You be the judge--Bob Walkenhorst of The Rainmakers (2nd from right on the album cover) vs. Neil Diamond, circa. 1972. Downright scary...
Thursday, September 18, 2008
Separated at birth?
You be the judge--Bob Walkenhorst of The Rainmakers (2nd from right on the album cover) vs. Neil Diamond, circa. 1972. Downright scary...
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Rousing the rabble
Could you describe the rabble?
PALIN IS FAILIN’…
…to impress me. The more I learn about this woman, the more I dislike her. Not that I was planning to vote for John McCain anyway, but having a homophobic, anti-abortion, Creationist conservative super-Christian on his ticket sure ain’t gonna sway me, not to mention that Palin is a big-time suck-up to the oil companies and the NRA. Before I catch hell for what I say about Palin, let me point out that I’m not sexist and I am ALL FOR the idea of a woman in the White House someday. I’m just not convinced that the ex-Mayor of Moose Twit, Alaska (or whatever her town’s called) is qualified to run the big show, and I couldn’t take any more Clinton shenanigans, therefore Hillary ain’t the answer either. To quote something I saw in the paper today: "Life’s a bitch—don’t vote for one…"
Palin also has this very artificial Katie Couric cutie-pie air about her that makes her look rather Stepford-Wifey and phony to me. And I hate the way she always wears her hair up like a prom queen. I’ve never understood women who have long hair but always wear it up—why not just cut it short and not have to fuck with it?
Predictably, the McCain camp is pitching a fit over Tiny Fey’s impression of Palin on "Saturday Night Live" the other night, claiming it was sexist and demeaning. Funny, they don’t seem to mind when women like Hillary Clinton, Rosie O’Donnell and Oprah are lampooned on SNL and other TV shows of that ilk, and I don’t hear Barack Obama pissing and moaning whenever he’s been sent-up on the tube. Sorry kids, but Palin is a politician, so by definition, she’s fair game in my book to be spoofed every bit as much as any male politician, so suck it up and deal with it, Republicans!
MORE HYPOCRISY
Check out this little blurb submitted by a K.C. Star reader: "Charles Gibson’s demeanor during his interview with Gov. Palin was stone-faced, abrupt, subtly hostile and condescending. What a poor reflection of the unbiased media."
Okay, then why didn’t this gal complain when douche-bag Bill O’Reilly interviewed Obama?
WAS THIS REALLY NECESSARY?
Big hoop-de-doo locally yesterday as Johnson County held the sentencing hearing for Edwin Hall, the tick-turd who murdered 18-year-old Kelsey Smith last year, the story of which generated national (not to mention sensationalistic) headlines. His sentence was already determined months ago at the trial because of the plea agreement that was reached—so why do the courts insist on wasting taxpayer dollars on this formality? I say throw his sorry ass in jail already and move on!
And of course, the media milked this story for all it’s worth and played it up so they could tug at our collective heartstrings one more time. Again, I don’t mean to sound insensitive to the victim or her family—this was a terrible thing to happen to anyone—but I, for one, am growing really weary of all the hypocritical attention this case has garnered solely because Kelsey was a pretty white girl when so many other people of all races and both sexes are murdered every hour in this country, yet the majority of them never have their story told. Another thing I’m tired of hearing is how Kelsey’s parents (who seemingly have become addicted to the media spotlight) "plan to keep their daughter’s memory alive through the foundation they established. The goal is to stop the senseless killings that seem to never end," according to the K.C. Star. A noble aim, to be sure, but I fail to see how merely throwing money at this problem is going to make it all go away. Color me cynical all you want, but they’re dreaming if they think their little foundation is going to make a lick of difference. Nutbags are going to kill innocent people no matter what precautions one takes.
AND YOUR POINT IS?
Speaking of murder and mayhem, I give you this from the AP today: "A double murderer scheduled to be executed next month in Ohio said Tuesday he has not deliberately gained weight to rule out his death by lethal injection. Instead, Richard Cooey said in a death row interview that his execution cannot be carried out humanely under current state procedures because his veins are hard to reach. ‘Vein access was an issue even when I was back in the service,’ Cooey, 41, said in an hour-long interview with the Associated Press at the Ohio State Penitentiary."
Okay, let me get this straight—this fucker killed two people, and they’re worried about treating HIM humanely? If you can’t get the damn needle in him, then beat him over the head with with a 10-pound sledgehammer and get it over with—fuck being humane!
"WE’RE ALL COMMUNISTS NOW!"
That’s what CNBC "Mad Money" host/financial "expert" Jim Cramer says in light of the federal bailout of AIG, et al. Uhh, I’d sooner take financial advice from Krusty The Clown than this bombastic goomer who looks like the Muppet heckler Waldorf on Speed, the way he waves his arms around all the time. I can’t believe this bozo is still even on the air, but I guess he still has enough sycophants to justify his airtime. There are some real suckers out there…
By the way, how is it AIG, Merrill-Lynch, Lehman Bros., et al, all just suddenly found themselves on the verge of bankruptcy over the same weekend?
NORMAN WHITFIELD, 1941-2008
Motown producer/songwriter Norman Whitfield died yesterday at age 67 of complications from diabetes. He deserved induction into the Rock 'N' Roll Hall of Fame for "Papa Was A Rolling Stone" alone, but he also wrote such classics as "Heard It Through The Grapevine", "War" and "Ain't Too Proud To Beg", and produced "Car Wash" for Rose Royce, among many others. Prolific, indeed...
RICK WRIGHT, 1943-2008
Longtime Pink Floyd keyboardist Rick Wright also joined that "Great Gig In The Sky" this week of cancer. I didn't know a whole lot about the man, but he was instrumental (literally) in my two favorite Floyd songs ever—"Us And Them" and the vastly-underrated "One Of These Days". Why bassist Roger Waters was/is such a douche and kicked Wright out of the band for a time after The Wall came out is beyond me. He certainly was in the Wright...
DEM BONES, DEM BONES!
Congratulations to our Kansas City T-Bones for winning the Northern League minor league baseball championship last night over those dreaded Gary (Indiana) RailCats. The team is your basic cast of cast-offs, including former Royal Ken Harvey and former St. Louis Cardinals upstart Bo Hart. It is what it is—MINOR minor league baseball—but it’s still a fun time at their games. They play in a first-class ballpark over by the Kansas Speedway and draw surprisingly well, considering their low profile. One can attribute some of their success to the Royals’ lack of success over at Kauffman Stadium these past few years, not to mention free parking, cheap food, low ticket prices and a burgeoning entertainment district across the road at The Legends. I’ve heard the Northern League might be on its last legs, though, so the Bones might be playing in another league next season.
In spite of their championship, I wouldn’t count on any ticker-tape parade for the T-Bones down Minnesota Avenue in K.C.K.—there aren’t enough armored vehicles in the state of Kansas to protect the players from that shooting gallery…
WEDNESDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL?!?
Kansas State plays at Louisville tonight on ESPN. Aren’t we getting a little carried away now? I’m a major mondo football fan here, but even I’m getting tired of all these weeknight games these days—shit, they’re playing college games literally every night of the week now on ESPN. I kinda like having that break during the week to get fired-up for the upcoming weekend's games, but now the lines are getting so blurred, it's hard to tell one weekend from the next. What’s next—Tuesday morning football?
PALIN IS FAILIN’…
…to impress me. The more I learn about this woman, the more I dislike her. Not that I was planning to vote for John McCain anyway, but having a homophobic, anti-abortion, Creationist conservative super-Christian on his ticket sure ain’t gonna sway me, not to mention that Palin is a big-time suck-up to the oil companies and the NRA. Before I catch hell for what I say about Palin, let me point out that I’m not sexist and I am ALL FOR the idea of a woman in the White House someday. I’m just not convinced that the ex-Mayor of Moose Twit, Alaska (or whatever her town’s called) is qualified to run the big show, and I couldn’t take any more Clinton shenanigans, therefore Hillary ain’t the answer either. To quote something I saw in the paper today: "Life’s a bitch—don’t vote for one…"
Palin also has this very artificial Katie Couric cutie-pie air about her that makes her look rather Stepford-Wifey and phony to me. And I hate the way she always wears her hair up like a prom queen. I’ve never understood women who have long hair but always wear it up—why not just cut it short and not have to fuck with it?
Predictably, the McCain camp is pitching a fit over Tiny Fey’s impression of Palin on "Saturday Night Live" the other night, claiming it was sexist and demeaning. Funny, they don’t seem to mind when women like Hillary Clinton, Rosie O’Donnell and Oprah are lampooned on SNL and other TV shows of that ilk, and I don’t hear Barack Obama pissing and moaning whenever he’s been sent-up on the tube. Sorry kids, but Palin is a politician, so by definition, she’s fair game in my book to be spoofed every bit as much as any male politician, so suck it up and deal with it, Republicans!
MORE HYPOCRISY
Check out this little blurb submitted by a K.C. Star reader: "Charles Gibson’s demeanor during his interview with Gov. Palin was stone-faced, abrupt, subtly hostile and condescending. What a poor reflection of the unbiased media."
Okay, then why didn’t this gal complain when douche-bag Bill O’Reilly interviewed Obama?
WAS THIS REALLY NECESSARY?
Big hoop-de-doo locally yesterday as Johnson County held the sentencing hearing for Edwin Hall, the tick-turd who murdered 18-year-old Kelsey Smith last year, the story of which generated national (not to mention sensationalistic) headlines. His sentence was already determined months ago at the trial because of the plea agreement that was reached—so why do the courts insist on wasting taxpayer dollars on this formality? I say throw his sorry ass in jail already and move on!
And of course, the media milked this story for all it’s worth and played it up so they could tug at our collective heartstrings one more time. Again, I don’t mean to sound insensitive to the victim or her family—this was a terrible thing to happen to anyone—but I, for one, am growing really weary of all the hypocritical attention this case has garnered solely because Kelsey was a pretty white girl when so many other people of all races and both sexes are murdered every hour in this country, yet the majority of them never have their story told. Another thing I’m tired of hearing is how Kelsey’s parents (who seemingly have become addicted to the media spotlight) "plan to keep their daughter’s memory alive through the foundation they established. The goal is to stop the senseless killings that seem to never end," according to the K.C. Star. A noble aim, to be sure, but I fail to see how merely throwing money at this problem is going to make it all go away. Color me cynical all you want, but they’re dreaming if they think their little foundation is going to make a lick of difference. Nutbags are going to kill innocent people no matter what precautions one takes.
AND YOUR POINT IS?
Speaking of murder and mayhem, I give you this from the AP today: "A double murderer scheduled to be executed next month in Ohio said Tuesday he has not deliberately gained weight to rule out his death by lethal injection. Instead, Richard Cooey said in a death row interview that his execution cannot be carried out humanely under current state procedures because his veins are hard to reach. ‘Vein access was an issue even when I was back in the service,’ Cooey, 41, said in an hour-long interview with the Associated Press at the Ohio State Penitentiary."
Okay, let me get this straight—this fucker killed two people, and they’re worried about treating HIM humanely? If you can’t get the damn needle in him, then beat him over the head with with a 10-pound sledgehammer and get it over with—fuck being humane!
