Set 1: Soul Shakedown Party, Runaway Jim, Jesus Just Left Chicago, Dixie Cannonball, Stealing Time From the Faulty Plan, Corrina, What's the Use?, Tela, Gone, Rocky Top, Chalk Dust Torture, David Bowie
Set 2: Sand, The Curtain With > Lifeboy, Back on the Train > Wading in the Velvet Sea, Hold Your Head Up > Love You > Hold Your Head Up, Free, Boogie On Reggae Woman > Run Like an Antelope
Encore: Frankenstein
After a sleepless night following discovery of the robbery while we were at the second show of the run, we tried to pick up the pieces a bit. I spent most of the day trying unsuccessfully to fix the broken window. I got it mostly working, but the control arms were too bent for the bottom pane to close properly. Liz dealt with the police report and finding the serial numbers and getting better descriptions for stuff. Neither of us ate all day. We finally took off for the show around 6:30, arriving well after door time.
We went up to the 400 level to check out our behind-stage seats. They told us that we could trade our 400 level tickets in for 100 level seats, also behind the stage. I didn't want to trade my mail-order tickets in, so we went to check out the assigned seats. They were up pretty high, but offered an interesting view of the stage and the rest of the arena. Plus the section was empty. Before the show, groups of people would come in, look at the seats and, more often than not, leave. But a few other groups remained by the start of the show. The arena staff seemed pretty put out that they couldn't close the section on account of about 20 people who wouldn't leave. But too bad for them. After a really rough day, we were happy to sit way up in a sparsely populated section.
We went back down to 300 to pick up some food. I got a sandwich and some fries. It was passable arena food, better than what the BankAtlantic Center is serving, for the most part. It felt good to finally eat.
But what does this have to do with the music? Not much, except to explain my mood at the show. The band opened with some reggae, namely the first Soul Shakedown Party since the fateful 2004 Vegas run that led to Phish's breakup. But tonight it got the party started. Most of our section were up and dancing. They kept it uptempo with a nice Runaway Jim with, again, a concise and tasteful jam out into Jesus Just Left Chicago, the first of the year and my first as well. This was to be the theme of the evening, as it often is for December 30 shows.
After the bluesy Jesus Just Left Chicago, they kicked the tempo back up with a quick country tune I'd never heard, which turned out to be a Hank Williams song called Dixie Cannonball. Stealing Time from the Faulty Plan and a rare Corrina, which they had played for the first time in ten years ten years to the day on December 30, 1999 at Big Cypress.
After a quick break, Trey let out some feedback and they lurched into a familiar-sounding groove. Amazingly, someone down below us was apparently hollering for What's The Use and the band obliged. I couldn't believe it. This rarely played centerpiece to The Siket Disc is one of my favorite pieces of Phish music. By the time they segued into the first Tela since 1998, I had an enormous smile on my face and my mood had lightened considerably. At the first chords of Tela, the entire audience lit up and the band responded with a gorgeous rendering of the rarely played fan-favorite.
After the Phish debut of Gone, from the Party Time CD (aka the Joy box set bonus disc), the rest of the set was high octane: Rocky Top, Chalkdust and a blistering Bowie. I was left wondering what they were going to pull out for the second set.
The second set kicked off with only the second Sand since the last time Phish played New Year's in Miami back in 2003. That, naturally, got everyone dancing again. The Curtain With followed, in a much better performance than the last encore at Coventry. That gave way to the underrated Lifeboy. And in a continuation of the tempo shifting approach the band had been taking the entire run, they followed the mellow song with the uptempo Back on the Train and the quiet Wading in the Velvet Sea.
After wading, Page started playing the chords to Hold Your Head Up and Fishman emerged from behind the drum kit. Trey hopped up to the drums and they launched into Love You, the song that had held the last vacuum solo of the 1990s during the all-night set at Big Cypress. After the second verse, Fish stated that as they had announced his last vacuum solo of the decade two nights earlier, he couldn't play another one as "that would make us liars."
"Can anyone hear play the vacuum? It can't be just anyone, it has to be someone dressed like me, and that sir, is you." He motioned to security to let a guy from the front row up, a man dressed in a t-shirt patterned after the dress Fish wears on stage." The guy from the front row said his name was Rich and proceeded to play a fairly impressive solo. So impressive that Fish gave him the vacuum cleaner before returning to his drums.
With the audience raging, Phish finished up the set with some more high energy tunes, Free, Stevie Wonder's Boogie on Reggae Woman and Run Like an Antelope. Edgar Winter's Frankenstein (a fixture at special shows) was the encore and we were sent back off into the night. We drove home a lot happier than we arrived, and as there were no extra lights on when we got home, we relaxed a little more and actually managed to get some sleep.
Set 1: Golgi Apparatus, Maze, Driver, The Connection, Wolfman's Brother, Ocelot, Reba, Access Me, The Divided Sky, Cavern
Set 2: Kill Devil Falls > Tweezer -> Prince Caspian > Gotta Jibboo > Wilson -> Gotta Jibboo -> Heavy Things > Also Sprach Zarathustra > Slave to the Traffic Light
Encore: Sleeping Monkey > Tweezer Reprise
After the first night, I was pretty excited about the second show of the New Year's run. They
hit it full on with an uptempo Golgi Apparatus to open and then got into the jamming quickly with Maze.
A couple of slower, shorter ones followed including only the second performance of the lone single from 2004's Undermind album, The Connection. The rest of the set was mostly either long jam or long composed songs broken up by another second-ever performance of an Undermind track, Mike Gordon's Access Me, one of my favorites from that album. The Wolfman's Brother and Ocelot on the front-half felt like 1997 again as they pulled out the funk (yes, Ocelot is new, but the jam out of it could easily have been from summer 1997). The Reba and Divided Sky after were fairly tight, with a quite good solo in Reba. I particularly enjoyed this bit of the set, as it was Reba that first really got my attention. At the time I heard it, I was listening to a lot of Frank Zappa and Trey's composition at that time was heavily influenced by Zappa's work. Divided Sky is similarly constructed and as a bonus is a song I hadn't heard since my first Phish show. 
