Rush at the Verizon Amphitheater, in San Antonio, TX

Over 15 years have passed since I last saw Rush on tour to support Roll the Bones. I had seen them multiple times in the late 70's and early 80's, with an outstanding show at Radio City Music Hall during the Signals tour, being the most memorable.

I will admit to losing interest in the band, because of the direction they had taken during the 90's. Until two days ago, I was also unaware of the tragedy that had befallen Neil Peart and thought they had just gone inactive. I was somewhat surprised when I watched and heard Far Cry on Youtube 6 months ago, and really liked this return to their old sound.

While I will admit to being a fan of the band, I was never a fan-boy. I've noticed in the past that fan-boyism seems to be rampant amongst Rush (and Dream Theater) fans, and have always been curious (and somewhat annoyed) about this phenomenon. At the conclusion of this show, I discovered that nothing has changed in this respect (and I still don't understand it).

The show was listed as starting at 7:30PM, and probably started no later than 7:45. With one 20 minute intermission at the 2 hour mark, the show went all the way up to 10:52PM. The sight-lines were good once again, since my seats were about 30 rows back from the stage, dead center. Despite the great view, the heat and humidity made things uncomfortable.

The biggest downer for the show, was the sound. It sucked. The floor is a sloped, concrete slab. Ear plugs were an absolutely necessity. A real downer for me after the One World show two nights prior! I really despise large arena shows, and this did nothing to change my opinion.

Countering this, one of the cool features of the show were 3 large screens at the rear of the stage. There were live cameras in front, at the side and above the stage, that were used to focus in on the individual band members, and supply a "bird's eye" views of Neil. They also used the screens for CGI artwork and had two funny segues to introduce songs:

• The first involved the MacKenzie Brothers from the SCTV skit the Great White North.
• The South Park crew prepared a special cartoon, with Cartman, Kyle, and Kenny as Lil' Rush playing Tom Sawyer. There are several screeners posted to Youtube right now.

The show included a mix of material, obviously including Snakes and Arrows. It was a good cross-section of their discography, including cuts from Hemispheres, Signals, Moving Pictures, Power Windows, Vapor Trails, R30, and others. Noticeably absent however, were songs from 2112 and Farewell to Kings, other than Passage to Bangkok. The most glaring omission however, was that this was the first time I had ever seen them play where they did not play Closer to the Heart.

From what I could discern in the horrible mix the playing was tight. I did notice a reliance on prerecorded tracks at various points, and am pretty certain that some backing vocal tracks were also added at various points in the show. I'm not sure how I feel about this, and was a little disappointed.

Final Verdict: Good show, not great. I'll probably go see them again in the next few years, before they get so old that it's embarrassing.

California Guitar Trio at the One World Theater

Friday night, I attended another great show, featuring Guitar Craft alumni, the California Guitar Trio at the One World Theater. Without a doubt, the One World is probably the best venue in Austin to see a show. The room holds 300 people tops and has great acoustics. My seats were in 2nd row, right on center aisle. I was within spitting distance of all three members of the band, and it was amazing to see how relaxed and precise their technique was from that vantage point.

CGT played a solid 90 minutes. They played older (Melrose Avenue) and new material (Andromeda), and were joined on stage by several guests (their soundman playing a melodica and a woman playing mandolin). During one phase of the show they got the audience singing along to Bohemian Rhapsody, and of course played an encore with the most requested live song of all time, Freebird.

The highlight of the night for me was seeing them play a Bach Prelude in Circulation, a training technique used by Robert Fripp, in the Guitar Craft courses. Of course, I am now hoping that the League of Crafty Guitarists will make it to Texas.

After the show, the Trio was available for autographs and I was able to purchase a CD of the show I had just attended. They are actually touring with a CD duplicator and were able to burn 7 disks at a time. Very cool idea.

Dream Theater at the Backyard

This past Saturday, I endured the early evening heat and opening bands Into Eternity and Redemption to see Dream Theater at the outdoor venue, the Backyard. In general, it was an enjoyable show, but as usual, I left a DT show once again unable to call myself a true fan of DT's music.

First the opening acts. Into Eternity was a Progressive Death Metal band from Canada. I found them to be cliche and boring. The speed metal licks, one singer growling, the other sounding like Iron Maiden, argh!!! I made sure my earplugs were firmly in. Sorry guys, you're weren't worth a case of tinnitus.

