The 50th anniversary of Patti and Lenny working together was on February 10th, so they put on a little online show to celebrate. They played some songs, and told some stories about the old days. Tony accompanied on bass and keyboards.

"Ballad of A Bad Man" was a poem she read that night at St. Mark's Church. Lenny accompanied her, then and now. Patti described his playing as impressions of a stock car race. I think this has been repeated, but changing it to "imitation of a stock car race," or "sounds of a stock car race." At least that's how I'd heard the story in the past.

patti-2102.jpg

Setlist:
Redondo Beach
Pale Blue Eyes
Birdland
Ghost Dance
World Book Night (written, played and sung by Lenny, in honor of World Book Night)
A poem by Jean-Luc Godard as intro to
Seneca
Southern Cross
Strange Messengers
Ballad of a Bad Man
Notes for the Future (excerpts read as intro to)
Broken Flag

The show was 70 minutes long.
I wouldn't normally list a streaming concert here, but this hasn't been a normal year.

Patti Smith did a streaming concert on her birthday, December 30th. She had her regular band with her, Lenny, Tony, Jay Dee and Jackson. It was a recorded live performance. I'm curious when it was recorded.

The sound was great. Just the five-piece, plus Patti singing and occasionally playing guitar. Her daughter Jesse joined on piano for one song, after presenting her mother with a birthday cake. So with fewer musicians, no audience drowning out the music, no production to get in the way, and listening on headphones, you could hear every note.

The video was not so great. They didn't exactly use high-end cameras, so the color and resolution weren't the greatest. And one of the camerapeople kept walking in front of the lights and the other cameras. I watched at my computer, with headphones.

It was interesting that, since we were just sitting there at our computers, we were kinda forced to pay attention. There were some lyrics that I hadn't been aware of. Plus, one entire song, "We Three," I realized I had never really listened to the lyrics at all.

I was a little disappointed that the show was only an hour, and not a full show, but hey, it was only ten bucks. I'm really curious as to how many people tuned in. I'm sure there were fans watching from all over the world!

She said at the beginning that the songs they chose were among their most requested songs. The setlist was:
Grateful (written for Jerry Garcia)
Kimberly
Free Money (written for her mother, who dreamed of winning the lottery, even though she never played)
In My Blakean Year
Ghost Dance
Dancing Barefoot
We Three
Beneath the Southern Cross
Because the Night (written for Fred)
(Happy Birthday)
People Have the Power (written with Fred)

And since I couldn't take a camera to the show, I resorted to screencaptures. :-)

patti-2012-patti.jpg
They Might Be Giants is on tour for the 30th anniversary of their hit album Flood.

Their first set was all Flood. All but two songs, plus a bonus - "Sapphire Bullets" backwards. One of the two they skipped in the first set was "Istanbul (Not Constantinople)", so we spent the rest of the show wondering when it would appear.

The band was the two Johns, Linnell (vocals, keyboards, accordion) and Flansburg (vocals, guitar), the band was Marty Beller (drums), Danny Weinkauf (bass) and Dan Miller (guitar). I'm only guessing, because they always said their names really fast at the show, and these are the names listed on Wikipedia as being in the band. But that article doesn't list the horn player. I can't find any of these names on the band's website or their Facebook page. OK, Google answered the question - Curt Ramm on trumpet and other brass. He's been touring with them since 2007.

So yeah, it was fun. They're a fun band. I mean, they're comedians. Their songs are funny. But their music is... quirky. OK, that term doesn't mean much, but their musical styles are all over the map. I don't even know... you'll just have to play a bunch. But it was strange how far out of touch I felt. I hardly recognized some of the songs from Flood. I'm not sure how much of this was due to them changing the styles of the songs, and how much was just that I haven't heard them in so long. And there were the non-Flood songs. I knew I wouldn't recognize many more songs. The problem with songs you don't know is that the sound isn't good enough that you can understand the lyrics, and that's half the fun.

And then they finally played Istanbul to start off the encores. Actually, the guitarist came out to solo with an acoustic. He sounded really great. Lots of fancy finger-style that quickly morphed into a takeoff of Istanbul, and after a while, led directly into the song.

setlist )
I'm not very familiar with Steve Hackett, the original guitarist of Genesis. I've always kinda wanted to see him. He announced this tour where he was performing Genesis's Selling England By the Pound, and we got tickets.

He played that, and a lot of tracks from Spectral Mornings. Steve sounds great. He did a bit of singing, but his guitar is where he shines. The band sounded great. The keyboardist, Roger King (?), was really great. The vocalist, Nad Sylvan, was a bit odd onstage, but he sounded much like Peter Gabriel. The bassist, (?), occasionally played a doubleneck guitar/bass. The drummer, Craig Blundell, was really good. Watching him reminded me how good Phil Collins was, back in the day. And Rob Townsend played keyboards, flute and tenor and soprano saxes, among a few other things.

Selling England was awesome, of course. They didn't play all the songs note-for-note like the original album. One song in particular was very funky. Looking at the setlist, "Deja Vu" could have included the drum solo. "Dance On A Volcano" is also a Genesis song.

Setlist )
King Crimson again. Chicago again. This time during their 50th anniversary tour. And at the amazing Auditorium Theater of Roosevelt University. It was designed by Dankmar Adler and Luis Sullivan, and built in 1889. Our seats were pretty high up, but that's OK. Even if we couldn't quite see the expressions on their faces, we could still see all the action.

The band was a seven-piece. Same as the last few times, but without the eighth man on keyboards and Mellotron. Stacy played a lot of keyboards and Mellotron. Fripp (guitar and Mellotron), Jaksyk (guitar and vocals), Levin (bass and Chapman Stick), Collins (reeds and flute) and Mastelotto, Stacy and Harrison (drums and percussion).

