Tag Archives: concerts

Help Me with a Concert List: My Memory Doesn’t Serve Me Well

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Ryan Bingham and the Dead Horses in Boston MA. Always a great show!

If you have ever been to a concert with me, I need your help! I’ve been trying to come up with complete list of every musical act I’ve seen in concert, from the cradle to now. Well, not every act.  They have to be nationally or internationally known, because if I list every band I’ve seen at a local event, I’d never stop listing.  I’d also never be able to do it.  I’m also not including choruses, orchestras, musicals or theatrical events.  Let’s take Harry Connick Jr. or Bernadette Peters for example.  Both of these people have done concerts on Broadway and been in shows.  Harry Connick Jr. I list because I have seen him in concert.  I have not seen him in a musical, but even if I had, I wouldn’t list him unless I had also seen him in concert.  I have seen Bernadette Peters in musicals, but I have yet to see her in concert, except recorded.  So she is not on my list.

Anyway, I can’t remember them all.  I know I am missing some.  One act came back to me today since I originally developed this list and posted in on Facebook last night.  Something brought them to mind.  It was a good show, too!  It’s just hard to bring all acts to mind in a list like this.

So if you’ve been to a show or festival with me, could you look at this list and make sure all the artists we saw are included here. The band has to have made enough of an impression on my that I remember seeing them of course.  If I don;t remember them, I’m not going to add them, but I know the list should be longer than this.  Plus I keep finding duplicates, so it isn’t even really this long!

  • Bruce Springsteen
  • Dave Matthews Band
  • James Morrison
  • The Gaslight Anthem
  • Suzanne Vega
  • Idir
  • Najat Attabou
  • Cheb Mami
  • Khaled
  • Cesaria Evora
  • Red Hot Chilli Peppers
  • Prince
  • Foreigner
  • Bryan Adams
  • Tinariwen
  • Ashley MacIsaac
  • Tina Turner
  • Midnight Oil

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Blame it on the Dave Matthews Band and their Caravan!

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This post is slow in coming because I’ve been lethargic, tired and just feeling kind of blah since this weekend.  Now that I am sitting down to write it, and though it pains me greatly to do so, I am publicly accusing an outfit that heretofore has been a positive force in my life: The Dave Matthews Band.  The Dave Matthews Band is responsible for the DMB Caravan, a three day music festival visiting four cities this summer.  This past weekend, June 24-26 was the first of the four at Bader Field in Atlantic City, New Jersey.  I was there, and it took it’s toll.  To understand why, let me tell you a little about me.

Most people don’t see me as an addict, but in fact I am.  It just that the things I am addicted to are not illegal or even controlled, and music is my most powerful addiction by far.  If music is an addiction live music is it’s purest, most potent, addictive form,  and this festival served up something like 40 amazing acts over the course of three days!   The schedule was pretty well planned out with three stages scheduled to have performances on them from around 1:30 pm to 10:00 or 11:00 pm, but staggered so that you usually only had to choose between two acts at any given time.  The tickets were not cheap, just under $200 for three days, but once you were in you had 10 hours at an open bar of music, an addict’s dream!  Someone like me should never have been let in the door!

Mariachi El Bronx

More than that, this musical bar was packed with top shelf brands.  The variety of musical styles represented was impressive.  If you are a Dave Matthews fan, you wouldn’t have been disappointed.  The band plays each night, there’s a Dave and Tim Reynolds, and solo projects of band members are also featured.  Of course they all sound great.  The members of DMB set standards for musicianship whether you like their music or not.  On the other hand, if you had gone expecting to hear three days of bands that sound like the Dave Matthews Band,  you would have left deeply disappointed.  To cite just a few examples, Mariachi El Bronx are, fundamentally, a Mariachi band cross-pollinated with hard core rock and roll.  The Carolina Chocolate Drops play music that is, at its foundation, pure bluegrass, even if they are covering a Beyonce tune.   Damian Marley, one of Bob Marley’s sons, plays reggae based music as might be expected.  Lisa Hannigan is contemporary singer-songwriter from Ireland in what I suppose we could call the contemporary folk style.  Thievery Corporation play music that incorporates everything but the kitchen sink.  One of the things they all share with the Dave Matthews Band is that they are innovative and not afraid to stretch their wings.  Consequently, none of them are easily classifiable and none of them sound very much like the other.

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Hooked, but It’s OK! Andy Grammer’s “Keep Your Head Up”

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This is an interactive video for “Keep Your Head Up” by singer-songwriter and fellow Binghamton University alumn Andy Grammer. (I’m not sure what Grammer studied and SUNY Binghamton, but according to this bio he was there two years active in the theater program. I did my PhD there.) At various points in the video you will have an opportunity to change the scenario by selecting options. And if you do the whole thing again, you’ll get different choices.

