Live Earth After Death

David Weigel | July 10, 2007

Did you miss anything by skipping Live Earth? Here's Neal McCormick in the Telegraph:

There were 70,000 people in Wembley Stadium. The organisers had hoped for a television audience of two billion, to highlight the imminent dangers of global warming. On stage, Tom Chaplin from Keane vainly tried to lead a singalong. Behind him, a big screen boasted "We Called - You Answered", while the numbers who had responded to Live Earth's text message pledge were rolled out. The first line was "3,389 UK responses".

Frankly, my local community signed up more people to protest against a phone mast, and our only celebrity was a voiceover actor for Bob the Builder.

Snezhina Kovacheva of the Competitive Enterprise Institute (one of several D.C. libertarians who attended the concert with Bureaucrash):

Political activist Bob Geldof, who was the mastermind behind Live 8, labeled the event accurately: “It was just an enormous pop concert for the umpteenth time.”

From PrisonPlanet:

A giant banner that read '9/11 inside job' was on display at this past weekend's Live Earth concert in London, reaching a potential audience of 2 billion people, before the truthers responsible for the wake-up call had the banner stolen, were briefly detained and then told to leave by security.

In the future every event will be crashed by 9/11 truth campaigners. Grover Norquist's Wednesday Meeting? The Bohemian Grove final evening key party? Episodes of Punk'd? The Paralympics? Your kid's bat mitzvah? None of it will be spared.

(Disclosure: Unlike these writers, I didn't attend the concert. But as they always seem to feature some sort of dinosaur rock reunion, I will attend the first world benefit concert that gets Lark's Tongues in Aspic-era King Crimson to reunite. This is scheduled for Live 9/11 Truth in 2011, I believe.)

Comments

|7.10.07 @ 5:21PM|#

Too many cameras. Fripp would never agree to it!

Two Larks|7.10.07 @ 5:23PM|#

Lark's

Shilling for Big Singular Possessive now, eh?

|7.10.07 @ 5:23PM|#

The whole thing was a joke. As I sat with my brother, waiting in vain for the Police to come on, I grew so annoyed at the heavy-handedness of the whole presentation that I turned to my brother and said, "I'm now in favor of taking steps to further warm the globe. Is that the result that they were looking for?"

|7.10.07 @ 5:25PM|#

"...and our only celebrity was a voiceover actor for Bob the Builder."

Can we fix it? Yes, we can!

They shoulda booked Bob the Builder.

Sandy|7.10.07 @ 5:32PM|#

Dave: You really, really don't want to see Carl Palmer perform nowadays.

I got to see them play "21st Century Schizoid Man" on the Thrak tour, which included Bill Bruford and Tony Levin. That was enough for me.

Sandy|7.10.07 @ 5:33PM|#

Oh yeah, "Lark's Tongues..." Well, John Wetton isn't too hot these days, either.

|7.10.07 @ 5:34PM|#

King Crimson vs Can in the octagon. Can would be tricky but my money's on the crimson.

Great post Weigel.

|7.10.07 @ 5:35PM|#

Was Carl Palmer in KC?

I think you mean Greg Lake, who was the Crim's first bassist. John Whetton (from Family) replaced him, IIRC

|7.10.07 @ 5:39PM|#

WOW That was awesome. I've been a Crimson fan for over twenty years. But I hadn't realized how directly they influenced Spinal Tap - Mach II until just now.

highnumber|7.10.07 @ 5:43PM|#

Who will crash the Live 9/11 Truth concert?

D.A. Ridgely|7.10.07 @ 5:47PM|#

Was there a big pop concert recently? Why didn't I hear about it?

Baylen|7.10.07 @ 5:49PM|#

Madonna playing guitar. That was worth seeing, and about all that was worth seeing.

Sandy|7.10.07 @ 5:57PM|#

I meant Greg Lake. It's been a looong day.

Sandy|7.10.07 @ 5:59PM|#

Carl Palmer is actually relatively awesome these days. Greg Lake and John Wetton have hit a lot of booze and meat pies in the intervening years, though.

|7.10.07 @ 6:05PM|#

King Crimson? I am still waiting for that big Uriah Heap reunion.

|7.10.07 @ 6:06PM|#

Carl Palmer is one of the greatest drumers who ever lived. It is hard to imagine him not doing relatively awesome.

|7.10.07 @ 6:07PM|#

sorry, but a 30 years on reunion just wouldn't be the same.

i did see Crimson with Levin, Bruford & Belew -enjoyable, but pissed that they skipped "Sheltering Sky" the best song on Discipline.

|7.10.07 @ 6:45PM|#

Les:

Too many cameras. Fripp would never agree to it!

I made the mistake of paying to see King Crimson 3 years ago at the Filmore West. 3 songs in Fripp said no more cameras. Some smartass immediately snapped a pic of Fripp's grumpy visage. He stormed off stage and that was that. We got 3 songs for 30 dollars. Damn your eyes, Fripp!! Damn your eyes!!

|7.10.07 @ 6:51PM|#

Although I just saw him in concert here in Chicago (at the United Center -- fucking fantastic show) I didn't care much for Roger Water's performance of "Another Brick in the Wall Part II" -- what was with all the little black kids?

Are only black children affected by global warming? Are minority children in greater danger?

I would also venture a guess, based on watching the kids sing along, that none of them had any clue who Roger Waters is or what the hell song they were singing.

