2017 Grammy Thoughts

Honestly, I thought that last year's show was a better show.  For it being "music's biggest night!" as they said over and over throughout the show, it sure seemed like all of the shows were intentionally deeper cuts or slow songs.  I thin "Hello" is great, and that Adele is wonderful, but opening the entire show with that tender, heartfelt, plodding version of the song made for an instant snoozer.  The show caught some energy later, I just though that a lot of the acts, especially at the start, were very low key.

• The thing I was most excited to see was the Metallica and Gaga mash up, mainly just to see Metallica crush one of their new tunes.  And then Hetfield's mike was freaking broken.  I mean, I know that it is probably brutally impossible to set up a million different sets, in the dark, in 30 seconds, but DUDE.  Make it so Katy Perry's mike doesn't work or something, don't screw with Metallica.  So while that performance had loads of fire and Gaga's overdrive wailing, it was kind of disappointing to me.
• "President Agent Orange" was funny stuff, man.  That Tribe performance was salty - I ghot goosebumps in that thing.  I just wish they could have played more and for longer, and given Anderson.Paak time to really do his thing too.
• Adele getting all three of the big awards was pretty insane.  I honestly can't believe that they didn't give Beyonce any of them.  And then the Adele speech?  Oh man, I physically curled up in a cringe on my couch when she said something about her "black friends" loving Beyonce.  I truly believe that she was coming from somewhere real and trying to genuinely express her love for Beyonce, but oh my gosh, man.  Now, the interesting question to me will be whether she gets a bunch of shit for this, the way that Macklemore did when he apologized to Kendrick Lamar a few years ago.  Feels the same, and people crapped all over Macklemore back then.
• Daft Punk is stupid.  There, I said it.  Did they add anything at all to the stupid Weeknd song? No, they just stood there behind pedestals and (maybe?) twisted some knobs and punched some buttons in their robot masks.  I don't get it.  And also, thought that the Weeknd should have picked a more upbeat song, or a hit, or something to get people excited.  My kids just kept asking when the robots where going to play Starboy.
• I have no clue what the hell Keith Urban did up there.  I have this recollection that he is a country guy, and I know Rolling Stone always talks about how amazing his guitar playing is, but that was a terrible pop turd that he laid up there for the world to see.  Actually, no, it wasn't even pop.  It was just a turd with a beat.  Pop is better than what he did.
• Beyonce's performance was weird as hell, and I still don't really understand what all of that was supposed to be about.  She got on some seriously trippy psych shit up there.  BUT, I listened this morning to a isolated vocal of her performance, and the girl is absolutely amazing.  Go check that.  When you strip away all of the bad music and weird backup people and her odd "dancing," you get an absolutely killer set of pipes plucking notes out of the atmosphere.
• Chance the Rapper was awesome.  I knew this last album was steeped in religion, but had no clue he was going to step out there and preach during every acceptance speech and his one performance.  Again, I wish he would have done his hit instead of the big gospel choir arrangement thing, but I still thought that was good.  I don't know, am I wrong to think that everyone watches this show to hear these people do their best songs and want to get up and jam out?  I still can't believe he won the Best New Artists when Acid Rap was a huge "album" that was very well known and well received and reviewed everywhere.  But I'll take it over the jenky other people up for the award.
• I'm so pleased that Drake didn't win anything (or at least nothing in the big awards).  Go work on your songs and quit putting out 30 tracks of mediocre on an album.
• My kid was pumped when 21 Pilots won (me, not so much), but then was super confused when they shucked their pants.  Still not sure he understood the explanation.
• Good for Cage the Elephant.  I need to go see how many of my predictions I got right, but for now I need to get some work done.  More later.