My very first concert was just short of sixty years ago, to see Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass. My father and my brother Jeff were also big fans of the TB, and so it was a great thing to do. I can remember very little about TB’s performance except for the trombonist doing some probably obvious but, for child-me, funny goofing around. For some reason, I better remember the warm-up acts, Bev Harrell, and Bill and Boyd. Harrell, whose name I (and pretty much everyone) had long forgotten, sang very prettily and undoubtedly sang her lovely minor hit, What Am I Doing Here with You. I also really enjoyed the gentle harmonies of Bill and Boyd, and I have a specific memory of their very pretty Cloudy Summer Afternoon.
I remember the concert more as a shared experience with my brother and father than as a musical event. Why? Maybe that is natural. But maybe it is because we were far from the action in a large and cavernous venue. That venue was the heritage listed Festival Hall.
Last night I was at Festival Hall for the second time, with my two daughters. We were there to see The Dead South, a great and impossible to classify band – bluesgrass? – that I ran into by chance about a year ago. We all love The Dead South’s music and when Eva discovered that they were touring Australia it was obvious to go see them perform. With an obvious “uh-oh”: I had heard that Festival Hall was a bad venue.
The Dead South are great and were great. They performed their wonderful songs with full gusto and Henry Wagons (with help from Queenie), the warm-up act of whom I knew nothing except vaguely the name, was no slouch either. Eva and Lillian and I had a blast. For those who don’t know The Dead South, and for those who do, I’ve linked some of my (and everyone’s) favourites at the bottom of the post.
And what of the venue? Jesus H. Christ.
It is impossible to describe how bad Festival Hall is. Most importantly, the sound is appalling. As it happened, we were sitting almost exactly where I had been to see the Tijuana Brass, pretty far back and way on the side (the best seats I could get when I knew to look). Yeah, we got plenty of good loud music, but Neanderthals would have swapped caves to avoid such acoustics. Why didn’t I better remember the Tijuana Brass? I’m sure a good part is because I knew their music and the sound I knew from our crappy 60s record player was more faithful than Festival Hall’s.
Everything about Festival Hall sucks. The sound most importantly, but the seats are something from a 1950s primary school. The geometric layout of the venue is farcical. The administration is nasty and incompetent. The food and drinks are limited and expensive as hell, which is standard, of course, but it still sucks. And the sound really really really sucks.
Yes, Eva and Lillian and I had a fantastic time, a night to remember. But only because a night watching The Dead South, even with atrocious acoustics, is seemingly indestructible. Festival Hall is pretty much a definitive proof. The place is rightly heritage listed, in the same way that Auschwitz is rightly heritage listed.
At the current rate, my third visit to Festival Hall is scheduled for 2083. But, after last night, I’m thinking of pushing it back a few years.
Any relation to “The Dead Salesmen”?
A real band?
Duo from Ballarat. Played warm up for Loudon Wainwright in Melbourne.
I caught an up and coming band called the Beatles at Festival Hall. Soon after it changed it’s name from “the Stadium”.
Wagons and Queenie?
Where was the Loudon gig? And which Loudon? I saw LWIII maybe ten years ago, but I don’t remember there being a warm-up act, and I saw him forty years ago, with “warm-up act” Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee.
I remember watching Slayer there about 25 years ago. Great night (in spite of the shit venue). Haven’t been back since.
Years ago, when I heard that Marilyn Manson was touring Australia, I rang a mate to see if he’d be keen to go with me. He absolutely was, but when we found out the price of the tickets AND that the venue was Festival Hall we decided against it. Awful, awful venue.
Ooh, a place I can talk to without logging in.
I just thought, before I get locked away for resisting,
I might tell someone else
Fermat’s minor can take a big chunk out of Fermat’s Theorem.
Like if you square cubes, then you are up to exponent 6.
Fermat’s minor says modulo 7 is choked down to 1 at exponent 6.
Modulo 7 is not choked down to 1 at exponent 3,
the numbers can be either 1 or -1.
So a^3 + b^3 = C^3 in modulo 7
comes out as {1 or -1} + {1 or -1} = { 1 or -1}.
That kind of rules out many numbers that say Try_Me for Fermat for cubes.
Yes, still need to patch the hole for when 3 is a factor of A or B.
Similarly for viewing exponent 5 in modulo 11.
For exponent 7, we need view in modulo 29.
x^7 could be { 1 or -1 or either square root of -1. }
x^19 is really fun, you have to square (x^19) 6 times,
(19)(64) + 1 = 1217
Somebody should go crazy with this.
I am not sure that I will get the chance.
Oh, the Prime Apartheid, when A, B share no factors,
A^p + B^p = (A+B) [ no primes shared with A+B, except a single p iff p is in A+B.]
Also, the other primes in the square bracket are of form 2Mp+1.
You don’t have to log in but I get pissed off at people who don’t choose a name.