The show started slow for me. After the drumming intro, they did "Pictures of a City," and early song which I'm not familiar with. Then Neurotica (without vocals), which I'm not a big fan of. And the sound didn't seem that great. I was hoping that they'd get it fixed, and it did get better, but it never got to 100%. Fourth tune was "Suitable Grounds for the Blues." I don't even remember this one, and can't find it online to remind me. After that things picked up with "Red", "Epitaph", "EleKtriK" and "The Court of the Crimson King", which closed out the first set.

The second set was much more pleasing than the first, though it too started a bit slow. It included "Frame By Frame". This is an Adrian-era song I didn't expect to hear, but I was a bit disappointed. It just didn't sound right. Larks' Tongues sounded good, if not perfect, and "Easy Money" is a favorite and "Level Five", "Starless" and "Indiscipline" in a row is awesome. "Starless" is another favorite. The encore was an extended "21st Century Schizoid Man". Lots of drums, with some other interludes as well.

Mel Collins sat out a song or two, which I appreciated because I think he's often superfluous. There were still a couple of songs in which I could have done without him. For one of the mellow songs (I don't remember which), Stacey was playing keyboards, Mastelotto was on drums, and Harrison was silent, allowing the single drummer to carry the piece. That was great.

setlist )
This was the opening night of their tour, in Grand Rapids, Michigan. That's about a four hour drive from home, but Cyn's cousin lives near there, so we were able to stay with her for the night, and I went to the show with her husband and son. The arena is small, so even the "nosebleed" seats are good. I sat on the side in the fifth row up, about a dozen rows back from the stage.

Roger had been touring a Tommy show, with full orchestration. He said that was something The Who had never done, so he proposed doing it for a Who tour. My first thought was that they'd add strings to songs that didn't need them. That might have happened, but they played a lot of songs that had orchestration on the original albums. They started off with "Overture" and another seven songs from Tommy, and ended with six songs from Quadrophenia.

They had a full fifty-piece orchestra - strings, brass, woodwinds, percussion - everything. They brought a violinist and cellist, as well as the conductor. Everyone else was hired in town. I hear they had an hour-and-a-half rehearsal.

The Tommy section started off well. Then they went into some other songs. "Who Are You" didn't sound the best. I think they had some mixing issues with that one. They played "Imagine A Man" for the first time ever. It's a mellow acoustic piece, and I liked it a lot. Eminence Front is not one I would have expected to hear with an orchestra, but it sounded great. Very jammy. And then "Join Together". I'm not sure about that one.

Then they sent the orchestra offstage for a bit. They did "The Kids Are Alright", followed by an acoustic version of "Won't Get Fooled Again". I wouldn't say it was my preference, but it sounded good. "Behind Blue Eyes" was OK, and then another mellow acoustic song, "Tea and Theatre", sounded really good. They did a song where the violinist and cellist took the stage. They were seated in the middle, behind Roger's place. I think it was "Behind Blue Eyes".

Then they brought the orchestra back for the Quadrophenia suite, which was great. The last one of that section was "Love, Reign O'er Me", which was amazing. They brought the house down. They ended the show with Baba O'Riley. They didn't do an encore, but if they had left the stage for a minute in between "Love Reign" and "Baba O'Riley", everyone would have been much happier, thinking they had. "Love Reign" seemed like the show closer and "Baba O'Riley" the encore. Both were powerful songs with great endings. For "Baba", the lead violinist stood at center stage for her solo. She was really rocking, and enjoying herself. The audience went wild.

The band was Roger and Pete, of course. Roger's platinum voice is showing some rust. It's getting a bit thin. He had trouble hitting the high notes, and also just belting it out. Pete, on the other hand sounded great. He doesn't seem to have lost anything, including that growl he slips in sometimes. Roger also played harmonica a bit, but his mic was usually off. First night glitch, I guess. And he did his patented microphone swinging. Zak Starkey on drums was amazing - amazingly like Keith! I was disappointed to see Pino gone. He was replaced by John Button, who stood in the back, half hidden behind the drum riser. Loren Gold on keyboards. I didn't notice him all that often, to be honest. Not sure if that was the mixing, or that the orchestra distracted from his parts. Simon Townshend was on guitar, as usual. Pete traded many of his guitar parts to his brother, and even some vocals, since their voices are so similar. He's an indispensable part of the band now. They also had a backing vocalist, Billy Nichols, who stood way in the back. The conductor's stand was on stage left, so I'm glad I sat to stage left, because the stand would have blocked a lot of the stage from my view.

thewho-1905-stage.jpg

The show was a bit over two hours, so about the same length as usual?

The opening act was Dirty Honey, an LA hard rock band. I'm sure they draw a lot of comparisons to Guns N' Roses. They were decent.

setlist )
A Perfect Circle is one of Maynard Keenan's projects. I'm a big fan of his other two bands, Tool and Puscifer, but I was never familiar with APC. I heard about this show, checked out a few of their videos and decided to go.

The current touring band consisted of guitarist Billy Howerdel, who writes the music and plays most of the instruments on the albums, singer Maynard Keenan who writes the lyrics, bassist Matt McJunkins, drummer Jeff Friedl, and guitarist/keyboardist Greg Edwards (filling in for James Iha).

The set started mellow, with "Eat the Elephant." It built gradually over the next three or four songs. I really didn't like that first song. During the second, I was hoping things would pick up, and they finally did. Those slower songs were good (except for that first one), but I really wanted some action. Shortly, they delivered. The music is enthralling.

