longarmslocker 12:46 am on July 29, 2016
Tags: Concert ( 7 ), Garbsge, National ( 2 ), RVA ( 12 ), Shirley

Garbage @ The National 07.25.16

Garbage is back! Shirley Manson is back!

Thank goodness!

Monday night saw Garbage’s ‘Strange Little Birds’ world tour make a stop at The National, and the evening proved to be a revelation. After taking a six year hiatus, the band returned to the recording studio in 2012 with ‘Not Your Kind of People.’ Now, four years later, the band has produced what many consider to be their strongest record since their debut album twenty years ago.

Lead vocalist Shirley Manson is a tour de force on stage, equal to any male lead singer in stage presence, talent and charisma. She showed the ability to be all at once sexy, sincere and, most importantly SUPER BADASS on stage! Yes there are three other members in the band (Duke Erikson, Steve Marker and Butch Vig, though he’s not touring due to illness, replaced by Eric Gardner), but there’s a reason that the spotlights follow Shirley and the other members are predominantly in silhouette; from the opening number, it’s impossible not to watch her.

She’s the epitome of confidence, self-assuredness and ‘Grrrrrrl Power’, which makes it that much harder to believe a decade ago, Manson considered herself ‘finished’ as a performer because, in her words, she ‘wasn’t young or pretty enough’ anymore. Her fans are so glad she was convinced otherwise.

Some notes:

• The set was a nice balanced representation of their career, beginning with two songs from their debut and one from ‘2.0’, but the last two records were strongly represented as well, proving that Garbage is not simply a 90’s nostalgia act.

• This show saw the tour premiere of ‘Beloved Freak’ and a dedication to the LGBT Community before launching into a ferocious version of ‘Sex Is Not The Enemy.’ Both songs are very appropriate for the times, given the current political climate.

• The debut single from ‘Strange Little Birds’, ‘Empty’, is a track that stands up well next to any other song in their catalog, and had a hyper energy to it in the live setting.

• I would have loved to see drummer Butch Vig play live, but Eric Gardner filled in admirably. I really hope Butch is able to tour with the band in the near future and his health issues are but a memory soon.

The setlist (from setlist.fm):

Supervixen

I Think I’m Paranoid

Stupid Girl

Automatic Systematic Habit

Blood for Poppies

The Trick Is to Keep Breathing

My Lover’s Box

Sex Is Not the Enemy

Special

Beloved Freak

Even Though Our Love Is Doomed

Why Do You Love Me

Control

Blackout

Bleed Like Me

Push It

Vow

Only Happy When It Rains

Cherry Lips (Go Baby Go!)

Encore:

Sometimes

Empty

#1 Crush

Anything else I write will not convey how great this show was. I’m not one to take pictures at a concert because I don’t like to see a show through a viewfinder or a phone screen. On this night however, I took several hundred pictures with my phone. So, as words now elude me, here are some pictures.

Girls with guitars ROCK!!

If Garbage stop in your town, go see them. They are proof that rock is not dead.

Thanks for reading,

Barry

longarmslocker 7:00 pm on July 25, 2016

Close Encounters with Graham Nash (07.21.16 @ The Birchmere)

Graham Nash is not someone I had ever planned to see in concert. I knew he was touring behind a new solo album (“This Path Tonight”) but that was it; I never bothered to check for a show nearby. Last month Dana and I were at The Birchmere to see Al Stewart, and that’s where Dana found out that Nash was coming to The Birchmere on July 21. She insisted we go, and even though I knew very little of Nash’s work outside of his nearly fifty year collaboration with Crosby and Stills, I agreed, mainly because I’m always up for a show.

The evening was all about Dana; she was the Superfan for this show, so whatever she wanted, she got. We arrived just as the doors were opening and then waited indoors for the General Admission seating to begin. On both previous trips to this venue, I’ve asked to be seated before the doors open, so as to avoid a mad rush. Since Dana was insistent on sitting “close”, and even though I was probably the youngest person in the building, I was more than happy to make the same request again.

Only I didn’t have to.

As the clock neared six, one of The Birchmere staff (Walter) came up beside Dana, pointed at me and told her “I’m taking him back [to the seating area] now, so follow me!” Suddenly I was being whisked to the back entrance, following two female VIPs, and taken to the main stage entrance.

Normally when we attended shows at The Birchmere, Dana and I would sit in a booth in the second section of seats, about halfway between the stage and the back of the seating area. On this night, however, as we entered, I told Dana to “lead the way,” and she walked past our normal booth, and kept walking…closer and closer to the stage. She finally stopped when she arrived at a table at center stage and claimed the very first chair as her own. It was literally less than three feet from the front of the stage.

I was still standing by our usual booth and saw where she was.

“You really wanna sit that close?”

“Told ya I was gonna get close!”

One of the two female VIPs we came in with heard Dana, then looked at me and said “I guess that’s where you’re sitting tonight.”

“Wow. I never got this close, even for bands I managed!”

Soon after we sat down, we were joined by three fans from Maryland: Vince, Leslie and Roz. We had a great time getting to know them over dinner (Another plus for The Birchmere: if you are there early like we were, you have enough time for a meal and dessert before the show begins.).
As showtime neared, Dana got anxious and nervous, and left the table twice to “collect herself.”
How close were we? Dana was able to read the set list resting on the floor in front of Graham’s accompanying guitarist Shane Fontayne’s microphone.

How close were we? Even when the house lights went down and the stage lights took effect, our seats were so close that Dana and I were bathed in light from the followspot (or spotlight). That marked a first for me.

Graham walked onstage just after 7:30 and joked “Wasn’t I just here ten minutes ago?” Nash and Fontayne opened with “Military Madness” from his 1971 album “Songs for Beginners”, and followed with a set that included new songs from his latest effort, as well as pop classics he performed with The Hollies.

Nash didn’t talk much between songs except for the occasional intro. The exception to this was a wonderfully hilarious explanation of the inspiration for the song “Cathedral”, which involved a Rolls Royce, an acid trip and a graveyard. It was moments like this that made the show so enjoyable for me, as someone not terribly familiar with his work, but someone who appreciates a good lyric and a great story.