"WE’RE ALL COMMUNISTS NOW!"
That’s what CNBC "Mad Money" host/financial "expert" Jim Cramer says in light of the federal bailout of AIG, et al. Uhh, I’d sooner take financial advice from Krusty The Clown than this bombastic goomer who looks like the Muppet heckler Waldorf on Speed, the way he waves his arms around all the time. I can’t believe this bozo is still even on the air, but I guess he still has enough sycophants to justify his airtime. There are some real suckers out there…
By the way, how is it AIG, Merrill-Lynch, Lehman Bros., et al, all just suddenly found themselves on the verge of bankruptcy over the same weekend?
NORMAN WHITFIELD, 1941-2008
Motown producer/songwriter Norman Whitfield died yesterday at age 67 of complications from diabetes. He deserved induction into the Rock 'N' Roll Hall of Fame for "Papa Was A Rolling Stone" alone, but he also wrote such classics as "Heard It Through The Grapevine", "War" and "Ain't Too Proud To Beg", and produced "Car Wash" for Rose Royce, among many others. Prolific, indeed...
RICK WRIGHT, 1943-2008
Longtime Pink Floyd keyboardist Rick Wright also joined that "Great Gig In The Sky" this week of cancer. I didn't know a whole lot about the man, but he was instrumental (literally) in my two favorite Floyd songs ever—"Us And Them" and the vastly-underrated "One Of These Days". Why bassist Roger Waters was/is such a douche and kicked Wright out of the band for a time after The Wall came out is beyond me. He certainly was in the Wright...
DEM BONES, DEM BONES!
Congratulations to our Kansas City T-Bones for winning the Northern League minor league baseball championship last night over those dreaded Gary (Indiana) RailCats. The team is your basic cast of cast-offs, including former Royal Ken Harvey and former St. Louis Cardinals upstart Bo Hart. It is what it is—MINOR minor league baseball—but it’s still a fun time at their games. They play in a first-class ballpark over by the Kansas Speedway and draw surprisingly well, considering their low profile. One can attribute some of their success to the Royals’ lack of success over at Kauffman Stadium these past few years, not to mention free parking, cheap food, low ticket prices and a burgeoning entertainment district across the road at The Legends. I’ve heard the Northern League might be on its last legs, though, so the Bones might be playing in another league next season.
In spite of their championship, I wouldn’t count on any ticker-tape parade for the T-Bones down Minnesota Avenue in K.C.K.—there aren’t enough armored vehicles in the state of Kansas to protect the players from that shooting gallery…
WEDNESDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL?!?
Kansas State plays at Louisville tonight on ESPN. Aren’t we getting a little carried away now? I’m a major mondo football fan here, but even I’m getting tired of all these weeknight games these days—shit, they’re playing college games literally every night of the week now on ESPN. I kinda like having that break during the week to get fired-up for the upcoming weekend's games, but now the lines are getting so blurred, it's hard to tell one weekend from the next. What’s next—Tuesday morning football?
Monday, September 15, 2008
Another Monday shot to hell...
HAIL (STONES) TO THE CHEFS!
Up until now, I’ve been patient with head coach Herm Edwards, I’ve given G.M. Carl Peterson the benefit of numerous doubts and I’ve put up with Larry Johnson’s chronic pissing and moaning, but after that sorry-ass performance yesterday against the Raiders at Arrowhead, my patience has reached its end. I firmly believe the U. of Missouri would’ve kicked the crap out of the Chefs yesterday. Granted, the Chefs don’t have the greatest talent on the team as a whole, but they should’ve been good enough to beat Oakland, who got flogged by the Broncos last week on MNF. Johnson was just shy of worthless—22 yards rushing on 12 carries? Hey LJ, try running somewhere else besides right up your own lineman’s ass, and you might gain a few more yards. I blame yesterday’s debacle totally on the coaching staff—that team was obviously not prepared to play a decent football game, and it reminded me of those lovely days back in the late ‘70s when the Chefs were absolutely abysmal and only 15,000 people even bothered to show up to watch them every Sunday. Those days are about to return, so we best get used to the games being blacked-out on local TV because the sellout streak at Arrowhead is ovah after this…
SPEAKING OF SELLOUTS…
Is anyone besides me already getting tired of those TV ads featuring Jerry Seinfeld and Bill Gates? Yes I know, Seinfeld’s been a corporate shill for years, but I don’t recall comedians George Carlin, Richard Pryor or Robin Williams feeling the need to do TV commercials. And what the fuck does Bill Gates need the money for doing these ads for?
COMMITMENT TO EXCELLENCE?
In Raiders owner Al Davis’ case, it’s more like a commitment to being committed, as talk swirled this week that he’s about to fire his second-year head coach Lane Kiffin just two games into the season. There’s a big reason why the Raidas have sucked big-time in recent years, and it’s not Kiffin—it’s Davis himself! He’s made numerous questionable personnel decisions and has gone through more head coaches than the K.C. school district has gone through superintendents over the last ten years or so. Hey Al, just retire, baby…
GET BENT, BECKHAM!
I know I’ve ranted about this subject before here, but it bears repeating—I just don’t get all the hysteria over David Beckham, do you? I guess he’s like the Tiger Woods of outdoor soccer, but this obsession over him by the media and fans is getting to be a joke. Becks was in town Saturday night with the L.A. Galaxy to play our mighty K.C. Wizards. Even though the Wizzes have been playing soccer all season in a minor league baseball stadium (the T-Bones’ insert-corporate-name-here Ballpark) because of renovations to Arrowhead, the ‘Head suddenly became available for this match so gullible fans could pay an extra $10 a ticket and $12 bucks to park (which is normally free at the T-Bone joint) just to see Beckham be a non-factor in the Wizzes’ 2-0 win over the Galaxy. Apart from all the abject hysteria he’s caused, Beckham’s impact on the game of soccer in this country has been minimal, at best, and nearly non-existent on his own team, which has the worst record in Major League Soccer and hasn’t even won a game since June. My friend Steve in England swears up and down that Beckham truly is the shit, and is worthy of all this folderol, but I personally think he’s more like (as the Brits also say) the shite!
CLASSIC MISHEARD LYRIC #95
"Join Together"—THE WHO (1972) "Do you really think I care, what you read or what you wear?" Or as I originally heard it, "Do you really think I care, what you EAT or what you wear..."
POOR OZZIE GETS UPSTAGED ONCE AGAIN
I couldn’t help but chuckle last night when ESPN cut away from their broadcast of Ozzie Guillen’s Chicago White Sox playing Detroit to show the final three outs of the Cubs’ Carlos Zambrano’s no-hitter in Milwaukee against Houston. Ozzie’s always bitching and whining that the Sox never get any respect in Chi-Town, even after winning the World Series in ’05, and that the Cubs always get the lion’s share of the love in spite of their 100-year championship drought. Could this be because the Cubs conduct themselves with a fair amount of class, Ozzie? I hope Minnesota catches the White Sox and knocks them out of the playoffs.
Meantime, even though I’m a Cubs fan, I do think the Astros kinda got screwed on this deal by having to play these games in Milwaukee because of Hurricane Ike. Milwaukee is practically a northern suburb of Chicago, and Miller Park is almost the Cubs’ home-away-from-home as it is, because whenever they play the Brewers there, the place is over half-filled with Cub fans who make the 90-minute drive. Seems to me that Cincinnati, St. Louis or even Atlanta might’ve been a more suitable alternative.
Up until now, I’ve been patient with head coach Herm Edwards, I’ve given G.M. Carl Peterson the benefit of numerous doubts and I’ve put up with Larry Johnson’s chronic pissing and moaning, but after that sorry-ass performance yesterday against the Raiders at Arrowhead, my patience has reached its end. I firmly believe the U. of Missouri would’ve kicked the crap out of the Chefs yesterday. Granted, the Chefs don’t have the greatest talent on the team as a whole, but they should’ve been good enough to beat Oakland, who got flogged by the Broncos last week on MNF. Johnson was just shy of worthless—22 yards rushing on 12 carries? Hey LJ, try running somewhere else besides right up your own lineman’s ass, and you might gain a few more yards. I blame yesterday’s debacle totally on the coaching staff—that team was obviously not prepared to play a decent football game, and it reminded me of those lovely days back in the late ‘70s when the Chefs were absolutely abysmal and only 15,000 people even bothered to show up to watch them every Sunday. Those days are about to return, so we best get used to the games being blacked-out on local TV because the sellout streak at Arrowhead is ovah after this…
SPEAKING OF SELLOUTS…
Is anyone besides me already getting tired of those TV ads featuring Jerry Seinfeld and Bill Gates? Yes I know, Seinfeld’s been a corporate shill for years, but I don’t recall comedians George Carlin, Richard Pryor or Robin Williams feeling the need to do TV commercials. And what the fuck does Bill Gates need the money for doing these ads for?
COMMITMENT TO EXCELLENCE?
In Raiders owner Al Davis’ case, it’s more like a commitment to being committed, as talk swirled this week that he’s about to fire his second-year head coach Lane Kiffin just two games into the season. There’s a big reason why the Raidas have sucked big-time in recent years, and it’s not Kiffin—it’s Davis himself! He’s made numerous questionable personnel decisions and has gone through more head coaches than the K.C. school district has gone through superintendents over the last ten years or so. Hey Al, just retire, baby…
GET BENT, BECKHAM!
I know I’ve ranted about this subject before here, but it bears repeating—I just don’t get all the hysteria over David Beckham, do you? I guess he’s like the Tiger Woods of outdoor soccer, but this obsession over him by the media and fans is getting to be a joke. Becks was in town Saturday night with the L.A. Galaxy to play our mighty K.C. Wizards. Even though the Wizzes have been playing soccer all season in a minor league baseball stadium (the T-Bones’ insert-corporate-name-here Ballpark) because of renovations to Arrowhead, the ‘Head suddenly became available for this match so gullible fans could pay an extra $10 a ticket and $12 bucks to park (which is normally free at the T-Bone joint) just to see Beckham be a non-factor in the Wizzes’ 2-0 win over the Galaxy. Apart from all the abject hysteria he’s caused, Beckham’s impact on the game of soccer in this country has been minimal, at best, and nearly non-existent on his own team, which has the worst record in Major League Soccer and hasn’t even won a game since June. My friend Steve in England swears up and down that Beckham truly is the shit, and is worthy of all this folderol, but I personally think he’s more like (as the Brits also say) the shite!
CLASSIC MISHEARD LYRIC #95
"Join Together"—THE WHO (1972) "Do you really think I care, what you read or what you wear?" Or as I originally heard it, "Do you really think I care, what you EAT or what you wear..."
POOR OZZIE GETS UPSTAGED ONCE AGAIN
I couldn’t help but chuckle last night when ESPN cut away from their broadcast of Ozzie Guillen’s Chicago White Sox playing Detroit to show the final three outs of the Cubs’ Carlos Zambrano’s no-hitter in Milwaukee against Houston. Ozzie’s always bitching and whining that the Sox never get any respect in Chi-Town, even after winning the World Series in ’05, and that the Cubs always get the lion’s share of the love in spite of their 100-year championship drought. Could this be because the Cubs conduct themselves with a fair amount of class, Ozzie? I hope Minnesota catches the White Sox and knocks them out of the playoffs.