The duo Night Club opened the show. They played 5 songs in their 20 minutes. Singer Emily Kavanaugh was giving the stadium rock show, running, jumping, swinging her hips, whipping her hair around, "make some noise!" "let's hear it for Perfect Circle!" and generally taking her job seriously as the warmup act. Synth guy Mark Brooks banged his head a lot. They're called "goth pop" and darkwave, so their song titles were all like, "Candy Coated Suicide" "Scary World" "Dear Enemy" "Your Addiction".

After a 15 minute break Tricky took the stage. Or something. Four people, silhouetted in the dark. Male lead singer, female singer, drummer, guitarist. Music was very much in the same ballpark as APC. They never said their name. Before APC came on I looked it up. Tricky, it said. Today, I dig further, and it appears to be the actual Tricky. But none of what I remember from last night sound like anything I can find online today. Nor did the person I could make out on the stage look like him. So it might have been his music but not him? No idea. Anyway, they were decent. Not sure I'd buy an album, but I enjoyed their set. Despite the darkness. They got about 45 minutes. APC played for just over an hour and a half.

Darkness was the theme of the night. There were no spotlights on the stage for APC. There were lights on the drum kit and the keyboard stand, so you could see what those guys were doing. There were three risers, with Maynard on the middle one. He was just silhouetted against the backdrop. The guitarist and bassist were silhouetted against the lights on the riser. There was enough light up there that you could kinda see what the musicians looked like, except for Maynard. They were in light only when Maynard introduced them. At the end of the show, Maynard thanked the audients for their patience, and said they could finally take out their cameras take photos of the stage. He left the stage immediately.


Set list:
Eat the Elephant
Disillusioned
The Hollow
Weak and Powerless
So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish
Rose
Thomas
(What's So Funny 'bout) Peace, Love and Understanding
Vanishing
The Noose
3 Libras (All Main Courses Mix)
The Contrarian
TalkTalk
Hourglass
The Doomed
Counting Bodies Like Sheep to the Rhythm of the War Drums
Judith
The Package
Delicious

Veterans Memorial Coliseum at the Alliant Energy Center in Madison
A friend of mine has played in bands for many years. Recently, he got one of the earlier bands back together. They got a couple of local gigs, including this one at the weekly music-in-the-park thing.

It was a fun show. They were originally playing in the late nineties, maybe to the turn of the century, so they do a lot of 90's rock, plus some 80's rock, pop and alternative stuff. Like (in no particular order)...
I Wanna Be Sedated (Ramones), Driver 8 (REM), It's the End of the World as We Know It (REM), Mrs. Robinson (cover of the Lemonheads cover of Simon & Garfunkel), Hash Pipe (Weezer), Turning Japanese (The Vapors), Just What I Needed (Cars), Little Pink Houses (Mellencamp), Save Tonight (Eagle-Eye Cherry), Open Up Your Eyes (Tonic), Another Brick in the Wall 2 (Floyd), Flavor of the Week (American Hi-Fit), Inside Out (Eve 6), Don't Change (INXS), 867-5309 (Tommy Tutone), What I Like About You/R-O-C-K In the USA (Romantics/Mellencamp), Brown eyed Girl (Van Morrison), (I Will Walk) 500 Miles (Proclaimers), Kryptonite (3 Doors Down), Stray Cat Strut (Stray Cats), Should I Stay or Should I Go (Clash), Baby You Don't Know (Sum 41), Somebody to Shove (Soul Asylum), Fight for Your Right to Party (Beastie Boys), Purple Rain (Prince). And a few more. I think they were on stage for about 2-1/2 hours.

And they did a couple Femmes songs. The vocalist started with the spoken first lines of Add It Up, but when the band came in, they did Kiss Off. I was disappointed. But then they did Prove My Love, which was a little different. But then they medleyed into Add It Up, so I enjoyed that. It was an all-ages show in the park, so they had to self-censor the F-word in that one. They vocalized some sort of screech.

Some of those 90's songs are kind of obscure now. I had to look up a couple of the artists, and I don't recall that Sum 41 song at all.

But it was fun.
We used to see a lot of bands at Summerfest, but now it's more about people-watching. We took our cameras but were denied entrance because the lenses were too big. We made a couple of circuits of the park, stopping only to watch Lil' Rev. He's kind of a folkie, and he likes to educate. He's got a story (or two) for every song. In fact, I think he often talks a bit too much. He plays ukekeke, guitar, Appalachian dulcimer, harmonica and other such instruments, but he's known for his uke. He does various folk and blues tunes, as well as Yiddish music, plus a few of his own songs. He plays Pete Seeger, Woody Guthrie, Josh White, Sonny Terry, Cicso Houston, Leadbelly and many more.
I'd always kinda wanted to see "Weird Al" Yankovic (why do they always put it in quotes like that?). When they announced this tour we decided we might as well go. Then my wife got sick, so I took my sister in her place. She was a fan back in the day (bigger than I) so she absolutely loved it. I think she had his first three albums, when we were young.

Emo Philips opened up. He was on for about half an hour. I don't think he had a lot of new material, but my memory is bad (saw him just two years ago) so it was still hilarious. Honestly, it still would have been hilarious even if I'd remembered all the jokes. Many of his jokes are intellectual and multilayered. Some are not so deep. They always take a turn you didn't expect. That's what jokes do, of course, but how does he come up with some of this stuff?

