Gandalf Murphy and the Slambovian Circus of Dreams - March 6 - Blackrock Performing Arts Center

Ed and Nancy gave me some tickets to this show, I had never heard of this band with the full mouthful of a name, but it sounded like fun so off we went. This band, I'll just call them GM & SCoD, are led by Joziah Longo on guitar and vocals. He's an entertaining fellow who provides a running commentary between each song, sometimes even talking over the beginning of songs ("We take a long time between songs, that's one of the reasons we're not famous."). Joziah's wife, Tink Lloyd, who plays a variety of instruments but mostly accordion. She also is a very accomplished player of the theramin (does that make her a "theraminist"?). The theramin is often used by musicians simply for novelty or as a sound effect, but she was able to truly make music with it. The lead guitarist is Sharkey McEwan, he uses the slide a lot and he is quite good. The rhythm section is Tony Zuzulo on drums and Chen Longo on bass and keyboards. Chen also happens to be the son of Joziah and Tink.
So what kind of music do these guys play? Well their web site calls it "punk-classical-hillbilly-Floyd" and I certainly won't argue with that. You can definitely hear a sound similar to early Pink Floyd, especially with Sharkey's slide guitar work. Joziah's voice at times sounds like Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull. Their songs are very entertaining and original. They didn't do any covers, but they started one of their songs singing the lyrics of "Pinball Wizard" to the tune of "Folsom Prison Blues" (it works!) and their encore was a combination of the Christmas song "Angels We Have Heard on High" and Van Morrison's "Gloria", which was quite clever.
The Black Rock Center for the Performing Arts has a beautiful little theater that seats about 200. Perfect for someone like the Seldom Scene (who will be there in a couple of weeks) and a solo acoustic performance, but with a rock band like GM & SCoD you need room to move around and dance. Not to mention the fact that the average age in the room must have been about 68.
I look forward to seeing GM & SCoD again, they would be perfect for Floyd Fest. And I hope to go back again to the Black Rock, to see a musical act that is more suitable for the intimate theater.

I've posted a widget to the side of this entry that you can use to listen to some of their songs, give it a try, they're fun to listen to! And thanks to Ed and Nancy for the tickets!

Yes - February 15 - Warner Theatre

This show was scheduled for Saturday 2/6, but the Snowmageddon pushed it back to Monday 2/15. Yes was such an iconic band in the early 1970's, they were far and away the most popular "progressive rock" band. Now forty years later they're still doing the same thing, but the line up has changed slightly. Lead singer Jon Anderson is sidelined with health problems and is replaced by Canadian Benoit David. Benoit made a name for himself in Yes cover bands and was drafted into the real band when Jon went down. Also keyboard maestro Rick Wakemen has been replaced by his son, Oliver. I don't know why Rick is retired, maybe he just doesn't care anymore.

But original band members, Chris Squire (bass/vocals), Alan White (drums), and Steve Howe (guitar/vocals) are still kicking out the progressive rock classic jams and they look like they're having more fun than ever. We had some great seats, in the first couple of rows, directly in front of guitar virtuoso Steve Howe. Steve Howe looks like one of those guys you see sitting in the lobby of an assisted living facility, but when he straps on that Gibson guitar he is simply amazing. Chris Squire is full of energy and approaches each song with utmost enthusiasm.
And the band performed all of their big hits from the heyday, starting with "Siberian Khatru" (someone in the audience yelled "Welcome to Siberia!" with 2 feet of snow outside) and they whipped through "I've Seen All Good People", "Your is No Disgrace", "Heart of the Sunrise", and "And You and I". Each song was close to the studio version, but did include extended solo's for everyone (except Wakeman for some reason). They also did a wonderful version of "Machine Messiah", a song from the Drama album that I'm not very familiar with, but this might have been the musical highlight. Steve Howe played two songs solo acoustic that were just marvelous. And of course they did "Roundabout" for an encore.
The audience was all old guys and a few wives (including the Bird, who is a big Yes fan). The Boy was there as part of his Continuing Music Education. In January we saw Dweezil Zappa play his tribute to his father's music, then we saw the Furthur show, which is a tribute to the Grateful Dead with a couple of original members and several younger players, then Yes with three original members and two youngsters filling in. I'm a little tired of "recreating" musical experiences from decades past and ready for some young musicians playing some new music. Bring on the festival season!