The second opener, Redemption from L.A., was much better. They displayed a little more creativity. The biggest problem with them was that they were basically DT Lite.

I estimated DT's show lasted 2 hours tops, but didn't really watch the clock. They played a lot of their most recent material from Octavarium and Systematic Chaos. They didn't play Metropolis, which I found surprising. I will admit that I have a hard time distinguishing a lot of their material and albums, since Jordan Rudess has joined the band. Nothing was bad, technique abounded, but there was not a single moment during the show where I would call the music soulful. I do give some props to Jordan however, who actually succeeded in looking cool playing a Keytar.

Ron Paul San Antonio Fund Raiser

I spent a grueling 22 hour day in San Antonio, Saturday, helping with a Rally and Fund Raiser for Presidential Candidate Ron Paul. Despite being understaffed from a volunteer standpoint, the event went off with very few hitches.

Coverage of the event can be found at the Ron Paul SA and Ron Paul Austin sites. All told there were between 500-600 people in attendance at the Buckhorn Museum. During the day, there crowd was sparse, but swelled to large proportions around 5PM for the rally.

For me, the highlight of the day was getting to meet Michael Badnarik and getting a picture with Ron and his wife.

Storyville at Antones

Last night at Antones, I was able to see another Austin super-group, Storyville, for the first time. Prior to this, I had seen every member of the band either individually or with other people, but never together as Storyville.

The club was moderately packed when I arrived, but nowhere near as crowded as the Arc Angels show 2 weeks ago. Since this was their 2nd straight night at Antones, it's hard to say whether a larger crowd was present on Friday. (I would expect there was).

The opener was Kathy Valentine (one of the original members of the Go-Go's) and her band, the Bluebonnets. They had a very solid set of post-punk, pop material and won over the crowd. They were one of the better openers that I've seen there in a while.

For the main Storyville show, there was not much in the way of new material (very reminiscent of the Arc Angels show a few weeks back). Their only release since the 2nd Studio album has been a "live" album. This band did however, seem a little better rehearsed than the Arc Angels. As always, Malford was just awesome. Great singer and showman. The Davids (Grissom and Holt) did a great job with their dual guitar parts. And of course, Double Trouble is always great.

No big surprises or anything out of the usual, other than Malford performing A Capella for the first song in the encore. As with the Arc Angels show, I left hoping that they would see the wisdom in recording some new material.

It (or they) came from the 70's

Recently, I obtained two unusual albums from the 1970's:

1. Grand Funk Railroad's Good Singin' Good Playin' produced by Frank Zappa.
2. Daryl Hall's Sacred Songs produced by Robert Fripp.

Both of these albums were commercial flops, but arguably artistic successes. There is usually a WTF or "who would have thunk" reaction to these strange pairings, when I mention them to friends and fellow musicians.

Personally, I give both of these albums kudos and high marks. It's as if a wormhole has been opened to a strange, alternate universe. A universe where two mainstream "pop" acts were temporarily allowed to exercise and demonstrate artistic integrity.

Arc Angels at Antone's

After missing several reunion tours, I was finally able to see the original Arc Angels at Antone's, last night. I have always been a fan for multiple reasons:

• I played in an originals band in NY in the mid-80's playing Blues influenced Rock. We were all big fans of SRV and Double Trouble.
• I'm old enough to remember Charlie Sexton's hit Beat's So Lonely, complete with a video on MTV. Can't say I was a huge fan, but it was the beginning of my Austin "awareness" while living in NY.
• The first and only Arc Angels album was released shortly before I moved to Austin in 1993, and was receiving a lot of airplay on local radio when I arrived. I will always associate their music to this period of great change in my life.

So much for my rationale for liking the band: This show was exactly what I expected. It was not sold out (unlike tonight's show most likely is/was), the sound was good, and the (older) crowd was generally enthusiastic.

The band played for about 90 minutes and covered "the album" as well as a few other songs from the band member's other projects. The playing was generally tight, with a few glitches. It was nice to hear a band pull off their music with no backing tracks, sequencers, and/or lip sync'ing. I did enjoy Doyle Bramhall's left-handed, slide work and unique approach to the guitar.

I left the show hoping (like several of the other people present) that they might consider recording a new album. In a few weeks, I will see half of this same band in the Storyville configuration.