Weird Al's humor is... I don't want to say juvenile... but it seems to be made for teenagers. I would imagine most fans find him in that part of their lives, and after that there's a certain amount of nostalgia. But then his parodies are usually pretty well done, so there's that. But this time out he wasn't really doing the parodies. The tour was billed as doing only his original work, hence the title, "Ill-advised Vanity."

I'm not a huge fan of Weird Al, so I don't know most of his songs. I was a little worried at first, because I had trouble understanding the words, and if you don't get the words you miss the humor, which is the whole point. So I struggled through the first couple of songs, and as usual, the sound crew had it dialed in by the third song. Through, I'd say, the first half, it was fun but not great fun. But then he played "Albuquerque." He announced it and the audience went wild. My sister and I looked at each other, like, wha? But it was a fun song. Or rant, as it were. I had to watch a few videos of it afterward. It and a few other songs got some chuckles from me. I guess it's a fan favorite that he doesn't always play. So it ended up being a fun show.

They advertised that he wasn't going to do any parodies, but that wasn't exactly true. First, he did some style parodies. He did a Doors thing, which wasn't a parody of any particular song, but sounded just like them in general. At the end of the main set, he did a medley of his famous parodies, but the music was a different style than the original. Like "Eat It" done to something that sounded just like Eric Clapton. "Like A Surgeon" was sung as a blues tune. And then he came back for the encore with the classic, "Yoda." And he did a straight cover of Tom Petty's "Breakdown."

I'd hoped he'd play "Nature Trail to Hell," because that was the only original tune I could sorta remember, but he never did. Late in the show I remembered "One More Minute," but he didn't do that one either. My sister had been hoping to hear "Mr. Popeil." It turns out that he plays all those songs on this tour. His setlist varies from night to night, and he can do two shows in a row without repeating any songs. Looking over the setlists, we would have loved to hear "Mr. Frump In the Iron Lung."

Weird Al's band consists of the same three guys he's been playing with since the beginning - drummer John "Bermuda" Schwartz, whom he met when recording his first hit "Another One Rides the Bus" on Dr. Demento's radio show. Also Steve Jay on bass, and Jim West on guitar. Rubén Valtierra on keyboards since 1991. Weird Al played "midi accordion" on a few songs.

setlist )
Tom Petty died last year. He's someone I'd been meaning to see for a long time. He played Summerfest a lot. One year we went down the day of the show, but tickets were sold out. He played there again last year, and I intended to go. For some reason I never got around to getting tickets. And then he died. A friend saw the show, and said it was amazing. :-(
The 2017 Fall tour includes small markets like Ann Arbor, Northfield OH, Greensburg PA, Huntington NY, Allentown PA, in addition to big cities like Atlanta, DC, NYC and Boston. They finished up in Milwaukee, with no more tour dates published until June in Europe. I saw them in the end of June in Chicago, before I learned they were coming to Milwaukee. I'm glad I didn't know it at the time, or I might have skipped Chicago.

We had excellent seats - seventh row, stage right, directly in front of Pat. One guy in front of my obscured the view of the left side of Pat's kit, and the other guy obscured the view of Gavin. Otherwise, I could see everything perfectly. Since Robert faced the band, you had to be over pretty far to see the front of his guitar, and we were. We were right in front of Tony, too, so that was excellent. It was really great being up close, so I could see pretty much everything. I love watching their fingers/hands/arms/sticks/picks. I could see which parts Robert was playing versus Jakko versus Tony (yes, sometimes his stick sounded like guitar).

Being able to see the expressions on their faces was great too. You could see when they were enjoying themselves. You could see them nodding signals or counting off.

The sound was excellent. The guitars were often a bit low in the mix. The drums were often overpowering, but that was mainly due to being so close. I could hear Pat's drumming from the stage, rather than over the sound system.

The band was Pat Mastelotto on drums, Jeremy Stacey on drums and keyboards (usually nice piano or harpsichord, but also Mellotron, I think) and Gavin Harrison on drums. Across the back were Mel Collins on Saxes and flutes, Tony on Chapman stick, bass guitar and upright electric bass, Chris Gibson on keyboards and Mellotron, Jakko Jakszyk on guitar and vocals, and Robert Fripp on guitar and Mellotron.

The previous show, it took me a while to get into it, since I wasn't too familiar with the early material, or even very familiar with the cacaphony that is the many-headed beast of Crim. But this time I was fore-armed. I'd only seen them in June, plus I got the CD set of that concert. Plus we listened to Islands, Lizard, Larks' Tongues and Starless over the weekend beforehand. So it wasn't as unfamiliar sounding as it could have been.

Highlights for me included "Starless", "Lizard", "Pictures of A City" and "The Court of the Crimson King". That one I usually find a little too familiar (it's their "Stairway to Heaven"), but this time it was just perfect. Other tunes of note... "Epitaph", "Level Five" and of course "Schizoid Man." I loved the instrumental part of "Indiscipline" (but not the singing). Islands with Jakko on vocals and Jeremy on piano was a nice interlude. "Schizoid" had a bit with just Jeremy, Tony and Mel (sax), followed by a Gavin solo.

I'm still not familiar with the brand new stuff, though half of that material was drum pieces. I also didn't know "Breathless", which was from a Fripp solo album from just prior to the reformation. I didn't much care for "Easy Money". They took a detour partway in, and never got back on the road.

Having the Mellotrons along was a nice touch. It really gave the songs a feel of the old days. I love how the reediness of the sound cuts through everything and fills in. It has been remarked that Chris Gibson's contributions were lacking. Or that he was simply hardly noticeable. I don't think that's his fault - I think it comes with the territory. He's responsible for adding fairly dust, as they say, so there's a lot of atmospheric sound.

