[Concert Review] Rodriguez (Logan Campbell Centre, Auckland, 17/03/13)

Images taken from http://13thfloor.co.nz

Most people know the story of Sixto Rodriguez by now; a Detroit folk singer who released two critically acclaimed but commercially unsuccessful albums in the early 70s, who disappeared from the music industry for thirty years to work as a labourer and pursue a University education, only to be contacted in the late 90s with the news that he was huge in South Africa. Those South African fans had thought him dead, and when he travelled to the Africaan country to perform some shows soon after, he had know idea the huge crowds and the star treatment that would await him. The documentary however left out the fact that he had a fanbase in Australia and New Zealand and had already toured down under in the late 70s. Never-mind, the documentary tells a good story and is largely responsible for the worldwide resurgance of interest in this once obscure singer-songwriter.


Some of his old fans and many of his new ones turned up last Sunday night to see the man, the enigma, the street boy in person. Rodriguez himself didn't disapoint, offering versions of his classic songs delivered with a voice that sounds like it has not aged at all in the last forty years. Accompanying him were a group of New Zealand session musicians who provided authentic reproductions of the arrangements found on the original albums. Yet perhaps due to the musicians not being completely comfortable with the material, probably having learnt it only days or hours before, or perhaps due to Rodriguez' increasingly frail demeanour, the concert did not explode with a terrible amount of urgency. This could have also been due to a fairly passive crowd, who largely remained seated for all 90 mins of Rodriguez' performance, in spite of yells from many hecklers pleading with the crowd to stand up.

I myself wondered why they didn't stand. As Rodriguez performed classic after classic off his first two albums, such as I Wonder, Only Good for Conversation and Sugarman I could not help but rise and find a position in the aisle where I could dance and sing along. This could be a problem with seated gigs in general; or with concerts that attract a largely middle aged and over demographic. Rodriguez communicated with the crowd between songs by telling jokes, offering humourous wisdom and looked dapper in a black outfit and shades. Age may have taken away much of Rodriguez' sight but none of his style.

While the audience gave a tepid response during songs, they redeemed themselves by expressing their enthusiasm as Rodriguez limped off the stage, helped by his guitarist and some of the road crew. After an extended standing applause, Rodriguez found his way back to the microphone to deliver two more songs. First a cover of Bob Dylan's Like A Rolling Stone, sung probably closer to the album version than Dylan himself will ever peform live and finally I Think Of You off the singer's second studio album. It was a tender finale, and as Rodriguez cautiously made his way off the stage, I was left to wonder how the man's career could have been different if he'd only have the chance to tour like this forty years earlier.


Back in the Daze music video shoot

Ended up shooting a video for a recent rap track made with my friends Harley Neville and Guy Pigden of Pigville Productions this Saturday just been. The video features much goofing off, with all three of us using the inspiration  of looking back at our youth to come up with visual gags and comedy skits. One of the skits included dressing up as future elderly versions of ourselves and attempting to engage in youthful pursuits such as skateboarding and basketball (influenced by the Beastie Boys video for Ricky's Theme). Another involved Guy Pigden dressed as a nerd getting gangster up in a children's playground.

We also found some pretty cool locations to rap in front of, both parodying rap clichés at the same time as paying homage to others. One particularly serendipitous film-making moment happened after pulling up to a graffiti covered dairy. I'd had the idea of leaning against the dairy playing the part of 'street rat' type youths and having a group of girls walk passed that we would check out in a suitably dodgy fashion. By luck there happened to be three South American girls sitting on a bench next to the dairy and with a bit of encouragement we managed to convince them to join out shoot, playing the part of the girls to be checked out. They seemed to enjoy the experience and with hope it'll make an interesting part of the video.

The end of the shoot also featured me shaving my hair off for the Shave for a Cure Leukaemia and Blood Cancer New Zealand fundraiser. We decided to include this as part of the shoot as the opportunity to bust some rhymes while shaving my own head proved too perfect to pass up on. Whether or not it makes the final cut remains to be seen.

Below are some photos from the shoot. The video should be out in the coming weeks, but in the meantime check out the song on soundcloud - Back in the Daze.

Amour (Michael Haneke, 2012)

That Emmanuelle Riva was not given the Best Actress award for her performance in this film is criminal. The 85 year old plays Anne, a once highly skilled pianist and wife of devoted husband Georges who is faced with dwindling physical and mental health after suffering a series of strokes. Georges, payed by Jean-Louis Trintignant takes it on himself to care for Anne as he obliges her wishes of not to return to a hospital during her last days.

It is a theme that all of us can relate to in some way, either though watching loved ones fade away in a similar way, or through imagining our own challenges that are to face us in old age. For this reason as well as the film's expert execution it is not surprising that the film has picked up such acclaim, with Michael Haneke recieving his 3rd Palme d'Or at the 2012 Cannes as well as the Best Foreign Film award at the 70th Golden Globes and at the 85th Academy Awards. Haneke directs his elderly actors through one demanding scene after another, particularly from Riva, who gives a powerfully dedicated performance as a paralysed stroke victim. I had become so immersed by the performance that it was not until I left the theatre I was reminded that I was viewing the work of an actress and not the actual fading of health of a person on screen. It seemed to me it must have been very demanding for an 85 year old to play a role like this with such conviction. Jean-Louis Trintignant should also not be overlooked, having returned to the screen after a 14 year absence to bring to life this performance of a man struggling to cope with the pressures of watching his life companion fade in front of his eyes while using much of his strength and sanity trying to do justice to her last wishes.

The film focuses on a more specific and tender subject matter than Haneke's previous films, although is not absent from the dark and bleak. The film is still a tale, and in spite of the believability of the actors and the situation, the films finale (and somewhat it's beginning) do fall into more melodramatic territory than what another director playing the subject matter straight perhaps would. Not to say that these events could not happen in real life, but they are at times taken to their most depressing and anguished extremes. Illness and death in old age that I have witnessed have never been as bleak as this, but then this is a film, not real life and a tale taken to such dramatic extremes as this does make one ponder mortality, old age, the treatment of our elderly and the nature of love. For a film to make one reflect on topics such as this, while being a gripping and expertly executed example of cinema, must deserve all the acclaim given to it.