If you just simply read the lyric to Nash’s best known composition, “Our House”, you might think it’s not that great:
‘Our house is a very very very fine house

With two cats in the yard

Life used to be so hard…’

But, the reason the song became a hit is both because of the melody and the absolute sincerity in Nash’s vocal delivery. Say what you will about him (and lots has been said), the man means what he says and he believes it.

Watching Dana watch the show was a lesson in fandom. As she admitted after the show, she ‘cried through the whole thing.’ (Direct quote). I was not aware that Graham Nash was able to induce that type of reaction, but it was fun to witness.

Vince, Leslie and Roz are all members of the Bowie-Crofton (Md) Camera Club, (www.B-CCC.org) so Roz and Vince had “real” cameras and took some amazing pictures. Also, at show’s end, Roz managed to snag the two page set list on stage in front of Shsne’s microphone.

Graham Nash is still a singer and writer with something to say. He’s still a protest singer in the classic 1960s model, and these times need the voice of the protest singer, now more than ever.

Thank you Dana for taking me to a show I would’ve missed out on had you not insisted on going. And thank you for the closest seats I’ll ever have for any show, ever. It was a fantastic experience.
Thanks for reading

Barry
(Photos by the author, taken on his phone, not by a member of the B-CCC)

longarmslocker 10:30 pm on July 15, 2016
Tags: Apple, iPod, iPod Jail

The Sound of Silence — My Broken iPod

No lie, every year for me, the longest week on the calendar is Major League Baseball’s All Star Game week, where no regular season games are played from Monday through Thursday. I survive without baseball in the offseason because I have to, but to yank it away for almost a full week in the heart of summer to play an exhibition game makes for a long week. This year though, this week has been one of the longest ever.

If you know me at all, you know that one of the few things I love/need more than baseball is music. Since 2005, I have primarily used a digital music player to listen, selling almost all of my CDs and vinyl to convert to the digital age. In 2005, I bought a Nomad Zen Xtra Jukebox after my dear friend’s then-current boyfriend brought his to a party. I was fascinated by it and ordered one from Amazon the very next day. I loved it. It was built like a brick, withstood drops (which didn’t happen often) and was reliable and stable. At about 30GB of memory, it took a while to fill up, and I was careful not to repeat songs on the player; if I owned a record by a group and then bought a Greatest Hits collection, any songs from that record that were on the Greatest Hits collection did not get transferred a second time onto the player’s hard drive. Eventually though, in the spring of 2008, the player became so full that it would skip during playback on almost any song. I had pushed it to its limits and I knew I needed something else; a digital music player that had at least three times the capacity of my little Zen Xtra Jukebox.

At first I intentionally tried to avoid purchasing an iPod. Keep in mind, I worked on PCs, had a PC at home, and was a newly Certified Microsoft Technician; seemingly everything in my life was Anti-Apple. But as I did research and asked friends what they recommended, the answer was unanimous: ‘Get an iPod!’

So in July 2008, I bought a 160GB iPod. And thus began my love/hate relationship with Apple and, most importantly, iTunes.
From day one, my iPod was with me, in my pocket; as necessary as my wallet, phone and house keys. I babied it, making sure not to scratch the screen or scuff the case. I think I only dropped it a handful of times, and it never got dropped outside, so carpet was usually the worst surface it hit at high impact. Going from 30GB to 160GB was quite a jump, and I remember spending most of the summer of 2008 in front of my PC, converting my CDs to digital files for iTunes.

In 2010 though, I had my first issue with iTunes. I woke up one day, got ready to sync my iPod before going to work, and my entire iTunes library was gone! Deleted! Erased!! I had to head out the door to go to work, but I was distracted all day, wondering how it happened and how it could be corrected.

The way iTunes works is as follows: iTunes is the master and, when a device is synced to iTunes, whatever is in that iTunes library will be synced to the device, so if your device has more songs than the iTunes library (which was absolutely the case after my iTunes was mysteriously wiped out) the songs on the device will be lost. Had I synced my iPod without noticing that I had zero songs in the iTunes library, my iPod would have been erased as well. Thankfully, I still had my entire library on my iPod. I’ve had a few issues with iTunes through the years, but the iPod device has always been stable and withstood the heavy use I put it through. I eventually repopulated my entire iTunes library by using a great program, ‘iPod to PC’ which takes what is on your device and copies it to iTunes. I have needed to use that program quite a few times to overcome iTunes issues that caused loss of data.

Remember, this is an iPod with the ‘click wheel’ or disc. The Play/Pause button is at the bottom of the wheel and, about a year ago, the Play/Pause button started to fail to respond intermittently. It was bothersome, but after a few clicks, the button would engage and I would go on with things as usual. That was the biggest issue, having to sometimes use a remote to pause the iPod when it was connected to my portable speakers.

Until this week.

Tuesday morning, as I went to connect the iPod to the portable speakers, it was completely dark. Hitting the MENU or SELECT buttons would usually bring it back to life, but it remained dark. I plugged in the speakers and put the iPod in its slot so that it had a power charge. Then the screen lit up and I could see the ‘LOCK’ icon was lit, even though the actual lock button was in the unlocked position, and I have never used the lock feature. I knew instantly that the device was now permanently locked, and no matter how many times I toggled the lock button or attempted to do a ‘hard reset,’ the iPod was not going to respond. I knew this, but even so I kept trying all day at work, hoping letting the battery run down would release the lock (it didn’t).

The iPod: Lit up, but dead inside

So, for someone that listens to music via my iPod for a minimum of six or seven hours a day, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday were very long days. I intentionally removed 90% of music from my phone, mainly because I didn’t want to use iPhone space for things that were already on the iPod. So, earlier this week, going from having 16,500+ songs to about 40 was quite a drop!

Thursday I did some research and discovered that Spotify has an ‘Offline Mode’ where you can listen to music without using data. At work, I don’t have Wi-Fi so Pandora was out as an option. I found out (thankfully) I did not have to listen to music in real time in order to add them to my Offline Library. I had to sign up for a premium membership (which has a free trial) and then I could just pick out albums and click a button to download it to my phone.

