Saturday, September 19, 2009

Living Colour at Emos

Living Colour is back! For about 2.5 hours, I saw this incredible band rise like a Phoenix, from the ashes, outside at Emos. To be honest, Emos seemed almost like an inappropriate venue due to its size. However, in hindsight, it was just fine.

The band covered material from Vivid, Times Up, Stain, and the latest effort, The Chair in the Doorway. Realizing that I don't have a copy of Collideascope, I'm not sure if they played any material from the album. (I just remedied that problem via the Amazon music store).

A highlight of the night was the band's cover of Crosstown Traffic to commemorate Jimi Hendrix. Ironically, this show occurred on the 39th anniversary of his death, 9/18/1970. The other highlight for me was getting to talk to Vernon after the show, and talk about our mutual friends, all associated with the late, great, Arthur Rhames.

In closing, let me say this was a great show, and I hope to see them again. Hopefully, next year!!!


Vernon Reid of Living Colour @ Emos
Vernon Reid, Will Calhoun, Corey Glover of Living Colour

Monday, September 14, 2009

Ravens vs. the Chiefs - week 1

Something strange is happening here. The Ravens had 501 yards of Offense, winning 38 - 24, with 5 TDs and 1 Field Goal. Joe Flacco had 300 yds passing, and the 3 headed monster in the backfield, Rice, McGahee, and McClain are really going to be something.

So this is what it's like to have an Offense?

Added bonus from yesterday, I finally found a Sports Bar in Austin where fellow Baltimorons congregate, The Tavern on 12th and Lamar. There's probably 30 of us.

Bela Fleck, Zakir Hussain, and Edgar Meyer at the Bass Concert Hall

An eclectic, but interesting show. Bela Fleck, was accompanied by Tabla Master, Zakir Hussain, and Acoustic Bassist, Edgar Meyer. I've seen Bela 3 times within the past two years at ACL and SxSW, with the Sparrow Quartet and the Flecktones. It is also the second time that I have seen Zakir, who is incredible. This is the first time that I have ever seen Edgar play.

The show last night, consisted of two sets of approximately 1 hour, with a short intermission, and a single song encore. The acoustics were fantastic, with this trio being almost tailor made for the Bass Hall.

All I can say about this show is that it was a fascinating fusion of Indian Classical, Bluegrass, and American Jazz, by 3 masters. Plenty of room was left for improvisation by each musician. Any further attempts at a description would fall into the Dancing about Architecture category.

This trio did record a CD, The Melody of Rhythm which I highly recommend.