Meantime, even though I’m a Cubs fan, I do think the Astros kinda got screwed on this deal by having to play these games in Milwaukee because of Hurricane Ike. Milwaukee is practically a northern suburb of Chicago, and Miller Park is almost the Cubs’ home-away-from-home as it is, because whenever they play the Brewers there, the place is over half-filled with Cub fans who make the 90-minute drive. Seems to me that Cincinnati, St. Louis or even Atlanta might’ve been a more suitable alternative.
Friday, September 12, 2008
Concert Trek - Epilogue
Just a few odds and ends and afterthoughts on all the concerts I’ve ever attended. Thanks for indulging me if you read any or all 21 Episodes of this little journey on the blog. It was a lot of fun for me digging up some great memories and sharing them…
Tale Of The Tape
Yours truly has attended 106 concerts featuring approx. 141 different musical acts in 31 different venues in seven different states since June, 1979.
ACT SEEN MOST FREQUENTLY IN CONCERT
1) Kiss (15)
2) Ted Nugent (9) [Three times as headliner, six as an opening act]
3) [tie] Van Halen/Z.Z. Top (7)
4) The Who (5)
5) Pat Benatar (4) [Three times as headliner, once as opening act]
[Six others tied at 3 each]
VENUE MOST FREQUENTLY FREQUENTED AT CONCERTS
1) Kemper Arena (26)
2) Sandstone Amphitheater (21)
3) Municipal Auditorium (8)
4) Arrowhead Stadium (7)
5) Uptown Theater (5)
6) [Tie] Starlight Theater/Liberty Memorial Mall (4)
7) Guitars & Cadillacs—Olathe (aka, Roadhouse Ruby’s) (3)
[Five others tied at 2 each]
Misc. Rankings and Musings, etc.
BEST CONCERT
1) Elton John—Starlight Theater, 1982
2) Van Halen—Kemper Arena, 1982
3) Paul McCartney—Arrowhead Stadium, 1993
4) The Who—Reunion Arena (Dallas), 2000
5) Kiss—Alltel Arena (North Little Rock), 2000
6) Z.Z. Top—Kemper Arena, 1981
7) Styx—Kemper Arena, 1981
8) Rolling Stones—Faurot Field (Columbia, MO), 1994
9) Dave Edmunds—Uptown Theater, 1982
10) Van Halen—Kemper Arena, 1981
WORST CONCERT
1) Jackson Browne—Sandstone Amphitheater, 1993
2) Black Oak Arkansas—Land Of Oz (Kansas City, KS), 1995
3) Jethro Tull/Emerson Lake & Palmer—Sandstone Amphitheater, 1996
4) Rush—Kemper Arena, 1981
5) Styx—Kemper Arena, 1983
BEST OPENING ACT
1) Bryan Adams—Kemper Arena, 1983 [for Journey]
2) Quiet Riot—Kemper Arena, 1983 [for Z.Z. Top]
3) Twisted Sister—Kemper Arena, 1984 [for Iron Maiden]
4) Loverboy—Kemper Arena, 1981 [for Z.Z. Top]
5) A Flock Of Seagulls—Municipal Auditorium, 1982 [for The Go-Go’s]
6) Motley Crue—Municipal Auditorium, 1984 [for Ozzy Osbourne]
7) John Hiatt—Sandstone Amphitheater, 1993 [for Jackson Browne]
8) Night Ranger—Starlight Theater, 2001 [for Pat Benatar]
9) .38 Special—Arrowhead Stadium, 1981 [for Foreigner]
10) White Lion—Kansas Expocentre (Topeka), 1987 [for Kiss]
WORST OPENING ACT
1) After The Fire—Kemper Arena, 1982 [for Van Halen]
2) Blind Melon—Faurot Field (Columbia, MO), 1994 [for the Rolling Stones]
3) Mitch Ryder—Olathe Town Square, 2001 [for Mark Lindsay]
4) Ugly Kid Joe—Sandstone Amphitheater, 1992 [for Ozzy Osbourne]
5) Alice In Chains—Sandstone Amphitheater, 1991 [for Van Halen]
6) New American Shame—Roadhouse Ruby’s, 1999 [for Motorhead]
7) Jeff Black—Guitars & Cadillacs, 1996 [for John Hiatt]
8) Pat Benatar—Sandstone Amphitheater, 1997 [for Styx]
9) John Cougar (Mellencamp)—Arrowhead Stadium, 1982 [for R.E.O. Speedwagon]
10 The Pretenders—Kemper Arena, 1980 [for The Who]
BEST CONCERT THAT COST ME NOTHING TO ATTEND
1) Paul McCartney—Arrowhead Stadium, 1993 [Thanks, Nadine!]
2) The Who—Arrowhead Stadium, 1989 [Thanks, dear sister!]
3) Pat Benatar/Night Ranger—Starlight Theater, 2001 [Thanks, Rose!]
4) Quarterflash—Lyric Theater, 1981 [Thanks, KY-102!]
5) Mark Lindsay/Gary Lewis/Mitch Ryder—Olathe Town Square, 2001
[Thanks, whoever!]
BEST CONCERT VENUE
1) Starlight Theater
2) Municipal Auditorium
3) Reunion Arena (Dallas)
4) [Tie] Uptown Theater/Liberty Hall (Lawrence, KS)
5) Memorial Hall (Kansas City, KS)
WORST CONCERT VENUE
1) Beaumont Club
2) Grand Emporium
3) Sandstone Amphitheater
4) The Lone Star
5) Riverport Amphitheater (St. Louis)
HEADLINERS I GOT TO MEET AFTERWARDSJohn Entwistle (1998)
Mark Lindsay (2001)
Jerry Reed (1983)
Ray Stevens (1988)
TOP ACTS I STILL HAVE YET TO SEE, BUT WOULD LIKE TO (If I could afford tickets)
Bruce Springsteen
U2
Billy Joel
Aerosmith
Neil Diamond
ACTS I REGRET NEVER GETTING TO SEE IN CONCERT (In no particular order)
Led Zeppelin
Queen
Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band
Lynyrd Skynyrd (pre-plane crash)
Jefferson Airplane/Starship
Girlschool
Black Sabbath (w/Ozzy, and maybe w/Dio, too)
Ozzy Osbourne (w/Randy Rhoads on guitar)
Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble
Black Oak Arkansas (In their prime)
Z.Z. Top (On their 1976 "World Wide Texas Tour")
Missing Persons
Alice Cooper (In his prime)
The Who (w/Keith Moon on drums)
Kiss (in 1977, at the height of their popularity)
Tale Of The Tape
Yours truly has attended 106 concerts featuring approx. 141 different musical acts in 31 different venues in seven different states since June, 1979.
ACT SEEN MOST FREQUENTLY IN CONCERT
1) Kiss (15)
2) Ted Nugent (9) [Three times as headliner, six as an opening act]
3) [tie] Van Halen/Z.Z. Top (7)
4) The Who (5)
5) Pat Benatar (4) [Three times as headliner, once as opening act]
[Six others tied at 3 each]
VENUE MOST FREQUENTLY FREQUENTED AT CONCERTS
1) Kemper Arena (26)
2) Sandstone Amphitheater (21)
3) Municipal Auditorium (8)
4) Arrowhead Stadium (7)
5) Uptown Theater (5)
6) [Tie] Starlight Theater/Liberty Memorial Mall (4)
7) Guitars & Cadillacs—Olathe (aka, Roadhouse Ruby’s) (3)
[Five others tied at 2 each]
Misc. Rankings and Musings, etc.
BEST CONCERT
1) Elton John—Starlight Theater, 1982
2) Van Halen—Kemper Arena, 1982
3) Paul McCartney—Arrowhead Stadium, 1993
4) The Who—Reunion Arena (Dallas), 2000
5) Kiss—Alltel Arena (North Little Rock), 2000
6) Z.Z. Top—Kemper Arena, 1981
7) Styx—Kemper Arena, 1981
8) Rolling Stones—Faurot Field (Columbia, MO), 1994
9) Dave Edmunds—Uptown Theater, 1982
10) Van Halen—Kemper Arena, 1981
WORST CONCERT
1) Jackson Browne—Sandstone Amphitheater, 1993
2) Black Oak Arkansas—Land Of Oz (Kansas City, KS), 1995
3) Jethro Tull/Emerson Lake & Palmer—Sandstone Amphitheater, 1996
4) Rush—Kemper Arena, 1981
5) Styx—Kemper Arena, 1983
BEST OPENING ACT
1) Bryan Adams—Kemper Arena, 1983 [for Journey]
2) Quiet Riot—Kemper Arena, 1983 [for Z.Z. Top]
3) Twisted Sister—Kemper Arena, 1984 [for Iron Maiden]
4) Loverboy—Kemper Arena, 1981 [for Z.Z. Top]
5) A Flock Of Seagulls—Municipal Auditorium, 1982 [for The Go-Go’s]
6) Motley Crue—Municipal Auditorium, 1984 [for Ozzy Osbourne]
7) John Hiatt—Sandstone Amphitheater, 1993 [for Jackson Browne]
8) Night Ranger—Starlight Theater, 2001 [for Pat Benatar]
9) .38 Special—Arrowhead Stadium, 1981 [for Foreigner]
10) White Lion—Kansas Expocentre (Topeka), 1987 [for Kiss]
WORST OPENING ACT
1) After The Fire—Kemper Arena, 1982 [for Van Halen]
2) Blind Melon—Faurot Field (Columbia, MO), 1994 [for the Rolling Stones]
3) Mitch Ryder—Olathe Town Square, 2001 [for Mark Lindsay]
4) Ugly Kid Joe—Sandstone Amphitheater, 1992 [for Ozzy Osbourne]
5) Alice In Chains—Sandstone Amphitheater, 1991 [for Van Halen]
6) New American Shame—Roadhouse Ruby’s, 1999 [for Motorhead]
7) Jeff Black—Guitars & Cadillacs, 1996 [for John Hiatt]
8) Pat Benatar—Sandstone Amphitheater, 1997 [for Styx]
9) John Cougar (Mellencamp)—Arrowhead Stadium, 1982 [for R.E.O. Speedwagon]
10 The Pretenders—Kemper Arena, 1980 [for The Who]
BEST CONCERT THAT COST ME NOTHING TO ATTEND
1) Paul McCartney—Arrowhead Stadium, 1993 [Thanks, Nadine!]
2) The Who—Arrowhead Stadium, 1989 [Thanks, dear sister!]
3) Pat Benatar/Night Ranger—Starlight Theater, 2001 [Thanks, Rose!]
4) Quarterflash—Lyric Theater, 1981 [Thanks, KY-102!]
5) Mark Lindsay/Gary Lewis/Mitch Ryder—Olathe Town Square, 2001
[Thanks, whoever!]