 The Boy, Greg Barnes, myself, the Bird

Furthur - February 13 - George Mason University

For those of you that don't know, Furthur is a band put together by Phil Lesh and Bob Weir of the Grateful Dead, to keep Dead music alive and out there. Joining them for this tour are keyboardist Jeff Chimenti (from Bob Weir's band Ratdog and he also played with the Dead last year), drummers Jay Lane and Joe Russo (we've seen him before with Benevento/Russo) and a couple of backup singers. But what had me most perplexed and anxious was the presence of guitarist/singer John Kadlicek. We've enjoyed John's performances for years as the lead guitarist for Dark Star Orchestra, which is the very popular Grateful Dead cover/tribute band. He plays and sings just like Jerry Garcia and when he plays with Dark Star and he has been essential to their ability to "re-create" the live Dead experience. So I was apprehensive when I heard that this Jerry imitator was filling in with Phil and Bobby. I did not have this feeling when the Dead toured last year with Warren Haynes as the lead guitarist. Warren didn't try to be Jerry, instead he brought his own sound and his own style which meshed really nicely with the Dead songs.

We rolled in the GMU Patriot Center, it was a near sold out crowd, a suprisingly older demographic. Of course you expect there to be many gray hairs there, but these shows usually attract a good number of young folks as well, especially on a college campus, but for whatever reason it was just us old folks.

They opened with "Playing in the Band" and my apprehension quickly slipped away. The band was tight, they were having fun and the music was good. Unlike earlier shows in the tour, Saturday night turned into a greatest hits sort of show, with "Friend of the Devil", "Ship of Fools", and "Truckin'" in the first set. I was particularly impressed with Jeff Chimenti's \crazy piano solo on "Wang Dang Doodle".

The second set kicked off with the superb trilogy "Help on the Way>Slipknot>Franklin's Tower" from the Blues for Allah album. This was followed by a really nice version of "Cassidy", it was here that Phil, Bobby, Jeff, and John seemed to get into a synergistic state where they were really listening to each other and playing together well. "Lovelight" had a nice part where the backup singers and Bobby were calling back and forth, almost gospel style. However the backup singers were mostly redundant on the other songs as they only sang the chorus lines where the crowd sings along anyway.

The band jammed on with "St. Stephen", a loose version of the Beatles' "Revolution", then "The Eleven" and "So Many Roads". Now I've always thought that John Kadlicek really sings "So Many Roads" very well, he sort of makes it his own song (as they might say on American Idol) and he rose to the occasion here as the band let him take the spotlight. So what was I all worried about? Let the music play! They finished up with "Let it Grow" and then slipped back into "Playing in the Band" to put a nice bookend on a fine evening of music. The crowd called for more so they came out and ripped through "Johnny B. Goode" to get us fired up for the long trip home.

Furthur is named for the bus that Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters drove through history in the 1960's. Phil and Bob were there and it's inspirational that some 40+ years they're still out there playing music and having fun. In fact watching Phil on Saturday night I've never seen him in such an great mood, laughing, singing and playing. I salute him and wish him the best as he celebrates his 70th birthday next month

Zappa Plays Zappa - January 15 - Ram's Head Live

This was my fifth time seeing Dweezil Zappa and his band perform his father's music. Each time has been a superb evening of live Zappa music. In past tours, ZPZ has included guest performers who are alumni from Frank Zappa bands (Steve Vai, Terry Bozzio, Ray White, Napoleon Murphy Brock, et. al.), however on this short tour it was pure ZPZ with no guests. But that was fine since Dweezil has assembled a band of very talented musicians who can play the heck out of a wide range of Zappa tunes. They had a new singer, Ben Thomas, who I had not seen before. He did a very good job with the challenging vocals and the improvisations that always made Zappa music fun to watch live.

