Monday Afternoon Music (Open Thread)
Ever heard of Eilen Jewell? I’m a fan. Here’s a tune Jewell released a several years back:
My sister and I caught a show a few years ago at a local venue. We had the opportunity to chat with Jewell briefly while she signed our CDs. She was super nice.
When I was a teenager, I lived for going to live music events, despite the fact that weird, shitty things invariably happened. Examples, in no particular order: someone barfed in my purse, my friends and I got separated from our ride and had to hitchhike from Orlando to Tampa, I was assaulted by a goon when I threw a drink in his face to prevent him from punching my friend in the mouth, etc.
After the latter incident, I vowed to give up live music events (except for very small venues) forever. But in 2012, my then-13-year-old just HAD to go to see Lady Gaga’s “Born This Way” tour. Recalling my own misadventures, I sure as hell wasn’t going to let her go with a pack of unsupervised adolescents, and none of the other parents wanted to go, so I went. I didn’t expect to have fun, but it was fabulous!
My kid is old enough to attend concerts without me these days, and I can’t think of any performance that would lure me to a huge venue. But I do like a small-venue concert. Got any favorite bands to recommend? Odd/memorable concert experiences to share? If not, open thread!
today in “people who can go skullfuck a chicken“
We Are in the Midst of a Cold Civil War in This Country
by Nancy LeTourneau
July 17, 2017 11:33 AM
Over the weekend, Carl Bernstein suggested that we are in the midst of a “cold civil war” in this country where a “fact-based debate is becoming impossible.” That struck me as a pretty apt description of what is going on right now.
Bernstein focuses on Fox News as the culprit. Even the fact that we are all amazed when a pundit like Shepard Smith calls out the Trump administration for lying speaks volumes. We don’t expect that kind of truth-telling from the network. These days, Fox is tame compared to the promulgation of fake news sites that have sprung up over the last few years.
But in addition to Shepard Smith, Fox News also gives air time to someone like Judge Jeanine Pirro. Here is the diatribe she let loose on Saturday in defense of the Trump administration’s lies called out by Smith.
There’s a group (The Rainmakers) that had one big hit in the 80’s that I loved, and went on to be big in Norway, of all places.
Here’s one of their newer songs that I like.
Like Dogs
Thanks for sharing this musician, Ms. Cracker. I now know what I am going to do on August 27th (in a small venue).
@Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD): Wasn’t that supposed to be kittens?
@rikyrah: Posers. I was there before it was the cool thing all the hip kids started realizing.
Last concert I saw was 10 days ago. Randy Newman outdoors at Lowell Natl. Historical Park as part of the city’s Summer Music Series. Just Newman and a Steinway on stage for two hours. Fantastic!
Coming home very stoned from a concert, unexpectedly finding my parents still up and wanting to chat, and not being able to remember the name of the venue….(Pecatonica; I still have to struggle to come up with it.)
My favorite band to see live is The Mountain Goats. Excellent banter, usually great accompanying acts. Currently on tour!
@TenguPhule: The punchline – think about it.
As an attendee, nah. However there were a handful of odd occurrences from back when used to emcee concerts for a record company.
Also the time had to set up a concert – arranging the venue, setting all the tech up, rounding up an audience, etc., etc. with maybe 4 hours advance notice (ended up also running the lighting board for that one).
Not very familiar with contemporary groups, but here’s one I usually find listenable.
Poor Betty. I am so happy my live music life did not parallel yours. Living a half hour train ride out of Grand Central Station meant being able to hit NYC events w/o parental supervision from 9th grade on. And we made the most of it. I still love live more than records (<see how old I am?) because the crowd energy is a shared thing. Love that stuff. Good for you that you did not impart your fears on to your kids. Good Ma points there.
Koch Bromance with Russia Needs Investigating.
Koch Funding Behind Nunes-Gowdy Attempts to Scuttle Russia Investigation….
https://miningawareness.wordpress.com/2017/03/25/koch-bromance-with-russia-needs-investigating-koch-funding-behind-nunes-gowdy-attempts-to-scuttle-russia-investigation/
Republican Bill “*EXEMPTS*” Themselves. The HealthCare They Want For YOU, Is “NOT” The HealthCare They’re Saving For Themselves. #mSnB #cNn pic.twitter.com/sWnyxjkucj
— Dr. Tom Martin Ph.D. (@DrTomMartinPhD) July 17, 2017
@Darrin Ziliak (formerly glocksman): Let My People Go-Go is a great song. I may have seen them at the Blue note in Hohumbia.
Here’s some fun slang history about the term Balloon Juice from a Victorian slang dictionary (1909). The term appears in two definitions, which I quote here:
Full citation: Passing English of the Victorian Era. A Dictionary of Heterodox English, Slang and Phrase, by J. Redding Ware, George Routledge & Sons, Limited (London), 1909 Link: https://archive.org/details/passingenglishof00wareuoft
It’s a fun book with all kinds of interesting turns of phrase, like fourpenny cannon referring to cannonball shaped — and probably very dense — meat pie that cost four pennies, or this one, which is particularly appropriate to the First Family: “Half -hour gentleman (Soc., 1870). A man whose breeding is only superficial.” (The opposite in the dictionary is “forever gentleman”)
As soon as Don Jr took the Russia meeting, collusion was set in motion, even if no additional covert coordination happened. 1/
— Colin Kahl (@ColinKahl) July 17, 2017
Not sure if this counts, but my last concert was actually the symphony.
Which was NOT how my friends sold me on the evening.
They just said it was a choral concert so I didn’t dress up.
Let’s just say I was a WEE BIT out of place dress wise.
Concert was amazing however.
Jason Isbell, if you can. DBT is always fun. Sturgill Simpson could be fun.