I’ve been out of sorts all week, first with no baseball and now no iPod. Spotify is helping a lot, and made Friday at work go by faster than the other days of this week had. I’m still debating what to do next; get my iPod repaired or buy a used iPod Classic on eBay. This weekend I will do a “Factory Restore” which erases all data on the iPod, and then re-sync my library back to the iPod, assuming a Factory Restore removes the LOCK mode. If it doesn’t, then my decision is made, and if it does remove the lock, it will take a minimum of 30 hours to transfer all of the data from iTunes back to the iPod.

What infuriates me about Apple in this instance is that they no longer make any iPod with a hard drive bigger than 64GB. So, since my iPod has 132GB of data, I would need to buy two iPods in order to have all of my music/videos available, and that would leave no room for growth, which is what makes the 160GB iPod so perfect; it holds everything I have and it still has a considerable amount of space left for new music to be added.

I resisted the ‘Culture of Apple’ for a long time, but after the iPod purchase in 2008, I got an iPad in 2010 and finally an iPhone in 2013. Now I am all in, just as the company moves away from devices to the iCloud (and don’t even get me started on the nightmare that is Apple Music and iTunes Match). I feel like I am the owner of a broken down 1968 Mustang. It was a classic at one time, but it doesn’t run and, while I’ve been using the Mustang, the world has moved on to smaller, more fuel efficient cars. My iPod Classic is not only a classic, it’s an antique, and this week, it’s an antique that only functions as a paperweight.

As I say daily at work, ‘Technology is great when it works.’ When it doesn’t work, it really sucks. And it leaves its owner out of sorts.

Thank you for reading.

longarmslocker 8:37 pm on June 28, 2016

Fun in the Sun with The Cure

Last week I was lucky enough to see two shows by The Cure on their current summer tour. Here are my thoughts on both shows:

Show #1: Merriweather Post Pavilion; Columbia, MD 06.22.16

“I’ve waited hours for this…”

My friend Sean, his high school friend Shannon and I had lawn tickets for this show, which meant arriving before the gates opened. We showed up about an hour before the gates were scheduled to open and stood in a very long line. My first thought on walking the grounds was that I did not recall MWPP being so hilly with so many steep inclines. As soon as the gates opened and we made our way inside, Sean and Shannon shot past me to go claim a spot on the lawn, and they did a fantastic job staking out our space; in the very front, parallel to the sidewalk, in view of the huge screen on the back of the pavilion, and, where I would stand was primarily flat. I don’t do lawn seats often, but I didn’t mind this setup at all.

The second thought I had as I walked the concourse and waited in line to buy a t-shirt was that there were so many kids in attendance of all ages. Did I miss something? I haven’t seen The Cure live in concert since 2008, but since then, have Robert Smith and Company become a ‘Family Entertainment Ticket’?

The Cure have been around since 1979, and they have gone through many lineup changes and styles; some fans prefer the pop of ‘Close To Me’ and ‘Friday I’m In Love’ while others, including your dear author prefer the minimalist sounds of ‘One Hundred Years’ and ‘Faith,’ so it is impossible to please everyone at a Cure show; they are going to play a song you wish they had skipped, and they won’t play all the ones you wanna hear, but I can promise even the most casual of fans that they will play something you like and at least one song you know.

After a 30 minute set by openers The Twilight Sad, and a break to get the stage ready for the headliners, the show began with the pre-recorded intro ‘Tape’ which was first used on the 1992 Wish Tour. The band members ambled onstage and Robert played guitar harmonics along with the recording and then led into ‘Open’, which opened the Wish album (and for good measure is always played in tandem with ‘Tape.’). The album that got the most songs played on this night was ‘Head on the Door’, which is appropriate. There are a lot of albums released by The Cure that remind listeners of cold unforgiving winters, but ‘Head on the Door’ is one of those great records that evokes summertime and happiness (or at least, a Goth’s version of happiness).

There were plenty of surprises, but the biggest surprise of this show came about forty-five minutes in, just as the sun had finished setting, when the band began the long atmospheric intro to ‘If Only Tonight We Could Sleep’ from the ‘Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me’ album. That was a concert moment I did not expect and one that did not disappoint.

The band now has been together in this lineup since 2012, and they are a well-oiled touring machine. Robert still is Master of Ceremonies, standing in front of the mic, and not really moving around all that much. Keyboardist Roger O’Donnell and lead guitarist Reeves Gabrels are anchored stage right and left respectively, and drummer Jason Cooper is behind the kit. That leaves the ageless wonder that is bassist Simon Gallup as the only member who moves around on stage, and he’s a non-stop display of kinetic energy ping ponging close to Robert during solos, then moving toward Roger’s area and even a few times standing behind Reeves. I remember watching the concert film ‘Show’ which is from 1992, and loved how energetic Simon seemed onstage. I was thrilled to see 24 years later, he’s still the one who can’t stand still.

Seeing the show from the lawn meant that we could not really see the stage, but I didn’t mind. The screen above us had a good stage-wide shot, and, it’s not like the band is all that visually striking. The audio mix was fantastic for an outdoor venue, so I didn’t lose any lyrics being out on the lawn. Being on the lawn also meant a lot of people watching as fans crossed in front of me en route to the concession stands, the bathrooms or their patch of lawn. Lots of people dressed in all black for an outdoor show where the high was 93 degrees. Yes I myself considering wearing a classic Cure Tour shirt from 2008, but it was black and I knew I would sweat through it before the show even started. Something seems wrong seeing this band in particular at an outdoor venue, but despite the heat, they played non-stop for about two hours and forty-five minutes. They played the hits, a fair amount of deep cuts and B-sides that played well to an outdoor crowd that really wanted to dance. One of my favorite moments was when the band began ‘Just Like Heaven’, the single that made them MTV darlings in 1987. As the guitar intro segued into the opening line, I looked back behind me to the lawn, swarming with people, and reveled in hearing thousands of jubilant voices sing “Show me, show me, show me/How you do that trick!” It was one of those moments that could only be fully appreciated from the lawn, because it proved that, even though we couldn’t really see what was going on onstage, we were still part of the show.
The set list (from setlist.fm):
Tape
Open
High
Pictures of You
Closedown
Kyoto Song
A Night Like This
The Walk
The End of the World
Lovesong
If Only Tonight We Could Sleep
All I Want
Push
In Between Days
Just Like Heaven
Bananafishbones
Never Enough
From the Edge of the Deep Green Sea
End
Encore:
Sinking
It Can Never Be the Same
Encore 2:
Shake Dog Shake
Burn
A Forest
Encore 3:
Dressing Up
Lullaby
Fascination Street
Wrong Number
Encore 4:
Hot Hot Hot!!!
Let’s Go to Bed
Close to Me
Why Can’t I Be You?
Boys Don’t Cry

