what is your dream gig?
from the archive, chickfactor 16 (2005)…
greg the saturday people: I’d like to be an executive assistant.
jonathan lambchop: any gig where I’m onstage in my underwear.
lupe pipas: gal costa/stereolab/sun ra/anonymous french ye-ye session musicians/the aislers set + the lucksmiths + the frenchmen + free loan investments + vashti of course.
claudia the magnetic fields: playing in barcelona, outdoors in a medieval church courtyard at the twilight with gargoyles and swallows swooping overhead. and it really happened!
clarissa cf: I dreamt a few months ago that I just happened to go see the b.p.m. lineup of unrest—they weren’t making a big deal about being “reunited,” they just happened to be playing. it was happy. I woke up with longing in my heart. this marks me as a relic of my era, I realize.
mike alway: to begin with, it would have to be at lunchtime.
bliss blood: playing for 100 people who are listening and making $100,000.
slim kill rock stars: a captive audience.
stephen the real tuesday weld: the bar of les trois garcons with al bowlly guesting.
josh gennet: anything that (1) pays and (2) number of people you don’t know in crowd exceeds the number you do know. if they clap it’s a plus.
rebecca cf: seeing the pixies reunion tour in 2004 was, pretty much, my dream gig.
candice p: I would have liked to see the clash, dusty springfield, and al green. that would be a pretty good show.
david silver jews: csn and m: crosby stills nash and me.
joe the pines: roger mcguinn, johnny marr and neil clark: duelling 12-strings
amelia tender trap: magnetic fields supported by beat happening at la guinguette inparis. I would have queued overnight in the snow for that one.
gail cf:: I own my own nightclub which is a combination of les trois garcons and the old town bar in new york. we have concerts, parties, exhibitions, screenings, readings, and salons. I have a partner with cash so there is endless funding. we use the stage during the day for filming silly chat shows. we have a vegan cafe fully stocked with superstrong coffees, homemade ginger beer, and veuve clicquot. it’s open 24 hours with a full service bar and kitchen. we have our own shuttlebus service! I hardly have to ask anyone to play because everyone wants to play here and people call me!
tim dagger: love (circa forever changes), beach boys (circa pet sounds), nick drake (circa anything), belle and sebastian, and the modern lovers end it with “roadrunner”!!!
lisa cf: the national book award.
john phosphene: pink floyd at the ufo club, late 1966/early ’67, with syd upfront and people alternately dancing or lying on the floor.
sam brumbaugh: the left banke did a show at the london school of economics and the opening bands were bill fay and fresh maggots. any 70s eater show or anne briggs impromptu pub performance.
ld flare: any one where people can sit down comfortably. ideally in a theatre with a proscenium.
peter straub: um, the one I have right now.
alasdair the clientele: I thought it said “pig” for a minute.
louis philippe: I was there—brian wilson playing pet sounds at the festival hall in london.
aliccia slumber party: I had a dream that I was a country music singer. playing a show, on a large dark stage alone with a brilliant, beautiful, white acoustic guitar with inlaid abalone. and a head stock I didn’t recognize. it was old and haunted. I wish that would happen.
john true love always: I’d love to back up george michael in his timberlake/ flaming lips-style image remake. I am holding my breath.
james dump / yo la tengo: trouble funk, santa claus, an octopus, my 3rd grade teacher, and sherilyn fenn, but I’m stranded somewhere thousands of miles away in my underwear.
dawn cf: like a gig that happens in my dreams? I had a dream that chelsea clinton was singing antietam’s “walk away”. I have a feeling this isn’t what you are asking. gig of my dreams:
stephin the magnetic fields: walk into next room, find tuned (and self-tuning) ukulele ready to go in specially designed uke stand, discover my hearing damage is cured, play all-new set of beautiful songs I didn’t know I’d written, fronting a band such as tito puente might have led. the show is filmed, so I never have to play live again, and I don’t.
frances cannanes: I think we had it in new york one time. music went well, I was drunk enough to think I was being funny and there were lots of people there. but also in byron bay when there was no one there and also in northampton in a cellar and also in tokyo last visit on first night…I guess they just keep happening.
stephen cannanes: so many really, easy lug!, good sound, good engineer, good lineup, lots of mates, guinness rider, upstairs accommodation with a party room, recently it’s been doing three set evenings where it’s all pretty relaxed and people dance a lot, you always seem to have a good time when the crowd are getting down!
daniel handler: writing liner notes for a saint etienne album. if I say this enough perhaps it will come true.
david grubbs: it would involve people who’ve never heard me play before. old people in the first several rows, smiling. outdoors at night. cobblestones.
alistair tangents: it would be a two-night show (not a festival) with the velvets, byrds, felt and the clientele on the first night, and then fire engines, hellfire sermons, mccarthy, the wolfhounds, the playwrights and the pipettes on the second. the show would be at the silver factory, andy would be projecting his films, edie sedgewick would be dancing and billy name would be taking photos for posterity.
the legendary jim ruiz: the would-be-goods, max eider and I on a package tour of the netherlands and belgium, by bike of course.
kristian airliner: for watching? the beatles at any venue in ’63 or ’64. for the way they looked more than anything else.
jeff aden: at this point, I’d settle for a nice, high-paying show where we don’t actually have to play music. oh yeah, with chili-dogs on the rider.