Last month my husband and I went out to Forest Hills Stadium to see Tears for Fears/Hall & Oates. It was a really good concert, not least because the shows start promptly at 6:30 and must end by 10PM. We got in, got a drink and a tshirt, sat down and 5 minutes later, out came Tears for Fears. Unfortunately, a lot of people got caught at a line at the security checkpoint and missed Tears for Fears. So, Forest Hills offered concertgoers free tickets to John Mellencamp/Emmylou Harris last week, which we hadn’t planned on going to, but hey, free tickets.
Emmylou Harris sang a cover of “Abraham, Martin and John” that made me cry, even though that song is before my time. And John Mellencamp is clearly as tired of “Jack and Diane” as I am. It was a good show, but the most entertaining part was the late-40s, early-50s woman in front of me, who smoked cheap pot and yelled and swore and screamed through the whole thing. I can only wonder what she was like in her 20s.
I was not one to go to concerts much when I was younger (nerd AND really broke back then), so I guess I’m playing catch up now. Unlike my husband’s dad and mom, who saw Hall & Oates back in the late 1970s. ;)
@Yutsano: I guess my last concert was the symphony too. “Modern masters.” Very good performance.
Palm Beach Pop Festival, November 1969.
Friday, November 28, 1969
Country Joe and the Fish
Iron Butterfly
Johnny Winter
King Crimson
Pacific Gas & Electric
Sweetwater
The Chambers Brothers
Add Setlist
Saturday, November 29, 1969
Grand Funk Railroad
Janis Joplin
Johnny Winter
King Crimson
Pacific Gas & Electric
Rotary Connection
Sly & The Family Stone
Spirit
Spooky Tooth
Terry Reid
The Byrds
Vanilla Fudge
Wavy Gravy
Sunday, November 30, 1969
B.B. King
Grand Funk Railroad
Jefferson Airplane
King Crimson
Rotary Connection
Steppenwolf
The Byrds
The Rolling Stones
Man and my boys are in the picture!
I always wonder if I wouldn’t have tinnitus if I hadn’t gone to hear Hot Tuna in a rather small room.
@zhena gogolia: Electric or acoustic?
@Yutsano
“Had I known it was the symphony I would have worn the black thong instead.”
:)
Trump wedded to the Christian Rightwing. A Red Wedding we presume?
@raven: Wow, if time travel were possible, I’d go back and catch that festival. That must’ve been amazing!
@zhena gogolia
Too much tuna.
“When I was a kid”.. snore.. my folks had no idea what it meant when I told them I was going to a concert at Winterland circa 1971. They pictured the concert halls of their youth, or even the concert halls of my older sister’s generation (she came of age in Ike’s America; I came of age in Ho Chi Minh’s America). In fact, I recently found out that the largest acid producing factory in the world at that time had set up shop maybe 10 miles from my current home in the north bay, and need I say more?
@Mike J: I saw them as Steve, Bob, and Rich at the Blue Note in Columbia MO.
Saw Sons of Butcher with my wife and (then) teenager at an all ages show in their hometown of Hamilton, Ontario. Live show, based on the characters they played on their cartoon:
Normally don’t have too much issue with live events (other than loathing the occasional venue). The worst was while exiting the Marcus Amphitheater in Milwaukee. I’m the last guy in my row when I see someone trying to exit by crossing over the seats in the middles of the rows while holding a beer in each hand, and making a beeline for our location. I move closer to my buddy, trying to encourage the guy to cross over our row in the empty seats behind me. Of course, he trips over the row in front of us – dousing me with the contents of both cups. I think everybody left in the venue turned to watch as I bellowed a string of obscenities at a very loud volume, while trying to keep my composure enough not to swing at the clown (swearing loudly is very cathartic for me). The obviously drunken doofus quickly scuttles away, as his buddy then sidles up to me and offers that “my friend is an asshole when he’s drunk”. Thank you, captain obvious! That was a fun drive home, windows open as I tried to air dry. Fortunately, it being downtown Milwaukee, the smell of a brewery was hardly uncommon.
Most amusing was standing in an aisle at the Kalamazoo stadium (the venue name escapes me now). Two guys standing in front of us commence to scuffling and one of them backs into me. He spins around with arm cocked back to take a swing, when he realizes he’s staring squarely at my chest (I’m 6’5″ and he was maybe 5″ 8″) and I’m giving him the death stare. Instead, he quickly rummages through his pocket and shows me his ticket stub, before beating a hasty retreat down the stairs. Puzzled, I turn to my buddy who is laughing – and pointing out that the putz must have assumed I was security.
One of the best live shows I have ever seen was Wolfmother. Ton of energy, just fantastic. Both times were at small venues in Detroit.
Sometime in early 1970, Winterland, San Francisco. It might have been a benefit for the Dead, who’d recently been busted in New Orleans, but I’m not sure about that. Anyway:
Dan Hicks & His Hot Licks
It’s a Beautiful Day
Quicksilver
Santana
Jefferson Airplane
They all kicked ass … except Airplane, who sucked. I loved their early albums, but saw them twice in concert and they were awful both times.
Concerts are orders of magnitude safer than they were when I was a teen.
Wanna fear for your life? Go to a MLB game. Or possibly worse, an NFL game.
Out of lifetime of seeing mostly metal and punk bands and what was the hands-down most violent concert I’ve ever been to? The Cars. 1983. No joke. Only time I’ve ever been truly worried about my own safety.
Am an avid live music attenderived since 14 seeing Boz Scaggs with Pablo Cruise opening.
Still have every single ticket to every single show -except for free shows like Hardly, Strictly Bluegrass (hot tuna at the last two of those-acoustic and electric sets!).