The second set started out with a high-octane Kill Devil Falls, from the new record which slammed straight into Tweezer. Tweezer was an example of the concise jamming that Phish is engaging in. There was little long-windedness in the jams on the entire run. Tweezer faded into Prince Caspian which kind of stumbled into Gotta Jibboo. Jibboo picked up the tempo and eventually wandered its way into Wilson. Trey teased Jibboo in the Wilson outro and eventually they segued back into the ending of Jibboo which in a kind of sloppy fashion gave way to Heavy Things.
Liz was definitely enjoying the poppier tone of the previous night, what with all the pop classics on display, as opposed to this show which featured the two overplayed Phish singles from 2000 and 2004. She spent a lot of time home in Virginia Beach, a place where Phish is actually heard on the radio, those years and had her fill of The Connection and Heavy Things. I have no such problems, but I thought Heavy Things was a little on the sloppy side. The set got back on track with the funky cover of Deodato's arrangement of Also Sprach Zarathustra. This, much like Tweezer was concise. There was nothing wasted as they laid down some funk, dropped into the theme and then built up to big crescendo, falling away into a pretty Slave to the Traffic Light to end the set.
The encore went into silly with Sleeping Monkey before the inevitable Tweezer Reprise to end the show.
We finished the evening at the arena with a trip to the merch booth, where some girl had just bought a shirt, walked away from the counter, dropped the shirt and had someone grab and run off with it. We all talked about how lame that was. It was eerily prescient as we arrived home to find someone broke into our house while we were a the show and stole some stuff. So, then instead of getting some sleep after another good show, we spent some quality time with the police before spending the rest of the night unable to sleep. Unfortunately, the memory of this show may always be marred by this (mostly) unrelated event, and definitely affected us for the remaining shows.
Set 1: Sample in a Jar, NICU > My Soul, Roggae, Undermind, Bouncing Around the Room, Poor Heart, Stash, I Didn't Know, Beauty of a Broken Heart, Possum
Set 2: Mike's Song > Light -> I Am Hydrogen > Weekapaug Groove, Alaska, Backwards Down the Number Line, Makisupa Policeman > Harry Hood > Contact > Character Zero
Encore: First Tube
This was my first Phish show since the debacle at Coventry five years ago. We, along with thousands of others, told to turn back from the disaster area that was the farm where it was being held, parked our cars and hiked in. Though the band was obviously touched at this display by fans, it was their announced last show as their problems, in particular, as we would soon find out, leader Trey Anastasio's drug problems, had spelled the end for the band. The resulting show was reminiscent of a wake: an attempt to celebrate the life of the band, but ultimately sad at the same time.
Following Trey's drug bust and resulting rehab and community service, the stage was set for the band's return. They finally reunited this spring with a series of well-received, but tentative, shows at Hampton Coliseum. They followed these with a summer tour and a new album. Reviews were good, but not great as the band re-acquainted themselves with each other and their music. The band's Halloween festival in California and fall tour received much better reviews and it was about this time the Miami New Year's Eve shows were announced. I entered the ticket lottery and somehow managed to score tickets for all four shows.
I was never a full-on obsessive Phishhead. This was my twenty-first Phish show, which is a bit more, but still in line with other bands I've seen live as often as I've had the opportunity. And though I was less than excited by their latest album, I was still excited by the prospect of the shows as this band has almost always been better live than on record. And I am happy to report that this band can still bring it live. They may have needed the better part of a year to get back up to speed, but they've still got it.
The first set started nice, uptempo and poppy then got quiet with the first Roggae since the breakup. The composed part at the end was a touch sloppy but otherwise the song was very well-played and well-placed, slowing the tempo down a little before the second performance of Undermind and the pop of Bouncing. A slamming fast Poor Heart got the tempo back up before a nice, dark Stash and I Didn't Know, featuring what Trey referred to as "the last vacuum solo of the decade." That was fun, especially as I'd seen the last vacuum solo of the previous decade, at Big Cypress. They upped the tempo again they rocked up the opening (and best) track from Page's snooze-fest of a solo album and then closed out the set with Possum.
After the Roggae and Poor Heart/Stash combo, I was pretty excited about the next set. That was the best set of Phish I'd seen since 2003. Easily beat all of the 2004 shows I saw. Mike's opened up the festivities. The transition into Light was interesting and unexpected and the jamming from Light into Hydrogen was especially good and along with Stash, the highlight of the show. A couple more new ones followed and then a Makisupa where Trey sang about going to Mike's House. And it was Mike's set, as his playing stood out as being particularly good. From there they went into Hood, which was again well-played. The Contact was unexpected, but fun, and Character Zero is always a good way to end the set as far as I'm concerned.
By the end of the set I was excited for the next three days of shows and expecting a quick encore before we went on our way, but it was not to be. No, I was finally going to see a First Tube. Somehow, of all the songs on Farmhouse, this one, my favorite, had eluded me to this point. They revved it up and then pulled it back to end the night on a high note, leaving everyone ready for the next show.
Continuing my year-end wrap-up, here are my ten favorite live performances I saw this year.