It was a weird performance.

|7.10.07 @ 7:00PM|#

Did the crowd ever do the everyone-hold-up-your-cigarette-lighters thing?

|7.10.07 @ 7:04PM|#

ChicagoTom, I thought Waters in Atlanta was a little more studio this time around. But I'm a big Doyle Bramhall fan, so I'm probably biased against the new guy. Those chicks have to be pushing sixty, but man they can belt it out!

|7.10.07 @ 7:14PM|#

By the way, Roger Waters is still big on the Africa cause. I only hope he read the recent article claiming proposed global warming solutions will make them go back to burning dung and trees to survive.

ed|7.10.07 @ 7:38PM|#

It's fodder for satire, so at least in that respect a spectacle such as this has its merits.

Paul|7.10.07 @ 7:52PM|#

Frankly, I'm still stunned that rock stars think they can solve anything. I thought that all died in the 80's.

Paul|7.10.07 @ 7:53PM|#

Oh, and one thing I learned very early in life:

Just because band can string together a few notes, doesn't mean the members know jack shit about anything else in life.

Paul|7.10.07 @ 7:55PM|#

Are only black children affected by global warming? Are minority children in greater danger?

Jesus, Chicagotom, where have you been?

|7.10.07 @ 8:27PM|#

I'm now in favor of taking steps to further warm the globe.

That was great.

|7.10.07 @ 8:34PM|#

"As reported by BBC.com Tuesday:

"Argentina's capital, Buenos Aires, has seen snow for the first time in 89 years, as a cold snap continues to grip several South American nations.

"Temperatures plunged to -22C (-8F) in parts of Argentina's province of Rio Negro, while snow fell on Buenos Aires for several hours on Monday.

"Two deaths from exposure were reported in Argentina and one in Chile.

"In Bolivia, heavy snowfall blocked the nation's main motorway and forced the closure of several airports.

"In Argentina, several provinces in the Andes have been placed under a storm alert, according to the national weather centre."


Too bad the South American portion of the concert wasn't held in Buenos Aires.

|7.10.07 @ 9:26PM|#

It's obvious why some people could view progressive rock as, um, pretentious...I mean get a load of J Muir, the other 'percussionist'...egads!

|7.10.07 @ 10:22PM|#

Fucking squirrels. From Paul's linked article:

President Bush enraged environmentalists when he opted out of the Kyoto protocol global warming treaty, saying it would harm the U.S. economy.

Journos really need to read the Constitution. Since the Senate has never ratified the Kyoto treaty, there's nothing Bush can do one way or the other regarding it.

And I hate Bush as much as the next guy, but misreporting Constitutional facts does nobody any good.

|7.10.07 @ 10:30PM|#

King Crimson vs Can in the octagon. Can would
be tricky but my money's on the crimson.

Sadly, that's not possible. Can guitarist Michael Karoli passed away in 2003.

R.I.P.

|7.10.07 @ 11:02PM|#

I got tired of the pretentious bullshit and tuned out after about 10 minutes. I wanted to see the Police and Waters. I agree about the comment about Waters and the kids. Ont he other hand he seemed very animated. I saw him in Vegas June 16 and it wierd how now he seems to really enjoy performing.
I wondered how much trash was produced for these concerts and how much electricity was produced. And what they did with those tire looking things on the stage.

Jon|7.10.07 @ 11:10PM|#

Robert Fripp and Adrian Belew have confirmed that a Crimson reunion is in the works for 2009. Presumably it's going to be with Tony Levin and Pat Mastelotto.

|7.10.07 @ 11:19PM|#

Chris Isaak singing the national anthem probably blew away the "giant pop concert."

Jim Treacher|7.10.07 @ 11:21PM|#

"Madonna playing guitar."

Was she?

|7.10.07 @ 11:41PM|#

A giant banner that read '9/11 inside job' was on display... before the truthers responsible for the wake-up call had the banner stolen.

OMG! 9/11 was an inside job! Why didn't anyone tell me! I am soooo glad that they had that banner on display there, or I would never have received my wake-up call. I can't believe I've been asleep this whole time! Now I know the Truth! I'm going to get a Truther teeshirt to let everyone around me know the Truth! I'm going to give everyone around a wake-up call whether they like it or not!

|7.11.07 @ 12:03AM|#

I listened to some bimbo on the BBC reporting on the line of Mercedes limos bring the acts into the underground (backstage) of Wembley Stadium.

Jesus Christ on a Cracker, can't the motherfuckers even pretend?

P Brooks | July 10, 2007, 8:34pm | #
"As reported by BBC.com Tuesday:...

Everyone would be well-advised to not use single weather event as evidence either for or against climate change.

That goes for those who think that Hurricane Katrina proves anything as well.

Mr. Blather|7.11.07 @ 9:54AM|#

I only saw bits of Japan's LiveEarth (I live in Japan but saw it on the, um, internets) and, apparently, the organizers had turned the air conditioning at the venue off as the fans were even more lethargic than normal and even singers who performed only ballads were dripping with sweat.

The two good things that came out of the Aussie version were an introduction to Missy Higgins and the John Butler Trio. Both were terrific.

|7.11.07 @ 9:54AM|#

"Everyone would be well-advised to not use single weather event as evidence either for or against climate change."

I agree one hundred per cent; snow in Buenos Aires no more disproves global warming than a sweltering day in Winnipeg proves it. A global warming concert in a snowstorm would have been pretty funny, though.

|7.11.07 @ 10:11AM|#

A global warming concert in a snowstorm would have been pretty funny, though.

Yes, it would.