My two life regrets was passing on tickets to the Last Waltz or calling in sick to my grocery store bagger job instead of seeing the final Sex Pistols show at Winterland with my brothers. It changed their lives and they’ve been roadies since the early 80’s as a result.
Anyone else read the Buzzfeed piece on R. Kelly maintaining cult-like compounds of young women? I was struck by one of the excuses given, I think by a parent, for allowing an under-age girl to go on tour alone with the creep: ‘But he’s such a great lyricist!’ I guess if you set the bar really low enough you can justify anything.
Imagine the hellraising that a Cole Porter or Johnny Mercer could have gotten up to in this day and age.
FYI.
Here’s one of their episodes, I started a couple of minutes in…
Best concert I ever saw was at a place called the Red Shoe Inn deep in Nova Scotia. Seated maybe 75. Local guy on guitar, visitor from Newfoundland on accordion. They ripped the place apart, but it was the crowd that made it so special: Every human packed into that joint leaning forward, listening so intently it looked as if their faces hurt. Every time a song ended the place exploded in thunderous joy. It was, of course, infectious; I’m sure the music was outstanding on its own, but the atmosphere made it otherworldly.
@smintheus: It’s one of those things where it’s the exact opposite of surprising that he’d commit the crime in question, yet the magnitude still catches you off guard.
@Mike J:
I wholeheartedly recommend Skin and 25 On if you don’t have them already.
Great stuff.
On another note (heh), I saw Kathy Mattea while she was doing the hotel lounge circuit in the 90’s.
It was a good show and she stayed afterwards to sign autographs and chat with the audience.
I’d love to see Matraca Berg.
Well, if you like old real rock ‘n roll, George Thorogood is out there doing small halls. It was pretty damn awesome. But I’m old. Lots of great blues bands doing 1 to 2000 seat halls.
Venues that welcome a range of ages are best. Texas, in particular, has lots of venues where you’ll find grandpa and grandma, mom and dad, and the kids all enjoying the same music. For the price of a couple of beers and $10 in the tip jar, you can hear a local duo or group playing high quality original music and then share a beer with the musicians afterwards.
@The Moar You Know: Come on, Moar — surely you’ve been to Petco to see the Padres. There probably isn’t a safer space in the Western Hemisphere. If you wear the opposing team’s jersey people will rag on you for three minutes, then insist you try a local brew, on them. Unless you’re wearing a Dodger jersey, of course, in which case, no brew.
@rikyrah:
Shep Smith is the only one with some integrity on that crew over there. And I saw the drunken tirade of “Judge” Jeanine Pirro.
“Russia, Russia, Russia, gotcha, gotacha, gotcha…”
I stopped listening after that because I knew right then that she was not a serious person worth listening to, about anything, ever.
obligatory shout out to SCOTS (Southern Culture On The Skids)
any band that features friend chicken being tossed during the concert is alright by me.
something more melodic by them: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=feoRFLdYU9Q
The rowdiest I’ve seen was the last rock concert I went to, Rory Gallagher in Reading (England) in I think 1987. Everyone around me was seriously drunk. Easily my favorite performance though.
@Betty Cracker: It was except it was cold and wet!
Today’s my birthday!
Wish me happy birthday, plebs! =p
If you like Eilen Jewell, you may take a shine to Margaret Glaspy too.
@Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD): It’s deeply sickening. Also weird that he could get away with it for so long on that scale in a country so heavily armed as the US.
@Laura:
I, too, saw Boz Scaggs with Pablo Cruise opening! College! The fabulous ’70’s.💚
@Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe)
Here ya go! :)
(Because of your nym.)
Hmmm. I think the last rock concert I went to was They Might Be Giants at the now-defunct House of Blues in Anaheim. We’ve gone to a couple of cool events at the Hollywood Bowl, including a staging of “A Chorus Line” and”2001: A Space Odyssey” with live orchestral accompaniment.
But mostly we’ve been seeing a lot of live theater this year. Not just at the Pantages, but also at the Ahmanson.
@smintheus:
We like to think that excuse-making for our heroes is reserved for the right wing but, sadly, it’s not.
July, 1967. Greensboro, NC. Hendrix opening for The Monkees. I was crazy about Micky Dolenz. My teenaged cousin took me. I can remember being confused by Hendrix. I was 6.😵 (still have the program from the show)
I’ve had some amazing concert experiences, including Led Zep in Pittsburgh in the early 70’s and second row seats for Elton John in 1978. My most Betty Cracker-like experience was an outdoor venue for Loggins and Messina. Two of my friends and I were dropped off at the venue a few hours early to set up our blankets and cooler and once we had a space saved, my girlfriends went off to find the portapotties while I stood guard.
I was sitting there people-watching when a very large, very hairy drunk man staggered over to me and asked if I was alone. I told him that my friends were coming back any minute and he leaned over to pull me up and fell completely on top of me. I was a skinny girl back then and I was propping him up with my feet and legs and outstretched arms…anything to keep his beer-soaked bear body off mine. And did I mention that he was wearing overalls…and nothing else?
***shudders***
A sympathetic couple next to me helped drag him up and away from me. My girlfriends came back and snickered relentlessly the rest of the time we were there. Not my best experience, to say the least.
@Quinerly
Ah, Circus Boy.
The best concerts I’ve been to have been in small venues, 200 max. Best of them all was seeing Greg Brown and Bo Ramsey at a bar in Traverse City, MI. Great performance, good brews and good company followed by camping on the shore of Lake Michigan. That was a fine summer night!
@raven: whee!! : )
@rikyrah: THIS. This needs to be broadcast as widely as possible.
@piratedan: Banana Pudding!
SCOTS puts on one hellofa show.
Pink Flloyd. Yankee Stadium. Front row of off ground seating. Very wasted/high. Got knocked a** over teakettle over the railing. Only landing on the giant rolled up tarp they use for field protection during rainouts saved me from breaking my neck, probably.
