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So tonight I went to see Lou Reed play a gig in Redwood City, an hour by train outside of SF. It was HUGE!
As some of you know, back in Jan 2005, as we started TPN, I published my dream list of people I’d like to interview on my podcast. At the top of the list was… Lou Reed. Next was Noam Chomsky. Well I got Noam out of the way about a year ago. And tonight…
While I was standing in line I started chatting with some of the other folks in the line, and eventually realized that if I can’t get a chance to actually interview Lou Reed, I can at least interview his fans! So I pulled out my iPod asked the people who they were, where they came from, what they did for a living and why they were going to see Lou. I kept doing the interviews while we were sitting inside the theatre, waiting for the show to start. I also recorded 99% of the show, but that’s just for my personal collection. 🙂
In the interviews I met a fine art photographer, a sci-fi author, a landscape gardener, the manager of a comedy club, a psychiatric nurse, the president of a search engine optimization company… and a german. A fair cross-section of Lou Reed fans. I’ve always suspected Lou Reed fans are more intelligent than your average rock fans.
By the way, the show was brilliant. No drums, no keyboards, just Lou on guitar and Rob Wasserman and Fernando Saunders both playing bass! The set list included mostly tracks from Songs For Drella Magic And Loss and The Raven. There was one VU song, a brilliant version of Femme Fatale, and one encore from New York. During the show, Lou announced that the Democrats had taken back the House of Reps and he, along with the crowd, clapped and cheered for about five minutes. Lou made a comment about how convenient it was that Saddam was sentenced the day before the US Elections and then said how he’d like to see George Bush hung. I think the election result must have buoyed his spirits because he did TWO encores – the first was a new track called “Gravity” and the second was “Dirty Boulevard”. Anyway… this show is about the fans, not a review of the concert, but let me just say that it was awesome. And today there was news that he is touring Australia again next month!! And will be performing the entire Berlin album!! Rock on.
Enjoy.
Very interesting show.
I thought it was kinda funny that you asked the shrink what was big at the moment because my mother (the psychotherapist/analyst) was just telling me the other day that bipolar II was the flavor of the month.
Psychiatry phases require two factors: firstly they can be medicated; secondly they have been previously underdiagnosed or misdiagnosed as other stuff.
Anyways I like the whole interview random people angle. Although I noticed that being suspicious of recording devices seems to be an instinct in girls. That or she sensed that she was the reason you were approaching the group. Another girl instinct.
Come on Miriam, wouldn’t you be scared if Cameron came at you looking for an interview? Hang on, I have seen the TPN gettogether!
Molly
Hmm maybe you’re right. Could quite easily be that being suspicious of Cam is a female instinct.
Actually come to think about it at the TPN dinner he resorted to getting someone to set up the camera on the table so I wouldn’t notice it recording me so any level of suspicion is not unfounded.
Oh and trust me, if you weren’t at the TPN dinner you didn’t see it 🙂
Hello there,
I just happened to stumble across your blog; I attended the same Redwood City concert! Wasn’t it great? It was my first Lou Reed concert! 🙂
It’s really interesting to see the diverse fans at the concert. I’m also excited to hear about the Berlin production Lou’s putting on at the moment. Berlin is my favorite Lou Reed album — and actually probably my favorite album of all time.
Anyway, I wanted to thank you for putting up that great podcast! Brings back the great memories I have of the concert (though it was only a little more than a month ago). I noticed that you mentioned you also have a recording of the show; would you possibly be interested in sharing it? If not, I completely understand and I hope this request is not too forthright of an imposition.
Take care and Happy Holidays!
Krysten