This guy knows how to load a song with melodic hooks and they do their job. The song snagged in the netting of my muddled brain the first time I heard it and it’s been stuck there since. Usually at least one or two songs from the beginning of summer crop has such a hook, but usually it drives me crazy. That’s because I usually don’t even like the song, but the hook is effective, so it snags and won’t pull lose. And because the artists is often backed by the full marketing budget of a giant record label, the single is ubiquitous. You hear it on the radio, in the mall, in your favorite tv shows and movies, over television commercials, as a Starbucks Download of the Week, etc. The artists appears on daytime and late night talk shows, as a guest performer or mentor on reality competition shows, in cameos on episodic television, on radio talk shows, in public service announcements… So every time the song fades from memory, its planted again. I’ll find myself singing it in the car, the shower, on the street, deliberately preventing myself from learning the whole thing, annoyed at the banality of the lyrics, the derivative nature of the music, or some other aspect of the song.

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Faves: Sharon Jones, Avett Brothers, Swell Season, Tim Barry and Gaslight Anthem

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The Newport Folk Festival dates back to 1959, but has always adhered to a somewhat loose definition of “folk.” Among the people who played there in the early days of the festival and early in their careers were Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Johnny Cash and Howlin’ Wolf. More recently people as diverse as Jakob Dylan, The Decemberists, The Low Anthem, Jimmy Buffett, Nickel Creek, the Allman Brothers Band, Agenlique Kidjo, and Emmylou Harris have played the festival that now takes place annually at Fort Adams State Park.

This year’s festival was impressive, as usual. We got there just in time to see Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings. As usual they were brilliant. Sharon Jones interacts with her audience more than any other performer I have seen live, and if you get a chance to see her in a small club, do. She’ll bring folks on stage to sing to them, or even to have them sing and dance with her. She singles people in the audience out for recognition when they show affection, and she handles unruliness with particular dexterity. I wasn’t sure how that would play out in the noonday sun on the highly elevated stage in Fort Adams State Park.
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Help Support the Life is Good Foundation

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I’m in the midst of fundraising for the Life is Good Kids Foundation. I must admit that my reasons for embarking on this venture were selfish. I’m going to the Life is Good Festival down the road a bit in Canton, and you get some special privileges if you raise a certain amounts. But having started on the project, I did some research into the foundation, and I’ve realized what a good cause it is. My enthusiasm is great, independent of the concert.

The Life is good Kids Foundation is an action-oriented nonprofit, committed to helping young children overcome life-threatening challenges such as extreme poverty, violence, illness and natural disasters. Our Playmakers Initiative provides training, resources and support to the adults dedicated to caring for these children so that all involved lead healthier, more joyful lives.

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A Tale of Three Bands

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Over and over for about three decades folks have proclaimed the death of Rock and Roll, but I’m thoroughly convinced that good old-fashioned, guitar dominated rock and roll is in the midst of a golden age. I just watched the Bruce Springsteen, Live at Hyde Park DVD and it is amazing. I was at the actual concert in Hyde Park last year. At the age of 60 this man rocks! I’ve seen him play a few times over the decades and the show on that DVD is every bit as high energy, loud and exciting as those he did in the 90’s, 80’s and even the 70’s. You get wrapped up in a Springsteen concert like you might in a religious revival, and there are not at lot of artists who have been able to keep the intensity of a show at your favorite rock club, even as they began to play at bigger and bigger venues, right up stadiums and open air concerts in Hyde Park.

Not only are his live shows legendary, but each show is new and different. There is always a significant element of spontaneity and he never sticks to a preplanned setlist. He can keep it fresh because he’s constantly releasing new material. Indeed, in recent years he’s been releasing albums even more frequently, nearly every year since 2002. It’s surprising to notice the age range at his concerts, fans ranging from their 20s to their 60s! As long as Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band are playing three hour plus concerts and Bruce keeps that new material coming, we don’t need to worry about the death of Rock and Roll.
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Up on the Ridge Tour

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from L to R Travis Linville, Hayes Carll and Bonnie Whitmore at the Music Hall

On May 7 I went to a concert I was expecting to leave feeling lukewarm about. Hayes Carll was opening for Dierks Bentley and the Traveling McCoury’s. I’m a fan of Hayes Carll and I really went to see him, so let me start with that. He’s an artist that’s often placed in that tradition that’s epitomized by the Texas singer/songwriter like Townes Van Zandt and Steve Earle and that now counts among Hayes’s peers the likes of Ryan Bingham, Bruce Robison and others. In fact you hear a lot of influences in his music from Kris Kristoferson, Johnny Cash, Buck Owens and Willie Nelson, to Bob Dylan and David “Honey Boy” Edwards and the Delta Blues. I don’t know that he would list all these, but I hear them. Continue reading →

Concert Ticketing Fees

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Can someone tell me what “ticketing fees” cover? Or “processing fees”? What, precisely, are the costs involved involved in each and every ticket purchased online that warrant them? Why do we pay “convenience fees” at all? It’s not as if you have a choice between that and a less convenient option for many events. Perhaps you can purchase by phone, but there are charges for that, too.