All other concert experiences have been good to great. Bowie (Forum), Bad Company (Forum), Roxy Music (Universal). Classical stuff at Hollywood Bowl. Hippy dippy lezzy music stars like Chris Williamson and Holly Near.
However, I too prefer small venue. I think my favorite was seeing Shirley Horn in the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, and Barbara Cook at Disney Hall on her 8oth birthday. I got to go back stage on that last one, and met her, and also Doris Roberts, who had the hugest head in comparison to her body …
@Hungry Joe: Once. I was in the canine box seats. THAT is safe as my house, probably safer. I will say this for Petco Park: I never expected food like that at a baseball game. Really, really good. If the crowd is decently behaved in the regular seats that’s a bonus. The last game I attended was the Giants, sometimes around 2015, at home (SF). Fucking cage match is what that damn park is. I said I was done with MLB at that point, never again.
Save for the one, all my Padre games were seen in the 1970s when I was a kid, at the old stadium.
@Quinerly: mom drove us in the family wagon. It was weeks before starting high school . . .
@NotMax:
💚
got to see the wonderful irish/world music fiddler Eileen Ivers Saturday afternoon at an intimate venue on the top of Old La Veta Pass – this place, in fact, the ghost town of Uptop, CO! Fabulous music and food, all to benefit the Spanish Peaks Celtic Festival. Yep, that’s my kind of concert now, small and early in the day/evening – unless I’m playing – then I’ll brave big crowds!
Too many to even remember. I probably have been to well over a hundred concerts over the years. When I was a teenager, we went to one at least once a month. Tickets were very inexpensive then. Most concerts cost $7, $8 or $10, depending on where you were sitting. I don’t think I paid over $20 to go to anything until I was in my 20s. I saw Springsteen (before he really blew up), Pink Floyd, Alice Cooper, ZZTop, Fleetwood Mac, Eric Clapton, David Bowie, Dylan, Queen, JGeils Band, the Eagles, Three Dog Night, Rolling Stones, Peter Frampton, Deep Purple…so many of the big 70s acts for next to nothing and numerous times. It was great then. Tickets were affordable, bands toured like crazy and often played smaller venues and every venue let you smoke pot. When you were lucky enough to go to a concert at the old Civic Arena in Pittsburgh and they opened the roof, a huge puff of pot smoke would flow out and hover over the city.
@Laura:
I was in undergrad. 1978 or 1979. I even had some vinyl Pablo Cruise. Saw Boz Scaggs again years later in NOLA.
@les:
Just saw him at a smaller venue here 3 or 4 years ago. He was great.
@Laura:
I guess I should mention all the Poco shows.😉
@raven:
Electric.
I saw Yma Sumac in the ’80’s. I gave her a bouquet of roses that she cradled like a baby while singing. She tossed the ‘baby’ offstage when some woman gave her some earrings which she obviously liked more.
@Laura: well, I love it when you put your teeth up on the windowsill!!!!
@Miss Bianca:
Thanks for the link on Uptop, CO. We’re headed to Taos in a few days; we may try to find it on the way.
Jeff Sessions: Saturday Morning Cartoon Villain. No, I’m not kidding.
Cobra Commander was not this fucking blatant.
Bonnie Raitt in a small venue in 1978.
@Darrin Ziliak (formerly glocksman): The Rainmakers? I have the album I’m sure you’re speaking of.
Toad’s Place in New Haven is one of those small venues with tons of atmosphere. I saw Big Country, and Squeeze with Aimee Mann there, to great effect.
@No Drought No More:
While the music played, you worked by candlelight
Those San Francisco nights
You were the best in town
Just by chance you crossed the diamond with the pearl
Not sure what you like in terms of music, but one band I’ve seen a couple of times that I really love are The Duhks, which is a terrible name. They are a Canadian Celtic folk band, really great live. I live in New England, so I have also seen Jonathan Richman, who is a bundle of joy to watch perform.
Last concert I saw was the Solid Sound Festival at MassMOCA, with Wilco, Television, and a bunch of other bands I don’t really know, but it was a pretty fun day of music and art and comedy.
@raven: Oh, man. Grand Funk when they still rocked out, instead of the pop rock crap they got into in the mid 70s.
Jethro Tull, 1988 in Rome. Still the best concert I’ve ever attended! I was in the Navy at the time on Liberty in Naples and the MWR folks had a choice of seeing Tull in Rome or Michael Jackson. It was no contest.
1972-ish Guess Who in Asheville. I took a date to the concert, and a girl in front of me backed into me during the concert and just started grinding away during American Woman. That was … an experience, it was.
@Catherine D.:
Me too also, tho different decade. She does a hell of a show. Is it ok to say she’s hot, too?
@Comrade Scrutinizer:
I think you are holding onto that grudge a little too tightly.
Lady Gaga is doing her “dive” tour. Very small venues.
Miss Bianca, thanks for that New Yorker article. Fascinating and even a little disturbing.
Reminds me of something Peter Viereck once said, also in the New Yorker
That’s the entire article, which I’d wager you will find informative and will find his description of the folks written about in the article you posted. Viereck was purged on the left along with the Birchers on the right by WFBjr.
Viereck was the first conservative.
Mike in DC: Pierre-Joseph Proudon 1840
Property is Theft! This only refers to private ownership of land. And even Locke acknowledged that property in land was different from personal property. Then you might want to rediscover Henry George. Because at one time he was as globally famous as Mark Twain, and Clemens was a Georgist himself. Glad to answer any questions Not only is this concept in Leviticus, 25:23. Yahweh says: “The Land is mine. You are merely tenants here.” Yahweh was a communist. Who knew? A Georgist, really. Christians do find this concept inconvenient at times and choose to stone homosexuals instead
I saw Aimee Mann a couple tours back at the Moore Theater in Seattle. I just happen to be sitting in front of my email when I got the announcement and bought the tickets right away. That landed me and my friend in the front row, which was very cool.
