SHARING THE SHOWS
The last time I had the opportunity to see The Who, it was the night before the graduation ceremony at my old university, which just HAD to be held on Mother’s Day. I was an officer for the festivities, so I’d have to be wide awake and fully decked out in academic regalia at 8 a.m., and traveling from Hampton, VA up to Bristow and back would be a late night. So I sadly had to pass when Maggie and Mark invited me. When I saw their tour dates this time, I knew I had to cross it off the bucket list. I was planning to be in New York anyway during May, and I thought it would be a cool outing with my brother, Jeremy, a fellow classic rock fan. After some back-and-forth regarding choice of venue (MSG or Bethel Woods), we decided on Bethel, a place I’d never been to (and the site of the original Woodstock, the perfect forum for a Who show. I spent the night before at Jeremy’s new house in Wanaque, NJ, where I helped him organize his book collection after we viewed that iconic Simpsons episode where The Who come to Springfield (here’s a clip for your viewing pleasure, and another from the episode Freaks and Geeks, where the freaks go to a Who show). Anywho, we also went to Station 1 Books and Vinyl, a used book and record store in Pompton Lakes, just down the street from him. In addition to adding to my ever-growing book and DVD collection, I saw a section of cassette tapes, and was brought back to my adolescence, long before Spotify and MP3s. I just had to pick up two, and after talking to another dude at the store who listens to them on an old-school Walkman, I may just buy one for the occasional listen. After some grub at the Lakeside Diner, the epitome of the type of classic New Jersey diner where I spent many late nights during my teens and 20s, Jeremy and I headed up to the venue. Wanaque is not what I think when I hear of New Jersey; it’s more like being in a Johnny Cash song, as the scenery resembles what I remember about upstate New York. Speaking of which, we passed through the Orange County, NY towns of Warwick, Florida, and Goshen. When we passed Pine Island, I thought of my old friend Paul and the many nights we spent gallivanting around Orange and Rockland County, drinking soda (LOL) and absorbing all that caffeine with late-night stops to the diners and to White Castle. Love you, brother! And here are some images from the trip up: Jeremy and I had a good repartee going up, as he told me about our cousin Neil’s sojourn up to the original Woodstock, where he had to abandon his car on either Route 17B and 55. Additionally, he informed me that Sullivan and Delaware Counties are big speed traps, and the cops apparently mark down when college kids go up to the schools in western New York (SUNY Binghamton and Buffalo, Syracuse University) so they can hide and nab them in hopes of helping their towns’ budgets. At around 7:30, we were about a mile out, and were in that line of cars. Fortunately, we were guided to a spot in a small, secluded area, from where we walked about a mile to get inside. On the way inside, we passed The Museum at Bethel Woods, a museum devoted to Woodstock, which would make a good trip for another day. The lawn was pretty much congested with chairs, so we ended up making our way to the back of the venue, which had a slightly obstructed view of the stage, but ample room for boogeying. The crowd was a nice mix of people who looked like they belonged to the middle-class, a few biker types, some hippie holdovers from ’69, and a lot of young people.
Unlike bands like Phish and the Dead, the Who has a standard setlist they play on most shows of the tour. I had checked the start and end times of the sets, and as a result, had seen some of the songs, but for the most part, opted to remain surprised. When the Who opened with “Overture,” “It’s a Boy,” “1921,” “Sparks,” and “Pinball Wizard,” Jeremy thought they were going to play the whole Tommy album. Having peeked ahead at some of the songs, I knew that wasn’t the case, but I just couldn’t spoil it for him. He concluded it was “an abridged Tommy” when they played the album’s final song, “We’re Not Gonna Take It”. The rest of the setlist can be found here. I was particularly happy to hear “Ball and Chain,” one off their last album, WHO, which I first heard at the beginning of the pandemic, along with my favorite of theirs, “The Relay.” The group of youngins next to us seemed to be enrolled in Rock Music 101. One person referred to “Baba O’Riley” as “Teenage Wasteland” and another asked, “What song is this” upon hearing the iconic opening keys to “Won’t Get Fooled Again.” Another thought one of their songs was played by Kansas. Jeremy was appalled at these missteps, but as a professor, I work with young people all the time, and in my view, they’re young enough to not have been exposed to this music, but at least they’re learning. It also makes me smile when I see teenagers rocking out to this music; fads like disco and those godawful “boy bands” come and go, but to quote AC/DC, rock and roll will never die! One of their group, apparently named Logan, looked to be passed out, and two young females appeared to be checking on me. I asked if he was okay, and they said, “Oh yeah, he just likes to sleep, but thank you so much for caring!” The way I see it, those of us at shows really oughta look out for each other. That’s what I learned going to all these Phish and Dead-related acts. The most important part was bonding with my brother. While we didn’t always see eye-to-eye growing up (what siblings do?), it’s nice to be able to enjoy common ground together. I love you, Jeremy!
