John Beck

Recently I’ve been thinking of the best concerts that I’ve ever been to. I consider sound quality, set design, creativity, music and of course live performance. Obviously how I experienced each show is unique to me but here’s the top 5 shows that I’ve been to. I’ve tried to include a video of that performance and a little description on how I viewed it.

1. Fever Ray – Webster Hall, NYC. 2009.

This show was extremely difficult to photograph and video. Everything was enshrouded in darkness and smoke. There were lasers. There were amazing costumes that they wore to add even more mystery to it. Those lamps throughout the set were strange. There was incense burning. It was a very odd mixture of things and it added to the mystery of the music and the performance. Hands down the best and most unique concert that I’ve even been to. It’s hard to find a video that gives justice as to how unique this show was. It’s going to be hard to top this show.

2. Coil – Irving Plaza, NYC. 2001.

This video is actually the entire performance. My experience is very different than everyone else’s. I actually had the privilege to hang out with the band the night before. Out for sushi and drinks. The band ended up using 2 of my friends from that night in the performance. Around the 50 minute marks is when they come out in their underwear covered in blood while holding a sheet of metal which the singer begins banging his head into it before kneeling into some sort of prayer. You can see it was hard to really photograph them because their suits were glowing. It was purely experimental, who knows what drugs they were on then. It was their only performance in the US and are considered on of the most influential underground bands from the last 30 years.

3. Dead Can Dance – Radio City Music Hall, NYC. 2005.

This concert was incredible. It was only 1 of 2 shows in the US that were played with a full orchestra. This video is one of my favorite songs of theirs. Live there is so much energy. However, imagine all the synthetic strings and electronic horns were actually played by the full orchestra. Added so much more to the energy level. It was a beautiful show. Brendan Perry and Lisa Gerrard’s voices were nearly flawless. An amazing show. I wish there was video of it somewhere.

4. John Maus – Johnny Brenda’s, Philadelphia. 2011.

Easily the shortest concert that I’ve ever been to. I don’t think it was even 20 minutes long. Also easily the most energetic performer that I’ve ever seen. Although this clip isn’t from the show that I’ve been to it’s from the same tour. I actually ran into him in the bathroom before the show and you can see that he’s getting into the zone. Talked to him after the show and he’s a totally normal guy. Seriously looks as if he’s handicapped from his performance though. Even though it was really just a glorified karaoke it was the only show that I’ve been too where I smiled the entire time.

5. Depeche Mode – Spectrum, Philadelphia. 1993.

Great production. Great performance. Great show. Enough said.

I’m trying to find artists to put on a list that will be The Baddest and Toughest Artists of All Time. I’m having a lot of trouble finding the baddest of them all. Maybe I would be on that list, a painter and performance artist, I am a fierce competitor and Spartan warrior. I may not be the fastest, strongest or smartest but there will be no one that will outwork more or give a greater effort. But am I a badass? No, far from it.

So, what makes an artist a badass? I think of Ernest Hemingway, fighting in WW1. Delivering goods to the front line only to take shrapnel to the leg and then go off to carry a wounded soldier to safety. In WW2 during a war long correspondent mission he led a group of vigilantes during or near the Liberation of Paris. That is badass.

I think of Caravaggio. Who was always a rebel and constantly in bar fights and trouble with the law. During one of these bar fights he killed another man. He escaped from the law and remained on the lam for the rest of his life. He often carried a sword with him to defend himself from those wanting to fight him and/or bring him to justice. He did all of this while painting grand masterpieces.

Of course there is the legendary samurai warrior Miyamoto Mushashi. Although he was a master swordsman first and regarded as one of the greatest warriors of all time in his later life he was also an author and considered a master painter.

I’m looking for traditional artists rather than music/film artists. There are plenty of musicians and actors that are badasses (LL Cool J beat the shit out of a home invader, I remember a story about Ernest Borgnine and how he beat the shit out of a would be carjacker at the age of 60 and Audie Murphy was the most decorated soldier and American hero during WW2 before going onto a successful film career). However, there aren’t many badass or valiant traditional artists. There has to be more than Hemingway and Caravaggio. Whether they’re just badass brawlers like Caravaggio or heroes like Hemingway there has to be more out there. We can’t all be sitting in a corner and painting pictures. There has to be someone! Help me find them! I’ve made it my quest to be the next badass/valiant artist, will I be number 4 on the list?

These are the commercials produced by EA for Madden 13 starring Ray Lewis and Paul Rudd. They’re pretty funny. It might be because I’m a huge Ray Lewis fan, no, they’re pretty funny regardless. I even included the interview between Ray Lewis and Paul Rudd discussing their lifelong friendship.

Loving the new Old Spice commercial. Very well done commercial. Great writing, acting, editing. It’s perfect.

Here’s a composite that I put together for a new painting that I just started working on.

As of now it’s to be my first digital painting which is a lot harder to do than I thought it would be. So i’m thinking about doing it in a traditional oil paint version as well. Any suggestions?

A few days ago Bat For Lashes posted a video of a new song from her upcoming album. I must have listened to the song a dozen or more times already. It’s a gorgeous song and the video is beautiful. I can hardly wait to hear what the full album will be like. Check it out: