Concerts

Eleven of the Best Rock Concerts I Have Attended

April 6, 2020 by Steve Leventhal

I have been fortunate to go to a lot of rock concerts in my lifetime. Considering what tickets cost today, those old ducats from the seventies and eighties turned out to be pretty good deals. Most of those ticket prices were under twenty bucks. The late seventies concerts were all under ten dollars. Compared to today’s prices, those old shows were an absolute bargain. I’ve seen a lot of artists that are no longer with us, such as Jerry Garcia, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Gregg Allman, Lou Reed, Keith Emerson, Freddie Mercury, BB King, and Jaco Pastorius, the great bass player for Weather Report. Other than completing artists or bands on my bucket list, I’m not too keen anymore to shell out big bucks being charged today. In many cases I’d rather see up and coming artists in small venues, or good cover bands in clubs.

This is compilation of some of the most outstanding performances I’ve personally witnessed to date. The Fleetwood Mac concert in March 1977 would have been included, but I’ve written about that show already. That story is linked here, so it was omitted from this list.

James Taylor – Carmichael Auditorium – Chapel Hill – March 3, 1982

This was JT’s triumphant return to his hometown. Taylor’s father was a professor at the UNC School of Medicine, ultimately becoming the school’s dean, Rumors had been circulating for years that Taylor had no desire to perform in the Chapel Hill. Supposedly, the author of “Carolina In Mind” had too many bad memories from his adolescence here, that fueled his depression and subsequent drug addiction. Thus, he avoiding performing in the area. However, he received a hero’s welcome, the audience went nuts, and Taylor fed off the vibe. Carmichael was not particularly known for its acoustics, but never sounded better. JT even improvised the lyrics to “You’ve Got a Friend” to include a reference to local Highway 15-501 that connects Durham and Chapel Hill.

Queen – Greensboro Coliseum – North Carolina – August 14, 1980

At the time, Queen was one of the hottest bands in the world. They were touring in support of their ninth studio album, “The Game” which would top the album charts in both the US and UK. If you’ve ever seen video from a Queen concert of that period, you see what an incredible performer Freddie Mercury was. He pranced. He danced, he played and sang. We had no idea that he would be gone eleven years later. But that night, he owned the place with an 27-song epic set.

Setlist: Jailhouse Rock, We Will Rock You, Let Me Entertain You, Need Your Loving Tonight, Play the Game, Mustapha, Death on Two Legs (Dedicated to…), Killer Queen, I’m in Love With My Car, Somebody to Love, Get Down Make Love, You’re My Best Friend, Save Me, Now I’m Here, Fat Bottomed Girls, Love of My Life, Keep Yourself Alive, Drum & Guitar Solos, Brighton Rock, Crazy Little Thing Called Love, Bohemian Rhapsody, Tie Your Mother Down; Encore: Sheer Heart Attack, We Will Rock You/We Are The Champions, God Save The Queen

R.E.M. – NC Benefit for Africa – Meredith College – May 27, 1985

In the wake of Live Aid, a lot of Africa relief concerts took place. One was organized at a beautiful outdoor amphitheater at Meredith College in Raleigh. The show featured seven or eight popular bands local with R.E.M. as the headliner. They were gracious enough to allow the fledgling UNC Student Television to film their performance, which featured songs from the soon-to-be-released third album “Fables of the Reconstruction.” Don Dixon, whose band Arrogance also graced the stage that day, and was a producer on their first two albums, joined the band for “Don’t Go Back To Rockville” and a cover of “Wild Thing.”

Complete show:

https://youtu.be/y0VrM-qYnkw

Paul Simon – Civic Opera House – Chicago – March 13, 1987

Simon brought his Graceland tour to Chicago’s historic, art deco Opera House. Simon, and his band, along with Hugh Masekela, Miriam Makeba, and Ladysmith Black Mambazo played songs from the Grammy award winning album. It was a perfect setting for the acapella music, rhythmic dancing, and solo music by the South African artists. The 3500-seat auditorium may not be small compared to the club scene, but it’s far more intimate than the ten thousand plus seat amphitheaters and concert halls favored by rock stars.

U2 – Rosemont Horizon – Rosemont, IL – April 29, 1987

This was my first U2 concert, having missed another epic show which took place at Kenan Stadium in Chapel Hill four years earlier. The Rosemont show more than made up for it. The band had graced the cover of Time magazine two days earlier with the headline, “Rock’s Hottest Ticket,” and the show has become synonymous with that epithet. It remains a very popular U2 fan bootleg, which is surprising since the arena is not known for its acoustics. But the band and the audience connected, and the rest is history.

Frank Zappa – Auditorium Theatre – Chicago – March 4, 1988

One of the most underrated musical geniuses of all time brought his satirical Broadway the Hard Way tour to Chicago’s palatial Auditorium Theatre. Zappa loved to skewer anything and everything musically. His target this time was the disgraced preacher Jimmy Swaggert. Using a medley of Beatles songs and his lyrics, Zappa proceeded to eviscerate the televangelist in song. In addition, he brought Sting onstage, and they played “Murder by Numbers,” a Police song. Even better, he tossed some Zeppelin and Allman Brothers into the mix that magical evening.

https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/frank-zappa/1988/auditorium-theatre-chicago-il-5bd0ef74.html

Neville Brothers – Skyline Stage, Navy Pier – Chicago – May 27, 1989

One of New Orleans’ best known musical families kicked off a series of “twilight concerts” at the recently renovated Skyline Ballroom in the summer of 1989. They were on tour to promote their fourth studio album “Yellow Moon.” Even though the show was broadcast live on radio station WXRT, it was still a hot ticket. Anyone who was there can attest as to what a great vibe there was in the room. The band dug it also and played beyond their allotted time as the crowd urged them on.

Stevie Ray Vaughn / Jeff Beck – UIC Pavilion – Chicago – October 28, 1989

This was the first of two times I was fortunate enough to see SRV in concert. The second show was his final performance, the night he perished in a tragic helicopter accident. The tour was dubbed “The Fire Meets The Fury.” Beck and Vaughn traded opening slots on a 29-date tour. For me this show is as noteworthy for what happened afterwards. On the chance that Vaughn might make a post concert appearance at one of the local blues clubs, something he was known for, my buddy Otis and I went to Kingston Mines. SRV did go to a blues club, but not the Mines. He was spotted at Buddy Guy’s southside establishment. However, we did meet Buddy Miles, and and we hung out all night with the former member of Jimi Hendrix’s Band of Gypsys and Carlos Santana collaborator.

Here’s a video of Beck and Vaughn from the Chicago show

https://youtu.be/84_UvByGDkM

The Grateful Dead – Pine Knob Music Theatre – Clarkston, MI – June 20, 1991

I was lucky enough to see the Dead fifty times between 1985 and Jerry Garcia’s last show in July, 1995. As any Deadhead will tell you, no two Grateful Dead shows are alike. The venue, the tour, the year, the people, and the vibe made every performance a unique event. City arena shows were very different than outdoor amphitheaters in remote locations like Alpine Valley, or Pine Knob, forty miles outside of Detroit. What made this particular show memorable for me (and many others) was the song order of the second set, which seemed to go in reverse of a typical second set with “Throwing Stones” as the opening salvo. “All Along the Watchtower” and “Iko-Iko are presented outside of their normal settings, before the lengthy set closes with a reprise of “Throwing Stones” and Buddy Holly’s “Not Fade Away,” followed by an encore of the fan favorite “Brokedown Palace.”

Set 1: Touch of Grey, Greatest Story Ever Told, El Paso, Mexicali Blues > Maggie’s Farm, Bird Song

Set 2: Throwing Stones, Iko Iko, All Along The Watchtower, Standing On the Moon, He’s Gone > Drums > Space > The Wheel > I Need A Miracle > Walkin’ Blues > Throwing Stones > Not Fade Away, E: Brokedown Palace

Phish – Biddy Mulligan’s – Chicago – April 13, 1991

When the discussion turns to talk about the best band I saw in a small venue, this is my show to brag about. One of my Deadhead friends from New England kept raving about this band from Vermont, so I promised to see their next show in Chicago. Little did I know they’d be packing arenas and amphitheaters for years to come. Biddys was relatively small club on the far north side of town, almost at the Evanston border. From the early seventies until its demise in 2003, the club featured a lot of the local blues greats like Koko Taylor, Muddy Waters, and Buddy Guy, along with national talent like Wishbone Ash, Eric Burdon, and Blues Traveler. I remember seeing Leon Russell there. The posted capacity was 400, and I’m sure there were at least 500 folks that chilly April evening. The place was jam packed, and I was lucky to get a spot near the soundboard. The set was a mix of songs from 1990’s “Lawn Boy” and the yet to be released “A Picture of Nectar.” Most memorable for me was the inclusion of AC/DC’s “Highway to Hell” as the show closer. I haven’t attended a Phish concert since, because I’m not sure it could ever surpass that experience.

Yusuf Islam/Cat Stevens – Oriental Theatre – Chicago – September 30, 2016

After a near death experience in 1976, this musical treasure of the late sixties and early seventies converted to Islam, and stopped performing for nearly thirty years. Songs like “Moonshadow,” “Peace Train,” and “Wild World” were soft rock and FM radio staples. When he finally returned to touring, I put him at the top of my concert bucket list. The time off has kept his remarkable voice nearly intact, and he not only played his hits, but told the stories behind the songs, and delved into his musical catalog for some deep gems. The whole show was his life story, complete with a stage set recreating the small room above his parents restaurant in the London of his youth.

https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/yusuf-islam/2016/oriental-theatre-chicago-il-3bfdcc5c.html

Honorable mentions:

David Byrne – Arie Crown Theatre – Chicago – September 1992
Tom Tom Club – Paradiso – Amsterdam – April 2001
Prince – Super Bowl Halftime Show – Miami – February 2007
Steve Miller Band – Ravinia Festival – July 2009
Brian Wilson – Ravinia Festival – July 2013
Allman Brothers Band – Chicago Theatre – August 2013

Concert Review: Steve Hackett 2019 Tour at the Copernicus Center

October 7, 2019 by Steve Leventhal

Two shows, two nights, and they could have been more different. Three Dog Night at the Genesee Theatre was a memorable greatest hits show, while Steve Hackett and his 2019 Genesis Revisited tour was a journey into the wonderful depths of the prog rock stratosphere.

You wouldn’t know most of the songs played unless you listened to a lot of FM radio in the early and mid-1970’s. However, this audience sure did.

*Steve Hackett and his band – October 5, 2019. Photo by SRN*

The show began with “Every Day,” the opening track from Hackett’s 1979 album “Spectral Mornings” as he was celebrating the 40th anniversary of its release. “The Virgin and the Gypsy”, “The Red Flower of Tachai Blooms Everywhere” and the title track all made it into the set list, along with compositions from his most recent album, At The Edge of Light.

The second set was where the payoff was when the band performed Genesis’ Selling England By The Pound. The ensemble included Hackett on guitar, Nad Sylvan on vocals, Roger King on keyboards, Craig Blundell on a huge drum kit, Jonas Reingold on bass, 12-string and bass pedals, and Rob Townsend on saxophone, flute, brass, woodwind, keyboards and percussion. All the performers were terrific, but kudos to Sylvan for his spot on renditions of the Peter Gabriel vocal work. Unfortunately, a few times when the music hit a loud crescendo, it was hard to hear his voice, but in the quiet parts he really shined.

I have several special Genesis memories, but I would say that my happiest period in Genesis was during the recording and tour of Selling England by the Pound. By that time I was a fully fledged member of the band, I loved the music we were creating and we were playing to an increasing number of people. Although I was unhappy in my first marriage, I was in my element gigging with the band. The stage felt like my home at that time!
–Steve Hackett from Hacketsongs.com

Hackett admitted that he hadn’t played the song “The Battle of Epping Forest” since the time of it’s release. ‘You know,” he told the appreciative audience, “I can’t just wake up at 3 AM and just play this stuff!”

The performance of SEBTP was spot on, while the band added some blistering solos to “I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe)” that made that song the highlight of the second set. Just for good measure Hackett also played the song “Deja Vu” which he noted was left off the album, and “Dance on A Volcano” and “Los Endos” the opening and closing songs from Trick of the Tail, the first post Peter Gabriel Genesis album.

I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe)

The crowd loved it. There were several standing ovations. Hackett even told the audience early on how they are what make the shows special.

Setlist: Steve Hackett at Copernicus Center, Chicago, October 5, 2019

Everyday
Under the Eye of the Sun
Fallen Walls and Pedestals
Beasts in Our Time
The Virgin and the Gypsy
Tigermoth
Spectral Mornings
The Red Flower of Tachai Blooms Everywhere
Clocks – The Angel of Mons
Intermission
Dancing With the Moonlit Knight
I Know What I Like (In Your Wardrobe)
Firth of Fifth
More Fool Me
The Battle of Epping Forest
After the Ordeal
The Cinema Show
Aisle of Plenty
Deja Vu
Dance on a Volcano
Encore:
Myopia / Los Endos / Slogans / Los Endos

Concert Review: Three Dog Night at the Genesee Theatre

October 5, 2019 by Steve Leventhal

“Lots of bands play deep album cuts on tour,” said Three Dog Night founding member Danny Hutton wryly. “We’re going to play deep album hits.” The seventeen-song, ninety minute set was well received by the sold out crowd of 2400 at the restored 1920’s era movie palace in Waukegan, Illinois.

Our music guru Eric Berman often refers to the Grateful Dead as “the world’s best cover band, but that moniker really belongs to Three Dog Night, who formed in 1967 with the vocal trio of Hutton, Cory Wells, and Chuck Negron. The band charted twenty-one consecutive Top Forty Hits between 1969 and 1975. Three Dog Night achieved their greatest success by taking other songwriters’ compositions and crafting them with a three part harmony. The streak began with Harry Nilsson’s “One,” and included gems from Laura Niro (Eli’s Coming), Paul Williams (Just An Old Fashioned Love Song), Hoyt Axton (Joy To The World, Never Been To Spain), Randy Newman (Mama Told Me Not To Come) and others.

Wells passed away in 2015, and Negron left the group in 1976. Guitarist Michael Allsup is the only remaining original member. Paul Kingery plays bass and sings vocals, along with vocalist David Morgan, who delivered a funny monologue on the pitfalls of getting old and included the best line of the night, “The back of my drivers license lists the organs that I need!” Paul Bautista was behind the drum kit, and Howard Laravea took over the keyboard for another original member Jimmy Greenspoon, who died of cancer in 2015.

Three Dog Night in concert. Photo by SRN

Hutton served as master of ceremonies, regaling the audience with stage banter and a few stories, such as how they recorded their first album in three days, the fact that the band had three months to compose their sophomore effort.

The most poignant moment in the show occurred during the encore when the band played “Prayer of the Children,” an a cappella song from a forthcoming album.

Set list: Genesee Theatre, Waukegan, IL October 4, 2019

The Family of Man
Never Been to Spain
Shambala
Out in the Country
Easy to Be Hard
Play Something Sweet (Brickyard Blues)
One
Let Me Serenade You
An Old Fashioned Love Song
Liar
Sure as I’m Sittin’ Here
Mama Told Me Not to Come
Celebratete

Encore:
Eli’s Coming
Prayer of the Children
Joy to the World

Concert Review: King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard

August 25, 2019 by Steve Leventhal

There’s definitely something going on in Australia as evidenced by the recent surge in psychedelic rock bands coming from the land down under. Groups like Tame Impala, The Murlochs, Pond, and King Gizzard are the most recent exports from the country that brought us AC/DC, INXS, Little River Band, and yes, the Bee Gees.

Melbourne’s King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard have been incredibly prolific, with fifteen album since the release of their first full-length album 12 Bar Bruise in 2012.

Members of the group include Stu Mackenzie (vocals, guitar, bass, keyboards, flute), Ambrose Kenny-Smith (vocals, harmonica, keyboards), Cook Craig (guitar, bass, vocals), Joey Walker (guitar, bass, keyboards, vocals), Lucas Skinner (bass, keyboards), Michael Cavanagh (drums, percussion), and Eric Moore (drums, percussion). Kenny-Smith and Craig are also members of The Murlochs.

King Gizzard’s sound originally was garage rock, but with the ongoing output of material, they have also crafted jazz, soul, prog rock, and their latest iteration, heavy metal, with the release of Infest the Rat’s Nest.

All of these multiple personalities make for very entertaining concerts. Throughout the show, the band seemingly morphs into Metallica, T Rex, ZZ Top, or Pink Floyd. There is no standard set list. Every show is different. There might be some overlap, but the song selection and order is as varied as a Grateful Dead set list.

King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard at the Aragon Ballroom, August 24, 2019.
*Photo by the author.*

At their recent show at Chicago’s Aragon Ballroom, King Gizzard rocked the house for a blistering ninety-five minute, nineteen song set, that featured five tracks from their earlier 2019 release, Fishing For Fishies. That album is much more psychedelic and a boogie-woogie album. It is very reminiscent of Marc Bolan and T Rex.

Between the grinding, bumping, thumping, head banging sounds of Rats’ Nest, and the shoe gazing moments from Fishies, there was something for everyone, and the crowd loved it.

Catch this band while they are still playing medium sized venues. It won’t be long before they are selling out the large amphitheaters and the basketball arenas.

Setlist – Aragon Ballroom, Chicago – August 24, 2019

Self-Immolate
Mars for the Rich
Plastic Boogie
Inner Cell
Loyalty
Horology
I’m in Your Mind
I’m Not in Your Mind
The Balrog
Evil Death Roll
Rattlesnake
Sleep Drifter
Billabong Valley
This Thing
The Bird Song
Boogieman Sam
Cyboogie
Planet B
Hell

Here’s a few videos from different albums to demonstrate their versatility.

“Mars for the Rich” from Infest the Rats’ Nest

the title track from Fishing for Fishies

“Rattlesnake,” from Flying Microtonal Banana

“Inner Cell,” from Polygondwanaland

Dead Floyd – A Band Beyond Description

July 26, 2019 by Steve Leventhal

There are plenty of Grateful Dead cover bands. There’s no shortage of Pink Floyd tributes. Dead Floyd, however is no novelty act. The music never stopped from what began as a one-off show. Ten years later, the Fort Collins, Colorado-based quartet of Charlie Humphreys (guitar, vocals), Josh Miller (bass, vocals), Stu Crair (drums, vocals), and Matt Goldberg (keys, synth) continue to blend the musical styles of two of the best known bands in psychedelic rock into a single great gig.

Dead Floyd at the Boulder Theater – 2/19/2019

Crair and Humphreys were in a funk band. A huge Grateful Dead fan, Humphreys professed to knowing all the Dead’s repertoire. Miller brought his mastery of the Floyd catalogue to the endeavor. Goldberg was an acquaintance of Crair’s from when he first arrived in Colorado. Their little experiement played to a packed house of local fans and friends. It went so well, they performed a second, sold out show. The foursome continued to hone their craft, working with the material from both bands, and built a local, then a regional following.

It’s been quite a ride. We keep kind of the same mentality of quality shows over quantity. And really trying to make them just fun, and music that everyone loves, including us.
Stu Crair – Dead Floyd

Miller can sing in David Gilmour’s voice, while Humphreys handles the Jerry Garcia/Dead vocals, in his unique sound, and from time to time they mesh their voices and harmonize.

How do they choose the set list? “That is part of the fun, really,” says Crair. “It is a ‘Monsters of Rock show.’ You’re gonna hear some huge tunes from both bands. We really dig deep into the those catalogues. In terms of how we decide what we’re going to play, a lot of it is very last minute. What are we feelin’ tonight? We’ve been doing this for ten years. We know these songs in and out. We really jam out on them and make them our own. They’ve never heard a lot of this put together like that before. It is very in the moment.”

Even more challenging perhaps is how to segue between songs of the two bands, and their slightly different styles. Crair states, “From a musician’s standpoint, it’s very bluesy based, it’s very rock and roll based. It’s very psychedelic, and there are some serious opportunities to shift between, in terms of tempo and feel, that just kind of work.” He adds, “It’s very unrehearsed. We don’t practice that much anymore, because we’ve been playing together for ten years, and we know these songs. We talk ahead of time. That’s part of the jam band mystique. We just let it go on stage.”

Take for example, a recent show in Boulder. A segment in the middle of the show went like this: “Playing in the Band” into “One Slip” from Floyd’s 1987 Momentary Lapse of Reason into “Time” from Dark Side of the Moon. Then two Dead songs, “Stella Blue” and “Not Fade Away,” followed by “Empty Spaces” and “Young Lust” from The Wall, before reprising “Playing In The Band.”

Catch them on a Midwest swing with stops in Chicago on August 2nd and 4th, 2019, with a St. Louis area gig sandwiched in between. That is followed by shows back in Denver in late August.

For more info, visit them on the web at DeadFloyd.com or Facebook.

And if you’re still on the fence, check out the shows they’ve posted to Archive.org

On The Run, the Long Strange Trip continues…..

The RadioActivity’s Most BestEst

June 26, 2019 by Marty Masters

I’m your Uncle Marty as The 3D RadioActivity reaches number 488, where we’ll drill down into the most superlative music for the third time. Martha Stewart might say, “it’s a good thing”, we’re going beyond those tangibles that are far more than superior, they’re The BEST.

**Download here:**
https://archive.org/download/The3dRadioactivity/3dradio_20190623-MostBestEst.mp3
**or click to play:**

Get your helmet ready for next time as we take the RadioActivity out for our fourth RIDE, going back for more choice cuts that have not been featured on our Frequency before. I always am open to suggestions, tell me yours by sending email or leave a message on our Facebook page where you can give us a Like, and you can find hyperlinks to all of the earlier episodes and graphics in the photo section. Tell all your circle of best friends and family to look for us on Theacidflashback.com, http://www.villageconnectionmagazine.com/ Long Island, New York; Denver’s MileHiRadio, TuneIn and InternetFM dot com, because the best FM radio is now on the Internet.

Until we meet again, Always Rock On!

…Uncle Marty

“It’s not true I had nothing on, I had the radio on.”

…Marilyn Monroe

Dead & Company at the Hollywood Bowl – June 3 and 4, 2019

June 7, 2019 by Steve Leventhal

Writing about a Grateful Dead concert is always more than just a concert review. It’s been twenty-four years since Jerry Garcia’s death, but the band has reincarnated itself several times. They may have finally found a lineup that can deliver a true Deadhead-worthy experience.

John Mayer, Mickey Hart, Bob Weir, Oteil Burbridge.
Photo by Doug Clifton

Trey Anastasio (Phish), Warren Haynes (Gov’t Mule) and John Kadlecik (Dark Star Orchestra) are among the top flight guitarists who have attempted to fill Jerry’s shoes on stage over the years. Now the band may have finally found it’s grateful groove by dropping bassist Phil Lesh, and adding singer-songwriter John Mayer, as well as keyboardist Jeff Chimenti (from Bob Weir’s band Rat Dog) and bassist Oteil Burbridge (from Aquarium Rescue Unit and most recently, the Allman Brothers).

The third and fourth dates on the summer tour played to sold out crowds at the Hollywood Bowl on June 3rd and 4th.

Shakedown Street, photo courtesy of Mike Perlow

It was a warm and sunny afternoon, so the nearby parking lots were filled with people hawking clothing, stickers, trinkets, beer, paraphernalia, and food. Some vendors were selling weed pretty openly. This is California after all. There were also quite a few sellers of nitrous oxide filled balloons. These entrepreneurs were decidedly not a part of the Deadhead community, but that didn’t seem to dent sales one bit. This bizarre bazaar, is commonly known as “Shakedown Street” after one of the band’s songs, has an economy where you can buy, sell, or barter just about anything. Beer for stickers. Food for a poster. The only thing in short supply were show tickets.

Dead & Company, photo by SRN Broadcasting

The band chose “Terrapin Station” as their closer the first night and opened night two with John Coltrane’s “A Love Supreme,” accompanied by The Jazz Band and Marching Band Drum Line from Los Angeles High School, and then reprised the song late in the second set. The closer Tuesday night was “Brokedown Palace,” another fan favorite from the 1970 release American Beauty. In keeping with a departure from the typical Dead show, the band segued from “Cassidy” into “Fire On The Mountain,” a song that normally would have followed “Scarlet Begonias.”

It would be easy for this group to simply go out on stage and play from the standard Dead repertoire. All the new “Jerrys” have been able to go out and perform songs that were noticeably absent from the Grateful Dead’s late eighties and early nineties set lists. Songs like “The Eleven,” “Mr. Charlie,” and “It Hurts Me Too” have risen from the grave and received new life on tour. The addition of Mayer has been a pleasant surprise. He handles the Garcia parts with skill, versatility, and is faithful to the inspired improvisations the Dead are renown for. This ensemble has definitely taken things to the next level.

The acoustics at the Hollywood Bowl were outstanding. Even two-thirds of the way back in our seats, we could clearly hear every word, and every note it seemed. The video screen had some very (surprise) psychedelic graphics, and the crowd was signing and dancing along. One of the best things about a Dead show is that even if you aren’t in your exact seats, no one seemed to mind, and things work themselves out, so everyone has a good time. It’s one of the best audience vibes anywhere.

Monday highlights also included a passionate rendition of “Bird Song,” from Garcia’s eponymous album of 1972, and a searing version of “Sugaree,” one of Jerry’s best loved songs. Mayer will never replace Garcia. No one can, but he’s been a very, very capable stage companion for the rest of the group.

June 3, 2019 – Hollywood Bowl

Set 1:
Cold Rain and Snow
Hell in a Bucket
Easy Wind
Mississippi Half-Step Uptown Toodeloo
High Time
Jack Straw
Bird Song
Don’t Ease Me In
Set 2:
Iko Iko
New Speedway Boogie
Sugaree
Help on the Way > Slipknot! > Franklin’s Tower
Drums > Space
Stella Blue
Not Fade Away
Encore: Lady With A Fan >Terrapin Station

June 4, 2019 – Hollywood Bowl

Set 1:
A Love Supreme
Shakedown Street
Friend of the Devil
Alabama Getaway
Ramble On Rose
Brown-Eyed Women
Cassidy > Fire on the Mountain
Set 2:
Estimated Prophet
Truckin’
He’s Gone
St. Stephen
Turn On Your Love Light
Drums > Space > A Love Supreme (reprise)
Standing on the Moon
U.S. Blues
Encore: Brokedown Palace

YouTube: Cassidy > Fire On The Mountain

Concert Review – Nick Mason at the Paramount Theatre in Denver

March 28, 2019 by Steve Leventhal

former Pink Floyd drummer brings his Saucerful of Secrets tour to North America

“I got tired of waiting after twenty years for David (Gilmour) or Roger (Waters) to ring me up, so put my own band together,” explains the seventy-five year-old founding member of Pink Floyd. The ensemble includes long-time Pink Floyd and David Gilmour bass player Guy Pratt, Blockheads guitarist Lee Harris, Spandau Ballet’s Gary Kemp on guitar and vocals, and producer/composer Dom Beken on keyboards.

Last week, the group came to downtown Denver’s Paramount Theatre on the seventh stop of the North American leg of the tour playing a variety of songs from the band’s early catalog. The six albums whose material was performed were all release before the classic Dark Side of the Moon.

Throughout the two-hour and fifteen minute show, the band paid their respects to the various members of Pink Floyd, including Syd Barrett, who had to leave the band as his continued use of psychedelics got him kicked out of the band. Nonetheless, Barrett as the original songwriter left his legacy on Floyd’s first two singles and debut album. The also included his solo composition “Vegetable Man”, which Mason acknowledged had never been performed at a Pink Floyd concert.

Two new songs were added for this leg of the tour, “Remember A Day” from 1968’s Saucerful of Secrets, and “Childhood’s End”, which can be found on Obscured by Clouds, released four years later. The later song, is loosely based on the Arthur C. Clarke novel of the same name.

The musicians did an amazing job of reproducing the album vocals of Barrett, Gilmour, and Waters, as well as a nearly note for note on the songs. Any fan of the vintage Floyd, was treated to the kind of show they would have seen in 1972, in an intimate setting, as opposed the large arenas and mammoth stadium gigs of the later years.

Here’s a good YouTube video with highlights from the show.

https://youtu.be/xLQudvIbHMY

If you can catch this show at any of the remaining tour stops, you won’t regret it.

Setlist (courtesy of setlist.fm)

Interstellar Overdrive
Astronomy Domine
Lucifer Sam
Fearless
Obscured by Clouds
When You’re In
Remember a Day
Arnold Layne
Vegetable Man
If
Atom Heart Mother
The Nile Song
Green Is the Colour
Let There Be More Light
Childhood’s End
Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun
See Emily Play
Bike
One of These Days
Encore:
A Saucerful of Secrets
Point Me at the Sky

Fleetwood Mac at The Spectrum Center, Charlotte, NC

February 26, 2019 by Tim Sanford

In a continuation of last year’s trend of “go see Rock’n’Roll Hall of Famers on their One Last Go-round tour”, I took the whole family to Fleetwood Mac. All in all a really good show, probably better than I expected. I had never seen Fleetwood Mac, in spite of being somewhat of a fan, particularly of Christine McVie’s work. So the years they toured without Christine I just wasn’t interested, like Mike Mills with R.E.M., in my opinion she makes the band. Rather than a blow-by-blow, just some observations –

Fleetwood Mac at the Spectrum Center, Charlotte, NC – 2/24/19

Neil Finn and Mike Campbell add some much-needed energy to the band, with Finn at age 60 being a decade younger than the youngest (Stevie Nicks) of the classic Mac lineup. Campbell is 69, but he was to many observers the star of the show. Wearing a ridiculous looking hat that was a cross between Roger Glover and Slash, he played the guitar god that he is to the hilt, unlike when he was a sideman to Tom Petty. Everyone knew he was a great, great guitarist, but it was Tom’s show. Lindsey Buckingham is a great guitarist, but I’ve never thought of him as a rocker, Campbell ROCKED. After a couple of songs, Carrie says “that guitar dude is the bomb!”. Well, duh, he played lead for TOM F**KIN’ PETTY for 40 years. Campbell is more than adequate as a replacement guitarist for Buckingham, he nailed the trademark stinging guitar lines on the classics and played top-notch blues rock that no one ever heard Lindsey play on some of the back catalog (more on that in a moment).

I had goosebumps for the whole performance of Don’t Dream It’s Over by Finn, such a great song, he did it full justice. At other times, he bounced around the stage, like Campbell, seemed more exuberant than in his former bands. But hey, if Mick Fleetwood calls you and asks you to join one of the most legendary bands ever, I guess you’d be pretty fired up.

John McVie was a non-entity, standing at the back of the stage, and buried in the mix, he was inaudible. While we’re on that topic, the sound was good, but not great, during the rave-up portions of Oh Well, it was pretty much noise (as it was on the original, we have way better sound technology now, but maybe they were trying to be authentic).

Song Highlights:

Second Hand News – the band was ultra-tight on this one (as they were throughout the night), it was actually quite rockin’. The 6 member Mac was accompanied by an additional keyboardist, guitarist, percussionist, and 2 female back-up singers.

Black Magic Woman – this was spectacular. Stevie introduced it, even admitting that when she joined the band she had no idea it was a Mac song. Stevie sang, Campbell kicked ass, it turned into an extended jam with Campbell exchanging blues lick with the 75-year-old Christine on keys, I always knew she was a brilliant singer-songwriter, but never knew she had keyboard chops like that.

Tell Me All the Things You Do – Christine introduced this one, it is a Danny Kirwan song. There was a mass exodus for beer/bathroom, including me, fortunately I could still hear it out in the concourse, it is actually a rockin’ guitar song, Campbell and Finn rocked out. Check it out – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e6iLfnWiLYg

World Turning – one of my favorite Mac songs, in the middle there was a long extended percussion jam between Fleetwood ( who was yelling in tongues the whole time) and percussionist Taku Hirano, who is magnificent. Fleetwood has a lot of energy for his age, but was visibly winded at the end. VERY trippy visuals on the big screen behind the stage during this one, people lit up during this one and the other druggy songs.

Oh Well – Mike Campbell unleashed his inner Peter Green, both singing and playing lead guitar. “Don’t ask me what I think of you, I might not give the answer that you want me to.” Hard rock ecstasy, bounding on heavy metal.