BEST CONCERT VENUE
1) Starlight Theater
2) Municipal Auditorium
3) Reunion Arena (Dallas)
4) [Tie] Uptown Theater/Liberty Hall (Lawrence, KS)
5) Memorial Hall (Kansas City, KS)
WORST CONCERT VENUE
1) Beaumont Club
2) Grand Emporium
3) Sandstone Amphitheater
4) The Lone Star
5) Riverport Amphitheater (St. Louis)
HEADLINERS I GOT TO MEET AFTERWARDSJohn Entwistle (1998)
Mark Lindsay (2001)
Jerry Reed (1983)
Ray Stevens (1988)
TOP ACTS I STILL HAVE YET TO SEE, BUT WOULD LIKE TO (If I could afford tickets)
Bruce Springsteen
U2
Billy Joel
Aerosmith
Neil Diamond
ACTS I REGRET NEVER GETTING TO SEE IN CONCERT (In no particular order)
Led Zeppelin
Queen
Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band
Lynyrd Skynyrd (pre-plane crash)
Jefferson Airplane/Starship
Girlschool
Black Sabbath (w/Ozzy, and maybe w/Dio, too)
Ozzy Osbourne (w/Randy Rhoads on guitar)
Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble
Black Oak Arkansas (In their prime)
Z.Z. Top (On their 1976 "World Wide Texas Tour")
Missing Persons
Alice Cooper (In his prime)
The Who (w/Keith Moon on drums)
Kiss (in 1977, at the height of their popularity)
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
The one after 9/09
Only a hardcore Beatles fan would come up with that obscure reference…
D’OH!
Well, I got to enjoy having Tom Brady on my fantasy football team for all of seven minutes before his season came to a crashing halt in Sunday’s game with the Chefs. Even if TB had a mediocre day, my team would’ve won easily instead of losing by six lousy points. To me, this was the equivalent of finally getting that dream car I always wanted—then totaling it two blocks from my house.
As for the play in which Brady was injured, it was clearly a legal hit by K.C.’s Bernard Pollard, but that didn’t prevent Super Whiner Randy Moss from claiming it was a cheap shot and calling Pollard a dirty player. Uhhh, how would you know, Randy? You were way down at the other end of the field when it happened, fumbling the pass that you had just caught, so just loosen up your cornrows and shut the fuck up, mmm-kay?
DID I MISS A MEMO?
Since when did we start spelling Hawaii "Hawai’i"? All of sudden here lately during sporting events, our 50th state has this misbegotten apostrophe in it for some reason, even though all through school and "Hawaii Five-O" reruns, I grew up on it minus the apostrophe. Is this some Polynesian heritage deal that got overlooked or just some trendy new thing? If it’s the latter, I do hope this means my beloved home state won’t morph into "Missour’i"…
OFF THE RAILS ON THE CRAZY TRAIN
Following a movie discussion at work the other day, I decided to rent the camp film Pink Flamingos, starring the late gender-bender Divine and directed by chronic flamer John Waters, best known for 1988’s Hairspray. Waters has always come off as a strange ranger to me, but he topped himself in this one. Between this couple fornicating with (and suffocating) live chickens in one scene and Divine literally eating dog shit in another, this thing made Borat look positively mainstream. I don’t mean to be overly-analytical, and I do enjoy an off-the-wall movie now and then, but exactly what point was Waters trying to make here?
ONE DULL OF A TIME
In honor of actress MacKenzie Phillips’ recent drug bust, I decided to rent Season 1 of "One Day At A Time" this week since it’d been in my Netflix cue for quite a while. I watched that show sparingly back in the day, mostly after Valerie Bertinelli began to "blossom", you might say, but beyond that, I never much cared for it, especially Bonnie Franklin’s kill-joy mother character. After watching a few episodes again, I was reminded of how screechy Franklin and Phillips could get at times—like fingernails on a blackboard. It also got me to wondering which dinner theater in America Pat Harrington has an engagement at these days. I don’t think I’ll bother with Season 2…
A GLUTTON FOR PUNISHMENT
The Oakland A’s released former Royal Mike Sweeney yesterday, following yet another injury-truncated season. Sweeney claims he still wants to play another year, but why? If I were him, I’d take all that unearned money he’s made over the last five years and run. Or in his case, take the money and limp…
CALL ME A HERETIC...
...but what exactly is wrong with putting ketchup on a hot dog? I've read in more that one place where mustard is the only officially recognized liquid condiment allowed on frankfurters. One of those legendary drive-ins in Chicago profiled on the Food Network that specializes in hot dogs won't even serve ketchup on your hot dog. My profoundest apologies if I go against protocol, but I hate mustard, so get over it, you weenies! Get it? Weenies!
CLASSIC MISHEARD LYRIC #94
"Hold Your Head Up"—ARGENT (1972) When I was a little kid, I first thought they were singing "Blow your head up!" Not the most scintillating Rock song you’ll ever hear, but a classic, all the same.
JUNEAU WHAT? I THINK THIS SARAH PALIN’S KINDA WEIRD…
Have ya gotten a load of her children’s names yet—Piper? Trig? Bristol? Do they not have baby name books up in Alaska? Why would you name your child after a difficult mathematics course? Or the hometown of ESPN? And this woman could be a heartbeat away from the Presidency? Given McCain’s age, it’s a distinct possibility. Be vewy vewy caweful…
D’OH!
Well, I got to enjoy having Tom Brady on my fantasy football team for all of seven minutes before his season came to a crashing halt in Sunday’s game with the Chefs. Even if TB had a mediocre day, my team would’ve won easily instead of losing by six lousy points. To me, this was the equivalent of finally getting that dream car I always wanted—then totaling it two blocks from my house.
As for the play in which Brady was injured, it was clearly a legal hit by K.C.’s Bernard Pollard, but that didn’t prevent Super Whiner Randy Moss from claiming it was a cheap shot and calling Pollard a dirty player. Uhhh, how would you know, Randy? You were way down at the other end of the field when it happened, fumbling the pass that you had just caught, so just loosen up your cornrows and shut the fuck up, mmm-kay?
DID I MISS A MEMO?
Since when did we start spelling Hawaii "Hawai’i"? All of sudden here lately during sporting events, our 50th state has this misbegotten apostrophe in it for some reason, even though all through school and "Hawaii Five-O" reruns, I grew up on it minus the apostrophe. Is this some Polynesian heritage deal that got overlooked or just some trendy new thing? If it’s the latter, I do hope this means my beloved home state won’t morph into "Missour’i"…
OFF THE RAILS ON THE CRAZY TRAIN
Following a movie discussion at work the other day, I decided to rent the camp film Pink Flamingos, starring the late gender-bender Divine and directed by chronic flamer John Waters, best known for 1988’s Hairspray. Waters has always come off as a strange ranger to me, but he topped himself in this one. Between this couple fornicating with (and suffocating) live chickens in one scene and Divine literally eating dog shit in another, this thing made Borat look positively mainstream. I don’t mean to be overly-analytical, and I do enjoy an off-the-wall movie now and then, but exactly what point was Waters trying to make here?
ONE DULL OF A TIME
In honor of actress MacKenzie Phillips’ recent drug bust, I decided to rent Season 1 of "One Day At A Time" this week since it’d been in my Netflix cue for quite a while. I watched that show sparingly back in the day, mostly after Valerie Bertinelli began to "blossom", you might say, but beyond that, I never much cared for it, especially Bonnie Franklin’s kill-joy mother character. After watching a few episodes again, I was reminded of how screechy Franklin and Phillips could get at times—like fingernails on a blackboard. It also got me to wondering which dinner theater in America Pat Harrington has an engagement at these days. I don’t think I’ll bother with Season 2…
A GLUTTON FOR PUNISHMENT
The Oakland A’s released former Royal Mike Sweeney yesterday, following yet another injury-truncated season. Sweeney claims he still wants to play another year, but why? If I were him, I’d take all that unearned money he’s made over the last five years and run. Or in his case, take the money and limp…
CALL ME A HERETIC...
...but what exactly is wrong with putting ketchup on a hot dog? I've read in more that one place where mustard is the only officially recognized liquid condiment allowed on frankfurters. One of those legendary drive-ins in Chicago profiled on the Food Network that specializes in hot dogs won't even serve ketchup on your hot dog. My profoundest apologies if I go against protocol, but I hate mustard, so get over it, you weenies! Get it? Weenies!
CLASSIC MISHEARD LYRIC #94
"Hold Your Head Up"—ARGENT (1972) When I was a little kid, I first thought they were singing "Blow your head up!" Not the most scintillating Rock song you’ll ever hear, but a classic, all the same.
JUNEAU WHAT? I THINK THIS SARAH PALIN’S KINDA WEIRD…
Have ya gotten a load of her children’s names yet—Piper? Trig? Bristol? Do they not have baby name books up in Alaska? Why would you name your child after a difficult mathematics course? Or the hometown of ESPN? And this woman could be a heartbeat away from the Presidency? Given McCain’s age, it’s a distinct possibility. Be vewy vewy caweful…
Saturday, September 6, 2008
Do you (You!) feel like I do?
TO MARKET, TO MARKET
For the first time in a couple years, I loaded up my vehicle today and headed over to our local flea market at the old drive-in theater to peddle my wares and make a few extra bucks. Apart from the old movie screen having been torn down, not much has changed there—same ol' crowd, same ol' routine. If they ever decide to field an Olympic Low-Baller team, they can recruit its members right there at the Swap 'n' Shop, as nearly every time I go to sell there, some schmuck tries to get me to sell something for less than half of my asking price. I even had some mongoloid today who tried to pay for a $6 item with a $100 bill! Another thing that kills me about this particular flea market is how they don't even enforce their own rules. For example:
—No pets: I see people walking their dogs there damn near every time I go.
—No loud noise/music: There are boom-boxes going off everywhere, not to mention lawn mowers, chainsaws and such being test-driven by potential buyers.
—No food or drink: People everywhere (including yours truly) not only eat and drink there, but sell food and drink there!
—No pornography: I didn't seem him today, but there's usually some Cecil B. DePorno scalawag selling XXX-rated DVDs right next to the men's room by the snack bar.
—All vendors must collect sales tax: Riiiiight...
Another thing I get every time I go to sell is "How much are ya gettin' for yer CDs?" even though the prices are clearly marked on the little white stickers I went out of my way to affix to them. Makes me want to ask these fools, "How'd you get this far in life?" Then there's the idiot smokers hovering over my valuable baseball cards on the table with their ashes dangling precariously from the end of their cigs—makes me feel like Billie Bird in Sixteen Candles with the spatula trying to catch the other old gal's ashes while she's cooking...
YOU CAN DO VETTER THAN THAT!
Amid all the folderol surrounding John McCain’s running mate Sarah Palin, the term "vetting" has been used quite a bit. Until this week, I was totally unaware there was such a word, which basically means to check out or investigate someone’s background thoroughly, and it sounds to me like McCain didn’t exactly do all his homework on this gal, given the various scandals and FUBARs she has been/is involved in, and not just the one regarding her knocked-up offspring. Speaking of which, while I generally despise the use of the suffix "gate" when applied to political scandals these days, I’ll make an exception for this one, which the media have dubbed "Broken Water-gate". Friggin’ brilliant! Don’t forget to boil water and tear sheets…
As for Ms. Palin, I'm still kinda stuck on the Michael Palin/Monty Python thing with her. Every time I hear that surname, I think of "Albatross! Albatross!" Can't wait to see her do the "Fish-Slapping Dance", either. Oh, she's a lumberjack and she's okay...
YOU GOTTA LOSE YOUR JOB IN DETROIT, ROCK CITY…
Speaking of political scandals, Detroit mayor Kwame Kilpatrick stepped down this week after admitting to various and sundry misdeeds while in office, including obstruction of justice and perjury, plus, a felony assault charge against a Wayne County sheriff deputy. No wonder the Motor City has such a bad rep when even the freakin' mayor is a thug…
PLENTY OF GOOD SEATS STILL AVAILABLE…
There was a whopping throng of less than 600 people in the stands on Wednesday for the Florida Marlins home game vs. the Atlanta Braves—not exactly a ringing endorsement for a team trying to get the Sunshine State to build them a new stadium. According to some folks on the ‘net, it was so quiet in the stands when Braves manager Bobby Cox came out to argue a call with the ump, that the entire exchange could clearly be heard on the Atlanta radio broadcast. Part of the blame for the low attendance is the beastly hot weather for a game that easily could’ve been scheduled at night instead of as a "getaway" day game for both teams, especially considering the Marlins had the next day off altogether, and the Braves only had to "get away" back to Atlanta, which is about an hour flight from Miami.
And it’s not like the Marlins are a terrible team, either—they were still in the race until about three weeks ago. No offense to the good folks down that way, but I’m beginning to think the state of Florida should’ve remained strictly a Spring Training baseball site, given the poor attendance at both Marlins and Tampa Bay Rays games. Granted it doesn’t help that the Marlins are trying to play baseball in a football stadium and the Rays play in a dismal dome, but that’s no excuse for such low attendance when they at least have competitive teams on the field.
THAT’S THE BEST YOU COULD COME UP WITH?
I’m very unimpressed with the uninspired nickname created by the new Oklahoma City NBA franchise—"Thunder". Boring! Thunder sounds so minor-league to me, for some reason—how about something a little more unique like the Oklahoma City Microburst? I was also kinda hoping they might revive the name of an old soccer team OKC used to have that I thought was pretty clever—the Oklahoma City Slickers...
CLASSIC MISHEARD LYRIC #93
"Guitar Man"—JERRY REED (1968) "I led a four-piece band of jammers…" I was reminded of this one the other day while listening to Jerry’s Best-Of CD. Unaware back when I was a kid of what jamming meant, I thought Jerry sang, "a four-piece band in jammies."
MY FEARLESS FOOTBALL FORECAST
I’m going with my head instead of my heart this year, thus I’m picking the Dallas Cowboys to win the Super Bowl this season. I have them playing the Colts in a re-match of SB V, and I see the mighty Patriots faltering a bit this season—they can’t keep it up forever.
In a related front, I pulled a Favre and decided to come out of retirement and play fantasy football again this year after all. My draft went well, as I got Tom Brady as my QB and the entire Patriots defense, and guess who New England plays first—the Kansas City Chefs. Loooooking goooood!
THE ORIGINAL SAM'S CLUB
My good friend Stacy—1,800 miles away in Seattle—sent me a nice little piece of Raytown nostalgia last night of an old department store I practically grew up in, Sam's Bargain Town. The place was located about four blocks from my mom and dad's house on 350 Hiway (the main drag in Raytown), and I used to hoof it up there all the time when I was a kid. I bought my first Kiss album there—Kiss Alive! for a whopping $6.38. In fact, much of my early record collection was purchased there—and sometimes shoplifted before I knew better! My brother even worked at Sam's part-time when he was in high school and my mom and sister used to work right across the parking lot at an old-school burger joint on the corner called White's Drive-In—I'd give my left nut to time-travel back there for just one more double cheeseburger and a big ice cream cone. I even used to hit tennis balls off the side of the Sam's building in the empty parking lot all the time—great memories...
It's ironic with a name like Sam's that as soon as the Wal-Mart in Raytown opened in 1987, that was the beginning of the end for our Sam's, as they couldn't compete with the Evil Empire and closed a couple years later. The building was demolished in the mid-'90s to make way for a new strip mall. The old Sam's pharmacy still operates about half a mile up the road at an Apple Market grocery store. The other Sam's store (long since closed) on Truman Road—pictured here circa. the late '70s—still sits in the 'Hood on Truman Road, but has gone through numerous encarnations over the years.
You can read all about Sam's and other old-school retail stores on this dandy website. Now here's the funny part—I'd visited that same website before last night, and didn't realize it! I pirated the TG&Y pics for a previous blog entry on this very same subject a few months back and didn't even notice the Sam's photos up top—go figure. Mucho appreciation, Stacy, for taking my memory for a nice little jog—you made my week!
For the first time in a couple years, I loaded up my vehicle today and headed over to our local flea market at the old drive-in theater to peddle my wares and make a few extra bucks. Apart from the old movie screen having been torn down, not much has changed there—same ol' crowd, same ol' routine. If they ever decide to field an Olympic Low-Baller team, they can recruit its members right there at the Swap 'n' Shop, as nearly every time I go to sell there, some schmuck tries to get me to sell something for less than half of my asking price. I even had some mongoloid today who tried to pay for a $6 item with a $100 bill! Another thing that kills me about this particular flea market is how they don't even enforce their own rules. For example:
—No pets: I see people walking their dogs there damn near every time I go.
—No loud noise/music: There are boom-boxes going off everywhere, not to mention lawn mowers, chainsaws and such being test-driven by potential buyers.
—No food or drink: People everywhere (including yours truly) not only eat and drink there, but sell food and drink there!
—No pornography: I didn't seem him today, but there's usually some Cecil B. DePorno scalawag selling XXX-rated DVDs right next to the men's room by the snack bar.
—All vendors must collect sales tax: Riiiiight...
Another thing I get every time I go to sell is "How much are ya gettin' for yer CDs?" even though the prices are clearly marked on the little white stickers I went out of my way to affix to them. Makes me want to ask these fools, "How'd you get this far in life?" Then there's the idiot smokers hovering over my valuable baseball cards on the table with their ashes dangling precariously from the end of their cigs—makes me feel like Billie Bird in Sixteen Candles with the spatula trying to catch the other old gal's ashes while she's cooking...
YOU CAN DO VETTER THAN THAT!
Amid all the folderol surrounding John McCain’s running mate Sarah Palin, the term "vetting" has been used quite a bit. Until this week, I was totally unaware there was such a word, which basically means to check out or investigate someone’s background thoroughly, and it sounds to me like McCain didn’t exactly do all his homework on this gal, given the various scandals and FUBARs she has been/is involved in, and not just the one regarding her knocked-up offspring. Speaking of which, while I generally despise the use of the suffix "gate" when applied to political scandals these days, I’ll make an exception for this one, which the media have dubbed "Broken Water-gate". Friggin’ brilliant! Don’t forget to boil water and tear sheets…
As for Ms. Palin, I'm still kinda stuck on the Michael Palin/Monty Python thing with her. Every time I hear that surname, I think of "Albatross! Albatross!" Can't wait to see her do the "Fish-Slapping Dance", either. Oh, she's a lumberjack and she's okay...
YOU GOTTA LOSE YOUR JOB IN DETROIT, ROCK CITY…
Speaking of political scandals, Detroit mayor Kwame Kilpatrick stepped down this week after admitting to various and sundry misdeeds while in office, including obstruction of justice and perjury, plus, a felony assault charge against a Wayne County sheriff deputy. No wonder the Motor City has such a bad rep when even the freakin' mayor is a thug…
PLENTY OF GOOD SEATS STILL AVAILABLE…
There was a whopping throng of less than 600 people in the stands on Wednesday for the Florida Marlins home game vs. the Atlanta Braves—not exactly a ringing endorsement for a team trying to get the Sunshine State to build them a new stadium. According to some folks on the ‘net, it was so quiet in the stands when Braves manager Bobby Cox came out to argue a call with the ump, that the entire exchange could clearly be heard on the Atlanta radio broadcast. Part of the blame for the low attendance is the beastly hot weather for a game that easily could’ve been scheduled at night instead of as a "getaway" day game for both teams, especially considering the Marlins had the next day off altogether, and the Braves only had to "get away" back to Atlanta, which is about an hour flight from Miami.
And it’s not like the Marlins are a terrible team, either—they were still in the race until about three weeks ago. No offense to the good folks down that way, but I’m beginning to think the state of Florida should’ve remained strictly a Spring Training baseball site, given the poor attendance at both Marlins and Tampa Bay Rays games. Granted it doesn’t help that the Marlins are trying to play baseball in a football stadium and the Rays play in a dismal dome, but that’s no excuse for such low attendance when they at least have competitive teams on the field.
THAT’S THE BEST YOU COULD COME UP WITH?
I’m very unimpressed with the uninspired nickname created by the new Oklahoma City NBA franchise—"Thunder". Boring! Thunder sounds so minor-league to me, for some reason—how about something a little more unique like the Oklahoma City Microburst? I was also kinda hoping they might revive the name of an old soccer team OKC used to have that I thought was pretty clever—the Oklahoma City Slickers...
CLASSIC MISHEARD LYRIC #93
"Guitar Man"—JERRY REED (1968) "I led a four-piece band of jammers…" I was reminded of this one the other day while listening to Jerry’s Best-Of CD. Unaware back when I was a kid of what jamming meant, I thought Jerry sang, "a four-piece band in jammies."
MY FEARLESS FOOTBALL FORECAST
I’m going with my head instead of my heart this year, thus I’m picking the Dallas Cowboys to win the Super Bowl this season. I have them playing the Colts in a re-match of SB V, and I see the mighty Patriots faltering a bit this season—they can’t keep it up forever.
In a related front, I pulled a Favre and decided to come out of retirement and play fantasy football again this year after all. My draft went well, as I got Tom Brady as my QB and the entire Patriots defense, and guess who New England plays first—the Kansas City Chefs. Loooooking goooood!
THE ORIGINAL SAM'S CLUB
My good friend Stacy—1,800 miles away in Seattle—sent me a nice little piece of Raytown nostalgia last night of an old department store I practically grew up in, Sam's Bargain Town. The place was located about four blocks from my mom and dad's house on 350 Hiway (the main drag in Raytown), and I used to hoof it up there all the time when I was a kid. I bought my first Kiss album there—Kiss Alive! for a whopping $6.38. In fact, much of my early record collection was purchased there—and sometimes shoplifted before I knew better! My brother even worked at Sam's part-time when he was in high school and my mom and sister used to work right across the parking lot at an old-school burger joint on the corner called White's Drive-In—I'd give my left nut to time-travel back there for just one more double cheeseburger and a big ice cream cone. I even used to hit tennis balls off the side of the Sam's building in the empty parking lot all the time—great memories...