Porcupine Tree

Last night, I was finally able to see Porcupine Tree perform live, at the Fox Theatre, in Boulder, CO. This was the best show I've seen this year.

I arrived an hour before the doors opened and was amazed to see that the line went well around the block. Not being from Boulder, I quizzed the locals and found out that this was highly unusual. They had played this same venue twice the previous year (about 6 months apart), but the attendance had never been like this. In fact, they said they had never seen anyone draw a line like this to the Fox. Tree's popularity is rising, this may be their breakout album. (The entire US tour is sold out!)

The venue itself was nice, good sight lines and sound. The only downer, it is a standing room only club. It did have one cool touch, they had closed circuit video, so you can watch the show on large screen TVs behind the bars, while you're getting a drink.

Another small annoyance was the merchandising table. It was run by some British man who was doing his best impression of the British Munitions officer from the Zulu movie. (Gawd, was he freaking slow!)

The opening band, 3, was from Woodstock, NY (one of my old stomping grounds). They were interesting, but not really my cup of tea. A Boulder local who was obviously familiar with them, claimed that "they might blow Porcupine Tree off the stage". They were good, but not that good. The lead singer is classical trained and plays Flamenco licks on a Steel String guitar. (I would probably have been more impressed, except for seeing Del Castillo 2 weeks ago).

Tree themselves were awesome. They played all of the songs from Fear of a Blank Planet and a good selection from their previous albums. Noticeably missing were songs like Trains and Shallow (which Steven Wilson claims the band hates), but they did managed to play Open Car and Halo. I believe that the show lasted for more than 2 hours.

The sound was stellar, and the other people with me although new to the band, all left Porcupine Tree fans. As always, the star of the band is Gavin Harrison, the drummer. My friend, a drummer himself, was definitely impressed. Of course, Steve Wilson, John Wesley, Colin Edwin and Richard Barbieri were all in great form too.

Bottom line, if it weren't sold out, I would consider traveling to see them again on this tour.

Cinco de Mayo

In several hours, I will be heading over to the Glenn at the Backyard to see the always impressive Del Castillo.

I first heard them at Auditorium Shores during SxSW 2005 by accident. I had ventured out to see the Neville Brothers that evening. As fate would have it, a thunderstorm pushed all of the shows back 1 hour. Like many others in attendance, I was knocked on my ass. They were freaking awesome! Having seen their names advertised in the Chronicle for several years, I kicked myself for not seeing them earlier.

Anyway, I'm getting prepped and psyched for their unique brand of Flamenco influenced rock tonight.

SxSW 2007 and beyond

I fully intended to write a SxSW 2007 report. Actually, I had foolishly told myself that I would blog daily during the festival. This was lunacy, and of course I did not succeed in either effort. As fate would have it, the 4 straight 20 hour days killed all hope of a daily blog. Then, an almost week long flu and a kitchen accident resulting in several stiches to my left middle finger, sabotaged the wrap-up report.

At this point I'll sum up the year's SxSW by saying the 2 highlights of the week for me were KTu and the Pete Townsend/Rachel Fuller show. (If there is medal given to soundmen, then the one at Townsend's show deserved one. The sound at La Zona Rosa was exceptional).

Groupo Fantasmo was also impressive, and I also affirmed (as I suspected) that I'm not much of an Iggy Pop fan. My friend Joe wrote a pretty comprehensive review of the week here

Weather permitting, I hope tomorrow to go see the Old Settler's Music Festival in Dripping Springs. I am also counting the days, because in less than one month I will get to see Porcupine Tree live, for the first time.

On a different note, I popped my iTunes cherry. I am playing piano on one cut of Jennifer and Bill Chrisman's new CD, Long Way. It's also available on CDBaby, Rhapsody, and has been uploaded to Podshow (having debuted on the PodOnOver Podcast).

Baby steps ....

Global Percussion Masters at the One World Theater

Last night I attended the early show of Global Percussion Masters at the One World Theater in Austin. The show featured 3 percussionists:

• Terry Bozzio - Zappa band alumnus known for his unbelievably monsterous trap kit
• Giovanni Hildago - a master Conguero
• Zakir Hussain - Tabla Virtuoso

Having seen Terry multiple times (several of those at this venue), I knew what to expect and was not disappointed. However, I was totally blown away by Giovanni and Zakir. They put on an absolutely astounding display of hand percussion technique. It challenged some beliefs I had concerning what is possible with percussion. (Zakir's finger technique rivals Vladimir Horowitz on the piano). The show consisted of each percussionist performing solo followed by a group jam. I would tell everyone to try and catch this show, but unfortunately this event was a one-time thing. Hopefully, Terry will release something thru his web store.