Jesus Lizard, Variety Playhouse, Atlanta, GA, November 6, 2009
My top choice reflects my musical biases. As much as I liked the next two performances on the list, I find it difficult to not list an amazing rock act first. Ten years after their breakup and coinciding with the reissue of their first four albums, The Jesus Lizard reformed to play a couple of summer festivals and a short fall tour. I missed this band the first time around and have regretted it ever since. Their live reputation was stellar and as much as I enjoyed the records I always wanted to see the live show. I was certainly not disappointed. One song in, I was thinking "This band is fucking awesome!" A couple more in and I was convinced it was the best show I'd seen all year. By the end of the set, I had decided they are the best rock band I've ever seen. Period. I'm convinced they reformed just to show up a bunch of guys half their age. The tour is over now and allegedly they will be returning from whence they came. If they hit the road again, there is no question I will be there. They are everything great rock and roll should be: intense, loud, slightly dangerous and unrelenting.
Leonard Cohen, BankAtlantic Center, Sunrise, FL, Oct 17, 2009
I came late to the party on Leonard Cohen. My friend Bill, who is a huge Cohen fan, turned me on to the I'm Your Man album a few years back and more recently I have started to explore the rest of his catalog. When I found out he was playing locally, I couldn't pass up what is likely to be my only opportunity to see a living legend. The show was all-around amazing. The lower bowl of the arena was turned into a makeshift theatre, giving it a bit better atmosphere for the music. The sound was incredible. Cohen's band is stellar, in particular Spanish guitarist Javier Mas. And Cohen himself is engaged, self-effacing and funny on stage. He played a two-and-a-half hour show from throughout his catalog, from first album to most recent.
Tinariwen, North Beach Bandshell, Miami Beach, FL (Heineken TransAtlantic Festival), April 25, 2009
I picked up on Tinariwen from Henry Rollins' radio show on Indie 103 in Los Angeles (he's now on KCRW). He has been playing tracks from them for several years. I finally found one of their albums in a store early this year. I played the disc incessantly and soon after found out they would be playing locally as part of the TransAtlantic Festival. They were opening for Cuban-American singer Cucu Diamantes and it was pretty obvious early on that it was her crowd and hardly anyone there had any idea who these guys were. Little matter as the band had the crowd all dancing within five or six songs. Group leader Ibrahim skipped the tour, opting to go into the desert to recharge. No matter, as his songs were sung ably by younger member Intidao. Tinariwen will be back in the United States early this year. We will be catching them in Brooklyn in February.
Phish, American Airlines Arena, Miami, FL, December 28-31, 2009
I cheated on this run and put the whole run as one show rather than have three shows by the same band in the list. In almost any other year, the December 30 show would have been at the top of the list. Barring performers I know personally, Phish is the one I have seen the largest number of times (24). I was in the swamp ten years ago for their New Year's Eve set, which began at five to midnight and ended at dawn. For a number of reasons, the band lost their way following this show. They took a hiatus after 18 years as a band to recharge, came back two years later and then broke up within two years. They reformed early this year and played their first shows in March. They've spent the year becoming re-acquainted with each other and regaining what they'd lost as a unit. These shows are proof that they are back one hundred percent. Reviewers are calling the December 30 possibly the best pre-New Year's Eve show of all time and the whole run found them playing well, having fun and pulling out all the stops. The complicated songs were tight, the jams were focused and well-developed, their sense of humor and spectacle were well intact and on display. Unlike some of their late pre-breakup shows, these were an affirmation of why I continue to return to see this band. There is simply no one else who can do what they do.
The Pogues, Pompano Beach Amphitheatre, Pompano Beach, FL, March 7, 2009
One of the crushing disappointments of Langerado's cancellation is that I wasn't going to be able to see The Pogues. That is, until they got a replacement booking in Pompano Beach. Liz and I spent our wedding anniversary with The Pogues and had a marvelous time. They haven't written any new music since reuniting a few years ago, but they're still getting on and still playing amazing shows. The music always felt older than the band and I feel like their age is just now catching up. That said, they're a lively bunch. The whole band is in great form, including singer Shane MacGowan, who was originally tossed from the band for being drunk and unpredictable.
Tussle, Revolution Live!, Fort Lauderdale, FL April 12, 2009
I saw these guys open up for Ratatat and ended up liking them a lot more than the headliners. Tussle play a more indie rock version of electronic music, stripped down and sparse. The songs are built over bass lines, filled out with percussion and electronics. I enjoyed the show so much, I bought all three of their albums and a number of singles, which were all excellent.
Judas Priest, Hard Rock Live, Hollywood, FL August 17, 2009
Judas Priest was the headliner for the first arena rock show I ever saw (Broome County Arena in Binghamton, NY, Jan 1991). I actually went to see the openers, Megadeth, but I was interested in seeing Priest as I had liked their most recent album, Painkiller. New drummer Scott Travis, at 21 years old about half the age of the other members, was kicking their asses live and they were high energy, playing even their slower mid-80s material at a faster tempo. The band had a huge set of ramps on stage, which they would run up and down throughout the show. The stage was smaller and there was no running, on ramps or otherwise, but their set this year was every bit as good as that show eighteen years ago. The band was touring for the 20th anniversary of the classic British Steel album and as such the set consisted of the entire album and then a bunch of mostly 70s Priest classics, with one Painkiller track, a couple early 80s tracks and one from their newest album. Maybe the show was so good because the set concentrated on a lot of their best material. Or maybe they just still have a lot of energy in their 60s. A side note: I think Glenn Tipton is still wearing the same pants as the first time I saw them.
All the Saints, Variety Playhouse, Atlanta, GA, November 6, 2009
I saw All the Saints open for The Jesus Lizard. Having never heard of the band, I didn't know what to expect, but I was impressed with the show. All the Saints are noisy indie rock in the vein of Jesus and Mary Chain or A Place to Bury Strangers. Detached vocals, loud guitars and lots of feedback rule the day here. This was the second time in the year I was impressed with an opener I've never heard of.