The band started out on time and seemed almost in a hurry as they whipped through "Broken Hearts are for Assholes", "Bamboozled by Love", and "Dirty Love".  Then a very nice version of "RDNZL". Dweezil introduced "You Didn't Try to Call Me" saying that it was a rare arrangement that was only used briefly in the mid seventies when Frank had a female vocalist in the band (I missed her name). Scheila Gonzales handled the lead vocals this time and it was really nice. That was followed by "Road Ladies", a gem from the Chunga's Revenge album and version of "T'mershi Duween".

The band seemed to loosen up some and relax as they went back to the Joe's Garage album and played "Catholic Girls" and "Crew Slut" (with a superb guitar solo by Jamie Kime and some nice harmonica work by Ben). By now Dweezil was joking with the crowd, asking where to get good crab cakes.

It was recently announced that the City of Baltimore had selected a place to put a statue of Frank Zappa that was being given to the city by some dedicated fans in Lithuania. You can read about it here. Dweezil improvised the lyrics to "Pigmy Twylyte" to say that he'd be glad to attend the dedication ceremony if someone would tell him when it would be.

They closed with an encore including "Stinkfoot" and "Muffin Man" (which is a great song for an encore).  We grabbed a bite to eat before the show at a Mexican restaurant/night club next door to the Ram's Head where Vanilla Ice was scheduled to perform. I don't know why I'm mentioning that, it just seemed weird. My complaint on the Ram's Head is still that unless you're packed in the front, your choices are places where you can see well or hear well, but not both. Otherwise it was a good crowd with a high percentage of females for a Zappa show, the Bird suspects that Dweezil is gaining a following of his own with the ladies. In fact when Dweezil asked the audience in "What should I eat for dinner tonight?", one girl in front answered "Me!". Dweezil said his wife wasn't fond of that recipe.

A couple of other notes. Someone named Fred Midgett posted a very nice review of the show earlier in the week on the Zappa Plays Zappa web site. Fred is a huge Zappa fan and he wrote a loving note of thanks to Dweezil. You can read it in its entirety here. Scroll down to find Fred's posting.
Dweezil also mentioned a new web site called dweezilzappaworld.com that has a bunch of cool stuff on it, especially details on DZ's guitar rig and a great video of Dweezil playing with Tenacious D!

Finally as I look at my first three concerts of 2010 I notice an interesting common thread. They're all shows with bands playing music from the sixties and seventies, dare I say "re-creating". My next concert is Yes, with some original members, but the keyboard player is the son of the original keyboardist (Rick Wakeman) and the lead singer is a replacement (who sounds exactly like Jon Anderson). That will be followed by Furthur, which is Bob Weir and Phil Lesh and several other talented musicians playing Grateful Dead songs. And of course I just saw Dweezil, faithfully performing his father's music. I'm not sure what it all means, I'll share my perspective over the next few weeks. Perhaps a few years from now all the shows that I go to will be cover bands consisting of sons and daughters of the original artists. But at this point I'm happy to see Dweezil any time he wants to bring his band to town and play some tasty Zappa tunes.

City Farm - January 9 - Tiffany Tavern

Last Saturday the Tiffany Tavern and City Farm teamed up again and provided a warm refuge from the frigid winter with great music, drink and friendship. Brother Ed was absent due to another commitment, but the remaining five members stepped up to the challenge and provided a evening of fine musical entertainment. Without Ed on guitar, Paul had to keep the mandolin mainly in the case and take out the six string. But Paul is a really fine guitar player so while Ed was sorely missed, it was nice to hear Paul's tasty finger picking style.
The atmosphere is always that of a neighborhood bar, though the neighborhood is thirty years ago and two hundred and fifty miles away. The bar was full (as normal) with a healthy representation of Danville expats and I was especially pleased to find a couple of pals from my college days in attendance. When City Farm plays at the Tavern there is a definite synergy between the band and the patrons, with everyone enjoying the music and making requests, and the band (I believe) getting inspired and motivated by the warmth and positive feedback from the crowd. The cramped, er.. well let's call it "intimate" space at the Tavern encourages you to strike up a conversation with those sitting or standing next to you. Saturday night a guy said to me: "These guys are great! What's the name of this band?"
"Why, they're the City Farm," I said. And while I didn't get his name, I expect I'll see him back there again real soon.