Some thoughts on specific songs:
I’ve never been a fan of ‘The Walk’ but it must be one of Robert’s faves, because it’s being played at almost every stop. Even though it’s not one of my favorites, seeing Jason do the drum fills was fun, and, as usual Simon was all over the stage for this one.

While the encores change nightly, the last three songs are pretty much set in stone. The trifecta of ‘Close To Me’, ‘Why Can’t I Be You’ and ‘Boys Don’t Cry’ ensures that fans leave the show happy and singing as they head to the parking lot.

Thanks again to Sean for driving and for getting tickets, and it was a pleasure to meet Shannon and see this show with her.

And then on Friday, there was…
Show #2: Lakewood Amphitheatre; Atlanta, GA 06.24.16

“Hot! Hot! Hot!’ [Indeed!]
Whoever thought it was a good idea to book The Cure on a tour of outdoor venues that landed in the Southern US in late June should be fired! Don’t get me wrong, no matter the venue (and, as venues go, Lakewood is my least favorite) the circumstances, The Cure deliver. This show though might have pushed the band to their limit, as the temperatures were in the high 90s at showtime and only went down slightly (it was 85 degrees as I made my way to the parking lot at the end of the show, according to my phone’s weather app). How hot was it? As Robert prepared to play ‘A Night Like This’ he stated ‘It’s [explicative] hot!!” I am almost certain the word he said was ‘f***ing’ but my friend Mimi heard ‘bloody’. Either way, it was a truly unscripted moment.

When I saw The Cure for the first time in 1992, they opened with ‘Tape’/’Open’/’High’ so the show in Maryland was a nice flashback. When I saw the band a second time in 2008, they opened with ‘Plainsong’, which was what began the festivsties on this night in Georgia. I was really hoping that opening with that song meant that the show would feature a few songs from 1989’s ‘Disintegration’ album, and I was not disappointed. Without further ado, here is the set list for the Atlanta show. Nothing from ‘Pornography’ but an epic NINE songs from ‘Disintegration’!

Plainsong
Pictures of You
Closedown
High
A Night Like This
Push
In Between Days
Last Dance
The End of the World
Lovesong
Just Like Heaven
Jupiter Crash
From the Edge of the Deep Green Sea
Want
The Hungry Ghost
Prayers for Rain
Disintegration
Encore:
Shake Dog Shake
Burn
A Forest
Encore 2:
Lullaby
Fascination Street
Wrong Number
Encore 3:
The Walk
Doing the Unstuck
Friday I’m in Love
Encore 4:
The Perfect Girl
Hot Hot Hot!!!
Close to Me
Why Can’t I Be You?
Boys Don’t Cry

Even though I may have very well seen the only two shows on the entire US tour that did not feature either a song from ‘Pornography’ or ‘Faith’, the fact that ‘Disintegration’ was so well represented made Atlanta a special show. (As an aside, the very next show Sunday in Miami featured an encore that was simply four songs from ‘Pornography’! GAH!!! Maybe I’ll see something like that next time.)

Some thoughts on specific songs:

It’s great that ‘Burn’ a track released on the soundtrack to ‘The Crow’ is being played regularly. Smith has called it ‘Son of ‘Hanging Garden’’ so that was as close as I got to hearing a track from ‘Pornography’. Hearing it live, it really does fit well amongst the more upbeat numbers in the set and is placed wonderfully, right before ‘A Forest’.

‘Wrong Number’ must be one of Robert’s personal favorites. It was a bonus track stuck on their singles compilation ‘Galore’ in 1997 and again on their 2001 ‘Greatest Hits’ disc, and yet it seems every recent tour, the song has been a staple of the set. It’s not a bad song; it just surprises me that this song is a staple when there are so many other (better) songs to choose from.

Hearing the title track to ‘Disintegration’ in concert, no matter how many times it happens for me, will always make me smile and scream in unrestrained joy. This was one of the songs where Simon’s bass was so loud I felt it vibrating in my chest. Hearing that song alone was worth my ticket; the other thirty songs were a fantastic bonus!

Also of note, the band played two songs from the album ‘Wild Mood Swings’, a record that had been underrepresented thus far on tour (Jupiter Crash and Want). Those are both favorites of mine and it was great to hear them live, especially ‘Want’.

Robert recently turned 57 years old, and yet his voice still sounds very much like it did 30 years ago. He may not hit the high notes as hard as he once did, and occasionally he may have to go down an octave from the recorded version, but his voice on both nights was strong and sure. This lineup of The Cure seems like it could go on for as long as Robert wants it to. Look for a new album at some point late this year or early in 2017, and if we are lucky, another tour before too long.

Extra special thanks to Mimi for driving five hours to Atlanta to see this show with me. It was fantastic to see this band and this show with you, despite the heat and the venue’s total lack of charm. Also thanks to my friend Tony, who introduced me to the music of The Cure twenty-five years ago, even though I wasn’t as much a fan as a captive passenger riding shotgun in his car. My love and fandom for The Cure would not have happened without you. (It’s a really funny story that my friends have heard several times but I have never written a blog post about it. I’ll get around to that at some point.)