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To say this week was rough was an understatement. Not so much for my life, but the shooting that recently took place at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas upset me. While shootings have been rampant in the last ten years since Sandy Hook, it just feels like in this pandemic, people’s indifference to human life has increased. It’s upsetting, and one of the reasons why I need live music – it helps remind me there are good things and good people in this world. The school year has ended, I’m “off” for the summer (meaning I still have work, but it can be done on my schedule and at my pace), and I’m visiting my Mom and brother in New York and New Jersey, respectively. And when I was blown away by Railroad Earth’s performance back in March when I saw them with Pete, I decided I had to sneak in a trip to see them in Jersey City. So after a day of researching and putting together my tenure packet, I hopped the 4:56 train from Suffern to Hoboken, a throwback to my 20s, when I used to commute to Manhattan every morning. Before the trip, I picked up a copy of the New York Times, which I used to read on my commute in. These days, since I tend to get most of my news from social media, I don’t read it as much, but I do enjoy it when I travel. Most of the stories were about the shooting and the government’s feeble attempts at gun reform (which is really because they’re really more interested in saving the lives of embryos than those of fully grown humans, but I digress). I arrived at Hoboken a little after 6, and hopped the PATH to Grove Street (while a bit jumpy waiting for the train, I was happy to learn they were still requiring masks; smart with these rising numbers of COVID cases). Getting off at that station brought me back to the days when I’d hit late-night shows in New York, and hop the PATH to my brother’s place, where I’d spend the night. I hadn’t had real German cuisine since Maggie and I went to DC’s Café Berlin when she helped me move my cat/son Chester up to my place, so I made my way to the Wurstbar, where the hostess told me I could sit anywhere. “The world is your oyster,” she said. I sat at the bar, and my eyes became bigger than my stomach. I ordered a gigantic pretzel, along with garlic fries and a Wurst place (a choice of two sausages; I had to go with the bratwurst and kielbasa). While it was all good, I couldn’t even make a dent in the fries. But I did chat a bit with a fellow solo traveler who trekked from Queens, and a couple named Penny and Saul who had stopped in for a brewski. I was impressed by the design of the building, which didn’t even look like a concert venue from the outside; without the sign, I’d think it was just an apartment building. The bouncer gave me a fist-bump upon checking my license and seeing I was from DC. I love being able to say I’m from out of town. The inside reminded me of the 9:30 Club. Intimate with bars on each side, but with a much brighter hue. I ordered my customary Diet Coke for my caffeine burst. I didn’t talk to anyone at the show other than a dude who came across from Manhattan and was loving the show, along with a guy who looked uncannily like my brother Jeremy’s friend, Derrick, but sometimes, that’s great. I like being able to blend in anonymously every now and then.
And I danced up a storm, particularly during my favorite tune of RR’s, “Lone Craft Farewell,” which enraptured me the first time I heard it, at Charlottesville’s Jefferson Theater on 9/30/16, when I went with Drew/Brometheus. The only other songs I could recognize were “Head” and “Come and Go Moon.” During the second set, the room thinned out (people gotta work early on Fridays, and NYC is a work-oriented town), and I stayed toward the back, which was nearly empty. More dancing room for this cat. I’m glad I stayed until the end; the encore “Donkey for Sale”, where they sang “New Jersey is where I want to be,” blew me away. I took an Uber to the Hoboken PATH station, because late at night, one could be waiting for up to an hour for once of those trains. I had a half-hour to spare before my train would leave, so I hiked up to the CVS to get a Gatorade Zero to rehydrate with electrolytes (I have to credit Mark for that tip). During the walk, I saw a bunch of 20somethings out and about and thought back to when I was one of them. I saw a stand selling something called “Pop Nuts,” which are essentially candied nuts. I enjoyed a bag of candied almonds on the ride back. Upon returning to my mother’s house at 1:30, I couldn’t get to bed right away due to Chester’s demands for attention and treats. Once he was satiated, I could fall out. And here's an image of the bag of almonds to take you out: With the pandemic, I didn’t even bother to write the annual anniversary post last year, but since I’m on a rebound with shows, I have to now! I’ll never forget that night at Cowboy Sports Grill dancing to Blind and Dirty with Maggie, when I decided I was going to write about every show (and Maggie, I have “St. Stephen” playing on my laptop as I write this sentence).