2009 Year End Summary

Now that 2009 has come to an end I thought that I would look back and review my live music experiences, which after all was the primary reason for starting this blog at the beginning of 2009. Live music is one of my favorite “hobbies” or “recreational activities” and this tool has turned out to be a good way for me to document and somewhat preserve my memories. I look forward to continuing this blog in 2010 and I hope that I create some great new memories to save here. I’m toying with adding new features, perhaps live “tweets” from shows, certainly adding more photographs, and I would like to figure out how to add relevant music downloads.

Looking back at 2009 the first major highlight is definitely our seven show Dead experience in April and May. We caught the first show of the tour in Greensboro, NC only hours after returning from our Jamaica vacation and we finished five weeks later in Mountain View, California. This was wonderful for me on so many levels. The band reinvented itself for this tour with new energy and provided some of its best performances (I believe) in over 20 years. As I noted in the blog, I finally realized how the tour is really one long show and that is why so many people make the effort to see as many concerts as they can. I also saw my first show at the historic Madison Square Garden and one of the last shows at the venerable Philadelphia Spectrum (“we’re going to tear this old building down!”). It was a great experience to share with my wife (“The Bird”) who loves the Dead so much and I think it was an excellent new chapter in the continuing rock music education for my son (“The Boy”) who went to the first and last of our seven episodes.

Music festivals have always been great fun for us and an excellent way to experience many different bands in a beautiful outdoor setting. As is tradition for us, we went to the All Good and the FloydFest Festivals again in 2009. These two festivals are very different in their character and environment, but both deliver a nice mix of new bands and old favorites. We went to DelFest this year for the second time, and although a near tornado ripped through the festival site on Saturday afternoon the spirit and the music prevailed. In October of 2009 I went to the Crozet Music Festival (just outside Charlottesville) and had a wonderful time at this small local event. The weather and setting were perfect and there is plenty of local music talent to keep this festival on the “repeat” list.

The concert with the most “star power” for me in 2009 was probably Steve Winwood/Eric Clapton in June at the Verizon Center. For some strange reason I had never seen Eric Clapton before, but his performance with his old partner from Blind Faith was top notch professionism and a 2009 highlight for me.

Other musical artists that truly impressed me in 2009: Old Crow Medicine Show at the DelFest. After the storm, everyone was sort of wet, down, and wondering if the festival was going to go on (the main stage took major damage). The OCMS moved to the indoor rec center and created a positive storm of musical energy that got everyone dancing and back in the zone of good vibrations. Jackie Greene at the All Good Festival. I would love to see him again soon, he’s got just the right combination of original songwriting and musical skills that leave you wanting more. Grace Potter and the Nocturnals at the FloydFest. This performance made a big impression on me and I made the effort to see them again (a short set at the Rt. 29 Revue at Merriweather Post and a rocking show at the Ram’s Head Live). She is a very talented performer and continues to win fans nationwide. Mark my word, she’ll have a hit single someday and Grace Potter will be a household name.

Another super highlight for me was the City Farm Benefit show in August, seeing so many Danville friends, young and old (well I guess old and older!) in such a positive setting was a ton of fun. My parody of the event in my blog got a lot of favorable comments, except from the band members who thought it was a factual report of the event.

There were many other highlights, seeing Dave Matthews in California with the Boy after touring the college where he’ll be for the next four years, a killer Allman Brothers performance at the Merriweather, watching Donna the Buffalo from the shelter of the VIP seats at FloydFest while it poured down rain (thank you John!), the list goes on and on. In fact, by my count I saw 29 shows (counting each Festival as one “show”) and over 90 bands this year. I’m afraid to run the total on my Quicken account to see how much $$ I spent on concert tickets, that’s a number that’s probably best left unknown.

