Go home, kid

A disturbing pattern which had emerged in the last few months propagated itself once again Sunday evening. Ghostface Killah, east coast hip-hopper extraordinaire and creator of Fishscale, one of 2006's finest records, was scheduled to play a free(!) show at the University of Oklahoma. This was to take place outdoors on the east lawn of the student union. Clouds began threatening a few hours before showtime, but three acts took the stage with occasional sprinkles and far distant lightning causing no worry. So of course, as you have probably surmised by now, the heavens poured forth upon completion of the third opener's set. The crowd was advised to head indoors so as not to be struck by the not-so-distant lightning. 20 minutes later, security made the rounds, informing us that Ghostface would not be taking the stage that evening. Who needs an inclement weather backup plan, anyway? It's not like there was a huge building with several large gathering spaces thirty feet away.

At least I didn't pay for this one.

Neko Case, who also released an outstanding album last year with Fox Confessor Brings The Flood, had planned a stop in Oklahoma City in April of this year. I made the short drive and paid the Bricktown parking fees only to discover upon arrival that she and her band had decided the sound equipment was poor enough to warrant a cancellation. From what I hear, they had been a little unreasonable about this, but it was a huge disappointment whatever the circumstances.

Not through yet!

of Montreal stopped by Norman to play a free show in February. A few songs into their set, the power in the auditorium (indoors? this is possible?) cut out. Order was restored in a few minutes, but they couldn't get through one song before it was lost again. After the second outage, the band was forced to abandon their elaborate stage show and play an acoustic set. Kind of a fun change of pace, especially for those of us who had seen them before, but it's always embarrassing when your venues can't get simple things right like, you know, electricity.

This forehead-slapping series of '07 shows had precedent back in October of 2004. Ben Folds, my personal object of superfandom at the time, was playing at Lloyd Noble Center on campus. Why they decided to put someone like Folds in a full-size NCAA basketball arena is beyond me, but digression, etc. Long story short, the sound check exposed the equipment as inadequate (sound familiar?) and the show was cancelled. This was especially great news for my four friends who had driven in from Kansas that afternoon.

Something in the water? Am I just catching all the bad nights? Whatever it is, I'd sure like to see the percentage of shows with no major problems go way up around here.