What made this concert very special was that the format was Aimee taking 100% requests. People just wrote down songs on scraps of paper and put them up on the stage. She would pick one up and the two guys providing musical accompaniment and (sometimes back-up vocals) would leaf through a big song book (which I presume had cheat notes, cords, etc.) and then launch into the song. It was a really unique and wonderful experience.
At one point she read a requests and said “Everyone sooner or later requests this song… congratulations… that’s you” and then moved onto another song. I suspect that it was a song from the “Till Tuesday” era. That band (like many others) got pretty screwed by their label.
a FB friend posted something about Eilen Jewell, so I googled her name. Of course, she was doing a concert in a nearby town that weekend, but I couldn’t make it. It was a bummer. Haven’t seen any concerts anywhere near me since then.
@Davebo:
They are amazing. Saw them in KC; they did Aqualung as an encore, better than most band’s entire show.
Didn’t close that link. Bad HTML.
Have yet to read this but it is a piece at Demos: Why Property is Theft and Why it Matters
@Hungry Joe: I’m told that Giants jerseys will also catch some flak. (That’s new, since the Giants began winning divisional titles.)
Over the years, we have not been big on large music events, we are very crowd averse. But of the few memorable events we did, 70’s Springsteen at his height with E Street Band in Nashville, TN; Moody Blues just a few years ago, my son and I, wife can no longer do loud events due to hearing issues; we got to see Bob Dylan about 10 years ago when he was touring, wife included, hearing still OK back then. It was not the Dylan of our youth, but as history, we were glad we went.
But among the most memorable, Al Stewart, at a small college venue in western Kentucky, 200 people in the audience, seated at tables like a bistro, we were two tables from the stage. He was performing with his buddy Dave Nachminoff. We got to meet and shake hands with him afterwards, get his autograph on the small playbill, which is of course framed in my upstairs study. Al Stewart, for me, is one of the absolute musical geniuses of the last third of the 20th century. If you ever get a chance to see him, he is still touring in small venues, do it. It will be one of those experiences of a lifetime you will always treasure.
@Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD): Yes, Trump and John F. Kennedy are more similar than we think. Both White men. Both philanderers. Both born into wealthy families. Can’t think of any other similarities but alrighty then. You should have put a trigger warning in your comment so we would know it was Niall Ferguson who wrote that nonsense in the first place.
@A Ghost to Most: My friend told me that the way we came was the most direct route to Taos; I’m not sure whether he meant that road over old La Veta Pass or not – I’d have to google it!
We’re lucky to have Mountain Stage home based near us in Charleston WV, and a fairly new concert arts center as well. Fabulous Thunderbirds in a local bar, maybe 150 people crushed in. They moderated the sound pretty well, I can still hear well.
Buddy Guy. What a talent, I saw where he’s touring to celebrate his 82nd birthday this summer! A great talent. We have had several groups of blues performers, one night was Shamika Copeland, Little Ed and the Blues Imperials, and Buddy Guy closed down the house, a great long show.
Carrie Rodriguez, North Mississippi Allstars, Tedeschi and Trucks. We saw Judy Collins in a very small venue in NYC, probably under 100 people, dinner and champagne and great music, she was under 20 feet from us. It was our last night in the city that trip.
Lots of classical shows, the WV Symphony with soloists doing concertos, Cello, Violin, Piano.
My first big show was the 1968 Newport Folk Festival up in Rhode island – that year is was a blues focused show, and we saw John Lee Hooker, BB King, Janis, Buddy Guy, they played all night it seemed, I can’t remember all the greats we saw that weekend.
Then a year later I went to a rock show in Philly at the old convention center near UPenn, Carlos Santana, Joe Cocker, Janis Joplin again, um. There were four acts…ummm. LAst one won’t come.
Saw Spirit, the Chambers Brothers and the Kinks at the Spectrum some months later, walked out on the Kinks, compared to the other two bands they stunk. I’ve seen Dr. John a couple of times, once in Mobile, AL, that was my first rock and roll riot, He did two great sets, then announced that the house hadn’t sold enough tix to pay the other act, so Good night folks. Spirit. And there were a ton of bikers there, the arena was new, huge sheets of glass all around the front of the hall, those guys picked up tables and used them like battering rams, so those 20 foot tall (at least) sheets of glass came down in huge shattering shards.
I was in the Navy at the time, and WAY didn’t want to get busted at a riot. The four of us ran a couple of blocks, and then dropped back to a fast walk, hearing sirens in the distance. Eventually we came to a quiet bar, went in, had a couple of drinks, called a cab to get back to the ship. Summer of 1972.
Got tickets to the Greatful Dead early, 8th row. That was a good show. Also saw them with Tom Petty and Bob Dylan opening. Then they tore down the Heartbreakers equipment, put up the Dead sound system, Jerry started with – a Bob Dylan tune. After a couple verses, Bob strolled out and played the whole first set with the Dead, this was at the Akron Rubber Bowl, 1986 IIRC.
Bonnie Raitt, a couple of times. Lonnie Mack opened at the Muncipal Auditorium for Stevie Ray Vaughn and I think Lonnie Mack actually outdid Stevie Ray. That was a great show.
Harry Connick Jr at the same hall, that was the last show I saw with my Dad. Big Band show with great sax guys playing solos cutting each other, No, I can play fasted AND cooler than you can, listen up!