Dangerous, The All Heavy-Metal Tribute to Michael Jackson, NorVa, Norfolk, VA, August 28, 2009
Dangerous was formed for one show by members of 2 Skinnee J's and Tragedy, the All-Metal Tribute to the Bee Gees. As 2 Skinnee J's are one of Liz and my favorite bands and Tragedy was one of the best bands I saw in 2008, when they added a couple extra shows including one at the NorVa, we made the trip. The trip was well worth it, as the metal arrangements of the King of Pop's biggest hits were as brilliant as Tragedy's metal arrangements of the Bee Gees disco hits. I'm still hoping they do an album.
Unwigged and Unplugged, The Fillmore at the Jackie Gleason Theatre, Miami Beach, FL, May 5, 2009
Not so much a concert as a bit of musical theatre, the Unwigged and Unplugged tour featured Michael McKean, Christopher Guest and Harry Shearer playing songs from their various films and projects including This Is Spinal Tap, A Mighty Wind and Waiting for Guffman. The show featured only the three of them playing mostly acoustic, and included stories about the making of the films and the music as well as some concept pieces, including a dramatic reading of the NBC censor's report on This Is Spinal Tap. The tour was promotion for the new Spinal Tap record and was likely done in this fashion because it was easier to do than mounting a big arena rock Spinal Tap tour. However, it was actually a quite brilliant show. It was a lot of fun, funny as hell and well played and sung.
Honorable Mentions:
The Gray Girls
Mr. Entertainment and the Pookiesmackers
Both of these are local groups I saw this year. I'm pretty sure the Gray Girls haven't been around too long. The bands really aren't too similar although they share a member. Gray Girls owe a debt to the shoegaze of the 90s. Mr. Entertainment are more cabaret, I think. In any case, I'm looking forward to seeing more of both this year.
Dishonorable Mention:
Metallica
I always thought Lars Ulrich was overrated and now, having seen Metallica live, I know he's the worst drummer in metal. I've seen grade-school children with a better sense of dynamics. He hits full-force all the time, even during what are supposed to be the quiter songs (Nothing Else Matters, etc.) They kept away from most of their recent albums, barring the latest one, which made me happy, but the execution just wasn't there. Lars was crap, plain and simple, and the whole band seems like they're going through the motions a bit. A huge disappointment.
Due the the concurrent scheduling of the 2009 SEAALL Annual Meeting, I had to miss most of the Heineken TransAtlantic Festival. I would have liked to see Curumin the first night, but I was in Athens that whole weekend. So, instead of picking up a festival pass and going to all four nights, I only went to the fourth and final show, Tinariwen and CuCu Diamantes. The TransAtlantic Festival is organized as part of the Rhythm Foundation's concert series. While I think I heard something about the festival last year, I have to admit that I did not know about the Rhythm Foundation or the concert series they run every year. I will pay more attention in the future.
I arrived at the venue about a half-hour before the doors were scheduled to open. I heard music when I parked my car and realized that Tinariwen were soundchecking. I walked across the street to the venue, bought my ticket and stood in the queue listening to Tinariwen. They finished about 20 minutes later. I could tell the show was going to be great from the soundcheck.
They only kept us outside for a few minutes after the soundcheck finished. I went inside and grabbed a seat at the end of the middle aisle about five rows back. As I was alone and didn't want to give up my seat, I decided to forgo the usual pre-show beer and instead devoted my time to people watching. I heard at least six languages being spoken inside, as well as out in the queue (English, Spanish, French, German and a couple I didn't recognize). There were a lot of families and large groups of people who I believe were there to see Cuban singer Cucu Diamantes.
After a reasonable wait, someone came out to talk about the festival a little bit and introduce Tinariwen. Six people in desert garb walked on stage and began singing. The stage setup had three instrumentalists on the right side of the stage (guitar, bass, djembe) and three singers/guitarists on the left side of the stage. After searching a while, I had finally found a copy of Tinariwen's latest disc, Aman Iman: Water is Life, while I was in Athens, and only had the chance to listen a couple of times before the show. Prior to this, most of the Tinariwen music I had heard was played on Henry Rollins' show on KCRW (and before that, on his Indie 103 show, Harmony In My Head).
Led by Abdallah, they opened the set with the second song from Aman Iman, "Mano Dayak." At it's conclusion, he asked "Is ok?" and was greeted with applause. He said a few words of introduction in French and they continued on, with singer/guitarists Abdallah, Hassan and Intidao taking turns playing guitar and singing lead while the others backed him up. I found out later that the group's leader Ibrahim had gone into the desert before the Australia tour and missed both it and the US tour. The band has a long history and has many members passing through and even without its leader they were still stunning.
People filtered in during the first couple of songs. At the start of the show, most were sitting in the seats or standing in the back. A large portion of the crowd didn't seem to have any idea who Tinariwen were. As they played, the area in front of the stage slowly started to fill up as people left their seats to move up front to dance. By the end of the set, Tinariwen was playing to an enthusiastic crowd. I don't think I have ever seen such any band win over an audience like that before. It was truly amazing.
I only know of Cucu Diamantes what I read on the festival website. I stayed to check out her set. She's a New York-based Cuban singer from a group called Yerba Buena. She was playing in support of her first solo album, which was not quite out at the time of the show. When she came on stage, it was obvious that this was her crowd. She asked if the audience wanted her to speak in English or Spanish. This is Miami, like one really need ask. She went back and forth between the two for much of the show. The band played a more rock version of Latin jazz and while very good, it was all very professional and show biz, completely the opposite of Tinariwen. While enjoyable, my hunger won out and I went in search of food.
I started in the restaurant across the street. I was seated quickly, but after sitting with a menu for ten minutes, I left and found a small pizza place down the street. I ordered two slices and ate one since they were enormous. The second one went in the car and I went back to the bandshell to catch the end of Cucu Diamantes' set.
