J Mascis, NXNE June 8, 2007 - photo by clint gilders - staff photographer |
If asked to pick the one person I wouldn't have wanted to be today hands down it would be Dave Bookman. Dave was the poor soul (sucker?) drafted to interview J Mascis (of Dinosaur Jr. fame) during the conference portion of North By North East (NXNE). Dinosaur Jr. is reunited and making a triumphant return to halls of the rock gods and what does J Mascis have to say about all this..... Here's how to play the game. You ask J. any question and then randomly select any one of the answers: "Yes", "No", "I don't remember", "Not much". Easy huh? Try being the interviewer. I sat through the hour of horror and came away knowing nothing more about Dinosaur Jr./J Mascis than I did before hand. They did get J to pick up a guitar and Dave sang Blowin' in the Wind to
put the interview out of it's misery bring the interview to it's conclusion.
Joe Boyd, NXNE June 8, 2007 - photo by clint gilders - staff photographer |
The next panel I attended was that of Joe Boyd being interviewed by Ian Pearson. This in contrast was probably one of the easiest interviews of NXNE. Joe is out plugging his book "White Bicycles: Making Music in the 1960s", and seems to know what he wants to talk about and enjoys reading passages from said book. This is a period that fascinates me and here is his first hand account of when Dylan went electric and many enthralling yarns from that era. Man, it doesn't get much better. Ian Pearson simply had to lead things in the right direction and then Joe would take the reigns.
Peaches, NXNE June 8, 2007 - photo by clint gilders - staff photographer |
My final panel of the day is a hybrid of the two previous. Comedian Dave Foley is interviewing two separate artist/manager teams. The first is Ill Scarlett frontman Alex Norman and manager Andy Winkler. These are a couple of kids who don't yet have lots of funny stories to tell and aren't secure enough in their celebrity to be as self deprecating as Dave Foley may have liked. Kudos to them for getting up there though. Saving this was the addition of Peaches and her manager Robyn Mitchell. Peaches has been doing this long enough that she can work a room and was able to fence quite handily with Dave. Did I learn anything? Not really. Did I laugh A LOT? Yes!.
After that I'll admit I dropped the ball. The previous night's activities combined with my internal clock not letting me sleep past 6:00 AM had me pretty much done by the time I left the last panel. I didn't go out to see any bands. Yeah I know, I suck. The only band I had any real interest in seeing was Die Mannequin, and they're local so I can see them another time. I went to the Thai restaurant attached to my flea bag hotel where there was a hot waitress working. I ate until my tummy hurt (I bet that got the hot waitress's motor going), and went back to my room to hold my stomach and groan.