television - queen elizabeth hall, london, 21 june 2005

More from the written years ago but never used pile...

Although it said 7.45 on the ticket I think everyone was surprised when the last call bell rang at 7.45 and Television actually ambled onto the stage. Nothing in the way of Good Evening London, or even any acknowledgement that they were even on stage. Richard Lloyd looked really scruffy! Horrible red shirt and terrible sweatpants rolled up at the ankles. At least Fred Smith and Tom Verlaine wore regulation black jeans...

A surprisingly brief bit of noodling / tooning and we were off into the first of a whole bunch of new songs. Really new ones, not even the ones that they have been performing over the last few years. These were brand new. And good too - quite rocky in places. The opening new piece, apparently called "Flower Spasm" at the moment led into a spirited "Venus" and the always welcome "1880 Or So", the long jam at the end lifting the song into the stratosphere. 

Then four new ones in a row! The new songs were, on the whole, rather tasty. No idea what they were about as the words were sung in Tom's usual strangled goat voice (Richard Lloyd's description!) and he often didn't bother to get too close to the microphone. Even when he did, his voice was mixed too low for most of the first half of the show anyway and was therefore overpowered by (mainly) Richard's guitar. Of these tracks, "The Sea" is a mighty impressive slice of moody, swirly rock and one of the best tracks Television have ever done in my opinion. Since 2002 they've played about 8 or 9 new songs - so when's the album coming out? (**)

In between the songs Tom consulted with his music stand containing his "note... book" as he called it. He speaks with loooonnng pauses in the oddest places. He also muttered something about "we like to come and play in European theatres. It's like rehearsing on stage. That means we'll be really good when we get back to our practice room..."

Tom actually seemed quite cheery though, in his usual distracted manner. According to TV, Richard plays the "Strat - o - cast - or..." and Fred plays the "bass" but he pronounced it like the fish... it seemed to amuse him though! 

Lots of protracted tuning while Fred stood and watched. Billy Ficca used these times to tap everything he could find with his drumsticks and occasionally he managed, in this way, to lead these seemingly random tunings into actual songs. Richard seemed quite chirpy too but still looks like he's gonna murder someone when he takes a solo, and he holds his guitar as if it's really pissed him off somehow, so he's gonna strangle that mother soooo hard... But what magnificent playing! It's fascinating to see them up close and watch the constant swapping of lead lines. "Marquee Moon" is a good example - Tom plays the choppy riff at the start of the song as Richard does the fiddly bits, but somehow they seamlessly swap over for the long solo in the middle. As usual there's very little interaction between the band members - they barely look at each other. 

Old favourites - "Venus", "See No Evil", "Prove It", "Call Mr. Lee", "1880", and of course "Marquee Moon" were all dispatched with a freshness that pleased me. "Mr. Lee" was especially good, a really chunky sound from Lloyd. 

Then after a great encore of "Little Johnny Jewel" another, shorter mic stand appeared on stage and when they all wandered back again they were accompanied by Patti Smith in battered leather boots and a sort of tweed jacket over a lurid orange t-shirt. With her glasses and her greying frizzy hair she looked like a scary granny. She launched into a semi-improvised song / poem - about Ophelia it appeared - backed by a top new tune from Television. It was a really great, powerful piece - Patti reading most of the words from her notebook and Tom grinning occasionally at her. Must have been written / made up on the night as it referred to the summer solstice. Very cool anyway.  

Then they all wandered off again and the lights came up. It all seemed over rather abruptly but they'd played for nearly two hours, so we can't complain.

Set list...

Flower Spasm

Venus

1880 Or So

Kinks' Song

Balloon

The Sea 

Shirley's Song (Frustration)

Prove It

Persia

Call Mr. Lee

See No Evil

Marquee Moon

Little Johnny Jewel

Ophelia (?), featuring Patti Smith...

...case closed!

** - 12 years on and there's still no sign of the album, nor do we have any idea what's happened to all the new tracks, as Television have stopped playing them!