30 years ago or Damn, I feel old

I certainly felt old when I saw this story today. I was a sophomore in high school when the Pistols launched their infamous tour of North America. In those days, your choices were Punk or Disco. My friends and I (almost of all of whom were musicians) chose Punk.

Since the Pistols came and burnt out quickly, a lot of my attention was focused on the likes of the Clash, the Ramones, Elvis Costello and Devo. I am proud to say, that my 4 nephews ages 6-12 all enjoy Blitzkrieg Bop as much as I did back in the day. Of course, hearing Devo's Freedom of Choice in a Miller Beer commercial sealed the deal.

It's amazing to think how mainstream Punk became. As they say in Texas, Gabba-gabba-hey, Y'all!

RIP: Max Roach

I guess in the process of going to all the recent shows and events, I missed the news of Max Roach's death on 8/16. He was one of the greats of the Bebop era, and arguably brings it to a close following Dizzy, Miles, Bird, and Bud into the great beyond.

RIP Max, you will be missed.

Deep Purple at the Majestic, in San Antonio

After noting this date well over 6 weeks ago, I had resigned myself to not going, because several of my friends were on vacation. I have been a fan of both Deep Purple and Steve Morse for over 30 years and have seen both live, but I have never seen them together. Somehow, fate intervened Wednesday and I was offered a ticket that some other friends (who were already going) had won in a radio, call-in contest.

My seat was great last night, unlike the last time I attended a show there and sat in the balcony. The sight lines were great since I was only 20 rows back from the stage, and the sound is very good down there also. I was about 3 chairs to the right of the line from the house soundboard to center stage.

I estimate Deep Purple played somewhere between 90 - 120 minutes. Since they were not promoting a new album (see their website as to why), they stuck to playing their hits. The night included a lot of material from Machine Head (Smoke on the Water, Lazy, Highway Star), along with Hush, and Woman from Tokyo.

The core of the band, Roger Glover and the Ians (Gillian and Paice) are still on top of their game, and can deliver the goods. The crowd and the band fed off of each other, and everyone in the house seemed to enjoy the show. Steve Morse seems to never age, and still plays in his blazing, rock-solid style. The only disappointment I had was that Jon Lord had retired due to health reasons, but Don Airey did an excellent as his permanent replacement.

A great show all around.

More Orioles

Every year for as long as it's been offered, I have subscribed to MLBTV.

Unfortunately, it's the same story over and over again.... I've usually given up on them by the All-Star Break (because they make me).

Where is Davey Johnson when you need him?

RIP: 'Wild Bill' Hagy

I spent a significant portion of the my summers during high school and home from college ('76 to '83) at Memorial Stadium, going to Orioles games. Actually, I was a Jr Oriole starting in 1968 but was obviously not able to drive myself to Memorial Stadium until years later. The O's were a force to be reckoned from 1966 until 1985, with a small resurgence in 1996 and 1997. They were one of the elite teams, and notorious Yankee killers.

On many a summer evening, my friend Porkface (aka. Fran) and I would go purchase $3.00 GA tickets, fill a Coleman Jug with the contents of a case of Busch Beer, and drag our little brothers, and/or his cousin "Sweaty" Freddy to the stadium. There was only one place to sit, Section 34!

For years, a drunken fan named 'the Big Wheel' had been spelling out C-O-L-T-S with his body, during football games at the stadium. Somewhere in the late 70's this bled over into the Baseball games, when a cab driver named 'Wild Bill' Hagy started doing the same thing by spelling out O-R-I-O-L-E-S. Wild Bill was the King of Section 34 and led us all with his battle cries. He would usually make a good show of winding up for a cheer with exaggerated arm movements, waving his Cowboy Hat, demanding that we get our asses off the seats, and followed by a quick call of Let's hear it for the Ball-team, before launching into his dance. He was usually egged on by the other denizens of the Section.

By 1979, it had become the "in-thing" to go to an "O's" game. For about a decade, it seemed that baseball had unthinkably reached an equal footing with football, in Baltimore. To this day, a Baltimore crowd can not listen to the National Anthem w/o embellishing the "O" ala Wild Bill.

Those were the days. The Skankees, Red Sox, Brewers, Indians, Tigers, and Blue Jays were all in our division. (There were only 2 divisions per league back then and Milwaukee was still in the AL!) Names like Earl Weaver, Jim Palmer, Scott McGregor, Steve Stone, Sammy Stewart, Rick Dempsey, Elrod, Disco Dan Ford, Brother Low-low, Rhino, DeCinces, Ed=E Murray, Marc Belanger, Cal Ripken, Benny Ayala, Rich Dauer, Tippy, Dennis Martinez, come to mind. Rex Barney on the PA, play by play with Chuck Thompson, and the recap the next morning with Charlie Eckman.

Unfortunately, there has not been much to cheer about since Game 5 of the 1983 World Series. And of course, OPACY (Oriole Park at Camden Yards) never had the right feel for me. 'Wild Bill' was one of the common, blue-collar people of Bawldy-more. He seemed like he had stepped out of one of Barry Levinson's or John Waters' movies. He (and I) belonged in Memorial Stadium. If only something would convince Angelos to sell the team now, maybe the Orioles could climb out of the grave they fell into.

RIP: Wild Bill. I'm going to see if I can find a 6 Pack of Natty Boh tonight, and drink in your honor.

Ravens vs. Giants - Primetime Preseason

I was somewhat pleased because I didn't have to make special arrangements to watch the Ravens tonight. They were the Primetime game. Most likely because there's a Manning involved.

I was going to comment more on this, but it looks like both the Offense and Defense went a little backward this week. We came out on the short end, 13-12. Troy Smith looked good, Boller looks like he's done. I'm slightly worried about McNair. He doesn't do too well in the rain or the snow.

The Countdown Continues

Some great music happening this fall. I have tickets to:

• All 3 days of ACL - Bob Dylan
• 2nd leg of the Porcupine Tree tour
• Zappa plays Zappa - this time with Ray White as Special Guest.

My mood: Psyched with anticipation.

Ravens open their preseason vs. the Iggles

Watched the Ravens first preseason game against Filthadelphia. The Ravens controlled all aspects of the game throughout. McNair and Drew Olsen looked great. (Olsen probably won't make the team). The season is less than a month away, can't wait. I expect big things and a number 1 defense again.

The only downer so far, they have away games during Thanksgiving and Christmas. Most likely, I will only get to see one game at M&T Bank Stadium this year, against the Rams, in October.

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.