It's ironic with a name like Sam's that as soon as the Wal-Mart in Raytown opened in 1987, that was the beginning of the end for our Sam's, as they couldn't compete with the Evil Empire and closed a couple years later. The building was demolished in the mid-'90s to make way for a new strip mall. The old Sam's pharmacy still operates about half a mile up the road at an Apple Market grocery store. The other Sam's store (long since closed) on Truman Road—pictured here circa. the late '70s—still sits in the 'Hood on Truman Road, but has gone through numerous encarnations over the years.You can read all about Sam's and other old-school retail stores on this dandy website. Now here's the funny part—I'd visited that same website before last night, and didn't realize it! I pirated the TG&Y pics for a previous blog entry on this very same subject a few months back and didn't even notice the Sam's photos up top—go figure. Mucho appreciation, Stacy, for taking my memory for a nice little jog—you made my week!
A Diamond In The Smooth
While tooling around L.A. (where “the sun shines most the time—and the feeling is laid-back”) last month, “Solitary Man” came on the car radio and it dawned on me that I’m long overdue here to pay tribute to singer/songwriter Neil Diamond, who was a big favorite of mine growing up. It’s easy to forget how prolific this guy was back in the ‘60s and ‘70s before he started putting out schlock in the late ‘70s and started wearing sparkly shirts in concert. Pretty much everything he did up through 1977’s “Desiree” was pretty good stuff, then things kinda went to hell in a handbag starting with 1978’s “You Don’t Bring Me Flowers” (with Babs Streisand) and continuing with 1980’s “Love On The Rocks” (phew!). He’s another guy I’d like to have seen in concert in his prime, and I hear he still puts on a good show even today, except on the nights when he sounds more like Redd Foxx gargling razor blades, as happened during Neil’s concert debacle last month in Columbus, Ohio, after which he honorably offered full ticket refunds to those fans who felt screwed. Diamond could’ve easily taken the money and ran, but he didn’t, and I find that commendable in this day and age.He’s a household name now, and about as mainstream as a musician/singer can get, but can you believe Neil Diamond was once banned from performing at Brigham Young University in Utah in the early ‘70s? The Mormons claimed it was because his hair was too long, but something tells me it might’ve had more to do with him being Jewish than the hair, but whatever. ND was all over Top 40 AM radio when I was a wee lad, and he even though I barely understood what the heck he was singing about sometimes—“Crunchy Granola Suite” (?!?)—I just thought he was a cool dude, and his classics have certainly stood the test of time. Which begs the question, why the fuck isn’t Neil Diamond in the Rock ‘N’ Roll Hall of Fame yet? I bet the average music lover could easily reel off the names of 10-15 Neil Diamond songs and not know one friggin’ Leonard Cohen tune, yet they voted Brother Leo into the Hall last year.
—A little silly trivia for you: I believe Neil Diamond is the co-holder of the world record for the shortest title of a Top 40 song ever—1973’s “Be”, which is tied with Bread’s “If” from 1971.
—I vehemently disagree with Neil’s line from “Bring Me Flowers” where he says, “Yesterdays don’t count anymore.” They have to count for me, musically, because there ain’t shit to listen to today, and the future of popular music looks very dark, indeed. Therefore, I have no option but to mine the past to find music that pleases me…
My all-time Neil Diamond Top 15:
15) “La Bamba” (1968) I get the feeling Neil can’t speak Spanish worth a lick, but he does his best Ritchie Valens impression anyhow, and it’s a total hoot.
14) “Desiree” (1977) ND was starting to sound a bit schlocky here, but I’ve always liked this song, for some reason.
13) “Kentucky Woman” (1967) Not sure which version I like better, Diamond’s or Deep Purple’s primal 1968 cover of it.
12) “Song Sung Blue” (1972) A favorite from the summer of ’72 for me, Neil seemed to suffer from Lawrence Welk Syndrome when he sang the line “start to feelin’ good-a”, but we’ll forgive him. A one and a two…
11) “Sweet Caroline” (1970) I still don’t fully understand how or why Red Sox Nation has adopted this one as its unofficial anthem, but it’s a fine Top 40 single all the same. I love the live version from 1971’s Gold album where Neil kinda flubs the line “but then I know it's growing strong” and confesses, “I never could hit that note” on strong.
10) “Holly Holy” (1969) Sounding like it was recorded in a church, this one made a nice bookend to go along with Neil’s other 1969 pseudo-religious biggie, “Brother Love’s Traveling Salvation Show”.
9) “And The Grass Won’t Pay No Mind”—Mark Lindsay (1970) Neil also recorded this one himself, but I prefer Lindsay’s version. Even though it’s really not all that spectacular a song, I love it because every time I hear it, it just takes me back to a simpler time when the world wasn’t so fucked-up...
8) “Thank The Lord For The Night Time” (1967) Apart from “Cherry x 2”, this was Diamond’s finest Rocker.
7) “I’m A Believer”—The Monkees (1967) Is there not a more quintessential Pop single than this monster? It had the hook, it had great lyrics, and The Monkees were some lucky bastards to have this one handed to them. Diamond’s “A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You” was also a big hit for the “Prefab Four—to wit, Brother Neil earned quite a few nice royalty checks in his day.
6) “Longfellow Serenade” (1974) I loved this song when it first came out because it sounded to me like a really cool “grown-up” love song. I remember my older brother didn’t much care for it, and often tinkered with the lyrics, singing “for I was horny—but she was ugly!” in place of “for I was lonely, and she was lonely.” Fun memories, all the same.
5) “I Am…I Said” (1971) From about the fall of 1970 through about the summer of ’76 (when Kiss corrupted me) was my Golden Age of Top 40 radio, if you will. The radio was my constant companion during this time, and “I Am…” was an early favorite from that magical year of 1971 where virtually everything they played on WHB here in K.C. sounded so good to my 7-year-old ears. I loved how this one sounded so lofty and dramatic with the horns and strings backing it.
4) “Cracklin’ Rosie” (1970) One of the earliest songs I recall from my “Golden Age”, it was on the charts when the Partridge Family first came along, as well as when Smokey & The Miracles’ killer “Tears Of A Clown” came out—radio heaven for yours truly! This song features some of the prettier acoustic guitar fills you’ll ever hear, in harmony with ND singing the verses.
3) “Brother Love’s Traveling Salvation Show” (1969) A Jewish guy from Brooklyn doing Southern Baptist preacher shtick is every bit as preposterous as the late Junior Samples singing arias from La Boheme woulda been, but Diamond somehow made it work, so preach brother, preach! I always loved singing the line “pack up the babies and grab the old ladies” when I was a kid. Even though the first three words of this song are “Hot August night…”, for some reason it was years later before I ever made the connection between it and the title of Neil’s highly successful 1972 live concert album. I just assumed it was really warm and it was August when he played that concert, hence the title. Oh, dopey me…
2) “Cherry, Cherry” (1973—live single version) I loved the 45 release of this cut from Hot August Night, but was very miffed when I discovered years later that someone had overdubbed electric guitar fills onto the 1973 single that gave it a little extra kick, because they were nowhere to be found when I first listened to HAN. The single version also omitted a nice piano solo by someone named Allen. If anyone knows where I can find a CD copy of the ’73 single version, please let me know—all I have left of it is a very scratchy 45. Oh by the way, the original 1966 studio version doesn’t suck either—this is one of the catchiest Top 40 tunes you’ll ever hear. I remember some Gin Blossoms-type alternative bar band we saw back in the ‘90s called They Came In Droves even sounded really good playing this one.
1) “Solitary Man” (1966) This one was so good, it got a second chance and was reissued in 1970 after it stiffed out in ‘66. I prefer the original Bang Records version over the one that came out later on Columbia Records with the unnecessary electric piano backing. The trombone bits that back up the chorus made this song sound very dramatic and gave it that extra little bit of oomph. This one would definitely make the soundtrack to the movie of my life story…
Thursday, September 4, 2008
Concert Trek - Episode 21
At long last, the final chapter...
101) Pat Benatar/Night Ranger (Tuesday, August 28, 2001—Starlight Theater) Ticket price: Free
My ticket to this concert—normally $29.50—was a belated birthday gift bestowed upon me by my friend Rose. Thanks to her season ticket-holder status at Starlight with her husband, Rose was able to snag us some phenomenal seats—seventh row, just to the left of center. Night Ranger opened with a very spirited 45-minute set, during which guitarists Brad Gillis and Jeff Watson and bassist Jack Blades all snuck down into the audience and played one song while roaming all around us. This was way before I had a digital camera, or I’d have had some awesome close-ups. Watson also tossed numerous guitar picks into the crowd, and Rose caught one of them. Meantime, they played all their biggies, as well as the surprise inclusion of the big Damn Yankees hit that Blades sang on, “Coming Of Age”. I was never a huge NR fan, but like Loverboy and .38 Special, they’re a good band, yet not quite a truly great one. I’ve seen them play live twice, and they were certainly one of the better opening acts I’ve ever encountered.
SET LIST: Touch Of Madness/Rumors In The Air/Sing Me Away/ We Like To Rock/piano solo/Sentimental Street/Four In The Morning (I Can’t Take Any More)/When You Close Your Eyes/Coming Of Age/Don’t Tell Me You Love Me ENCORES: Sister Christian/Rock In America
A little while later, Pat Benatar hit the stage, and to my delight, looked infinitely better than she did the last time I saw her in 1997 (see Episode 16). Instead of those gaudy green Sears Toughskins, this time she wore black leather pants that left no doubt she still had a nice ass! Hubby Neil Giraldo was still sporting his silly bleach-blonde hair (no offense, but I think that looks so faggy on guys!), but he still played guitar just like a-ringin’ a bell. Pat sounded a lot better than last time, too, and the show got off to a promising start with my personal Pat favorite “We Live For Love”, followed by “Shadows Of The Night”. Then it all but ground to a halt after four songs when Pat and Neil trotted out their 17-year-old daughter Hayley and her two teen lesbo buddies to lip-sync three songs while Pat and the band disappeared. I was in the middle of a beer run when this all took place, and when I returned to my seat, I was like “What the fuck is this?!?” While I commend Pat and Neil for indulging their daughter, did they really think an old-school Classic Rock crowd would be impressed with these Britney Spears wanna-be’s? While Hayley is somewhat talented, there’s a time and place for everything, and I thought this was pretty cheesy the way they did this little dog-and-pony show in the middle of Pat’s set. I could see these girls maybe as an opening act before Night Ranger—maybe—but they were totally out of their element here. The crowd politely applauded the trio when they finished, but it was awkward applause, at best.