Thanks very much for reading.

longarmslocker 11:46 pm on June 20, 2016

Al Stewart at The Birchmere (06.18.16)

I have been a fan of Al Stewart for many years, but I never really kept up with him as a touring entity. I enjoyed the albums and that was pretty much it. Last summer, a full nine months in advance, it was announced that he would play (of all places) Hopewell, VA at the Beacon Theatre. I attended that show and had a wonderful time. Soon after that show was nothing but a memory, I found out that he was playing The Birchmere. Logistically, getting to Alexandria from Richmond isn’t as simple as Hopewell, but thanks to my friend Dana, we were able to attend the show Saturday night.

In March, Stewart was accompanied by virtuoso guitarist Dave Nachmanoff, and he added another dimension with his performance. Dave is on the road promoting his own record (“Spinoza’s Dream”) so for the most recent leg of this tour, including the Birchmere show, Al was accompanied by Marc Macisso.

Was this show as good as the show in March? No. Macisso is a great musician, and plays a whole lot of instruments (Flute, harmonica, bongos and saxophone), but he doesn’t play guitar. Stewart is a fantastic songwriter and lyricist, and he is a serviceable rhythm player, but he is not a lead guitarist. As good as Macisso was as an accompanist, the absence of a lead guitar was felt, and, even though it wasn’t mentioned, it seriously limited the songs from the catalog that could be performed acoustically. Having said that, the evening did have some nice surprises:

*Al played a short ditty called ‘The Candidate’, written in 1984, about those that run for the office of President who never have any chance of winning. I was hoping this would segue into his classic ‘Warren Harding’ but it did not. He did play it later in the set though.

*With Marc accompanying him, this meant that I got to hear ‘Time Passages’ and ‘Year of the Cat’ complete with sax solo! Now, granted, the production on those two songs is great, but it sounds so ‘of its time’ that the sax sometimes gets in the way. But, I was very happy to hear the solo performed on sax instead of on guitar. And, since the solo is in a different rhythm than the rest of the song, for both ‘Passages’ and ‘Cat’ before the solo started, Marc had the crowd clap on the offbeat so he could keep time with Al’s guitar, because, with no drummer counting, it would be very easy to get completely lost and never make it back to the chorus. I’m not sure how many in attendance realized why Marc was so insistent they clap along, but it made for two very cool moments.

*One of the additions to the set list since I last saw him was the song ‘Gina in the King’s Road’ from the 2009 album ‘A Beach Full of Shells.’ A lot of Al’s later (i.e. non-70s) material doesn’t get showcased live, so it was a nice surprise to hear this song from an overlooked record.

*At the start of the encore, Al talked about the current lawsuit involving ‘Stairway To Heaven’ and played a number of songs all with the same chord progression to demonstrate how many songs sound similar but different enough to be their own original compositions. Earlier in the set, Al talked about how he ‘wanted to be Roger Daltry’ when he was a kid, but knew immediately that he would never sing like that. His dreams of being a musician were rekindled when he heard Dylan for the first time and said ‘Hell, I can sing like that!’ He even sang a verse of ‘Subterranean Homesick Blues’ and quoted ‘Ballad of a Thin Man.’ As a fan of both artists, it was a brief collision of two worlds.

*The best story of the night was about one of the few songs in Stewart’s catalog that everyone knows. While on tour in 1975 opening for Linda Ronstadt , Al’s piano player would test the sound levels during soubdchrck every night by playing the same melody, and after several nights in a row of hearing that melody, Al went to his piano player and said “I’ve written some lyrics to that melody and I’d like to record it. ”

“No it’s an instrumental.”

After asking his pianist several times, Al eventually received the go ahead to record the song with his lyrics, after assuring the piano player he could record his instrumental version. Sl’s version of course became the smash “Year of the Cat.” (No one knows if the instrumental version was ever recorded.)

*Lastly, Al told the story of meeting Leonard Cohen in 1966 and showing him lyrics to a song he had just written (‘In Brooklyn’). Cohen complimented him; a moment that Stewart says is still the highlight of his career as a songwriter.

Special thanks to Dana for seeing this show with me, and to The Birchmere for being one of the best live music venues around. I love the Birchmere so much that I am able to look past the hyper young kid who kept bouncing on the booth seat next to us for the entire show, and I am willing to forgive the (very) talkative fan who sat at our table and talked for an hour straight before the house lights finally dimmed.

Setlist:
House of Clocks
Antarctica
Flying Sorcery
Broadway Hotel
On the Border
Night Train to Munich
The Candidate
Time Passages
Warren Harding
Fever (Marc Macisso Solo)
Route 66 (Marc Macisso Solo)
Pinball Wizard (riff)/Subterranean Homesick Blues (snippet)
Gina in the King’s Road
Year of the Cat
(Encore)
Stairway to Heaven/Teenager in Love/Stay (snippets)
In Brooklyn

longarmslocker 5:20 pm on June 17, 2016

The Violent Femmes Are Still Calling All the Freaks — Live at The National 06.15.16

Bands are like a marriage; there are milestones, celebrations, fights, and sometimes (more often than not actually) the whole thing ends in a nasty break-up.

Gordon Gano and Brian Ritchie have a complicated relationship. As the two primary members of The Violent Femmes, they’ve worked together for over thirty years, although the last ten years have been tumultuous. The band members have sued and counter-sued one another over royalties and credits due over the entire span of the group, so when I heard they were touring and making a stop in Richmond at The National, I was curious; would the show be a train wreck?

In an amazing twist, this is without question the most profitable the band has ever been as a touring entity, and proof of this was offered by a raucous sold out crowd of jubilant fans who pogoed, moshed, bobbed and sang along, happily revisiting songs that were staples of their youth (which, at least in the case of your author, was a very long time ago).

There was at least one song that everyone in attendance knew, the song that ‘broke’ the band in 1983, and eventually, to many fans’ dismay, ended up in a Wendy’s commercial decades later. ‘Blister in the Sun’ by most accounts is the hit that you would think the band would save for the end of the show, or at least for later in the evening, but the Femmes, perhaps just to ‘get it out of the way and over with’ opened with their most popular tune. After that, the set leaned heavily on the band’s classic eponymous debut album (which should be part of your record collection if it isn’t already), but they also proved they are not just a nostalgia act by featuring two songs from their latest record (called “We Can Do Anything”) which was released earlier this year.

