So Neil Young was blowing into town for what I assumed was support of his new album “Chrome Dreams II” (I don’t have it yet, as anyone can tell you, I’m a vinyl addict, so I’m waiting until Jan. 8th when it comes out in my favorite black plastic format.) I assumed it would be at the usual horrible venue of Madison Square Garden, where I had last seen him (thanks to an industry connection box seat, with food and booze.) This was during the Greendale tour, and while I enjoyed the show, I did not feel inspired to buy the album (strange, since I own a good majority of all his other albums, even the much maligned but entertaining to me “Trans”.) Busy with work and what not, I let it slip under my radar that it was not the usual MSG concrete stadium horror show (no free press box seat nd booze this time), but instead was going to be six nights at a somewhat small (3000 capacity) church turned performance hall in Washington Heights, the United Palace Theater. Two fseperate riends who went the first night raved that it was one of the best shows they have ever seen him do. My pal John Neilson said something to the effect of “he was on fire like I haven’t seen him in years”, or something to that effect. Ok, seeing Mr. Young several times since the late 80s, I knew I had to go. All shows sold out, and so wanting the avoid the hideous fees of “professional” scalper sites (who probably bought up a third of the tickets, thanks douchebags, well, that’s business), it was Craigs List to the rescue! I ended up going the final night, and have great regrets…that I only went one night.While there were tickets available on all nights, it was harder to get them for the last evening of the run, but I’m glad I did. Not even the scalpers outside had any tickets for sale, there was quite a buzz/vibe/whatever ya wanna call it in the air. Seems like everyone had been hearing about what amazing shows there
Filed under: music, rock, travel | Tags: Bobby Conn, Califone, Germany, music, Wolfmother
From an email sent to a good friend from the WONDERFUL city of Berlin (no sarcasm there, I enjoyed my time there very much, and will return…) Saw Wolfmother tonight. Har har…I have a like/not always like relationship with that band, but they did rock (but other bands do the 70s rock thing better), the Germans loved them. Germans make for GREAT rock audiences. Califone played to a pretty full (for the club) audience, maybe 75 to 100 people, and they were loved and cheered on for an encore (and favorite songs acknowledged.) Wolfmother (or as I jokingingly have been saying in my head with a German accent VULF MOOTER!) played to a few thousand people who were super enthusiastic. Ya know how in NYC at some bigger shows the singer trys to get the audience going with handclaps, and maybe a third the crowd does it for 15 seconds or so (have to admit I am one of the lazy ones!) Well, at this show the crowd started it numerous times, everybody into it. They love rock in Berlin (well, techno, dub, etc, too, and some punks around as well.) What was interesting was the crowd. In NYC at a show like this, the majority of the audience would be well under 30. But at this show I would say a third of the crowd was 30 or over, and I kid you not that besides numerous folks in my age range (late 30s to early 40), I saw at least a couple people who had to be 50 ! It was not like one of those shows were I look around and all I see are early 20 somethings and I start to feel older. It seems like there are more people here who stay seriously into music (or at least going out) as they get older. Nice. At Califone, saw one German couple who were somewhere in that end of 40 or beginning of 50 bracket, and they were the most excited and loudest people at the show in regard to their cheering. Interesting.Bobby Conn rules! I had a great time seeing them in Philadelphia at lil ol Kyber Pass a few years ago. They rocked. Like Queen.
S.I.C.K….or is it awesome? Or is it just “wrong”? Or is it just
challenging our “sacred beliefs”? Or do I not know what the fuck I’m
talking about? (I think I’ll go with that one.)
Yeah, that fucking VW ad with Nick Drake. Also add to that Nike using
Stooges “Search and Destroy” a few years ago. But I guess Iggy’s bank
account was a little better after that (if he owns publishing of Stooges
music.)
It’s lonely being a Zappa fan. I would say that 9 out of ten music lovers I
know can’t deal with his stuff at all, my friends (save one or two) hate
him. A high-end audio designer I knew (now deceased) used Zappa’s symphonic
lps to drive people out of the room at high-end audio shows when it was time
to shut things down for the night.