I will definitely be paying more attention to this festival next year. There were earlier shows I wanted to see, including one featuring Curumin. I am hoping that SEALL's later date this year means there will be no conflict. Tinariwen will also be returning to the US early next year to support their upcoming album (already out in Europe) Imidiwan: Companions. By all accounts, it's going to be even more amazing than the last one. Right now, the tour starts in mid-February in North Carolina and heads west. I plan to be at the opening night, even though it's a 14 hour drive. They're that good. Tinariwen's albums are excellent and I highly recommend giving all of them a listen. But live, it's a whole other thing. They are, without question, one of the most amazing groups I have ever seen and anyone who passes up a chance to see them is seriously missing out.
Bob Boilen over at All Songs Considered made a post of random bands he's seen, commenting "I don't know where this started, but a friend of mine asked me to make a list of 50 bands or artists I've seen live. The instructions are simple. You have to do it from memory, ordering them as they pop into your head. Some of the fun of this is seeing the random list."
His list was interesting and it sounded like fun, so here's the first 100-ish that popped into my head:
1.Naked City
2.Cake (2x)
3.Phish (20x)
4.Hank Roberts (10+x)
5.Napalm Death (5x)
6.Type O Negative
7.Slayer
8.Tragedy, the All-Heavy Metal Tribute to the Bee-Gees (2x)
9.2 Skinnee J's (14x)
10.X
11.The New Pornographers
12.Thievery Corporation
13.Beastie Boys
14.R.E.M.
15.GWAR (3x)
16.Sick of It All (5x)
17.Murphy's Law (12x)
18.The Scofflaws (9x)
19.The Toasters (5x)
20.The Reverend Horton Heat (2x)
21.The Dwarves
22.Abalienation (50x?)
23.DROPDEAD
24.The Varukers
25.The Wernt
26.Doom
27.J. Willis Pratt & We're Bionic
28.Medeski, Martin & Wood (2x)
29.Joshua Redman
30.The Mighty Mighty Bosstones (12x)
31.Descendants
32.Snapcase
33.Social Distortion
34.Judas Priest (2x)
35.Megadeth (2x)
36.Anthrax (4x)
37.The Flaming Lips (3x)
38.Iron Maiden
39.moe. (5-6x)
40.The Dead/The Other Ones (2x)
41.The Police
42.Phil Lesh & Friends
43.Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers
44.Radiohead
45.Beck
46.Sonic Youth
47.Of Montreal
48.The New Mastersounds (2x)
49.The National
50.!!!
51.Simon & Garfunkel
52.They Might Be Giants (14x)
53.Primus (3x)
54.The Boredoms
55.Brutal Truth (3x)
56.Carcass (2x)
57.Godflesh (2x)
58.Tinariwen
59.Tussle
60.Ratatat
61.The Rentals
62.Circle Jerks
63.Mike Gordon
64.Seu Jorge
65.The Who
66.Sex Pistols
67.The Cramps
68.Body Count
69.D.R.I.
70.Pro-Pain (2x)
71.Exodus
72.Prong
73.Cannibal Corpse (2x)
74.Obituary (2x)
75.Agnostic Front
76.Kreator
77.Biohazard (3x)
78.Morgoth
79.Malevolent Creation
80.Fear Factory
81.Overkill (3x)
82.Bad Manners
83.Madness
84.Zappa Plays Zappa
85.Stereolab (3x)
86.Atlas Sound (2x)
87.Insane Clown Posse
88.Twiztid (2x)
89.2 Live Crew
90.Public Enemy
91.Blaze Ya Dead Homie (2x)
92.Willie Nelson
93.Queensryche
94.Suicidal Tendencies
95.Barenaked Ladies
96.Trey Anastasio (3x)
97.Elvis Costello and the Imposters
98.Dangerous, The All-Heavy Metal Tribute to Michael Jackson
99.Flogging Molly
100.Superchunk
101.Elastica
102.Pavement
103.Cypress Hill
104.Butthole Surfers
105.Alice in Chains
106.Stone Temple Pilots
107.Sepultura
108.Sacred Reich
109.Harry Shearer, Michael McKean & Christopher Guest
110.Modest Mouse
111.David Byrne (2x)
112.The Ramones
Some were on purpose, some because they were opening for someone I wanted to see (*cough* Stone Temple Pilots). It's an interesting list, but not nearly complete.
A few days ago I received an email from Evan about the upcoming Judas Priest/Whitesnake show at the Hard Rock. Ticketmaster was offering tickets for free plus service charges (of course). He was looking to see if anyone else was interested. I checked it out and found out that the tour is the 30th Anniversary tour for the British Steel album, and they're playing the whole album every night. I couldn't miss that for virtually free.
Setlist:
Rapid Fire
Metal Gods
Breaking The Law
Grinder
United
You Don't Have To Be Old To Be Wise
Living After Midnight
The Rage
Steeler
The Ripper
Prophecy
Hell Patrol
Victim Of Changes
Encore:
Freewheel Burning
Diamonds And Rust
You've Got Another Thing Comin'
This show broke a concert-going record for me, that for longest-time between two shows by the same band. Generally, if I see a particular performer multiple times, it tends to be on successive tours, or alternating tours. Some I see on as many tours as possible. Then, there are the oddballs. My previous record was 13 years, for The Flaming Lips. My first Lips show was when they were touring for Transmissions from the Satellite Heart in 1993, opening for the Butthole Surfers. I was really there to see the Surfers, but really enjoyed the Lips' set. For some reason, though, I never bought any of their records, and didn't seek them out again. Many years later, I heard some of their newer albums and started listening more actively to them. My second show was in 2006, just before I left New York. They played the New York State Fair with Sonic Youth and Ween. My third show was much sooner than my second. I saw them again on the same tour (for At War with the Mystics) in 2007 in Pompano Beach.