As I listened to their music earlier in the week, I began to wonder if the song ‘Add it Up’ would be omitted from the set, or have a verse censored due to the massacre in Orlando. Listening on my iPod, when I heard the lines ‘Don’t shoot shoot shoot that gun at me’ I cringed, and I thought if the song was featured in the set at all, it would be censored. Much to my surprise the song, which served as the final encore of the evening, was played in its full uncensored loud obnoxious angst-driven glory, and it was wonderful.

I’ll give Gano and Ritchie credit. They may not be speaking to one another, and they barely acknowledged each other on stage, but when they hit the stage, they were able to put all of that aside and give the fans what they wanted. It was a joy to travel back to a time when the most pressing thing in your life was your math homework and figuring out how you were going to work up the nerve to talk to the prettiest girl in school. The Violent Femmes’ music is timeless, because each generation brings a new crop of nervous, nerdy, awkward teenagers trying to find their footing and The Femmes are able to provide the perfect soundtrack for that awkward stage that we never think will end. Mercifully it does end, but if you’re lucky, your fandom for The Violent Femmes will carry on into your adulthood.

Shout out to my brother Brian and his wife Mary. It was a pleasure seeing this show with you.

Setlist:
Blister in the Sun
Kiss Off
Good For/At Nothing
Love Love Love Love Love
Prove My Love
Promise
Country Death Song
I Could Be Anything
Issues
Old Mother Reagan
Freak Magnet
Gimmie The Car
Hallowed Ground
Gone Daddy Gone
I Held Her in My Arms
Good Feeling
Life Is an Adventure
Jesus Walking on the Water
American Music
Black Girls
Encore:
Memory
Add It Up

–Barry, who doesn’t really care what went down on his permanent record.

longarmslocker 7:51 pm on June 9, 2016

Dolly Delivers – Live At Wolf Trap 06.08.16

Dolly Parton brought her ‘Pure and Simple’ tour to Wolf Trap Wednesday night, and played to a packed house, presenting a career-spanning set that covered the hits, some of her personal favorite gospel songs from her childhood, some new songs from an album that will arrive later this summer, and stories…lots and lots of stories.

“Thank you for spending your hard earned money to see me, because you have no idea how much it costs to make me look this cheap!”

Dolly’s shows are more ‘family reunion’ than performance, with Dolly onstage, unassuming, flashing that smile and laughing, regaling you with stories from her nearly fifty-years in showbiz.
As I watched and listened, I was immediately struck with how her voice sounded; now seventy (!) years of age, her voice sounds stronger and better than it did at the height of her popularity in the late 1970’s/early 80’s.

This tour was absent any huge production pieces, apart from a raised bench seat on wheels that she used for a portion of the show. The main focus was on the songs and the stories, and even though I had heard it said before, Dolly does talk on stage as if she’s in her living room having you over for lunch, as breezy as could be.

The venue did an excellent job taking into account the outdoor elements when mixing the sound, and even though I was surrounded by fans (and the occasional mosquito) on the lawn, the sound carried very well all the way to the back of the venue, making sure no one was left out of the fun.
Dolly joked about her wigs as her ‘hair’ repeatedly got caught in the headset vocal mic she used. ‘Don’t worry; it doesn’t hurt when I pull it!’ She talked about growing up in the Smokey Mountains as part of a family of twelve kids and mentioned that she and her husband Carl recently celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary by getting married again (’We can’t remember why we did it the first time, so we got married again!’)

It goes unnoticed by many how great a songwriter Dolly is. I mean, she’s made a living out of her ‘look’ (and she looked amazing) but, beyond that, the songs she has written have stood the test of time and been recorded by not only other country singers, but across all genres, most notably Whitney Houston’s record shattering rendition of ‘I Will Always Love You.” Last night, as she performed hit after hit, she proved, without actually mentioning it directly, that she’s a superb lyricist and writer. Also she displayed her talent for playing many instruments, including guitar, banjo, fiddle, piano, dulcimer and, the one that surprised me the most, the saxophone!

As I made my way among the throngs of fans, back to the car and back to reality, one thing was clear: We are now all in love with Dolly Parton. Even from seemingly miles away on the lawn, she will capture your heart.

Thanks to my friend (and big-time Dolly fan) Meg for bringing this show to my attention. It was a joy to see this show with you!

Set list (from setlist.fm):
First Set

Intro: Hello Dolly
Train, Train
Pure & Simple
Why’d You Come in Here Lookin’ Like That
Jolene
Precious Memories
My Tennessee Mountain Home
Coat of Many Colors
Smoky Mountain Memories
Applejack
Rocky Top/Yakety Sax
Banks of the Ohio
“A Slice of American Pie” Medley: American Pie / If I Had a Hammer / Blowin’ in the Wind / Dust in the Wind / The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down
The Seeker
I’ll Fly Away

Second Set

Baby, I’m Burnin’
Outside Your Door
The Grass Is Blue
Those Memories of You
Do I Ever Cross Your Mind
Little Sparrow
Two Doors Down
Here You Come Again
Islands in the Stream
9 to 5

Encore:
I Will Always Love You
Encore 2:
Hello God

longarmslocker 10:55 pm on June 7, 2016

A Nice Place To Visit…

It’s Summer Concert Season, and this month I am seeing some great shows, starting tomorrow:

June 8 – Dolly Parton at Wolf Trap
June 15 – Violent Femmes at The National
June 18 – Al Stewart at The Birchmere
June 22 – The Cure at Merriweather (Maryland)
June 24 – The Cure in Atlanta

That list doesn’t even include shows later this summer (I’ll get to those in another post); the reason for this entry? As noted above, I’m returning to Atlanta…and I’m kinda freaking out about it.

I haven’t even really thought about Atlanta (except following the Braves) since I left the city on a very cold February morning in 2013, crammed into the backseat of a car that contained almost everything I owned. I had lived in Atlanta for the previous six months, and had developed a love/hate (mostly hate) relationship with the city I truly believed would be my home.