Pat resumed her set (with no further interruptions) with the surprise inclusion of “Invincible”. She and Neil also did an acoustic rendering of “Love Is A Battlefield” that wasn’t half-bad, and was thankfully minus the hoochie-mama choreography from the infamous video thereof—quite possibly the penultimate ‘80s cringe moment. “Hell Is For Children” and “Heartbreaker” closed the set to a vociferous crowd response, and “Promises In The Dark”, “Hit Me With Your Best Shot” and "All Fired Up" were the encores. While a major improvement over her performance at Sandstone in ‘97, I was still a bit disappointed with this show. There were too many glaring omissions for my liking—“Fire And Ice”, “You Better Run”, “Treat Me Right”, “Le Bel Age”—and the set lacked some continuity, thanks to the little detour we were led on with Hayley. At least I got to see Pat Benatar up close, therefore for that alone it was worthwhile…
SET LIST: We Live For Love/Shadows Of The Night/Somebody’s Baby/We Belong/-------set performed by daughter Hayley------Invincible/Love Is A Battlefield/True Love/Hell Is For Children/Heartbreaker ENCORES: Promises In The Dark/Hit Me With Your Best Shot/All Fired Up
102) B-52s/Eddie Money (Friday, August 31, 2001—Liberty Memorial Mall) Ticket price: $8.00
The annual Kansas City Spirit Festival was held over Labor Day weekend in ’01, and they had a pretty good music lineup this time around. I’d always heard that Eddie Money puts on a good show, so I decided to check him out, and sure enough, he put on a decent set. For some reason, I don’t remember too many details about this show (must have been the Foster’s), but I do remember Eddie kept reeling off one-liners between songs like “People ask me ‘How’d you get to be such a great blues singer?’ Easy—I became a Kansas City Royals fan!” (Place rim shot here.) He did most of his biggies and finished with “Two Tickets To Paradise”. Not a bad set, but I think he’d have been more enjoyable in a smaller venue like the Uptown Theater or Memorial Hall.
An interminable set change ensued before the B-52’s came on. I managed to snag a pretty nice vantage point in my lawn chair off to the stage right side and the group put on a fairly spirited set. Kate Pierson was (and is) still a doll, and exuded lots of energy on stage. The sound was pretty crappy, apart from when they did “Roam”, and “Deadbeat Club” from Cosmic Thing was a welcome surprise. They’d only played about an hour or so when they leapt into “Love Shack”, which naturally got the biggest response. “Rock Lobster” was the encore, but I didn’t hear all of it because I headed for the exits to beat the inevitable Crown Center traffic clusterfuck. Not a bad show for eight bucks, though.
103) Mark Lindsay/Gary Lewis/Mitch Ryder (Saturday, September 8, 2001—Olathe Town Square) Ticket price: Free
My earliest memories of being alive are of listening to my older siblings’ Paul Revere & The Raiders albums when I was three years old, and lead singer Mark Lindsay was my first musical idol—he was every bit as cool as Batman (Adam West) in my book! My mom took the whole family to see The Raidas at Starlight Theater in 1971 when I was seven, and I have very vague memories of that performance. While I generally abhor these multi-act ‘60s “nostalgia” music revues, I decided to attend this one at the Old Settler’s Days Fest in Olathe in hopes of perhaps meeting that very first musical idol of mine in person, and darned if I didn’t!
Mitch Ryder opened the show and acted just like the has-been that he was. He only did five songs (three of which weren’t even his), and he wasted a good ten cumulative minutes of his set telling jokes to kill time. I never did like “Devil With A Blue Dress On” anyway. Immediately after Ryder, Gary Lewis came on. The Playboys were the backing band for the entire show, and were quite good, actually. Gary was a bit on the nerdy side, but they put on a decent set, doing all their big hits, including “This Diamond Ring” and “Everybody Loves A Clown”. I kept waiting for him to imitate his old man and go, “Way-deee! Way-deee! I’m falling dowwwwn!” but he never did.
Meantime, there were a couple of oddities at this show. For some reason, there was this conglomeration of deaf people standing off to the side of the stage, and there was in fact a signer right in front of the stage interpreting the lyrics for them—I’ve never seen that at any concert before. Then there was this old redneck just off to my right trying to control his dog on a very long leash, and he eventually tied the dog up to a tree and just left him there. Meanwhile, the dog is barking its ass off and harassing anyone who came near it while the old man was sitting in his car with his fat-ass ugly (I assume) wife in the parking garage behind us. Uh, gee, you couldn’t leave the fucking dog at home tonight? Finally, a cop came along and kindly asked the old fuck to collect his pet, and it was a mighty struggle for him to get the dog back in the car. What is it about public gatherings that makes people act so goddamn stupid sometimes?
Anyway, back to the show. Near the end of Gary Lewis’ set, I made my way around behind the stage on the street to see if I could catch a glimpse of Mark Lindsay before the show, so I parked myself in the chair on the corner near a building which I suspected they were using as a dressing room. Sure enough, a little while later, Mr. Lindsay (who was much taller than I ever realized) was being escorted by one of Olathe’s Finest over to the backstage area. I wandered back around behind the stage, and Mark immediately goes into a stretching routine, which surprised me a bit until he got on-stage and I saw why—the guy moves around a lot up there. He opened with “Steppin’ Out”, followed by “Just Like Me” and “Hungry”, and the man was in fine voice, and was clearly the standout that night. They also did “Louie, Louie”, which took a few detours into other classic Rock tunes like “Sunshine Of Your Love” and “Heartbreaker”. Mark dug out an old Revolutionary War Raider coat for that one too. As I expected, he did “Arizona”, followed by “Indian Reservation” and “Kicks”, which was followed by an encore of Chuck Berry’s “Rock And Roll Music”, during which Ryder and Lewis rejoined Mark on-stage.
Meanwhile, they announced that all three guys were going to sign autographs at the left side of the stage, so I quickly got in queue for it. I had to wait about 20 minutes or so, and endured these old rednecks in line reciting all their favorite Rock groups (this one ugly bitch behind me liked Arra-Smith, Evvis, the Mooda Blues, Fureigner, et al). I finally got up to the signing table, and whipped out my Raiders Greatest Hits CD insert for the man to sign, and his assistant gal kindly handed it to him and told him my name. I shook hands with him and said, “Hi Mark, how you doin’?” and he thanked me for coming. I said, “The last time I saw you in person was almost exactly 30 years ago this month when I was a wee lad of seven.” He said, “How old—seven? Well, I must have been about eight or nine then.” Before heading out, I said to him, “Don’t never stop rockin’, man,” and he said, “Not as long as it’s fun—we’ll keep doing it.” Helluva nice guy, Mark Lindsay is. Mission accomplished! Ironically, Olathe is also where I met John Entwistle and almost met Lemmy from Motorhead. Must be something cosmic about that town Lemmy called “almost Kansas City.”
I was euphoric on the way home, and I was in a great mood also because football season started the next day, and I was barely a month into my new (and current) job that I really liked at the time, and everything seemed just peachy…until that terrible Tuesday three days later when everything went to hell in an Al-Queda handbag for this nation.
SET LIST: Steppin’ Out/Just Like Me/Hungry/Louie Louie/Arizona/Indian Reservation/ Kicks ENCORE: Rock And Roll Music
104) Dave Edmunds/Ryan Van Imming (Wednesday, May 15, 2002—Grand Emporium) Ticket price: $15.00
The Grand Emporium was a fairly legendary blues and jazz venue in the heart of the Midtown area of K.C. near Westport. I’d always heard people raving about what a cool place it was and at the time I was having some personal problems and was hoping an evening of Dave Edmunds-type Rock ‘N’ Roll in a cool venue would pick up my spirits. Unfortunately, neither did…
As soon as I set foot in the place, I was totally unimpressed. I’d always heard what great atmosphere this place had, and how all the great Blues, R&B and Jazz people loved playing there, yadda yadda yadda, so I was taken aback by what a dump this place was! It was your basic over-sized hole-in-the-wall bar with a stage—i.e., a fucking dive. It was downright scummy in places, and even worse, there was no place to sit (my fault for arriving so late), so I wound up standing around in the back near the toilets. Apart from the Beaumont Club in Westport, this was the worst venue I’ve ever attended a concert of any kind in.
The show had already begun when I arrived, as the opening act, Ryan Van Imming, was playing a solo acoustic guitar set. I quickly noted that there were no drums or other instruments set up on the dinky little stage, which was about the size of two phone booths side-by-side. I then realized that Edmunds was going to play a solo acoustic set as well—this from the same man who at the height of the “Unplugged” era in the mid-90s, did an album called Plugged In, as a not-so-silent protest to all the wussy acoustic stuff people were doing then. I was never a fan of the whole “Unplugged” thing anyway, despite of how it indirectly led to the Kiss reunion in 1995. To me, acoustic guitars should be used only in moderation—they’re the equivalent of black-and-white TV as opposed to the “color” of electric guitar.
I was fully-expecting Dave and his backing band to play, but I tried to keep an open mind about the acoustic thing. The opening act Van Imming wasn’t bad, but he got rather boring after a while. Edmunds came on after a short break and he did indeed play acoustic guitar all night. He alternated between his biggies and some instrumental stuff (like the late Jerry Reed’s “The Claw”, et al), but I didn’t like how he did little medleys, like the first two verses of “Crawling From the Wreckage” and part of “Queen of Hearts”, etc. The crowd was also quite annoying, as they were drowning Dave out at times with their incessant chatter. Dave seemed to get the biggest response to “I Knew The Bride” (which he didn’t truncate), but he did truncate “I Hear You Knockin’”, which is utter heresy! He showed a little class though, by doing a tribute to the recently-departed George Harrison with a nice rendition of “Here Comes The Sun”. He saved the best for last, too, following an acoustic encore of Fats Domino’s “I’m Ready”, he whipped out his Fender Telecaster, turned on a drum machine, and tore the place apart with “Sabre Dance”, and the crowd went nuts. It was nice to see Dave live again, but I really would have preferred seeing him playing electric with a full band.
SET LIST: Blue Moon Of Kentucky/The Claw/Girls Talk/Lady Madonna/Warmed Over Kisses/Mystery Train/Walk Right In/Crawling From The Wreckage/Queen Of Hearts/I Knew The Bride/Sukiyaki/A Mess O’ Blues/I Hear You Knockin’/Promised Land/Here Comes The Sun/Classical Gas/Mozart In G-Minor ENCORES: I’m Ready/Sabre Dance
105) The Who/Robert Plant (Sunday, August 25, 2002--Verizon Wireless Music Center, Indianapolis) Ticket price: $30.00
I was really pumped in the Spring of ’02 when The Who announced they were touring again and when the dates were announced, the closest they were coming to Kansas City was Indianapolis (a proposed St. Louis gig was subsequently scrubbed, for some reason), so naturally I ordered me up a ticket on-line and couldn’t wait to see the ‘Orrible ‘Oo again. I was really pumped until June 27, 2002, that is. When I heard the terrible news that John Entwistle had died, the first thing I looked at was my concert ticket tacked on my bulletin board, and I felt so deflated. I immediately assumed that the tour would be cancelled altogether, and was extremely miffed when it was announced that the tour would resume in a mere four days following The Ox’s passing. I understand there are logistical problems in canceling/rescheduling concerts, but I thought it was very disrespectful of Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey to just callously move on that soon—as if they’d merely lost one of their roadies or something—without a more suitable period of mourning. The fact that John’s replacement, Pino Palladino, was already lined up to jump right in didn’t sit well with me either, but at the time I was unaware that Entwistle wasn’t taking very good care of himself, so in retrospect, Pete and Roger probably did the right thing. I was even more disappointed to learn that John’s death was caused in part by cocaine—I thought he was smarter than that. Drugs are bad, mmmm-kay?
