THE VELVET UNDERGROUND IN BOSTON

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velvetfan
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Re: THE VELVET UNDERGROUND IN BOSTON

Post by velvetfan » 04 Dec 2010 03:30


hkmartin
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Re: THE VELVET UNDERGROUND IN BOSTON

Post by hkmartin » 09 Dec 2010 15:06

I went to see this last night in San Francisco. I just re-read the whole thread, and looks like this may be the first post from someone who actually saw it.

It was great to see this footage, but anyone expecting something like a concert film of the Velvets will be disappointed. There are frustratingly few clear shots of the band. You see a lot more of people in the crowd and the lights than the band itself. Sterling gets the most screen time of the band. I'd say there's no more than 5 minutes total footage of the band, but about half of that is just the back of Sterling's head. There's one great closeup of Cale that lasts about 10 seconds and a few good, quick shots of Lou. We just get a few very quick glimpses of Moe. The shots of the whole band are mostly very dark. There are times a bright light is shown on the band, but these are so short that, if you blink, you miss it.

As mentioned above, there are a few song fragments. Sometimes the sound isn't so clear. Some wicked guitar solos from Lou that night. The one song you get to hear quite a bit of is Sister Ray - about 10 minutes of it.

There's a weird sound effect used throughout the film that's a little hard to describe. It sounds like a slice of film sped up very fast. It's a bit distracting. Maybe it is the film sped up, because the film chops ahead when you hear that sound.

The crowd at the theater where the film showed was small - I'd say about 150 people. I don't think it was publicized widely here. I noticed Richie Unterberger, author of the WL/WH book, in the audience.

I was a very interesting document and fun to see what the crowd was like at an early VU show. I wish there was more of the band, but it was about what I was expecting.

Some interesting, encouraging news, as well. Before the film, the President of the Board of Directors of the San Francisco Cinematheque, Jeff Lambert, gave a short introduction. Apparently, Jeff also works for the National Film Preservation Institute, and he mentioned that they were working on restoring another Warhol film with the VU in it called "The Velvet Underground Tarot Cards". He said that that film, like the VU in Boston, was meant to be projected on the band as they performed. I think he said it was projected to be ready in about two years.

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Re: THE VELVET UNDERGROUND IN BOSTON

Post by nick257 » 09 Dec 2010 15:13

Thanks for this - you are the first person to post who has seen the film. Could you please say more about what songs were shown, how much of each, and perhaps rate sound quality? Great to hear theres a good amount of sister ray! I cant wait till someone manages to record this!

I wonder if the new film includes music?

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Re: THE VELVET UNDERGROUND IN BOSTON

Post by velvetfan » 09 Dec 2010 16:47

I really believe you are the first to actually see it. The minute VU video is disappointing, but any new video is appreciated. I too am excited to hear the Sister Ray audio, as it is one of my favorite VU songs. Thanks for the info

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Re: THE VELVET UNDERGROUND IN BOSTON

Post by hkmartin » 09 Dec 2010 18:18

Let's see. The sound was pretty muffled. I'd say mostly around a B- quality.

A lot of it was instrumental jamming and hairy Lou Reed guitar solos, so, to be honest, it was a little hard to tell what song they were doing sometimes.

For sure, there was Guess I'm Falling In Love (maybe 40 seconds?)
Venus In Furs (maybe two minutes?)
I'm pretty sure Run, Run, Run and Heroin were in there too.
I won't even hazard a guess on the times for these.

According to the talk Jeff Lambert gave at the beginning, this show was one of three nights in Boston and, on the first night, Andy and Nico were late, which he used as an excuse to fire Nico. If that's true, this is one of the first post-Nico shows.

Sister Ray sounded pretty baked - makes me wonder if they performed it while Nico was still in the band.

The still that someone posted above must have been very cherry picked. There was nothing in the film like that that lasted long enough to make an impression on my retina.

Don't get me wrong, though - I enjoyed the film a lot, and it's a great document. If you go in with the right expectations, I'm sure you'll enjoy it.

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Re: THE VELVET UNDERGROUND IN BOSTON

Post by schnittstelle » 09 Dec 2010 19:01

Thank you very much for sharing your impressions, hkmartin! It's good to have a first hand account of what it's all about.

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Re: THE VELVET UNDERGROUND IN BOSTON

Post by tikky » 09 Dec 2010 20:45

i went last night too, the songs were, in order--

guess i'm falling in love
run run run
heroin
...ughhh not sure here, i thought this was some weird (to my ears always amazing) version of a drawn out sister ray i hadn't heard, an excerpt from the latter half of a sister ray that drifted to something more free form, as it was definitely nothing like anything else i know...but then sister ray started later so not sure really, it was prob only 4 or 5 min tops.
venus in furs
sister ray (longest of all the songs by far)

more to say later, but once sister ray came on after venus in furs i realized the fourth song must have been something i don't know, or even though i have listened to every possible vu recording there is i don't even know how many hundreds of times i was just to excited to place it, n i will feel very dumb if this is the case. to my ears there was a bit of a sister ray beat, so who knows. all of the songs were just excerpts, sister ray being the most complete.

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Re: THE VELVET UNDERGROUND IN BOSTON

Post by gibson343 » 10 Dec 2010 05:47

"The crowd at the theater where the film showed was small - I'd say about 150 people. I don't think it was publicized widely here. I noticed Richie Unterberger, author of the WL/WH book, in the audience."

You mean you saw 4 or 5 year old Richie in the audience. My son slept through Sonic Youth at
3 so he tops that.

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Jez
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Re: THE VELVET UNDERGROUND IN BOSTON

Post by Jez » 10 Dec 2010 09:39

You mean you saw 4 or 5 year old Richie in the audience. My son slept through Sonic Youth at
3 so he tops that.
:lol:

My first wife slept right through a Television gig. Sat on a chair, front and centre on the dance floor. Tom Verlaine spent the entire show glaring at her. I feel a new thread coming on thanks to Gibson. Gigs that I have slept through.
You don't look like Martha and the Vandellas

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taxine
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Re: THE VELVET UNDERGROUND IN BOSTON

Post by taxine » 10 Dec 2010 11:42

nick257 wrote:Thanks for this - you are the first person to post who has seen the film. Could you please say more about what songs were shown, how much of each, and perhaps rate sound quality? Great to hear theres a good amount of sister ray! I cant wait till someone manages to record this!
Thank you so much,almost shed in tears with excitement .........
But there are no stars in New York sky, they're all on the ground.
This is the place where she lay her head when she went to bed at night....

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