Less than 2 weeks to go

It's exactly 11 days until the SxSW Music Festival begins. I will be joined this year by my partner at Basil Records, Phil Pepin and my good friend, Joe Schaedler (alumnus of the infamous NYC punk band, the Sic F*cks).

There's part of me that says I will attempt to blog every day of the conference. After further consideration however, this effort will probably be futile. Regardless, I am anxiously waiting for Wed, 3/14/2007 to arrive. After seeing Elvis Costello, Robert Plant, David Byrne and Neil Young in previous years, I am anxious to see Iggy Pop and Pete Townsend.

SxSW is one of the best reasons to live in Austin.

Sad news

Just 5 months after the passing of Boz Burrell, Ian Wallace has passed on. Sad news!

Details and tributes can be found on the DGM Live site.

Interesting news

Robert Fripp and King Crimson both have myspace pages now.

And the Porcupine Tree site reports that Steve Wilson will be touring with Blackfield and that the Tree is releasing a new album in April. Unfortunately, the Wilson/Blackfield tour is once again skipping the 3rd coast ;(

Bass Madness

Wow. I saw Bx3 (or Bass times 3) last night at the Flamingo Cantina, featuring Jeff Berlin, Stu Hamm and Billy Sheehan. All 3 soloists were accompanied by Jude Gold and John Mader (basically they were "on" the whole time and extremely versatile).

Going in, I was first and foremost a Jeff Berlin fan. His albums with Bruford in the mid-70's still rank as some of my all-time favorites. The venue was nice, and small enough that I was situated within "spitting" distance of the stage. The show opened up with all 3 doing the Star Spangled Banner with Billy singing.

Jeff Berlin led off. He was a lot more entertaining and funny than I would have expected, and introduced his segment as the "Jazz" section (then immediately and hilariously told the sound man to "lock the doors"). His set was brilliant and he focused on his recent solo material. He declined a request from the crowd for Joe Frazier (Oh well). After seeing that, I decided not to bother him with a plea for 5G.

Seeing Jeff was a little strange for me. I had just recently purchased a copy of "Rock goes to College," a concert recording of Bruford's band from the BBC. It was recorded shortly after they had recorded "Feels Good to Me". In this video Jeff is in his late 20's or early 30's. Since he's now 55, I feel like I missed a good portion of his career. (But I really didn't. He just hasn't toured much ;(

Stu Hamm was 2nd and shifted out of jazz mode and into rock. He did a lot of two handed playing, basically converting his 4 string Bass into a Chapman Stick. One of the songs was a unique Beatles/Beethoven medley. Everything was tastefully done, and his segment was great.

Sheehan was last. I must admit that I had never really been interested in his playing before (and was actually disappointed by his last collaboration with Terry Bozzio). However, seeing him live made me change my mind a little. He was definitely the most energetic of the 3. He played some covers of Kings X Goldilocks and Jeff Beck's Led Boots. His motor never stops, he is quite the showman. His musicianship is much better than I had anticipated.

The night ended with a grand encore with all 3. The encore included covers of Clapton's Crossroads with Jeff singing, and Spinal Tap's Big Bottoms. Most impressive was the fact that the show lasted at least 2.5 hours (great value for a $15 cover).

The coup de grace for the night, was getting to talk to Jeff after the show, purchasing a copy of Aneurythms from him, and getting it autographed. Jeff is just a great person and really easy to talk to.

If you get the chance to go and see this tour, do it! Easily the best show I've seen this year in Austin. (Of course this year is only 5 weeks old).

Robben Ford

Saw Robben Ford perform last night at the Cactus Cafe, with Roscoe Beck and Brandon Temple. Great show, great guitar work, great rhythm section.

This was the same venue that I had seen Al DiMeola recently. It was sort of the polar opposite of DiMeola's show. This time, the music took a front seat to the technique, instead of being sacrificed to the technique.

The night was highlighted by special guest appearances of Eric Johnson and David Grissom. While watching Robben play, it became suddenly apparent that Eric was a big fan of Robben's and had incorporated a lot more of his style than I had realized.