I first saw Judas Priest in January 1991, at the Broome County Arena in Binghamton, NY. They were touring for the Painkiller album, with Megadeth opening. This was my first arena show. I had previously only seen shows in local clubs or theaters. We made the trek to Bingo primarily to see Megadeth, but I had the latest Priest album and was looking forward to seeing them as well. They had recently hired drummer Scott Travis. The young drummer had energized the group and their tour was getting excellent reviews. I'd never been much of a fan. Although I liked a few of their songs, the records they'd released after I had begun buying metal albums (Turbo and Ram It Down) were underwhelming. Painkiller was different and I quite liked it.
The show opened with Rob Halford riding a motorcycle from underneath an enormous set of ramps behind and over Scott Travis. He shut the motorcycle off, leaving the headlight on and the band ripped into "Hell Bent for Leather." By the end of the song, the headlight had dimmed considerably and stagehands removed the bike. The remainder of the set was a mix of songs from Painkiller and their considerable back catalog. The band was tight, energetic (they spent much of the set running up and down the ramps) and, importantly, a lot of fun. I never ram out and bought up their back catalog, but I did gain an appreciation for some of those older albums and I have fond memories of that show.
Eighteen years later, I found myself in the upper deck of the Hard Rock waiting for Judas Priest to come on. The place was fairly empty when we arrived. Camera operators were stationed throughout the venue to record the show for a live DVD. I suspect that the free tickets (all to the upper deck, as far as I know) were to help fill the place up for better sound and better crowd sounds. Whitesnake canceled as singer David Coverdale has apparently wrecked his voice. No one we heard talking about it seemed too disappointed. I can't imagine the crossover between those two bands' fans is that great, so I was not surprised.
The group had a large banner with pictures of factories on in front of the stage. The show started with the sounds of hammers and machinery and a laser show(!) consisting of guys hammering metal. The pounding stopped and the band ripped into "Rapid Fire," with the banner dropping at Halford's first line of lyrics. The group on stage looked almost exactly the same as eighteen years earlier, albeit grayer (and balder in the cases of Halford and bassist Ian Hill). "Metal Gods" and "Breaking the Law" followed, and I guessed the band had decided to change the order of the album live. I found out later that they were playing the original UK track list of British Steel. Columbia Records changed the order for the American edition (as they did with all of Elvis Costello's early albums, so this is not much of a surprise).
They followed up with a curious collection of older songs, plus one from their recent concept album about Nostradamus. Most of the later part of the set was from the albums preceding British Steel rather than the 1980s albums with which I am more familiar, so I didn't really know that many of the songs. This did not deter from my enjoyment of the show, as they had already played what is largely considered their best album, and one of the two that I know reasonably well.
As for the performance, they were much as I remembered them, with a little less of the running around that they did on the Painkiller tour. Judging from some other live footage I saw on the internets, this may have been an anomaly of that particular tour, anyway. The band were still tight, energetic and a lot of fun. Yes, it's metal and some of the posing is a little silly, as are some of the lyrics (though Judas Priest's are better than most). But the mark of a great heavy metal band is that they help you forget your problems for 90 minutes and enjoy the show. For all of its pretension, the best metal bands know that they are entertainment (something many performers, particularly in other genres, have issues with) and give you an entertaining show for your money. Even if you pay full price. Judas Priest certainly lived up to my memories of seeing them all those years ago. These guys are my mother's age and still rock. That's an unqualified "rock," not "rock for old guys." The show was thoroughly enjoyable and may inspire me to buy up some of those other older albums, or possibly their recent box set.
Photo by Liz.
Setlist:
Streams of Whisky
If I Should Fall from Grace With God
The Broad Majestic Shannon
Turkish Song of the Damned
A Pair of Brown Eyes
Repeal of the Licensing Laws
Cotton Fields
Greenland Whale Fisheries
Sayonara
Tuesday Morning (Spider)
Kitty
Sunnyside of the Street
The Body of an American
Lullaby of London
Thousands are Sailing (Phil)
Dirty Old Town
Bottle of Smoke
The Sickbed of Cuchulainn
-------
Sally MacLannene
Rainy Night in Soho
The Irish Rover
-------
Poor Paddy
Fiesta
I was particularly disappointed when Langerado was cancelled this year because I was finally going to be able to see The Pogues. I missed them when they played their first U.S. reunion shows around 2002-3 on account of being broke and also not being able to take the time off to go to downstate for the show. The bonus for the current tour is that Phil Chevron is healthy enough following his cancer treatments to be back on the road. As it turns out, the cancellation was nearly a death blow to the tour, and their booking agent quickly found them a replacement local show in Pompano Beach.
Following poutine and burgers at Homeburger USA, we made our way to the arena. Fast food for dinner meant that we were unusually early, arriving about ten minutes after the doors opened. The place was pretty empty, with just a few people wandering around with drinks. I bought a Pogues scarf at the merch booth and we went to find seats and overpriced beer ($8 for a draught can of Guinness actually isn't that bad for venue beer).
Openers Kiss Kiss were a pretty good indie rock group, with a violin player and touches of Eastern European melodies. Unfortunately, the singer is from the school of whiny emo vocalists, which detracted greatly from my enjoyment of the performance.
Eventually, the place filled with in with other old geezers, drinks in hand, and the Pogues emerged from backstage. It's always a crapshoot with older performers, as some, especially rock guys from the 1960s and 1970s, lose a lot of what made them vital when they get older and richer (see The Rolling Stones or Osbourne, Ozzy). Others only get better with age (see Aitken, Laurel or X). I was very interested in seeing an older Pogues perform, as the band always seemed so much younger than their songs. Shane grabbed a beer off a tray set next to his microphone stand and the band launched into "Streams of Whiskey." The lineup of the band touring now is the one that recorded the middle trio of Pogues albums (If I Should Fall From Grace With God, Peace & Love and Hell's Ditch), but the setlist was skewed heavily towards the early albums and associated singles, with only one from Peace & Love, two from Hell's Ditch and one from the Shane-less Waiting for Herb, the single "Tuesday Morning."