On October 11, 2020, not long after my move to DC, as well as the beginning of that damn demic), I felt the hankering for some live music, and I saw that YMSB was playing at B Chord Brewing Company in Round Hill, Virginia, only about an hour from my place. My current job gives us off for Columbus Day, and I got to meet Paul and Angela for some good fiddles and good dancing. The night was marred by my collision with a pickup truck as I attempted to get on Route 7, which totaled the Camry I’d driven for the last ten years. Nine months went by without a show, and I had, without realizing it, developed amaxophobia, a fear of driving. They say the best way to overcome a phobia is exposure therapy, but since I was working remotely, my supermarket was a five-minute walk from me, everything else in DC was accessible by bike or Metro, and life was pretty much on pause, I didn’t take many opportunities to face that fear. Fortunately, I’m making strides to overcome it by taking my car out twice a week. And the shows have refilled my spirit. On July 31, 2021, the night before Jerry’s birthday, I hit my first show since the accident (Better off Dead at the Pearl Street Warehouse), and as I danced, it felt like the end of that Simpsons episode, “Bart Sells His Soul,” where after selling his soul to his friend Milhouse for $5, Bart finally got his soul back and felt whole again. I had rediscovered something I hadn’t had in months. I also met some cool people that night, including John, Amii, and a bunch of other people whose name I can’t recall. A few weeks later, Mark and I headed up to Baltimore to see JRAD, and the following weekend, I met up with John for a Better off Dead show at the Union Stage. A month after that, school was well underway, and that grind always has me exhibiting a caterpillar-like hunger for shows. I met a new friend, Pete, at Masala Art, an Indian restaurant near the DC Waterfront, before the Trey show, and he’s been a big part of my experience (I count seven shows together in the last eight months). Dan and Maggie also came up for the Tedeschi Trucks Band at Warner Theater, which ended a two-month show drought due to the Omicron, which also had kept me sidelined during January. I also like going to shows solo because I tend to be more social with strangers. On such an outing to Bethesda, Maryland to see the Montgomery Warlocks, a local band (picture at top), I met Larry, who’s in several bands, including the Medicated Headsmen, a tribute to Traffic, Blind Faith, and the Spencer Davis Group, whom I ventured outside of city limits to see. I also met a few others, and I’ll rattle their names off as I remember: Amy, Craig, Lisa, Tom, and there are a bunch more; I’ll need to meet them at least fifty or so times to remember their names. Although COVID numbers are rising in NY and DC, I’ll still go to shows (masked) and have a bunch planned for the summer and fall. Here they are thus far (and there could be more): May 24 – Railroad Earth – White Eagle Hall – Jersey City, NJ May 26 – The Who – Bethel Woods Center for the Arts – Bethel, NY June 11 – Uncle John’s Band – 3 Daughters Brewing – St. Petersburg, FL July 12 – Circle Jerks – Black Cat – Washington, DC July 20 – Phish – Mann Center for the Performing Arts – Philadelphia, PA July 21 through 25 – Widespread Panic – Beacon Theatre – New York, NY July 26 – Phish – Northwell Health at Jones Beach Theater – Wantagh, NY July 28 – Free Flowing Musical Experience – Starr Hill Biergarten – McLean, VA September 16 & 17 – Widespread Panic – The Theater at MGM National Harbor – Oxon Hill, MD September 27 – Nick Mason’s Saucerful of Secrets – Lincoln Theatre – Washington, DC October 8 – North Mississippi All-Stars – The Hamilton – Washington, DC October 9 – Bob Weir & The Wolf Brothers – Kennedy Center – Washington, DC October 15 – Phil Lesh and Friends – Capitol Theatre – Port Chester, NY October 23 – Iron Maiden – Capital One Arena – Washington, DC As I type that out, I realize that’s a lot. I am making up for two nearly showless years, and there could come a time I won’t be able to go to these anymore, so carpe diem, I say! Plus, I would have never made it to Associate Professor without these shows, and I know the music will take me through the process of applying for tenure (fingers crossed). Thank you for making the experience what it’s been, and I hope you’ll continue to be a part of it. ,I appreciate good art and enjoy going to museums (especially when Monet’s landscapes are involved), but I wouldn’t say I obsess over it the way I do over music, particularly shows. So when I drove the five minutes from my mother’s house to the Suffern Free Library to work on my course preparation for the fall semester, and was greeted by that sign that read “Rock ‘n Roll Legends,” I was more than intrigued. I found out from the librarian the exhibit was in a separate room in the downstairs of the library, a section I don’t go to that often (children’s books aren’t my bag). But I was met by an empty room with some cool portraits. I read the brief statement from Simon Jeruchim, who was inspired by his grandson’s musical endeavors as a bass player in a rock band. I was also happy to read that while he wasn’t initially impressed by the Beatles upon seeing them on the Ed Sullivan Show, he eventually came around (sorry for the blur; visual art is not my forte, which is why I write). As I walked around, I let the paintings (acrylic and cartoon) reinforce my love of the artists he