And way back when I was a little kid, my folks took us to St Pete Beach once. And I saw an ad in the local paper for Louis Armstrong and Pearl Bailey and his big band, then were booked into one of those huge halls all roccoco gilded plaster work, 4 balconies, and it was sold out by the time I begged the folks to see if they could still get tickets. This was probably late 1950s early 1960s, and IIRC it was packed, and integrated. They seemed like they were a mile away, because we were on the back of the top balcony. I wish I had a better memory, so I could replay that whole show. Obviously “Hello Dolly” was a huge part of the show’s close.
In that same time we got to see the Red Army touring band/chorus/dancers, it was part of a cultural exchange program and famous American performers toured the Soviet Union too. Dancing with swords and flipping daggers at each other, bouncing high into the air and landing in a squat, very traditional Russian Cossack folk dances.
Now I feel like I’m bragging, but I’m old, and fascinated by all flavors of music. Live I even enjoy Opera, though not to listen to a recording, it’s the costumery and dramatic flair combined with the orchestra and singing that works for me. But a symphonic orchestra, Rachmaninoff piano concerto, wow.
I live next door to a musician who plays old time Appalachian string band folk music, which I confess may be an acquired taste. And many other friends are into that style of old timey music, so we hear that at most parties in the neighborhood, around a campfire, which is the best way to hear mountain music in the mountains. Last christmas it was so warm we sat on the back porch next door drinking beer in our tee-shirts. Around 9 I got up and put my long sleeved shirt on, but in another 45 minutes it warmed back up and we all were back in our tee shirts again.
My next door neighbor works on fiddles and banjos and guitars, repairing and rebuilding shattered old instruments. Recently music ships on other states had started sending him broken guitars etc to rejuvenate. So music is all around me.
The last Rock band I saw was ZZ Top, they sold out the Civic Center here, and did a great show for 12,000 of their closest friends! I was invited by my cousin, a fine young grad student, and we had a great time. Classic Texas electric Blues!
And now I’m smiling, because this thread and telling my stories has refreshed my memories of good times. Thanks Betty for the topic!! Great memories. ;-)
@Patricia Kayden:
JFK might have also done coke. True?
Anyway, I’d trust JFK more than Trump during the Cuban Missile Crisis. With Trump in charge then, history would know it as the “Cuban Missile War”.
According to the Demos piece, Nozick did at least understand, comprehend, that Property was theft. The rest just look puzzled when confronted with this assertion.
Tolstoy, also a Georgist, (George really was that well known and respected), believed:
WFB Jr. was even a Georgist. From his own mouth to your eyes and ears
BBL
@rikyrah: The Sci Fi writer David Brin wrote about this several years ago…
.
@🌎 🇺🇸 Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) 🗳 🌷: I thought Trump didn’t drink or do drugs so that would be a way in which he and Kennedy differ, I guess. Not that you can tell that he never uses mind-altering substances given his outrageous behavior.
WaybakWhen: Jethro Tull, Procol Harem, Fleetwood Mac (after Christine McVie joined, before Stevie Nicks), Quicksilver Messenger Service, David Bowie (Ziggy Stardust tour), Linda Ronstadt, Allman Brothers, etc.
Early-mid 90s: Cowboy Junkies, Indigo Girls, Leo Kottke, and a few others.
More recently (and smaller venues): John Prine (multiple times), Mark Knopfler, Arlo Guthrie, Flo and Eddie …
@WTF:
http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Georgism
@WTF: Don’t forget the early Christians. From Acts 2:42-45:
Just a bunch of fuckin’ commies.
@raven: Seems like almost every rock band was there! I can imagine how fun that must have been.
“We hope John McCain gets better very soon. We miss him. He’s a crusty voice in Washington, plus we need his vote.”
– DJT
@Miss Bianca:
I already did; it looks like it is on the old road over La Veta Pass, not even out of the way.
@Patricia Kayden:
I was joking. Remember Trump sniffling at the debates? Don’t really know if JFK did drugs, just rumors I’ve read about
@J R in WV: Thank you for sharing your memories. Made me smile.
Ha ha ha ha ha ha!
Hope Kay’s seen this.
I enjoyed many concerts during my mis-spent youth. I still enjoy them, immensely.
I am a veteran of Woodstock. Out of many outstanding acts that performed, Santana’s set stands out for me. They blew away me and a 1/2 million others.
Seeing Johnny Winter at the Boston Tea Party was an off the hook experience. My Father’s Place, in Roslyn, NY was an amazing venue where I saw Richie Havens, Buzzy Lindhardt, Joan Armatrading, Edgar Winter’s White Trash, J.W. and many others. I saw many shows at the Filmore East. Enough said.
I paid for Stones tickets at MSG in 1969. I was very lucky to be paid to work 3 other Stones shows during my career as a TV Tech.
These days, I like small venues and local talent. In Sarasota, I enjoy the music of “The Hot Club of SRQ” an extermely talented Gypsy Jazz combo.
Live music rules! Support the local live venues!
Memorable shows:
Seeing The Bad Brains and Living Color in South Denver in 1993 after grunge had knocked a lot of late 80’s metal off the charts.
Music legend Clarence Gatemouth Brown performing at the Bluebird Theater in Denver. Come to to think of it, seeing Junior Brown, Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings and Grace Potter at the Bluebird at other shows there.
Jimmy Rodgers, Muddy Waters guitarist, at Jazz Works in downtown Denver in 1990. That club is long gone.
The Dixie Chicks at West Fest when they filmed the video for Wide Open Spaces.
The B52’s at CU Boulder in 1989 on their Cosmic Thing tour. Every body was Dancin that Mess Around!
@rikyrah:
I’ll repeat my comment from the other day: it’s like a vast swarth of the American public said, “Hey, don’t bother building the Ministry of Truth, we got this ourselves.”
