All posts by Chris DeCarlo

Concert Review: Trevor Hall


Artist: Trevor Hall
Location: Harpers Ferry, Allston, MA
Date: July 29, 2009

Trevor Hall and his band mates put on a simply fantastic show! Hall reminded me of Bob Marley with his peaceful demeanor and dreadlocks. He and his boys impressed the crowd with amazing musicianship and an undeniable love for their craft as well as for their fans. Which isn’t hard to see, because I was surrounded by die hard fans for the performance. Unfortunately, I am not a “die hard,” but I am a fan and very much enjoy the invigorating and contagious music of Trevor Hall. I only knew a few songs, but in spite of this handicap, I managed to vibrantly dance, cheer, and sing along to all of the songs. It was impossible not to! Which, I must say, often when I see bands I am not as familiar with as other fans I can’t get “into it” and dance or sing along. So kudos to Trevor and the gang. On top of singing heartfelt numbers, such as, “Lime Tree,” “Unity, ” “Venomous,” and “Sunny Day,” amongst other classics, Trevor demonstrated his unquestionable ability to communicate with his audience: making direct eye contact with fans, replacing Boston instead of Heaven the lyrics of one of his tunes, reciting his personal, passionate, poem, hopping into the crowd and pogoing with us. I hugged him (and his guitar), not as intensely as some of the femmes lol, greeting us with bananas and oranges (I ate my banana there!), quite different from my last HF show in which we were greeted with Jay Reatard’s Corona directly from his saliva!. Once again, I make the Bob Marley comparison, because Hall took the time to mention the awful conflict of war and religion in the world and how young kids are starving in India, and the band set up a table for fans to make donations to help them out. With a guest rapper and a three song, powerful encore, I can say with certainty that it was a great night.

Chris

Elementary Ideas on Democracy

Changes come from the bottom, not the top. As everyone knows, Obama championed the vague concept of “change” to the American people throughout his campaign. And of course everyone ate it up because eight years of a right wing war criminal in office will do serious brain damage to you. So, people wanted a Democrat to fuck things up once again. Anyway, as history demonstrates major societal changes, such as severely kicking racism square in the pills (though it’s alive and well and still needs ass whooping)come through the struggles of everyday people and then the elites react to it. Your history and government textbooks want you to believe the opposite: the elitists, like the Supreme Court randomly decided to battle racism and end legal segregation in the South. Yes, it’s true that that wasn’t the top priority for the majority of America, but as Abbie Hoffman once stated, “You measure a democracy by the freedom it gives its dissidents, not the freedom it gives its assimilated conformists.” Well, the black rights and civil rights activists, such as Richard Wright and Rosa Parks, and countless others were the “dissidents” and the American people were the “assimilated conformists.” In simple terms, democracy is everyone’s opportunity to participate and have a major influence in the political process. Not mob rule as school an TV have led you to believe. So, the very idea that Obama will clean up the mess of the Bush Administration and previous administrations through health care reform, abortion reform, etc. is absurd. The social ills affecting everyone, particularly the poverty stricken people he doesn’t care that much about, cannot be obliterated through reforms because reforms imply that the system is well intentioned and good, but needs some tidying up. WRONG! you never hear a politician say “we’re doing our best to reform rape” or “With our new program we plan to seriously reform child abuse.” Of course not! because we want to ABOLISH the evils of rape and child abuse. In short, we don’t need reforms, we need changes…. but don’t look to your pal Barry for that, look to one another and create some real dialogue.

Chris

Peltier Update!!!

The parole hearing was held today. In spite of scorching temps and humidity, there were several hundred people who attended and waited for several hours until attorney Eric Seitz came out and addressed the crowd. He said the FBI did not have anything new to say but that he was able to present some additional evidence on Leonard’s behalf to the board. Leonard spoke with the board and answered questions for 1-1/2 hours. The hearing officer said he would look over his documentation and make a recommendation within 24-48 hours, at which the parole board has up to 3 weeks to make a final determination. Leonard has expressed his thanks for all of the efforts made on his behalf today. Eric Seitz said he feels “optimistic.”“- from Billie Fidlin, Chair of LPDOC and from my facebook updates

Chris