As I look over the 2009 list a few things are missing. No shows at the Birchmere or the Strathmore! This is a sin to live so close to such treasures and not take advantage of it. I still have yet to see Bruce Springsteen live and I missed his tour again this year. My calendar didn’t line up this year with Bob Dylan’s never ending world tour. These things will be addressed in 2010. And speaking of Bruce and Bob, check out Jon Stewart's tribute to Bruce Springsteen at the Kennedy Center Honors. It's brilliant.

We finished 2009 in Austin, Texas (“the live music capital of the world”) and I was able to catch a few sets (the Evans Johnson band played some rockin’ rock-a-billy at Antone’s and I saw a fun bar band on Sixth Street but I forgot their name). Austin is a town where you can hear great live music every night if you want so we’ll have to get back down there again soon.

It looks like 2010 will start off with some good music, I have tickets already for Zappa Plays Zappa in January, in February it’s going to be Yes and Furthur. And I have tickets for DelFest and FloydFest, and I’ll pick up my All Good tickets as soon as they go on sale. Thanks for reading this, I appreciate your comments and I hope to see you at the next show.

On the Bus - December 12 - Rockville, MD

I haven't been able to get to see much live music in the last few weeks, so I was intrigued when an ad appeared on Facebook for a Grateful Dead night at the Potomac Grill. Then when the Bird suggested that we try a new sushi restaurant that was right across the street, fate seemed to be directing us to a Saturday night in Rockville. On the Bus is a Grateful Dead cover band that I know little about but it seems they've been playing in the area for 7+ years. Saturday night they did an admirable job of playing a variety of songs from the Dead catalog, including "China Cat Sunflower", "Eyes of the World", "Cassidy", and "Ramblin' Rose". A pleasant surprise was "Peggy-O", one that you don't hear very often. Their lead guitarist, Darrell Bailey, played some excellent solos and their instrumental improvisations were very nice. Another added bonus was the frequent additions of friends from the audience to sit in on a song or two and sing, play guitar or harmonica.

The Potomac Grill is in a small strip mall and seems to be your typical American cuisine restaurant/bar. The band was set up in the bar area and the remaining seats and tables were all taken by the time we arrived. We were able to get a table in the restaurant area, but our view was blocked by the room layout, and we were reminded of City Farm nights at the Tiffany Tavern. Friends of the band get there early and secure the seats with good sight lines and the late arrivals are relegated to the back room. From their website it appears that On the Bus plays regularly at the Potomac Grill, so next time we'll have to arrive early to get a good spot among the regulars.

Grace Potter & the Nocturnals - November 16 - Baltimore, MD

This show was billed as Grace Potter and the Nocturnals "co-headlining" with Brett Dennen. I was most impressed by Ms. Potter's performance at Floydfest this past summer and I saw her again in August at the Rt. 29 Revue. So I knew that I was guaranteed at least 50% of the show was going to be good. They snuck in another band to start things off, Pete Francis. He sucked. Just too much of a pop, soft rock, smooth sound for my taste. But Grace and her band came out next and they put on a fantastic show. She seemed truly happy to be in Baltimore, said she found some great tapas restaurants in the area and had so much fun hanging out in Charm City that they decided to stay over an extra day (they were performing the next night at the 9:30 in DC).

The Ram's Head Live was only about 2/3 full, which makes it a much more enjoyable space compared to when it's sold out and we were able to get right up front. They played several new songs which will be in their new album scheduled for release in the spring. One new one was "Oasis" which really rocked and I really liked "Medicine", with the refrain "I got the medicine that everybody wants". Indeed!

The current Nocturnals includes two great guitarists (Scott Tournet/Benny Yurco), their new bass player Catherine Popper (who is very easy on the eyes), and drummer Matt Burr. And of course there's Grace alternating between the Flying V guitar and the Hammond B-3 organ. I was standing close enough to the organ to see several labels on it that said "Customized for Grace Potter". Would be interested to learn more about that. A young guy next to me was looking quizzically at the Leslie cabinet with the spinning speaker, I told him it was a Leslie speaker and it was commonly used with the Hammond organ. He said "I have no idea what you're talking about". Darn kids with their iPods, where is their appreciation for musical heritage?

