From: telmerc+@andrew.cmu.edu (Chris I. Telmer)
Newsgroups: rec.music.gdead
Subject: Globe and Mail review Bob/Rob
Date: 22 Jul 92 17:29:33 GMT
Organization: Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA


Review of Shocked/Cockburn/Weir-Wasserman
Ontario Place - 07.20.92
 
Toronto Globe & Mail:  dated 07.22.92
 
reprinted w/o permission:
 
I don't have time to type in the entire piece.  I'll just summarize
a little and type in the ODC.
 
Headline:  "SHOW HAS EVERYTHING MARIPOSA FOLKS NEEDED"
By-line:   "Michelle Shocked proves to be folkiest, rootsiest
              artist on Ontario Place triple bill"
 
"About a month ago, a bunch of folk and roots-type performers got
together to play at Ontario Place under the heading of the Mariposa
Festival.  The weather was awful, the crowds small and the general
ambience somewhat funeral"
 
"Monday night at Ontario Place, a smaller group of folk and roots
artists got together on the Forum stage.  This time the weather was
fine, the crowd larger, and the resulting atmosphere much more up-
beat.  The triple bill of Michelle Shocked, Bruce Cockburn and Bob
Weir/Rob Wasserman was everything the Mariposa Festival might have
been, condensed into about 3.5 hours."
 
(Next two paragraphs review Shocked and Cockburn respectively.  I'll
leave these out and type in the Bob/Rob  paragraph, noting that, IMHO,
the first two acts easily held their own w.r.t. Weir/Wass..  Sorry
to leave these out, Shocked-Heads and Cock-Heads - time doesn't
permit and this *is* r.m.gd.   Selected tidbits are that Michelle
kicked-ass, did a "old-fashioned hoe-down" at the end (which looked
alot like the standard "arms-waving-legs-flailing Dead-shuffle" from
where I sat :-)), and Bruce Cockburn is, remarkably, getting to be
a *better* guitar player.)
 
"Bob Weir's set was different, but equally delightful.  Backed by
virtuoso bassist Rob Wasserman, the famed Grateful Dead singer/
guitarist indulged himself by performing a wacky but wonderful
range of songs.  The young Deadheads in the audience may well have
thought that numbers like "Fever" and "Witchcraft" were new Grateful
Dead songs, but they were actually the old standards, done up a la
Tom Waits and Willie Nelson.  An amusing climax to an evening of
auditory delights"
 
=======================================================================
 
Comments:  Not that this is the metric by which performance should
           be judged (far from it), but it's generally pretty hard
           to get a good review from the Globe. In particular, they
           love to go after the anachronistic, dinosaur types a la
           the G.D.
 
           Mariposa is a folk festival with lots of great history/soul.
           Held out on Toronto island for decades, I'm not sure where
           its home is now.  I don't think it has whittled down to one
           rainy night at Ontario Place, has it?
 
           Cockburn song corrections re: my previous post, are as
           follows:
 
                I called it:                Bruce calls it:
                ============                ===============
        "here that lonesome violin play"    Incandescent Blue
         any number of things               Train in the Rain
 
Thanks to John Wood for correcting my Bob/Rob gaffes.
 
Cheers.............Chris Telmer
 
Newsgroups: rec.music.gdead