portrays. I had to take a full account of them, some of which you can see below the list: -Elvis Presley -Mick Jagger (The Rolling Stones) -Fats Domino -Axl Rose (Guns ‘n’ Roses) -Jim Morrison (The Doors) -The Beatles (two portraits of the entire group), as well as individual portraits of Paul, John, George, and Ringo, and the Yellow Submarine album cover -Janis Joplin -Led Zeppelin (the famous Hindenburg image), along with an individual of Robert Plant -Kiss, and an individual of lead singer Gene Simmons -Jerry Lee Lewis -Jerry Garcia (which I sent to my fellow Deadheads Maggie and Pete) -Steven Tyler (Aerosmith) -Kurt Cobain (Nirvana) -Ray Davis (The Kinks) -Jon Bon Jovi (Bon Jovi) -Angus Young (AC/DC) -Bruce Springsteen -Stevie Nicks (Fleetwood Mac) -Nikki Sixx (Motley Crue) -James Hetfield (Metallica) -Chuck Berry -Brian Wilson (Beach Boys) -Joey Ramone (The Ramones) -Lou Reed (The Velvet Underground) -Grace Slick (Jefferson Airplane) -Roger Waters (Pink Floyd) -Jimi Hendrix -Roger Daltrey (The Who) -Little Richard While I can’t spend the money needed for those paintings (damn shows), I will say that if you can afford it and want to have some rock icons gracing your wall, do it! This message has been brought to you by Not Enough Concerts
I typically enjoy going to museums on weekdays due to the lack of traffic. I can enjoy the sights in silence, and today was just that. I also started thinking about how, growing up in Suffern, I always took everything around me for granted and couldn’t wait to get out. I have, but it’s nice knowing there are some cool things to do in my hometown. It set the right tone for the course planning to follow. The notebook at the top signifies a new era: the area of the mini-marble composition notebook, which is a helluva lot easier to keep together than that spiral notepad I carried around. The one that would get all kinds of ripped up and cause my friend and fellow scribe Christina to gasp in horror. I saw it at the CVS on the way to the Metro and couldn’t resist. That day, I had done a “hike” with a Meetup group from Georgetown to the Tidal Basin, and met some very cool folks, including Jenny. After a much-needed nap, I wasn’t sure I could gather the energy for Round 2, but I was determined. Rockville was uncharted territory for me, but it’s always healthy to expand one’s comfort zone. Upon exiting the Metro, I stopped at Los Primos Tex Mex & Grill for some preshow quesadillas while reading a book, How to Write Funny. Those of you on my Facebook page know about my long-running routine where I make lame jokes and then laugh at them for extended periods of time, so I thought I’d give humor writing a whirl. I think there’s a joke about how restaurants serve solo diners quickly so they can get them out of there quickly; would people rather see couples, families, and groups? I don’t know, but solo dining’s still badass. I’m sure there’s a humorous angle there somewhere. In my research into my route toward 7 Locks Brewing, I learned about a warehouse that sells used books for 50% off, and as a bibliophile, I’d be remiss if I didn’t buy at least one book. As I was in a “study humor” mindset, I settled on Dave Barry’s Live Right and Find Happiness (Although Beer is Much Faster). I had to let my fellow book lover Heather know about the place, as she had mentioned a similar venue in Baltimore. We both love the smell of used books in the morning (or any other time of day). I got to the venue, and the wooden paneling gave it a rustic feel. On my way to the bathroom, I saw giant fermentation vessels, and while I don’t drink, they’re cool to see. I try to order a Diet Coke, but since it’s a brewery, I got a fancy soda called Virgil’s Black Cherry. I typically don’t drink my carbs, but I figure one each year won’t do me any harm (knocking on wood). The vibe seemed friendly, and what really stood out to me was a young woman, whom I learned was named Krista, reading a book at a table. I’m very impressed she was able to concentrate in this festive, concert-like setting. Then again, I’ve done that before, and Krista, if you’re reading, you’re my new spirit animal.
The Medicated Headsmen is one of Larry’s bands, whom I met at Montgomery Warlocks last week. I knew a few tunes from Traffic, Blind Faith, and the Spencer Davis Group, but I researched (listened) this week to get a better feel. I walked in during their acoustic version of “Feelin’ Alright.” Other tunes I was able to identify by sound included:
The people are a big part of the experience as well. I ran into Bob and Tom from the FFME show the other night, as well as a woman named Amii, whom I had spoken to briefly on 7/31/21 at the Pearl Street Warehouse. It’s nice seeing some of the same people, learning names, and becoming part of the show community, something I really missed during the pandemic. The walk back to the Metro was peaceful, as was the ride home. I love not having to deal with traffic after shows; that will probably change if I end up moving out of DC, but for now, I’ll enjoy the convenience of being able to kick back and enjoy my reading and people-watching. This is my last planned show until Railroad Earth on May 26 (Pete, I have to thank you for pushing me forward on these shows). But DC offers a variety of activities, many of which I will explore these next few weeks. Happy Sunday, everyone! |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. Archives
April 2024
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