The band started about quarter to eight, and ended sometime between 11:30 and 11:45. With a 20 minute intermission, that's about 2-1/2 hours of music.

Hell Hounds of Krim
Neurotica
Pictures of a City
Cirkus
Fallen Angel
Breathless
Epitaph
Radical Action (To Unseat the Hold of Monkey Mind)
Meltdown
Islands
Larks' Tongues in Aspic, Part One
Larks' Tongues in Aspic, Part Two

Devil Dogs of Tessellation Row
Moonchild
The Court of the Crimson King
Indiscipline
Lizard (c) The Battle of Glass Tears
Easy Money
Starless
Radical Action II
Level Five

21st Century Schizoid Man

Tony's photos, us included:
https://tonylevin.com/road-diaries/king-crimson-2017-tour-pt2/milwaukee-show

John Cleese

Oct. 7th, 2017 08:00 pm
The evening at the Riverside Theater began with a screening of Monty Python & the Holy Grail. It included a scene or two that have been cut from the editions I'd seen before. Particularly a scene where Dingo worries that she didn't do her scene right, and while she rambles about it, everybody (right up to God) shouts at her to get on with it.

So then John Cleese came out. It was an interview format with a local radio personality. He started off with his usual complaints about the movie and some of his cohorts. "He's a great guy, but he's really not that funny." You can never tell how much of that is him trying to be funny, and how much he's serious about. Some of both, I'm sure. He complained that the movie just isn't that funny, at least compared to their masterpiece, Life of Brian. One particular complaint was that the ending was too long and drawn out. He actually showed us his recut version. I still like the original better.

After that he was hilarious for the rest of the night. In Cyn's words:
He told stories, mock posed for pictures by the annoying cellphone people up front, laughed sometimes so hard he couldn't speak, yelled at us to shut up when we cheered the mention of any film or TV show he was in, blew kisses to George Harrison in heaven for footing the $2 million for the production of The Life Of Brian (his favorite of all the films), told ethnic jokes to make a point, answered questions, and taught us all how to meow like his Main Coon cat.
I wasn't really aware that Primus was coming to town, or even touring. Or even still together. A friend of Cyn's mentioned it on Facebook, so I decided I'd go. I'd always wanted to see them, having missed them back in the day. Said friend wasn't able to go, but I still went down. It was at the Eagles Ballroom, which I've been to many times. It's been a while, though, and they've been slowly improving it. It was nearly sold out, I guess, but fortunately I was able to buy a ticket at the door! They routed attendees through a security stop in the basement. Then up the stairs and outside to the fenced in front courtyard/patio/smoking area/food truck zone, and back in and up the stairs to the ballroom on the third floor.

Clutch played first. I guess it was a co-headlining show, since they played over an hour, and had use of the light show. I was totally unfamiliar with this band. I had no idea what they actually sounded like, never having even heard a song, as far as I know. They were decent. Kinda headbopping metal. The vocalist does kind of a talky/yelly thing. I was enjoying it for a while. About halfway through I felt like I had heard it already.

I mentioned the venue is improving slowly over time. Improvements have not been made to the ventilation. It felt like it was 110° by the time Primus started.

Primus took the stage after a relatively short changeover. The driving force Les Claypool, with power members Larry LaLonde (guitar) and Tim Alexander (drums). Claypool does a lot of wild playing - slap bass, quick picking with chords, or an electric stand-up. LaLonde makes a lot of noise. Claypool does a lot of repetitive riffs, while LaLonde... makes a lot of noise. It's interesting, for a while. I'm sure it's much more interesting when you're high. I was disappointed by Alexander's work. It often seemed disjointed. That is, not always connected to what the other guys were playing. Or maybe I just didn't notice when he was better integrated.

Right now, I'm listening to a recent concert of theirs. It sounds great. Based on this, I'd have thought I'd enjoy the show better. But maybe the heat was getting to me. Or that I was stuck behind some tall guys, and someone with a kid on their shoulders. Or maybe that I wasn't high and couldn't appreciate the finer points. Or keeping an eye on the nearby mid-floor mosh pit. Or being distracted by being crammed in with tons of other people. In the heat. A girl in front of me passed out. I probably lost five pounds of water weight. Or maybe it was that, being at the show, I felt like I should be getting into it more.

The last song before the encore got quite a bit more musical. I hoped they'd do more, but they left the stage. I was contemplating leaving early, to beat the crowd - there's only one exit - but the only song of the encore was similar, so I stayed. The show, with both bands, was just over three hours.
The Femmes played the newish stage at the Summerfest grounds. It's good it has a roof, since it was raining, but it doesn't have walls, so we had a chilly breeze for a while, and a bit of water drifted through.

Ava Mendoza opened. She opened for the Femmes on last year's tour. Heavy guitar with occasional vocals.

I guess it was a co-headlining tour between the Femmes and Echo, but Echo only played an hour, maybe less. But then the Femmes only played an hour and fifteen minutes, so.

I wasn't expecting to enjoy Echo. I was never really into the 80's British alternative music. In fact, I remembered disliking the band at the time, but I'm probably misremembering that. So they started playing and they weren't bad. Their first few songs had kind of a punk sound. The singer had a raspy voice and he kinda pushed it. Reminded me a bit of early Iggy Pop. So that was kind of odd, since I expected more of a smooth, moody vocal sound. But I really didn't remember them at all, so I was like, whatever. But then the songs turned poppier. I could tell that the music was the kind of music that should have had the kind of voice I expected. I became less enthused. For their encore, they played "Lips Like Sugar," which I definitely recognized. Since 2005, the band has consisted only of founding members, singer Ian McCulloch and guitarist Will Sergeant. They brought another guitarist, a bassist, a keyboardist and a drummer. McCulloch stood in shadow and behind mirrored shades at the front of the stage. He and the band never really seemed to connect with the audience.