Shane now has the permanent slur of the lifelong drunk, but unlike the recordings from that last tour before he left the Pogues in 1991, when he was sloppy and sounding ready to pass out for most of the show, here he was coherent and in good form, just harder to understand. The band, although obviously aging, are all quite spry (James Fearnley in particular) and can still kick up a racket. They were tight, energetic and really seemed to be enjoying themselves. Spider Stacy in particular seemed to take great joy in making jokes and giving Shane a hard time. I can't say enough good things about this show. Well worth the money and time spent. Our consolation prize for the Langerado cancellation turned out to be a full set of The Pogues. Cheers!
The Purple Lagoon >
Imaginary Diseases
City of Tiny Lites
Pygmy Twylyte
The Idiot Bastard Son
Cheepnis
Cosmik Debris
G-Spot Tornado
Flakes
Broken Hearts are for Assholes
Bamboozled by Love
King Kong
Joe's Garage
Wet T-Shirt Nite >
Toad-O Line
Outside Now
He Used to Cut the Grass
Packard Goose
Willie the Pimp
E: I'm the Slime
I've been thinking about what exactly it is that makes a cover band a cover band, as opposed to an act that happens to play songs written by other people. The term "cover band," besides being a descriptive term is, of course, often used as an insult, implying that the group plays others' songs because they are unable to write their own and are therefore inferior to others who do. But no one accused Elvis, or Frank Sinatra or Aretha Franklin of being "cover" artists. They are performers more in the mold of actors in that they interpret and perform material written by others. It doesn't matter that Carole King wrote "Natural Woman." What matters is Aretha recorded what is considered widely to be the definitive version of the song. The defining difference is that interpretation. A cover band attempts to re-create the original recorded version of a song, often to please an audience who could just as well be listening to a DJ, but are instead witnessing a live performance. What they generally do not do, is interpret the material or attempt to put their own stamp on it.
Zappa Plays Zappa is the "official" vehicle for the live performance of the music of Frank Zappa. The band is helmed by Zappa's son Dweezil and is mostly made up of unknown musicians. The three tours have included one or more "special guests" from Zappa's touring bands. The first featured Napolean Murphy Brock from the 1973-75 bands on vocals and sax for most of the show and guitarist Steve Vai (1980-82) and drummer Terry Bozzio (1975-78) for shorter portions. The second featured Brock only for most of the show. The current tour features singer and guitarist Ray White (1976, 1980-84). There has been a good bit of unpleasantness between the Zappa family and the various cover bands playing Frank's music. The contention seems to be mostly over claims of unpaid royalties, differences of opinion on the quality of the cover bands' performances and their possibly liberal interpretations of the music and on the rights to exploit Frank Zappa's name. I will not recount any of that here. I only note it because some fans and band members have accused Dweezil's Zappa Plays Zappa project as also being merely another cover band.
ZPZ played in Pompano Beach on the first tour two years ago. I delayed buying tickets owing to what I thought a ridiculous ticket price (one of the highest on the tour and considerably more than the following nights in Orlando and Atlanta). That tour has since been captured on DVD. This tour promised different material than that one, which drew heavily from the Napolean Murphy Brock era of the band as well as late 70's and early 80's material performed by the bands including Bozzio and Vai. This tour has focused more on the Joe's Garage album as well as some of Zappa's lesser-played instrumental pieces.
After a quick hello and thank you from Dweezil to all for attending, the band got right to work playing two instrumentals from the early 70s, The Purple Lagoon and Imaginary Diseases. The Purple Lagoon is one of Zappa's rhythmically difficult pieces, while Imaginary Diseases is a jazzy horn driven piece usually including some soloing. Neither were staples of Frank Zappa's stage show. The Purple Lagoon was only played from the mid-1970s through 1976, when it was released on the 1976 album Zappa in New York. Imaginary Diseases was only played on the Petit Wazoo tour of 1973 and was not released until 2006 on the album of recordings from that tour. They started off brilliantly, nailing both pieces, with Dweezil playing a great solo in Imaginary Diseases. Ray White walked on stage at the conclusion and the band dropped right into City of Tiny Lites, playing the original Sheik Yerbouti arrangement, as opposed to the mildly different arrangement played in later bands that included White. This is a trend that would continue throughout the evening.
Following a guitar change (from a hollow-bodied Hagstrom to a custom SG based on of Frank's guitars), Dweezil announced the next song as one "we learned for the last tour, but we liked playing it so much that we learned it again." Pygmy Twylyte, from 1974's Roxy & Elsewhere album was followed by several more from that era. The 1974 band arrangement of The Idiot Bastard Son and Cheepnis featured lead vocals by Ray White, with Frank's spoken parts on Cheepnis performed by drummer Joe Travers, who also took the vocal on what Dweezil described as a "bluesy" version of Cosmik Debris. This was the first left turn of the night. Cosmik Debris was completely re-invented as a slow blues featuring slide guitar by rhythm guitarist Jamie Kime and an excellent solo by Dweezil. The performance was amusing, fun and well-played, like much of the best of Frank's live work. About here, the band began to remark on the incredible heat in the venue. It felt like the air conditioning was off for most of the show, only being turned on infrequently for a few minutes at a time.