It didn’t work out that way, and I am very glad that a) I tried to make it work and b) I wasn’t stubborn enough to stay there while my health and mental state got worse. When I left Atlanta, I was in the absolute darkest place mentally. I had no desire to return to Atlanta, and even stopped watching Atlanta Braves baseball for the 2013 season because it brought up a lot of wounds that had not yet healed.

Now, three-plus years since my exit, I think I am ready to walk the streets of the ATL again without getting physically ill, or heading into an emotional tailspin.

I’m glad it’s just for a few days, and I am thrilled that I’ll be seeing some friends. In fact, before the Cure show was announced, my friend Mimi (Here’s the story of the first time we met in Atlanta) and I had talked about touring/stalking the outdoor sets of ‘The Walking Dead’ so, once the Cure show was announced, that was the catalyst to set all of this in motion. My main objective, apart from catching up with some dear friends, stalking TWD and seeing The Cure, is to stay busy. I’m not even sure I will take the transit system (MARTA) because, one of the last times I was in a MARTA station is when I had a major emotional breakdown, to the point where I do not recall the walk home from the station to my apartment.

Ironically, the Braves won’t even be in town the weekend I visit. I had hoped to see them play on the Thursday before the Cure show, but the start time was moved from a night game to an afternoon game, and my plane won’t land in the city until an hour after scheduled first pitch. That’s okay, and it’s probably for the best. The team is horrid this year, and I think visiting The Ted (Turner Field) will be akin to a wake, as the team and the city play out the string of games in 2016, literally counting down to Opening Day April 2017, when the Braves leave Downtown Atlanta for a shiny new park in the suburbs.

Like I said, I want to stay busy while I am there, because I know myself well enough to know that if I am alone in my hotel room, mindlessly flipping channels, it will remind me too much of how things ended the last time I was in Atlanta.

Lots of things have changed in the 40 months since I was last there, and I think I will be fine and I’ll have a fabulous time. Atlanta and I still have a strange relationship, though. You know the old adage, ‘Nice place to visit, but I wouldn’t want to live there’? Well, I already know I don’t want to live in Atlanta. I just hope, after ‘breaking up’ with the city and doubting I’d ever be back, that after this visit, Atlanta for me is once again a nice place to visit.

longarmslocker 5:06 am on April 22, 2016

Prince and The Babysitter

I think the first time I became aware of Prince was either hearing the song ‘Delirious’ on the radio, or seeing the video for ‘Little Red Corvette’ on MTV in early 1983. I liked the songs I heard on the radio, but I didn’t think much of them at the time. You have to understand, I became a KISS fan in 1977, when I was all of four years of age, and so for the next several years, while I did enjoy other bands (most notably The Beatles and Michael Jackson), my interests in music centered almost exclusively around KISS, so Prince was just a guy I heard on the radio. He wrote catchy pop tunes, but I had no urge to delve any deeper or explore any of his records.

Then something happened.

Beginning in 1983, my parents began to throw parties for our friends and neighbors. The parties took place in the basement of our house and they were strictly off limits for my brother Brian and I. Usually, since Brian and I would be banished to the upstairs, we were allowed to have friends stay over. We had an Atari, so friends would bring over their games and we would have a pretty good time, all while we could hear thumping bass from the basement (which is when I truly began to hone my talent to name songs based solely on bass and drum parts). Since the ‘kids’ were going to have their own mini-party upstairs, my parents decided we couldn’t be left to our own devices. We needed a babysitter.

That’s when I met Michelle. She was probably no more than four years older than me (she wasn’t old enough to drive yet) and I’m not sure how she was chosen as our babysitter, because I’m not kidding when I say I was more responsible than she was.

She was a party girl, and she was a Prince fan.

It was October 1983. It was a Friday night; I remember that because Friday Night Videos premiered KISS’ ‘Lick It Up’ video. Michelle came armed with a wicked sense of humor, the ability to not be condescending to me or any of her other ‘charges,’ and she brought a bag full of cassette tapes. I remember she had “Rant & Rave with the Stray Cats”; “Too Low For Zero” by Elton John, and “1999” by Prince + The Revolution.

On occasions when the basement was off limits, I’d always retreat to my bedroom and listen to records. After being by myself for a while, while the others watched TV and played video games in the master bedroom, Michelle popped her head in the door.

“Hey! Turn off whatever that is you’re listening to” (It was KISS, of course, the “Creatures of the Night” album) “and put this on. You should listen to this.”

She handed me her cassette of the”1999″ album.

“Have you heard of Prince?”

“I’ve heard the songs on the radio but I don’t have any of his records.”

“You’re gonna love this.”

With that she promptly turned off the record player and popped the tape into the cassette deck.

And we listened.

It was the first time I ever put together that rock music was usually about sex, even less subtle than KISS lyrics. I mean, Prince actually said “Fuck” on a record! Could you say that in a song?! At ten years old, I thought only comedians like Eddie Murphy and George Carlin were allowed to do that. It was a revelation.

Our “listening party” was interrupted somewhere around what would have been Side Three of the album (the song “Automatic”) and so, soon after that night I talked my dad into taking me to the record store where I bought “1999” on vinyl, mainly because I needed to hear the rest of Side Three and all of Side Four. And despite the homemade pre-PMRC warning label on the cover about some material being ‘unsuitable for minors,’ no one asked for my ID or quizzed my dad about the subversive contraband I had just bought.

What I liked about Michelle the most was her bluntness. She was the first person who never thought to spare my feelings. If she had an opinion about something, or an opinion about me, she gave it with no apologies, even if it meant “hurting the handicapped kid.” Like the lyrics of Prince, she was a revelation, and instead of being hurt by something she said, I savored the fact that Michelle saw me and appreciated me as someone other than “the kid with the canes,” even though I wasn’t able to articulate that sentiment at the time. All I knew or needed to know then was that she was cool.