Then they cleared the stage and set up the Femmes equipment from scratch. It took over an hour, and the band went on around 10:30.

They opened as a trio, with "I'm Nothing." Gordon Gano on guitar, Brian Ritchie on acoustic bass, and John Sparrow on drums. It was interesting to hear them open with a song that isn't a big hit. They followed that up with "Memory", which opens their 2016 album, We Can Do Anything. I'm a little embarrassed to say I don't have that one, so I don't know that song. Not that it really matters - their songs are so catchy, you can't help but get into them. Then "Life is an Adventure", another song from a late-period album (Rock!!!!!, 1995) that only the hardcore fans have. At some point in the first few songs. Blaise Garza joined them on saxhophones. The fourth and fifth songs were big hits, "Blister in the Sun" and "Kiss Off". Then a couple new songs, "Good For/At Nothing" and "Love Love Love Love Love" from their 2015 EP, Happy New Year.

For "Country Death Song" Gordon played banjo, and Jeff Hamilton came out to play mandolin. Then "I Could Be Anything" followed by "Jesus Walking on the Water." Gordon played fiddle for that one, and Mendoza joined them on guitar. Mendoza, Hamilton, Gano and Ritchie each had a solo, so that was fun. Then the lighters came out for "Good Feeling." Then the electric bass came out for "Old Mother Reagan", "Gimme the Car" and "Freak Magnet". Then Ritchie handed it off and took over the xylophone for "Gone Daddy Gone". Then we experienced "Black Girls" and the noise jam. They had six or eight guys with horns, plus Mendoza on guitar and Garza with a melodica. I forget what Hamilton was doing. Sparrow had a nice drum solo. Then "I Held Her In My Arms" and they ended up with "American Music." After a short break, the encore was "Dance, Motherfucker, Dance" and the perennial closer, "Add It Up."

The set list comprised almost exactly the same songs as last year's tour, but in a different order. Possibly shorter. The review in the newspaper says they only played for 75 minutes. I've always been a little disappointed that they usually play only about an hour and a half.

The sound was... I'm not sure. I could usually hear all the instruments, but I can't say it was mixed well. The saxophone was usually too loud, as was Ritchie's voice during the second half. Garza usually stood behind his contrabass saxophone where I couldn't see him (I discovered this is a contrabass sax, not a subcontrabass as I previously thought). And Mendoza would stand directly behind him, from my line of vision. Sparrow has a lot of energy. He really goes to town on that little kit (snare, tom, two cymbals and a Weber grill). I noticed how the band's sound is very bottom-heavy. Ritchie's bass takes a prominent position in their music. Garza mostly played either his contrabass or baritone sax. Gano's guitar playing is not melodic. More percussive. Or just noise.

Set list )
I went down to Veteran's Park to see Copper Box. They play all over eastern Wisconsin. Festivals and such. They're a lot of fun. A guy plays keyboards, accordion, sousaphone, trumpet and sings. A girl plays guitar, tenor and baritone saxes, flute and sings. A guy plays bass and occasional ukulele and guitar. A guy plays drums. They play... rock, zydeco, polka, swing... ish. They did a sax and sousaphone version of Aerosmith's "Last Child." And a polka version of "Comfortably Numb."

Best band ever? No. A good way to spend an evening? Definitely.
We had free tickets to Summerfest, so we went. Saturday afternoon. They had these School of Rock kids playing all over the place early in the afternoon. Most of them weren't very good. I was reminded that while you can get really good at playing the guitar, having a good voice is not something you can learn.

So we sat through Substitute, a Who tribute band. They were OK, as far as tribute bands go. The music was great, but that's because The Who is great. The lead singer had a voice that was kind of in the same ballpark as Roger Daltrey, but he didn't have the range. And Daltrey isn't someone I'd say has a lot of range. The guitarist sang Pete's songs, and he did OK there. They didn't have a keyboardist onstage, so all of the keys, synth and violins were prerecorded. And the horns were nonexistent. The sound could have been mixed better. Other than that, it was great!

After that, we walked the park again, and left.
King Crimson at the Chicago Theatre. We had great seats - third row balcony, not the closest, but we could kinda see the expressions on their faces, and we were high enough that we could see all the action. I like being able to look down on the drum kits. My only disappointment is that we were to the right, so I was looking right down the neck of Robert's guitar. While I could see his hands, I couldn't see his fretwork.

There were large signs on the stage explaining that we were being asked not to use our cameras or phones until after the show. Then there was a recorded announcement (by Fripp) explaining the same, with the addition that when Tony gets out his camera at the end of the show, we can get ours out as well. And also that there would be an intermission.

I love King Crimson. But I'm not... a well-versed fan. I'm very familiar with Discipline. And then my familiarity starts at the end and trails off as we go back in time. I like their last three seventies albums, but only a few tracks really stand out and are recognizable. Like "Easy Money" "Talking Drum" "Red" and "The Great Deceiver". Since this band is known for doing a lot of the seventies material, I probably should have brushed up. But I didn't, so most of the first half was kinda lost on me. They did the first two parts of "Larks' Tongues" which I'm not too familiar with. Two songs from Lizard (including a long section from the title track), "Fallen Angel" from Red, which I didn't recognize, but sounded like it was from Red. And the "Islands" from Islands, which I didn't know at all. But then there was "Neurotica" from Beat, which I didn't recognize, and "Radical Action III" which was new. I didn't recognize, but I did recognize it as new music. I was thinking, during this set, that these concerts are generally more interesting than enjoyable.