Anyway Grace puts so much energy in her singing and playing it is truly infectious and you really don't want her to stop. Couple that with her ability to write songs that are full of hooks and memorable lyrics and I imagine that she will be at the top of the charts and a household name in another year or two.

Based on what I've read, it seems like the project that she was working on with producer T-Bone Burnett has been cancelled and instead she's teamed up with another producer for the new album. I had high hopes for what T-Bone could do with her, but in the meantime she's still tearing up the concert circuit.

But don't take my word for it, take a look at this video from the show that my buddy Dan made or better yet, go see her the next time she's in town. I'll be there!

Oh, and Brett Dennen? We left after 1.5 songs, just a little too cutsie for my taste, but the 15 year old girls seemed to be enjoying him.

Dark Star Orchestra - November 13 - Washington, DC

Just 48 hours after seeing a sort of lackluster performance of DSO I decided to give them another chance and tagged along with Davis to the 930 club to see them again. The club was completely sold out and I luckily found someone with an extra ticket. What a difference! They totally ROCKED the house with one of the best musical performances that I have ever seen from this band.

The setlist was from the June 27, 1976 Grateful Dead show and each song was performed better than the one before it. Special kudo's to the second set In the second set they played a spectacular version of "Wharf Rat", followed by "Samson & Delilah", and a "Help on the Way->Slipknot->Franklin's Tower" sequence that whipped the crowd into a real frenzy. All of the hippies, yuppies, and college kids were dancing and singing together as it should be. Then they finished with a very powerful "Sugar Magnolia". For the encore it was "US Blues" which was the end of the '76 show. But DSO showed their appreciation by playing a few more, "Midnight Hour", "Easy Wind", and "Brothers and Sisters".

We left hot, tired and fully satisfied from a night of great music, it's just amazing how different a band can be from one night to the next. I'm really looking forward to celebrating another New Year's Eve with this band, this time they have promised an acoustic set as well as special guests Jeff Mattson and Donna Jean Godchaux.

Dark Star Orchestra - November 11 - Hagerstown, MD

It was cold and raining when we headed west on I-70 to Hagerstown. But as we crossed over South Mountain the rain stopped and the sky lifted so when we pulled into downtown Hagerstown it turned out to be a lovely evening. Last time we saw Dark Star Orchestra it was at the AllGood Festival and we still had fresh memories of seven live Dead shows. So Dark Star seemed a little too much like "let's pretend this is a Dead show". But now it's five months later and we're ready for some live Dead music, even if it's not being played by the real guys.

For this show DSO was celebrating their 12th anniversary, certainly a longer run then they must have envisioned when they started. As with any DSO show you spend some time trying to guess the period, year, and date (if you're really good) of the Grateful Dead show that they are "recreating". On Wednesday night it was pretty tough as they played several older tunes that were not part of the regular repertoire and they finished with some songs from the 1980's. They also threw in a very nice version of "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds". The guessing game ended at the conclusion of the show when they usually announce the date of the original show, this time they said "I guess if it's your birthday you can play whatever the fuck you want". Well of course, you should be able to play whatever the fuck you want on your 12th birthday.

But the music still seemed a little lackluster, not much energy, nothing really wrong, but just didn't get us moving.

The real star of the show was the Maryland Theater in downtown Hagerstown which is almost 100 years old and restored to beautiful condition. As their web site says, "The marvelous acoustics are only surpassed by the wonderful ambiance" and I could not agree more. The room was beautiful, the sound was perfect, there was a great bar in the lobby and the little old ladies taking tickets at the door were enjoying the music as much as the audience. It looked like there were several nice bars and restaurants in the same neighborhood, I will definitely have to get back up here soon to more concerts.

So we headed home not really musically satisfied and as we climbed South Mountain the rain started again and it was back to the real world.

As for Dark Star Orchestra, see my more recent post for the rest of the story....