I used to go to a lot of small venues in 70’s – early 80’s. Some of the more memorable locales:
The Persuasions at the Cellar Door (DC). I was sitting next to a woman up front, when Jerry Lawson got down on one knee and sang “Shining Star” to her.
There were several clubs in (The Keystones Berkeley / Palo Alto, The West Dakota) that had dance floors and danceable music. Asleep at the Wheel, Commander Cody, Norton Buffalo were all regulars. I liked pedal steel guitar, and Madame liked to dance.
There were a bunch a dive clubs on M Street in Georgetown that used to feature East Coast regional bands like NRBQ and Roomful of Blues.
Plus Rosalie Sorrels at the Freight and Salvage, any decade.
@Yarrow: What’s the Kansas Supreme Court like? Corrupt?
I saw 59 concerts while stationed in Omaha 75-78.
Now, Red Rocks is our closest major venue, which is nice. What a place to experience music in.
@maurinsky: Do you live in that area or were you visiting? My younger daughter is at Williams for a couple of years and went to that show also.
@Quinerly: it goes without saying . . .
Scritches for Poco.
@SamW: Saw ’til tuesday at a little long-gone place in the Fenway, their last gig before their first album came out. They were amazing. I grabbed the record the moment it came out, put it on, and thought, “What the hell is this shit? Is this really the same band I just saw?” Slick early 80s production just drained the life out of the music.
It’s been forever since I went to a concert but probably the most memorable was in 1990, when I took my girlfriend to see Midnight Oil at an amusement park in Connecticut. We went from NH to CT by bus (neither of us had a car). Misadventures ensued with transportation, lodging, and cash. But after finally making it to the concert and picking up the tickets we were led by the usher forward and forward and forward until we found our seats in the very. front. row. It was like I could touch the steam coming from Peter Garrett’s herky-jerky bald head. Amazing.
Man, I forgot to add Los Lobos who have been to town at least a couple of times, and Taj Mahal I think 3 times. I still can’t remember the 4th band at the Philly show.
And PInk Floyd, twice, first at Rupp Arena in Lexington KY at the beginning of their tour, and then the next summer at OSU stadium in Columbus, the first rock show in the shrine to College Football.
Frank Zappa, outside Chicago, and Jethro Tull at the Aragorn Ballroom in Chicago. What’s the name of the band who did Whiter Shade of Pale? Procol Harum! at the same summer pavilion we saw Frank Zappa. When I was in A school at Great Lakes we did the train south to rock out in Chicago. Acid was pretty easy to find back then, so some memories are, um… different shall we say..
And a ton of jazz in NYC, and Jimmy Vaughn, just so many… I gotta stop.
You guys talking politics on a music thread break me up… ;-)
And John Hartford, many times!
@🌎 🇺🇸 Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) 🗳 🌷:
If it tells you anything, Brownback et al make periodic threats to defund the court system, and offer up bills to pack the court. Brownback’s tax scheme finally foundered because the Court insisted there is a state constitutional obligation to fund education; which was of course impossible under the Koch/Brownback tax scheme.
@J R in WV: It says Open Thread right in the title.
@divF:
The Bobs’ at a former church (built by Julia Morgan) (late 80’s).
Stephane Grappelli and David Grisman at the Great American Music Hall (80’s).
Tom Waits as an opening act for Zappa at the Circle Star Theater (1974), then later headlining Zellerbach auditorium (80’s).
Emmylou Harris at the Circle Star, with Joan Baez coming up to the stage to sing a couple of duets (mid-70’s).
Saw Stevie Ray 3 or 4 times at Providence Performing Arts Ctr/ Ocean State Theater (name depends on the year). The Roomful of Blues horns would join him for several songs. After the show, sprint over to Lupo’s Heartbreak Hotel; Roomful was there, Stevie Ray would sit in for the last set, up close and personal.
One Elvis C show at PPAC (still with The Attractions) he had his own people doing security. As they patted the crowd down they would tell us sotto voce “Don’ worry about dope, just looking for bottles.”
Unexpectedly saw “little” Jimmy Scott perform at a Borders bookstore. I was there browsing and didn’t know he’d be appearing. His singing was so beautiful and heartfelt. We were in awe.
@J R in WV: Ah, Los Lobos. Got to see them live on the street for free in Chicago back in the 90s….amazing show. I remember glancing over at the sound booth (we were close) at one point during the proceedings and seeing this guy bopping to the music and grinning ear to ear. Good times, indeed!
@les:
Yeah, that sounds like just what an authoritarian would do
@zhena gogolia: With me it was the Clash on their London Calling tour–stood too close to the speaker bank…..
@raven:
That’s one helluva Thanksgiving weekend!
Most of the live music I’ve seen in the last decade has been traditional music of one sort or another, mostly Celtic. The Freight & Salvage in Berkeley is a great place for that. I saw Cherish The Ladies (Irish-American) and Carlos Nuñez (Galician) there among others. I did see The Presidents of the United States of America at the Great American Music Hall in SF. Stern Grove’s Sunday summer series is a nice place to see some well-known performers.
@divF: Never went to the Keystone Berkeley, but I saw The Bangles and The Vapors in Palo Alto years ago. Both venues long gone.
Best one: Warren Zevon at Be Here Now in Asheville, back in 94. Small venue (about 250 ppl), amazing acts. If I recall, the show was either $10 or $15.
A couple of years ago, I went to Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia. It’s well-known for Scottish music and holding on to the Gaelic language. There’s a Gaelic festival in a little town called Christmas Island. I went to the opening night concert, held in the town fire hall. The headliner was Mary Jane Lamond, but there were a lot of other performers. All locals, playing for their friends and neighbors. I was one of the few from off the island, I think. A lovely evening.
@A Ghost to Most:
Was at Red Rocks for the first time over 4th of July weekend. Amazing. And pungent!