Then there was a twenty minute intermission, which took place after the first set, but before the second set. I would have liked to chat with my friend about the show more, but I had to go buy merch.

The second set was quite enjoyable. They did three new songs, and a couple of older ones I didn't recognize, but the songs were so cool, I didn't mind much. There was more prominent drumming, and said drumming was cool. They did "Indiscipline," which is an Adrian tune, so I was a little surprised to hear it, but Jakko put a tune to the words and sang it. Not sure why. Then there was "The ConstruKction of Light" "Easy Money" "Level Five" and "Starless". And several new tunes. I wish I could remember which ones had the extended solos and drummings.

The encore was Bowie's "Heroes" (Fripp played on the original) and "21st Century Schizoid Man." Heroes was lots of fun, and "Schizoid Man" has lots of everything, especially drums.

Fripp had a small keyboard set up in front of him. Mellotron, I guess. I've never seen him do that before. I've also never seen Crimson with a stand-alone keyboardist before. Last tour had Bill Rieflin playing keyboards occasionally, alongside his drum kit. He had stepped back from the band and was replaced by Jeremy Stacey on both drums and keyboards. But he came back for this tour to play "keyboards, synthesizer and fairy dust." I couldn't see his hands, so I couldn't always tell what he was playing, given that there were other keyboardists on the stage, and sometimes guitars sound keyboardish.

Jakko Jakszyk is the vocalist. I remembered from the last tour, that he sounded very much like Jon Wetton. But for the first song that he sung, he sounded horrible. Not like Wetton, and not even good. Not sure what was up with that, but it could have been a bad monitor. The next couple of songs he did, he sounded better, but still not quite like Wetton. After that, he sounded just like I remembered - just like Wetton (or Lake). Jakko was bouncy and animated sometimes, unlike Fripp, seated beside him.

The drummers were Pat Mastelotto, Gavin Harrison and Jeremy Stacey. It was really interesting watching the three drummers. I've always wondered what the point having more than one is. And how do they play together? I'm kinda figuring it out now, at least for this band. When they play together - playing the same thing - it's thunderous. But they're not always playing together. At those times, they seem somewhat relaxed. This gives them the chance to figure what's best to play. They do improvisation well, or at least structured improvisation.

Mel Collins played Saxes and flutes. Soprano, alto, tenor and baritone saxophones, as well as at least two flutes. He gear list mentions two flutes, but he also played a bass flute. He played on every song. I don't think this was necessary. I know a lot of the songs were reworked for the eight-member band, but I think there were songs he didn't add to.

And of course there was my man Tony. What can I say? Tony is awesome. He played bass guitar, stand-up electric bass and Chapman Stick.

The band took the stage at 7:45, and the show ended shortly before 11:00. Not counting the intermission, they played for over two and a half hours.

Set 1
Larks' Tongues in Aspic, Part One (from Larks' Tongues)
Neurotica (Beat)
Radical Action III (Radical Action)
Cirkus (Lizard)
Lizard ((c) The Battle of the Glass Tears (i) Dawn Song (ii) Last Skirmish (iii) Prince Rupert's Lament) (Lizard)
Fallen Angel (Red)
Larks' Tongues in Aspic, Part Two (Larks' Tongues)
Islands (Islands)

Set 2:
Pictures of a City (In the Wake of Poseidon)
Indiscipline (Discipline)
The ConstruKction of Light (The ConstruKction of Light)
Easy Money (Larks' Tongues)
The Letters (Islands)
Interlude (Radical Action)
Meltdown (Radical Action)
Radical Action II (Radical Action)
Level Five (The Power to Believe)
Starless (Red)

Encore:
"Heroes" (David Bowie cover)
21st Century Schizoid Man (In the Court of the Crimson King)
I've seen U2 several times over the years, but their more recent albums didn't excite me much. And so their tours didn't much either. Or at least I decided I didn't need to see them every tour. But this time they came around to play The Joshua Tree in honor of its 30th birthday. So that sounded like a good excuse to see the band again.

I got good seats. Upper deck, but in the front row, and alongside the stage, so we were pretty close. Not as good as the lower deck, but I was happy.

They started off with "Sunday Bloody Sunday." Larry walked out from the back of the stage, all the way to his kit on the B-stage, accompanied by a Pogues song. He sat down and started playing. That went on for a few bars. Edge started walking out, and started playing as his feet hit the runway. Then Bono, then Adam. Then more big hits: "New Years Day", "Bad" and "Pride".

After those heavy hitters from before Joshua Tree, they took to the main stage for the big opening - "Where the Streets Have No Name". The red wall behind them, this time with a silhouette of their Joshua tree. That's not a song I call out as one of my favorites, but you can't deny the call - it's just an amazing opener. It draws you in. They played them all in order, something they weren't sure they'd do, when they were still planning the tour. "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For, followed by "With or Without You", which is not one of my favorites. Then "Bullet the Blue Sky" which is. From there out, I just love the album. Much of it is fascinating, and the way it flows, it just draws you in. "Running to Stand Still", "Red Hill Mining Town" and "In God's Country". Then "Trip Through Your Wires" and "One Tree Hill". Bono told the story of a young man in New Zealand who asked to join their crew on the road. He became part of the family, but was killed in an accident. He was the inspiration for One Tree Hill. The finale is the killer "Exit" followed up with "Mothers of the Disappeared". It was inspired by the mothers who lost sons in the conflict in Nicaragua.

