How Cool is Pete Briquette? Very!

ArrGee · Back To Boomtown

How Cool is Pete Briquette? Very!

noelindublin · Loudmouth

Geldof doesn't have the frenetic pace of old either.

Jules · The biggest Geldof fan in the world, bar none!

I love they way he does that too biggrin

ArrGee · Back To Boomtown

noelindublin wrote:
Geldof doesn't have the frenetic pace of old either.

In my opinion, Geldof tends to hide a bit on stage these days. My memories of the gigs I saw in the late seventies/early eighties were of mass participation with the audience. Back then, Geldof was dragging people onstage to dance, getting them to take pictures and generally giving people thumbs up or questioning their erectile function. Just me for the last two.

Last night, he hid behind his floppy fringe and guitar, and spent a fair amount of time with his eyes closed or shoe gazing. The stories behind the songs, even though I knew them, were good as he did engage the audience at these points (not me so much as I was off to the bar but the show was broadcast throughout the whole venue, so I didn't miss anything). Obviously he is older and more considered and thoughtful in what he does on stage, but having seen Jarvis C0cker leap around the stage less than a month ago, I missed the young gregarious Geldof last night.

noelindublin · Loudmouth

His stage style I feel has been hampered a lot since he started playing guitar. He was much more demonstrative in the old days with the Rats and I don't think playing acustic guitar adds much to the overall sound.

He does have a tendency to talk too much on stage, or rather to overexplain the songs and give a history instead of just letting the music speak for itself. l like his short comments and caustic wit but nowadays his tendency is to tell elaborate tales on stage. He is very engaging so this is not a huge problem.

Most people who go to see him will be spared the worst excesses of his first solo albbum where there was a lot of substandard songs. Almost all of VOl is good and SAD is, dare I say,it a minor classic. All the other albums have sufficient good songs to make them acceptable, at least.

The reason perhaps for his hiding behind his floppy hair and shoegazing was that some of the songs are so personal and close to the bone that they are not the sort of songs you just belt out, most specifically the songs on Sex, Age, Death. Not sure if he played My Birthday Suit but that is a really vulnerable song and has brought a tear to my eye on more than one occasion. A lot of Geldof's solo material is very personal and about his private life and observation- he doesn't pander to mass acceptance generally in his solo output, or write songs he doesn't mean.