Last week, the FCC approved net-neutrality protections, and almost instantaneously, the Internet went kaboom with debate over … the color of a dress. Was it gold and white? Was it blue and black? “And what does our dress obsession say about ‘us’?” asked Bloggy McWankenslice of the Huffington Slate. I couldn’t be bothered, of course, as I was concerned with more substantive matters, like trying to tear my face away from a GIF of Madonna falling during the Brit Awards.
Yes, too often we weep for humanity and cry out, “The Internet is but a gaping black hole!” Yet I am here to remind you how deeply freaking awesome it is. Just get thee to YouTube and search for “Capitol Theatre.”
Located in Passaic, New Jersey, the Capitol Theatre was a concert venue that thrived throughout the ’70s and into the ’80s. It was on the small side, with no bad seats. Bands loved playing there, and pretty much all of them did: The Byrds, the Dead, the Stones, Van Morrison, Elvis Costello, Springsteen, The Clash and The Police, to name very few. Coolest of all, the place was equipped with an in-house, multi-camera video system that captured many of these shows in decent-quality black-and-white with even better sound. The Capitol was sadly demolished in 1991, but in recent years, a slew of those classic sets have thankfully landed online.
While the bulk of authorized concert footage consists of keenly edited, tightly paced performances in major halls, clips from the Capitol are appealingly raw, presenting concerts in real time, complete with clumsy feedback blasts and dead air between songs. And whoever directed the camera cues obviously wasn’t a Scorsese/Demme type. If Stop Making Sense often gave you the impression that David Byrne was the end-all/be-all force behind Talking Heads, the band’s show on November 4, 1980 portrays them as a true unit, with Tina Weymouth’s cool-as-moons bass and Adrian Belew’s guitar f*ckery scoring just as much screentime as Byrne’s spasmodic dancing.
At times, the unpolished, as-is approach doesn’t agree with Internet viewing. Parliament-Funkadelic’s three-hour set (!!) from November 6, 1978 starts off with roughly 15 minutes of tuning up. And black-and-white video doesn’t really do justice to the psychedelic, P-Funk experience, but how can you complain when the lead singer is wearing knee-high boots and a diaper? Much better is Lou Reed from September 25, 1984 (after the Capitol upgraded to color), which finds rock’s most notorious, speed-addled curmudgeon looking fit, happy, righteous. “This is a song about a man’s love for a controlled substance,” he says during an introduction for “I’m Waiting for the Man.” “It should not be construed, ladies and gentleman, to be an endorsement. It’s just a song.” Nancy Reagan must’ve been proud.
Every so often, the cameras leave the stage and get priceless shots of the concertgoers. During The B-52s show on November 7, 1980 (three nights after Talking Heads, in fact), the band plays “Private Idaho,” and we see maybe five seconds of the audience, barely looking at the stage as they dance their asses off, nary a smartphone in existence. It’s enough to make you weep for humanity once more. Until you click on Prince’s set from January 30, 1982, and you see him jacking off his guitar during “Head” and taking off his clothes throughout “Do Me, Baby.” And suddenly, everything is right with the world.