There was a short break and they came back for the rest of the show. The rainbow of "Beautiful Day". Then "Elevation". Then they played one of their Passengers songs, "Miss Sarajevo", with Pavarotti on recording. This was accompanied by video of the Syrian refugee camps, and introduced by a teenage girl there, named Omaima. She shared her wish for all to be happy, and for her to visit America, the land of dreams. Then "Ultarviolet (Light My Way)". It was dedicated to women. Bono introduced it with mention of the band's wives and supporters, plus the women on the crew. During the song, video showed photos, names and dates of many women from history. Politicians and suffragettes, businesswomen and laborers, artists and activists.

The band came back out to the B-stage for the encore. They did "One" but I decided I'd better take a bathroom break and pick up a program. As I came back in, they led the audients in "Happy Birthday" for Island Records founder, Chris Blackwell, who was there at the show, and who will turn 79 in a couple of weeks. Then they finished up with their first hit, the bouncy "I Will Follow".

The Lumineers opened, but we had other things to do, so we only caught the last four songs, one of which I recognized - the one about Ophelia. I'm sure they'd be a lot of fun to see in a small venue. They were just tiny people on a small section of stage in an enormous space.

setlist and photos )
After Patti's goofy New Years Eve show, this one was serious. She did Horses straight through. She even mentioned between songs, that the story she was telling us was not on the album. :-)

She started the show with one of the all-time greats - Gloria. I was dismayed to see the audients sit down when the song started. What?! How can you sit for that one!

Back in the nineties, I picked up the album to find out what Patti was about. I didn't even really know what she sounded like. I wasn't sure what to make of it. It didn't really do anything for me. I played it again the next day, and I kinda liked "Redondo Beach". But I picked up the energy of "Land". So I played it again and Gloria hit me. Hard. There was so much energy and abandon, it was amazing. The song does it to me every time. But this time I had to sit. I couldn't believe it.

This was by far the biggest place I've ever seen her, and the only one where people remained seated. Of course, I'm always down front where there are not seats, and I never look back at the sections with seating. She said that the show wasn't sold out, but there weren't very many empty seats, as far as I could tell.

Predictably, there were a lot of old people in the crowd (meaning, older than me), but there were a lot of young people in the crowd - 20's and 30's.

Patti was her usual tolerant-to-a-point self. Some guy came up to the edge of the stage to take a photo, and it didn't seem to bother her, but later on the guy did it again, and there seemed to be some sort of altercation between him and someone else. So Patti told a story about some guy getting thrown in jail for trying to film a documentary, and ended it with a complaint about people who miss the show because "they're fucking filming it." Later, she complained about the stage not being a garbage can, and she threw people's crap off it - shoes and socks, apparently. Later, she seemed a bit conciliatory about her outburst, and said that we shouldn't do that because she already does it. One person is bad enough.

The date was March 9th. That is a pivotal date to Patti. 38 years ago, her midwest tour passed through Milwaukee (the last time she was here), and a few days later, in Detroit, she met her future husband, Fred "Sonic" Smith, on March 9th. And in 1989, that's the date that Robert Mapplethorpe died. This time, Mayor Barret proclaimed March 9th, Patti Smith Day. She brought the framed certificate to the show and displayed it on the drum riser. She was tickled by it, and at the end of the show, she was almost offstage before she remembered it and went back to get it.

She had a few stories about the music. "Break It Up" was for Jim Morrison. It was spurred by a dream she'd had about him. "Elegie" was written (with Allen Lanier) in memory of Jimi Hendrix. Near the end of the song, she named artists and loved ones who had died. After Horses, they did three songs that had a connection to her late husband, Fred. "Frederick," of course, and two songs that were written while he was away, including "Because the Night." "Ghost Dance" was dedicated to Standing Rock. She had printed lyrics for "Birdland". The encore was "My Generation." Just Tony Shanahan was about to break into the bass solo, at the point on the record where she yelled "John Cale!", she said "happy birthday John Cale!" It was, in fact, Cale's birthday.

A review of the previous night's Mpls show said "Another highlight in the later portion of the performance was the song “Citizen Ship,” which Smith dusted off for the first time in decades and souped up with additional emphasis on the song’s anti-wall, pro-refugee message." I didn't notice the change of lyrics, but that one's a favorite of mine, so it was good to hear. She hadn't played it in almost ten years? Politics was in full swing, of course. "Donald Trump is 70! I'm fucking 70!" "Now is the time for us to misbehave. We must misbehave in a loving way." And of course, "People Have the Power."

After "Break It Up," she had the album in her hands, and explained that now we had to pick up the record, turn it over, put it down on the turntable, bring the arm over and put it in the groove...

The band was Patti, Lenny, Jay Dee, Tony and Patti's son, Jackson Smith. Through Horses, Tony played keyboards and Jackson played bass. But for a couple of songs, Lenny played bass and Jackson guitar. For Elegie, Jay Dee came out to play bass. For the second half, Tony mostly played bass, and Jackson played guitar.

Horses Set
1. "Gloria: In Excelsis Deo"
2. "Redondo Beach"
3. "Birdland"
4. "Free Money"
5. "Kimberly"
6. "Break It Up"
7. "Land:"
8. "Elegie"
End of Horses set
9. "Ghost Dance"
Fred "Sonic" Smith Tribute Set
10. "Dancing Barefoot"
11. "Frederick"
12. "Because the Night"
End of "Sonic" Smith Tribute
13. "Citizen Ship"
14. "People Have the Power"
Encore
15. "My Generation" (the Who cover)

concert-1703-patti-01.jpg

concert-1703-patti-3.jpg

concert-1703-patti-4.jpg

Read more... )

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