@raven:
Did they make you pay a fine and pick up the garbage? ;0)
Late getting here. First show I ever went to was The Beatles, Baltimore Civic Center, September, 1963. I was 12, an older cousin and her best friend let me tag along. The next show will be this Saturday night with Los Lobos on Route 66 here in Albuquerque. A free show sponsored by the city. In between, I met my wife on a July evening, 1975. We’ve been to hundreds of shows in our decades together (including a dozen or more Los Lobos concerts). Mrs. dexwood has the ticket stubs to every event we’ve attended except free shows and, more recently, e-ticket concerts, She keeps promising to make an outrageous collage.
Howdy, Quinerly,
The Indigo Girls came to town right after their major label deal and they were so unknown that I scored first row tickets literally buying them from the Ticketmaster counter at the University of Houston. The venue was 18-and-older only, so a high school friend (who did not prepare, ahem, a more suitable ID) was turned away at the door. She and my roommate (who very kindly sacrificed her admission to wait with her) were fortunately rewarded after the show, when Amy Ray came out of the door, signed our tickets, AND put all our names on the list for their next concert stop at Bryan/College Station, where we got in to the show for free plus get to hang backstage with them for a bit. Man, those were the days.
Wednesday night this week….Tedeschi Trucks Band, Wood Brothers and Hot Tuna at Lawn at White River Park. I can do that….
I’ve seen Jason Isbell twice in the last eight months or so. Highly recommend seeing him live, either in a small theater or medium sized venue. Got to see the mountain goats open for him which was great, but i wish they’d played a longer set.
@J R in WV:
So. Very. Jealous.
Don’t leave your records in the sun; they’ll warp and they won’t be good for anyone …
@🌎 🇺🇸 Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) 🗳 🌷: Those were for his (very numerous) health problems. It’s a small wonder that he didn’t simply vanish from existence upon his assassination.
Late 70s/early 80s, my boyfriend lived in NYC and, thanks to airlines like People’s Air, tickets from Pittsburgh to NYC (actually, Newark) were cheap. We used to go to jazz and blues clubs. Saw Stanley Turrentine numerous times. BB King also. We also went to CBGB where we saw every great American punk band of the era. I refused to pee when we went there, the bathrooms were so notoriously awful, but I was young and had a bladder like a camel. Went to Studio 54 once, but it wasn’t so much about the music there but the celebrities. And dancing. And drugs. Not really my scene but it was an interesting evening. I preferred CBGB’s where I couldn’t pee but where the music was awesome. Blondie (I adore Debbie Harry), Talking Heads, the Ramones, Iggy Pop, New York Dolls…so much fun!
The car in driving through the puddle scene…. Too soon, too soon.
I have many many music stories to tell. But the best all around was the Heatwave concert at Mossport, Canada outside of Toronto:
The groups were:
Vladymir Rogov (opening artist) with his band ARKITEX
Teenage Head
BB Gabor
Holly and the Italians
Rockpile featuring Dave Edmunds and Nick Lowe (amazing set)
The Rumour without Graham Parker (just after he’d gone solo)
The B-52’s
Talking Heads (first time they appeared with the big band. So awesome)
The Pretenders
Elvis Costello and the Attractions
The Kings
@geg6: People’s Air. Man. They would take your credit card on the plane. Even if you were way over limit.
@different-church-lady: that venue was Spit? I was a regular — even had a Spit card (black plastic, red “Spit.”
@germy: I saw Robert Fripp alone doing his Frippatronics thing in a record store in Pittsburg, PA in, oh, 1980?
@dr. luba: Saw the Clash on that tour and then saw them at the Ritz in NY on their Sandanista tour. They actually had guys who were (dressed as?) Sandanista rebels leaflet the crown from hatches in the ceiling!
Amazing
First big-deal concert I ever saw (don’t judge): Ratt, with Poison opening!
Best concert ever saw: truly don’t know – maybe Lollapalooza II? The Hold Steady/The Loved Ones? Green Day this past spring?
Last one I saw: OAR and Train (I said no judging! That one was for the Mrs.)
Next one I’m seeing: Social D!
Bucket List: just saw U2 and Prince is not an option (sob) so…none, really. Taking my brother to see Pearl Jam if/when they ever go on tour (his bucket list show – I’ve already seen them a few times, including Lollapalooza II ! )
The most interesting concert I’ve ever seen was Rush on their Snakes and Arrows tour. Alex Lifeson just clearly didn’t have it that night. He flubbed passages numerous times and got visibly frustrated on stage. It was interesting to watch a very talented and skilled professional have such an off performance. I saw them four other times, so it wasn’t like I missed a once in a lifetime opportunity.
The most annoying concert I’ve seen was Steve Hackett at a tiny club in Minneapolis. There was a couple on the other side of the bar whispering to each other, and Hackett threw a temper tantrum about it and walked off the stage after four songs. I love his music, but he’s a jackass.
Ok, that Eilen Jewell song was great. Thanks!
Anything by Endless Boogie.
Or if you like white music geek funk with a world-class bass player, Vulfpeck, “1612” and “It Gets Funkier”
I mostly go see bands in tiny venues (preferably ones with good beer selections!). My three favorite places for live music in the Phoenix area are the Yucca Tap Room, Lost Leaf, and (for slightly bigger shows) the Crescent Ballroom. (If you’re ever cruising through Phoenix, Lost Leaf has live music 365 nights a year, great beer, and NO cover, ever.) I’ve seen a lot of good shows, so no one favorite stands out. One band I like is the Haymarket Squares — they play a hybrid of punk and bluegrass, and usually end shows by stepping off stage and into the audience to play their last few songs. If they’re in your area (they do tour), check ’em out!