Over the next few months, I saw Michelle sporadically; always at my house, and we invariably ended up listening to Prince each time, either in the basement or in my bedroom. She loaned me her cassettes of the albums ‘Dirty Mind’ and ‘Controversy,’ which I dubbed onto a non-descript unlabeled Memorex tape that I kept in my dresser until the mid-90s. I don’t think my parents would have confiscated the tape had they found it, but I wasn’t taking any chances. Playboy magazines weren’t allowed (though I, like every one else had a secret stash) but music was okay. What most parents never realized though (mine included) was that listening to Prince was akin to an audio version of a Playboy, with only his lyrics and the listener’s mind used to paint extremely vivid images.

Then came Purple Rain.

Prince was everywhere in the summer of 1984. I bought the album very soon after it came out, but as liberated as my parents may have been about music, there must have been something they saw or felt that made them say “Purple Rain” the film was off limits. Don’t ask to go see it because we won’t take you. I remember being upset at the time. Michelle told me one night that she would get us both in to see the film, even though she was under 17 herself. (Sadly, that never happened. I did see the film on HBO the following year, and I guess it wasn’t a big deal because nobody grounded me.)

In 1985 my parents got a divorce. I found out about it totally by accident one night (May 30…some dates you never forget) when I heard my dad on the phone say ‘When do you want to tell the kids?’ and me, being my big pre-teen self, I demanded to know what we were going to be told, and he’d better tell me now!!

That night is a demarcation line in my life, and that summer of 1985 was one where I truly lashed out at every single adult in my world. Parents, teachers, grandparents…I was mad at the lot of them and they obviously were no smarter than me, so why bother listening to anything they had to say?

I do remember a few friends asking me how I was doing ‘now that your parents are splitting’ and I don’t remember what I said in response. I tried to show a tough exterior.

The one person I ‘couldn’t pull that shit with’ [her words] was Michelle. I saw her one night in June. She was there to watch me and Brian. I don’t remember why dad was out of the house, but it was summertime, no school, ‘no curfew as long as you stay in the house’ [dad’s rule]. I had just gotten the 45 single of ‘Raspberry Beret’ (a guilt gift from my dad) and, to my surprise Michelle didn’t own it yet. My record player had a setting where it would play the same record over and over without the listener having to get up to reapply the needle, so at some point that night, I was in my basement talking with Michelle with ‘Raspberry Beret’ on repeat. I think all she asked me was ‘How are you?’ and I lost it. I sobbed uncontrollably into her shoulder, not caring one bit about how that must’ve looked to her. To her credit, she didn’t flinch or try to stop my crying. I kept my head on her shoulder for a while (at least two run-throughs of the 45 on the stereo). Eventually, maybe because she couldn’t think of what to say, she kissed me; an innocent kiss in hindsight, but nonetheless my ‘first real kiss.’

“If that was a ‘pity kiss’ because I am a crying mess, I’ll slap you!’

“It’s not pity, shut up.”

I’ve said before that music is memory. I haven’t seen Michelle in almost 30 years, but I think of her whenever I hear early Prince records, and that memory makes me smile, even on days as sad as today.

Prince is dead. Long live Prince.

“Where have all the raspberry women gone?”

–Barry

longarmslocker 7:17 pm on April 10, 2016

Holy Holy: A David Bowie Tribute [4.7.16]

“Perhaps you’re smiling now
Smiling through this darkness
But all I had to give was guilt for dreaming”

–“Time” by David Bowie, 1973
The word ‘tribute’ can be misleading. Since the shocking death of David Bowie in January, there have been a slew of local tribute shows, some even raising money for cancer research

This was different though.

When it was announced in March, “Holy Holy: A David Bowie Tribute” promised “an all-star lineup” of musicians who had worked with Bowie. The only name mentioned in the press release was Tony Visconti, which was enough to get me to buy a ticket, regardless of who would be appearing with him. I once heard Visconti speak at a conference about producing and recording music, so I was simply thrilled that I’d see him play bass.

There was a bonus though that made this not only one of the best, most apt tributes to Bowie that a fan good dream up, it was one of the best shows I’ve seen at The National…ever. The reason? On drums for the affair was none other than the legendary Mick “Woody” Woodmansey! For the uninitiated, Woody played drums on Bowie’s records from 1970-73.

The vocalist who would sing Bowie’s lyrics was Glenn Gregory from the band Heaven 17, and while he’d probably be the first to admit no one can sing like Bowie, he did an excellent job and was fun to watch move around on stage.

The show began with the album “The Man Who Sold The World” performed in its entirety. This meant the show would open with “The Width of a Circle,”a song that, when Bowie played it live appeared toward the end of the set and would be extended for as long as fifteen minutes! The band didn’t play for quite that long, but they did showcase two great guitar solos. Incidentally, all of the guitar parts that were performed by Mick Ronson in the 70s were performed on this night by not one but two guitarists.

Here is the set list for the first portion of the show:

The Width of a Circle
All the Madmen
Black Country Rock
After All
Running Gun Blues
Saviour Machine
She Shook Me Cold
The Man Who Sold The World
The Supermen

As you can see, that list doesn’t contain a single ‘hit,’ so the fans who bought a ticket expecting to hear ‘Let’s Dance’ or ‘Rebel Rebel’ may have been disappointed.

Like I said, this was a different kind of tribute.

For the second portion of the show, Visconti and company promised “Bowie’s Greatest Hits,” but really, it was my dream set list:

Five Years
Space Oddity
Moonage Daydream
Medley: Wild Eyed Boy From Freecloud/All The Young Dudes/Oh! You Pretty Things
Changes
Life on Mars?
Ziggy Stardust
Lady Stardust
Watch That Man
Rock ‘N’ Roll Suicide

(Encore)
Time
Suffragette City
Starman

I’ve now heard Woody Woodmansey play the intro to “Five Years” in person. That fact is worth the price of my ticket alone! Also “Watch That Man” had me on my feet in jubilant celebration. Most of the night in fact was a celebration; very emotional but overall an unforgettable fitting tribute to an amazing artist by friends who knew him well.

There was only one Bowie, but thankfully there are millions of fans who will ensure his legacy. Seeing Holy Holy was a great communal experience, one that helped fans like me “smile through this darkness” as we mourn and celebrate his life and music.