I already mentioned Don’t Dream It’s Over, exquisite, everyone sang along on this one and of course the radio wear-out songs.

Monday Morning – very good, worth mentioning because it was an additional song to the set list they played the night before in Columbia.

Gold Dust Woman – long, very trippy, drugged out head music jam, with Stevie doing her stoned whirling dervish act all over the stage. Excellent.

Go Your Own Way – I’ve been burned out on this song for decades, I loved it the first 4000 times I heard it, then couldn’t stand to hear it. But it was spectacular, they rocked the house in a large way, I had goosebumps throughout this one as well.

Encore:

Free Falling – very nice tribute to TP, lots of slides of him with Stevie, him with Mike, even one with all 3 of them. Made my eyes water.

That was followed by an uninspired version of Don’t Stop, I think the septuagenarian band members were tiring, the last song was a sappy duet between Christine and Stevie from their worst-selling album, then Mick came out and babbled for about 5 minutes. Both he and Stevie are perma-fried from all the drugs, most awkward moment of the night was after Don’t Dream It’s Over, here’s the Observer’s report on it –

“It is, you know, Oscar night, right? You’re all here, but it’s still Oscar night. So since I really don’t know anybody in Sou — South Carolina,” and here Nicks paused for a millisecond. It felt, at least to me, like that millisecond lasted half an hour — and if it actually had, I would have done everything in my power to get a note to her, warning her of her impending mistake. I think she sensed something was off. But it was too late.

You could almost feel everyone in the arena holding their breaths, getting ready to slap their hands against their foreheads (including Finn), as she spit it out:

“So since I really don’t know anybody in Sou — South Carolina, I would just like to say, ‘The OSCAR GOES TO SOUTH CAROLINA!’” She could probably tell immediately that she’d screwed up, since fans weren’t cheering like she’d surely hoped. We all just muttered some form of “OMG” to our dates, in unison. She quickly blurted out “CHARLOTTE!” But now it was waytoo late.

Finn didn’t know how to save her. And she arguably made things worse by stumbling through an explanation that made practically no sense whatsoever. “North Carolina is in my brain, thank you, because — I think because of the Sturgis Motorcycle Benefit place — big festival, right? That’s like in North Dakota, right? It has nothing to do with this except for the north —”

(Quick side note: The Sturgis Motorcycle Rally takes place in South Dakota.)

“We’re covering everybody,” Finn broke in, forcing some laughter. “It’s great. We’ve just got everyone —”

“We are. We’re at the festival, we’re at the Oscars, we’re everywhere tonight!” Nicks said. “So anyway. OK. I’m sorry, I’m sorry. Sometimes, you know, five years of speech communication, it’s like — in college, I just have to…” and she trailed off, saying something I couldn’t make out.

Finn laughed nervously again, and suggested everyone take a deep breath. Everyone took a deep breath.

FLEETWOOD MAC’S SETLIST

1. “The Chain”
2. “Little Lies”
3. “Dreams”
4. “Second Hand News”
5. “Say You Love Me”
6. “Black Magic Woman”
7. “Everywhere”
8. “Rhiannon”
9. “Tell Me All the Things You Do”
10. “World Turning”
11. “Gypsy”
12. “Oh Well”
13. “Don’t Dream It’s Over” (Crowded House cover)
14. “Landslide”
15. “Hold Me”
16. “Monday Morning”
17. “You Make Loving Fun”
18. “Gold Dust Woman”
19. “Go Your Own Way”

Encore:
20. “Free Fallin’” (Tom Petty cover)
21. “Don’t Stop”
22. “All Over Again”

Get 3D

December 20, 2018 by Marty Masters

I’m your Uncle Marty, this is The 3D RadioActivity, installment #461 is going to be a ton of fun, as we explore even more than the Rhythm that you’ll GET.

Download here:
https://archive.org/download/The3dRadioactivity/3dradio_20181216-Get3D.mp3

Some of our programs seem to create themselves as this one did. Were you able to GET your fill? If not, dial us up next time as we naturally progress to the music that GOT us to this point. We can’t do it without your inspiration to fire us up, let me know what you have in mind by sending email, or a message on our Facebook page which has links to all the earlier episodes, graphics and our archives in the photo section. As long as you are online, give us a “Like”, tell your friends to check us out, and be sure to look for us on Theacidflashback.com, http://www.villageconnectionmagazine.com/ Long Island, New York;Denver’s MileHiRadio, TuneIn and InternetFM dot com, because the best FM radio is now on the Internet.

Thanks for making us part of your plan, and Always Always, Always, Rock On!

…Uncle Marty

“It’s not true I had nothing on, I had the radio on.”

…Marilyn Monroe