University of Virginia Library

Deserved Encore

To their credit, the crowd
members gave a good response to
the Byrds. That is, to their hit
songs. The newer, non-Top 40
music was received tepidly (as
could be predicted by previous
displays of musical ignorance).

The Beach Boys then took a
long time setting up their
equipment. They rightfully
apologised for the unavoidable
delay. With foresight, an announcer
patiently told the crowd, "There is
a set order to the Beach Boy's
songs....At the end of the second
set they will ask for requests from
the audience." Certainly this would
keep the screamers quiet during the
generous two-hour show planned
by the group. But the audience
seemed to think it meant otherwise.

Anyone remotely familiar with
the Beach Boys of late (a bit much
to ask of the In-Crowd) would
know that they perform a mixture
of old and new material. The U
Boys, however, couldn't wait for
the Beach Boys. After all, they
came to hear the BIG HITS.

"We want oldies" they shrieked,
hardly embarrassed when the group
made it very plain again they did
not need to be told what to play.
The loud-mouthing kept up, and
the audience was not satisfied until
the Beach Boys did "oldies" in a
deserved (if only for sheer stamina)
encore.

Each concert, then, becomes a
vain attempt at a sort of Woodstock
Nirvana, and Saturday night's was
no exception. In the drive to
recreate their past, students
performed the outlines of what
may become a vague ritual, like the
Big Game or the Prom. Have I
jumped to conclusions? I don't
think so. A preview article in the
CD last week, filled with
inaccuracies, set the scene by telling
us the concert "would be only
complete by wearing saddle shoes
and a high school letter jacket.
Which may have been an
inadvertent code for, "Let's dig the
oldies. Forget the music."

Any Big Name will do. Big
enough to scream your lungs out
and no one will think you're the
complete ass that you really are.
Big enough to make listening
unimportant, because you already
know how it's supposed to sound.

Constructive inquiries are
probably futile. However, those of
you who have read this far may
want to ask or answer these
questions:

Does it really make much sense
to yell out what you want the
performer to play during the
performance? Or are you too
impatient to wait till the end?
What, then, is the purpose of an
encore?

Why don't non-screamers tell
the loudmouths sitting near them
to keep quiet?