After Cosmik Debris, Ray left the stage while the rest of the band played a version of G-Spot Tornado arranged for rock band. Dweezil announced is as a track from the Yellow Shark album, but the arrangement was based on the original Jazz from Hell Synclavier track. The performance was not perfect, but was quite impressive, with Dweezil and Joe Travers in particular turning in excellent performances. This was a track that none of Frank's bands ever played live, and was only performed for the first time at the Yellow Shark concerts after members of the Ensemble Modern requested an arrangement for the program.
Ray returned sans guitar for a couple from Sheik Yerbouti: Flakes and Broken Hearts are for Assholes. In the first, the album arrangement was played note-for-note (including the feedback guitar overdub over the whole second half) but the band had a little fun with it in keyboard player Scheila Gonzalez's replacement of Adrian Belew's original Bob Dylan impersonation with one of Eric Cartman. Broken Hearts are for Assholes, on the other hand featured the album arrangement exactly including all of the original vocal ad-libs. A slow-fast-slow arrangement of Bamboozled by Love followed with a blistering Dweezil solo and powerful vocals from White. Everyone near me was suitably impressed, with one person declaring that he had gotten his money's worth at that point.
For me, the highlight of the show (besides the opening two pieces) was King Kong. Ray White again left the stage and the band launched into an arrangement based on the (again) original 1968 arrangement, but without the second melody (The Ark) that was only played by that band. Everyone in the group got a chance to stretch out here, with Gonzalez playing a wah-wah sax solo in the vein of Ian Underwood and Billy Hulting playing both a marimba solo and adding vocal interjections a la 70's-80's percussionist Ed Mann. Dweezil conducted the band for a while in the middle and, when the audience seemed appreciative, moved from the stage to the audience and back again. Following a couple more solos, Dweezil called Ray back out and asked him to improvise a song based on three things: mayonnaise, his Uncle Carl (Frank's brother) and the Three Stooges. He then told a story about his sister Moon visiting their grandmother and finding Carl having fun with the mayonnaise while the Three Stooges played in the background. I will the leave the rest to your filthy imagination. Ray responded with a hilarious set of lyrics about Carl and the mayonnaise, which then became the theme of the rest of the show, with band members working mayonnaise and the Three Stooges into the lyrics or interjecting them at appropriate places.
The bulk of the rest of the show was dedicated to the Joe's Garage album, all in the album arrangements (which Frank's band never played live), complete with Frank's original "Central Scrutizer" bits played back to introduce the songs and (I believe) note-perfect renditions of Frank's solos. Ray White handled Ike Willis' original vocals superbly, with Dweezil and Scheila performing the parts played by Frank and Dale Bozzio in the Wet T-Shirt scene. A short Willie the Pimp followed, with "Goodnight. Let us go get some oxygen and we'll come back and play one more." One more was I'm the Slime featuring Billy Hulting on vocals.
Is Zappa Plays Zappa merely a cover band, or something different? In a recent Guitar World interview, Dweezil states that "We treat Frank's music the same as any other composer—Mozart, Beethoven or whoever. Orchestras that play that music don't rearrange it, put in new notes and say 'I'm gonna do it my way.' When people do that with Frank's music, it's actually quite annoying to me." He goes on to speak of his disappointment in hearing the original Kinks recording of "You Really Got Me" after hearing Van Halen's version, which he didn't realize was a cover, which comes back to the original quandary. Van Halen, when they performed Ray Davies' song, did not merely cover the Kinks' version of the song, they made it their own.
In taking this position, Dweezil ignores that while orchestras may not radically change pieces they perform, the truth is that different conductors and ensembles emphasize different parts of the music. Otherwise, there is hardly any point in playing it live. One can always listen to a recording if one wants to hear a recording. The essence of live performance is a certain spontaneity, a sense that something could happen (or will happen) that has never been done before and won't be done again in exactly the same way. This is what keeps the music fresh. To slavishly re-create on stage what has been already done on a record is to keep the music a part of the past, rather than a vital part of the living world. Frank Zappa understood this. He continually revisited his older works and re-arranged them to best suit the talents of the musicians who floated through his group. His best asset as a bandleader was to identify the specific talents of the musicians in his groups and write or arrange pieces to their strengths. The live rendition rarely matched the album cut, unless the album was recorded totally live, but the notes were always there and the pieces matched the spirit of the original.
In putting together Zappa Plays Zappa, Dweezil is acting more as a curator for his father's music, specifically the recorded works, than as a bandleader. Ironically, Zappa Plays Zappa is at its best when it owns the material, when the members aren't trying to play the exact notes with the exact same tone as Peter Wolf had in 1980 or re-creating Patrick O'Hearn's vocal ad-libs from 1977. The most exciting parts of the show were when the band did something unexpected: Scheila's Cartman impression in Flakes, Dweezil conducting the audience or exhorting Ray to sing about Carl and the Mayonnaise, Joe Travers shouting about the Three Stooges during the second half of the show to get his band mates laughing, Cosmik Debris as a slow blues. The music still comes through and it still "speaks for itself" in this moments, the same as in the rest of the show, but it's in these moments that the music is really brought to life and I hope in future tours Dweezil steps back from his quest to re-create albums and allows more of these moments. It is then that Zappa Plays Zappa will be a monumental thing and will do proper service to the composer whose music they are playing.
If you feel the need to talk during a show, please go stand near the bar or go the fuck outside. Thank you. That is all.
After dinner at Threadgill's and cookbook purchasing at Half Price Books, we made our way to the Austin Department of Elections, where they were holding an all-day voter registration event. Liz's friend Greg's band Opposite Day got drafted to play this event. Unfortunately, by the time they played, there were only a few people there, most of whom worked for the Department of Elections. A couple of them were tossing around a football and a group of the girls kept requesting songs like "Hotel California." I was reminded of the time I was working with Fun With Tungsten and they were booked to play at a professional wrestling match.
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