a guitar. The difference between singing and playing.
& I don't think Springsteen has to protect his voice the same way as Harvey does. Just my opinion.
If I'd paid money to see Walsh and he only played for 80 minutes I'd be irritated too though. Different thing there , for me at least.

it is the trend,once performers find they can get away with shows just over an hour and still charge a small fortune they will if people don't complain...gee,seems to me that springsteens voice is pretty important to his act!...just like every other performer who sings....for crying out loud even tony bennett at age 80 performs longer than an hour and i would say his voice is pretty important to him!....i think this is kinda like going to the movies and having to sit through 20 minutes of commercials before the movie begins...when it first started people used to object,now they just accept it....the same thing will happen in this case.....if the performers see that they can get away with such incredibly short shows they will...and it will be the fans fault for accepting it

Ultimately I think an 1:30 is fair for most any group, with two hours being what I have always considered a good amount of time for most artists who have more than one or two albums worth of material. Anything less just isn't enough, IMO.... and I do NOT compare "regular" groups to the Dead/jam band world, which is it's own thing (and is to be respected at a high level for the time & effort they put into each show)

Through the years many of the groups I've seen that do 2+ hours do alot of talking/introductions/drum solos/bass solos, etc. to stretch the time out. I would rather have an 1:30 of full effort from the group than 2 hours with fluff and filler (my opinion of chatter and individual solos).

I agree that some artists are not in a position to play longer than an hour, but if that's the case then they SHOULD look to work out something to stretch the show to 1:30.

I think each artist is different, but IMO for any major act to play only an hour set with a short encore is at some level a short change to the audience, no matter who they are.

Lance (Heathentom)
Yeah, you're right.
Guess I still put the Harvey show in to the 1% where it ain't the case -- that is for me, this particular time it didn't bother me that she "cut it short." Mostly because I've never seen her live and she hasn't played in the States for years. Same reason I wasn't bothered when I saw Roky Erickson this summer and his set wasn't that long, or the Meat Puppets this fall.
In 99% of the cases I would agree with you though.

>>>Lance (Heathentom)
Yeah, you're right.<<<

Ah, how I love to hear those words!!

Every act and every night are different. I just know that for me it often takes time for my ear and head to acclimate to a show, and if it's really working well I can just be getting into it when they say GOOD NIGHT!