It used to be the case that music stores and other retailers were outlets for concert ticket vendors, but I wouldn’t even know where to find one now. The only place I’m sure you can always buy tickets in person is the actual venue.

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Sharp Contrast

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I’ve been going to a lot of concerts recently. The last two I’ve been to couldn’t be more different from one another in style, though. I’ll not provide bios and explanations of style. I’m sure I’ve talked about these artists before, anyway. Just listen to them.

This is Mika, and the video is actually from this tour, four nights ago. It’s on my favorites among his songs. The sound kind of sucks, but you will get a sense of his music, at least. The concert was tonight at the Orpheum Theater in Boston. He puts on a great show, even if he did rip his pants and nearly lose them on the first song! That’s a risk you take being such an energetic showman.

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So what do you think? Pretty different, huh?

I Have Strange Tastes in Music!

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I have to oddest musical tastes of anyone I know. I don’t dare say they are particularly good tastes, because while I do enjoy a bit of the highbrow every now and then and can be deeply moved by a complex piece of music for no other reason than it is masterfully played, I more often enjoy the decidedly low brow. Authenticity impresses me as much as artistry, and a voice cracking with emotion resonates as profoundly as a soprano’s high C. Energy, spontaneity and interaction more often appeal to me more than a perfectly timed, synced flawless performance.

(Just stuck this in because I was there!)

So why do I have odd tastes? Well, because this evening as I was relaxing after work, I had my iPod set on random, and this is what I listened to. The list was genuinely random. I did not interfere at all. I’ll describe the tracks as best I can, but it won’t be easy, first because the music I like tends to push the limits of genres and second because I often can’t apply genre labels well, given that I don’t pay much attention to them.

* Terra Umana – Patrick Fiori’s version of this well known classic from his album 4 Mots Sur un Piano.

* Denya Wezman (That’s Life) – By the simply amazing Algerian singer/songwriter, guitar virtuoso Souad Massi.

* Bread and Water – Ryan Bingham began his career on the rodeo circuit, then did his time playing in roadhouses. The song is From the album Mescalito.

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* I’m Glad There is You – Jamie Cullum is a young jazz pianist/pop star from the UK. This is his interpretation of the Jimmy Dorsey, Paul Madeira classic. It took some nerve to do this. Carmen MacRae, Sarah Vaughan and Frank Sinatra are just three of the people who have recorded well know versions of this song. It’s from Cullum’s album Catching Tales.

* The Last of the American Girls – From Green Day’s latest, 21st Century Breakdown.

* Singin’ in the Rain – Yes, that Singin’ in the Rain. The Song that Gene Kelley danced to with the umbrella and the lamp post for his partner. Here the version is from Jamie Cullum’s debut album Twentysomething.

* Willie and Lauramae Jones – From Just A Little Lovin’, Shelby Lynne’s album of songs by Dusty Springfield. It doesn’t include “Son of a Preacher Man” though. Shelby says that’s Dusty’s song and she can’t imagine recording that one.

* Rosalinda’s Eyes – From Billy Joel’s 52nd Street. Joel’s tour to promote this album was the first concert I ever saw.

* Don’t Bang the Drum – This is from the The Best of The Waterboys 81-90. I was a huge fan of the Waterboys in the 80s.

* International Echo – Allen Toussaint and Elvis Costello collaborated on this one, from the album The River in Reverse.

* My Heart Skips a Beat – From the album Dwight Sings Buck, songs of Buck Owen performed by Buck and Dwight Yoakam.

* Black Crow – Diana Krall’s version of the Joni Mitchell song from her album The Girl in the Other Room.

You can get some of these at iTunes through the iTunes Mix I made. I doubt anyone will want such a strange mix, but some of this is obscure, so this will give you a chance to hear samples.

And just for good measure, you don’t get more genre defying than this. Diana Krall, Elvis Costello and Willie Nelson performing together the song that Willie Nelson composed and Patsy Cline made famous.