Taylor Campbell opened. He was a singer/songwriter who played acoustic guitar. He had the line of the night when he said, "When I open for Robben Ford, I'm a guitar owner, not a guitar player."

Touched by the Sound

I had the great pleasure tonight of seeing Evelyn Glennie perform with the Austin Symphony, at the Bass Concert Hall. If you've never heard of Evelyn, she is the subject of a documentary film, Touching the Sound. She is a world class percussionist and quite adept at a number of Tuned percussion instruments including the Vibraphone. What is absolutely amazing, is that she has been deaf since childhood.

Evelyn performed two pieces

1. Schwantner's Percussion Concerto - An interesting piece with 3 movements. Evenlyn had a large array of instruments both in the front (Vibraphone, Timpanis, Gongs, Triangles and a Large Bass Drum) and the back (Marimba, Toms and Bass Drum) of the stage. It had a very 20th century feel and ostinatos clearly borrowed from or influenced by Javanese/Balinese Gamelan music. There were at least 6 or 7 other percussionists on stage playing Bass Drum, Tubular Bells, Xylophone, playing with her for the first movement. The last 2 movements were filled with extensive soloing and did not disappoint.
2. Evelyn's arrangement of Vivaldi's Piccolo Concerto - Played with a smaller string ensemble, harpsichord and Evelyn playing Vibraphone. This was absolutely incredible to watch. It was performed flawlessly at a very fast tempo, with considerable variation in the dynamics.

She performs barefoot, which I assume provides some additional tactile feedback for her. I also spent considerable time trying to comprehend how she manages to play so impeccably, given her challenges.

Bottom line: If you have the chance to watch the film or better yet, see her live. Do it. If I didn't already have tickets to go see Robben Ford tomorrow night, I might be tempted to go catch tomorrow night's show, as well.

KWS, Double Trouble and others at Antones

I went to go see this show at Antones with Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Double Trouble (SRV's rhythm section), and guests Bryan Lee, Hubert Sumlin and Pinetop Perkins.

I probably should have gotten tickets in advance since there was quite a line outside of Antones, forcing me to miss most of the opening act, Carolyn Wonderland. Fortunately, I was able to get in when someone on will-call had an extra ticket.

The show started with them running a trailer for a documentary film, 10 Days Out - Blues from the Backroads. KWS and DT went driving around the South looking up various Blues legends and jamming with them. An interesting concept, and I will try and catch it.

General observations:

Layton and Shannon are tight. (Nothing has changed since seeing them with SRV over 20 years ago). They are always in the pocket.

KWS and his band don't seem to have any new material. They're still playing material from Trouble Is, which is now 10 years old. It may just be me, but I don't think you should be doing a Greatest Hits/State Fair tour if you only have one legit album. Everything was performed well, but you like to see an artist progress over time.

Bryan Lee and Hubert Sumlin did a great job, but they exclusively did Blues "standards." Lee had a strong Cajun twist to his music; understandable since he is from New Orleans. Hubert had played with Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf.

It was also great to see Pinetop. He's over 90, not quite as lucid as Eubie Blake was at that age, but still able to perform. Unfortunately, none of the younger musicians could figure out how to accompany him without stepping all over his toes.

Good show, not awe inspiring.

It's sleeting down in Texas, all the telephone lines are down

Well, central TX was hit by ice and sleet storms today. My employer wisely postponed work until 11AM tomorrow. (Bubba's pickup doesn't handle too well on ice ;)

Spent a good part of the day listening to podcasts, reading blogs and watching "A Scanner Darkly."

Submarine surfacing

Well it's been 3 years since my initial postings here. During that timespan, I have returned to Austin and am quite happy about that. I am relatively unhappy at this particular moment for two reasons:

1. My Ravens lost their divisional playoff game to the hated Colts. The damn Manning love fest will continue.
2. It's 28 degrees here in TX and in the 60s in Baltimore. (I thought this was the Sun Belt ;(

At the present time, I am busy with work and all things related to Basil Records. I am quite excited about what the coming year brings. I listened to my usual cycle of music related podcasts today, and stumbled across info about Joseph Vella on the Music Pro Show site. At last, well produced Jazz podcasts! Listening to the Traneumentary and Christian McBride podcasts. Very well done. Can't wait for more.