Youtube is insane.
I got into Television in the summer of 1992, when my good friend Dave Colohan (of Agitated Radio Pilot - more of which later) lent me his Uncle's original vinyl copy of "Marquee Moon". I can remember the exact moment when it hit me how utterly incredible this music was - about 3.15 into the third song, "Friction" - check it out. Building on the two previous classics that kicked off the album, "See No Evil" and "Venus", it was clear as day that this album deserved all the hype it had received over the years. And I hadn't even heard the standout title track at this stage...
Reading Clinton Heylin's great book on the US "proto-punk" scene, From the Velvets to the Voidoids the year after heightened my obsession, but even though they had a reunion album out, I never really imagined ever getting to see them play. This unexpected 2002 reunion gig in Dublin's Vicar Street was one of my most-anticipated music-related experiences of all time.
Having been enraptured by "Marquee Moon" for a decade, it was a real privilege to see the original line-up performing the songs. I was wary before they came on as that self-titled, rushed-sounding 1993 reunion album was distinctly underwhelming. After that album, they went their separate ways again and it looked like that would be that.
Vicar Street that night was a total reaffirmation that here was a fantastic band whose music will still be played long after you and I are gone. They still had it. Greyer, balder and chubbier they may have been but no one present cared. It was like seeing Miles Davis and gang come back to life and play "Kind of Blue" in your front room.
Television in their crystalline, spiralling heydey were one of the greatest bands of all time. They rehearsed the songs that would end up on "Marquee Moon" four or five nights a week for three years before setting foot in the studio to record them. It was a joy to see that they could still unleash these intricate, multifaceted songs perfectly twenty-five years later. They no doubt had to go through the rehearsal grind like Sonic Youth murdering "Candle" below (a song that owes a debt to Television), but those years of toil in the practice room were still paying off.
I have an image in my head of Scorsese out on the street shooting Mean Streets in '73 and Taxi Driver in '76 and Television spending all that time between CBGB's and their Lower East Side basement, honing the songs to perfection.
They played Vicar St again about nine months later. It was a midweek show, no-one I knew was going but I went on my own just to make sure they were as good as I had remembered. Technically, they were, but a part of me wished I hadn't gone as it somehow dulled the Television afterglow that had lingered for nine months. The atmosphere in the venue wasn't the same, the band had been touring for a long time and seemed a bit world-weary. They played again about a year later and I didn't go.
Six years on, though, thanks to some guy with a camcorder on the balcony, I'm reliving that awestruck and exhilarating June night once again. Much respect, steiner62, whoever you may be! There are about eight songs from the gig up on Yootoob.
Here's a link for "Marquee Moon" album for anyone who hasn't heard it.
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