In the interim, I debated whether to even bother attending the show or not, as an Ox-less Who wouldn’t have been as much fun for me, but I figured the ticket was paid-for, so I might as well go. Turned out to be a good move, as it was still an enjoyable concert. The venue, then known as Verizon Wireless Music Center (who knows what it’s called now), is actually located a little ways northwest of Indy in Noblesville, right smack dab amid the cornfields of central Indiana. For being out in the sticks, it was a fairly impressive outdoor joint, and light years better than our Sandstone and St. Louis’ Riverport Amphitheaters. I liked the layout of the place, as you actually enter from behind the stage, and they have this huge concession/souvenir area which you pass en route to the seating area. The lawn is sloped much more evenly than Sandstone, and its pitch is less steep, plus they have this wooden fence at the top of the hill that actually holds in some of the sound. Like Riverport, the seating pavilion has a roof over it, and there were four pretty decent video screens in place. I generally don’t care for these outdoor “sheds”, as the promoters call them, but this one is easily the best I’ve been to so far.
Robert Plant finally came on just as the sun was going down and opened with a really slow, non-descript moody tune that I didn’t recognize. Plant, dressed all in white and still maintaining his trademark mane of curly hair, looked and sounded great. The next tune kicked his set into gear, and hearing him do Led Zep’s “Celebration Day” was a bit of a surprise and RP’s guitar player (whose name I didn’t catch) was pretty impressive. The set list was a bit surprising too—half Zeppelin and half Plant. The crowd naturally went nuts during the Zep stuff, which included “Babe, I’m Gonna Leave You” off III, “Going To California (Indiana)” and “Whole Lotta Love” as the encore. He also did “Tall Cool One”, but I was surprised that he omitted most of his other ‘80s stuff like “Big Log” and “Burning Down One Side”, but he could only do so many songs as the opening act. I imagine on his theater tour that he later embarked on, he included lots of the ‘80s stuff as well. I wasn’t real sure what to expect from Plant as a solo performer, but he weren’t too bad. It was also quite a privilege to be able to see two of the greatest Rock ‘N’ Roll front men on the same stage on the same night.
SET LIST: ????/Celebration Day/Morning Dew/Going To California/Tie-Dye On The Highway/Fixin-To-Die/Four Sticks/Tall Cool One/Babe, I’m Gonna Leave You ENCORE: Whole Lotta Love
During the set change, they played a brief movie showing rehearsals for the Who tour just a couple weeks before Entwistle died and the crowd reacted nearly every time John appeared on screen. Pete and Roger and the band came on about ten minutes later, opening with “I Can’t Explain”, followed by “Substitute”, and they were off and running. Pete later introduced the band, which included the usual suspects Rabbit Bundrick on keys, young master Zak Starkey on the drums, Pete’s bro Simon Townshend on backing vocals and second guitar, and Palladino on bass. Pete only referred to The Ox in passing, saying that they had had a “tricky day” a while back and that during rehearsals it was apparent that John’s voice “had gotten a bit dodgy”, thus he wouldn’t have done any singing on the tour. When introducing Zak, Pete said, “If anyone else of us dies, we might be in trouble, but you know this guy…” I was disappointed that they didn’t honor The Ox a bit more than that.
Meantime “Another Tricky Day” was a surprise on the set list, but it came off really flat, in part because Pete and Roger couldn’t hook up properly on the vocals, and partly because Entwistle’s bass line was so heavy on the original recording, and it was sadly missing here. I could’ve done without “You Better, You Bet” in favor of say, “Shakin’ All Over” or “Young Man Blues” perhaps, but otherwise, it was generally a good set, and Townshend was cooking on guitar just like he did two years (almost to the day) ago when I saw them in Dallas. Roger was in fine voice as well, but Pete did most of the talking on stage again this time. “My Generation” was a bit a disappointment, mostly because of the bass solo. In all fairness to Pino, he’s a fine bassist, but this was like trying to replace the Wayne Gretzky/Michael Jordan/Tiger Woods of bass players. Apart from standing still all night, Palladino didn’t resemble Thunderfingers at all. “Won’t Get Fooled Again”, ended the set, and I was windmilling away again, just like in Dallas. For the encores, Pete and Roger chose to play three Tommy classics to wrap things up. All in all, this turned out to be a far better show than I anticipated, but The Who just wasn’t the same without their anchor on stage.
SET LIST: I Can’t Explain/Substitute/Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere/Who Are You?/Another Tricky Day/The Relay/Bargain/Baba O’Riley/Sea And Sand/5:15/Love, Reign O’er Me/Eminence Front/ Behind Blue Eyes/You Better You Bet/The Kids Are Alright/My Generation/Won’t Get Fooled Again ENCORES: Pinball Wizard/Sparks/See Me, Feel Me
After this concert, I unintentionally went into retirement as a concert-goer. Oh sure, there were numerous concerts I thought about attending, and I even had free tickets to one or two, including the infamous Sammy Hagar/David Lee Roth tour debacle in '02, but for whatever reason, I just didn’t go. Essentially, after over 100 concerts, I’d pretty much seen it all and done it all, and with concert ticket prices being absolutely obscene now, they're just totally not worth it anymore. There are still a few people I’d love to see, like Springsteen and U2, but I just can’t see paying 60 bucks-plus for nosebleed seats. I’d much rather spend 20 bucks on a concert video DVD and enjoy it over and over in high quality sound. Little did I know at the time that The Who and Robert Plant would be my last concert. Until…
106) Shooting Star/Head East (Saturday, July 12, 2008—Kearney Amphitheater) Ticket price: $5.00
…just two months ago. Just out of the blue, I un-retired and attended my first real concert featuring nationally-known acts in nearly six years at a new venue in Kearney, MO with several friends, a few of whom are musicians themselves and play in a local band. Kearney Amphitheater just opened this year and it’s sort of a mini-Sandstone and while it wasn’t totally completed yet, it wasn’t a bad place to see a show. There are no permanent seats, thus it’s all lawn, and patrons are encouraged to bring their own chairs, and the sightlines and sound system were quite good. I would estimate the crowd was about 2,000 or so to see a couple of longtime local favorites bands, each of whom still had one original member. We caught a huge break with the weather too, as it had been hotter than blazes all week until some showers came through during the day and cooled things off to a more human level.
Head East scored a huge radio hit around these parts with 1975’s “Never Been Any Reason” and that’s about all I remember them for. That, and the awful post-game concert they tried to stage after a Kansas City Comets indoor soccer match at Kemper Arena back in the late ‘80s on two flat-bed trailers rammed together at midfield. I remember they sounded just dreadful, and we didn’t bother waiting around to hear “Never Been…” that night. They sounded a tad better this time, although the lead singer blew his voice out on the first song and was very screechy the rest of the night. Original lead singer John Schlitt was long gone, having become a born-again Christian after years of drugs and alcohol abuse, so original keyboardist Roger Boyd acted as the emcee, and the rest of the band were pretty decent musicians for the most part. To cover for the fact they had so few original hits, HE augmented their set with covers of other people’s songs like Stevie Ray Vaughan’s “Pride And Joy”, Trooper’s “Raise A Little Hell” and an old Grand Funk favorite of mine, “Footstompin’ Music”. The place went nuts when they launched into "Never Been...", during which Boyd employed his handy portable synthesizer, and for a few brief fleeting moments, it seemed like 1975 all over again. Not the greatest set I’ve ever seen, but the crowd seemed to like the band a lot.
Kansas City’s own Shooting Star featured original guitarist/singer Van McLain and four newer players, including a chick violinist named Janet Jameson to replace the long-departed Charles Waltz. They got right to work playing their big hits like “Tonight”, “Last Chance”, “Flesh And Blood”, “Hollywood” and my personal SS favorite, “Bring It On”. They sounded good and tight, and it was almost as if the band had never broken up. The highlight of the set was probably “Hang On For Your Life”, which had nearly everyone on their feet. Made me wish I’d seen them during their heyday in the ‘80s. Not too shabby for five bucks, either.
101) Pat Benatar/Night Ranger (Tuesday, August 28, 2001—Starlight Theater) Ticket price: Free
My ticket to this concert—normally $29.50—was a belated birthday gift bestowed upon me by my friend Rose. Thanks to her season ticket-holder status at Starlight with her husband, Rose was able to snag us some phenomenal seats—seventh row, just to the left of center. Night Ranger opened with a very spirited 45-minute set, during which guitarists Brad Gillis and Jeff Watson and bassist Jack Blades all snuck down into the audience and played one song while roaming all around us. This was way before I had a digital camera, or I’d have had some awesome close-ups. Watson also tossed numerous guitar picks into the crowd, and Rose caught one of them. Meantime, they played all their biggies, as well as the surprise inclusion of the big Damn Yankees hit that Blades sang on, “Coming Of Age”. I was never a huge NR fan, but like Loverboy and .38 Special, they’re a good band, yet not quite a truly great one. I’ve seen them play live twice, and they were certainly one of the better opening acts I’ve ever encountered.SET LIST: Touch Of Madness/Rumors In The Air/Sing Me Away/ We Like To Rock/piano solo/Sentimental Street/Four In The Morning (I Can’t Take Any More)/When You Close Your Eyes/Coming Of Age/Don’t Tell Me You Love Me ENCORES: Sister Christian/Rock In America
Pat resumed her set (with no further interruptions) with the surprise inclusion of “Invincible”. She and Neil also did an acoustic rendering of “Love Is A Battlefield” that wasn’t half-bad, and was thankfully minus the hoochie-mama choreography from the infamous video thereof—quite possibly the penultimate ‘80s cringe moment. “Hell Is For Children” and “Heartbreaker” closed the set to a vociferous crowd response, and “Promises In The Dark”, “Hit Me With Your Best Shot” and "All Fired Up" were the encores. While a major improvement over her performance at Sandstone in ‘97, I was still a bit disappointed with this show. There were too many glaring omissions for my liking—“Fire And Ice”, “You Better Run”, “Treat Me Right”, “Le Bel Age”—and the set lacked some continuity, thanks to the little detour we were led on with Hayley. At least I got to see Pat Benatar up close, therefore for that alone it was worthwhile…
SET LIST: We Live For Love/Shadows Of The Night/Somebody’s Baby/We Belong/-------set performed by daughter Hayley------Invincible/Love Is A Battlefield/True Love/Hell Is For Children/Heartbreaker ENCORES: Promises In The Dark/Hit Me With Your Best Shot/All Fired Up
102) B-52s/Eddie Money (Friday, August 31, 2001—Liberty Memorial Mall) Ticket price: $8.00
The annual Kansas City Spirit Festival was held over Labor Day weekend in ’01, and they had a pretty good music lineup this time around. I’d always heard that Eddie Money puts on a good show, so I decided to check him out, and sure enough, he put on a decent set. For some reason, I don’t remember too many details about this show (must have been the Foster’s), but I do remember Eddie kept reeling off one-liners between songs like “People ask me ‘How’d you get to be such a great blues singer?’ Easy—I became a Kansas City Royals fan!” (Place rim shot here.) He did most of his biggies and finished with “Two Tickets To Paradise”. Not a bad set, but I think he’d have been more enjoyable in a smaller venue like the Uptown Theater or Memorial Hall.
103) Mark Lindsay/Gary Lewis/Mitch Ryder (Saturday, September 8, 2001—Olathe Town Square) Ticket price: Free
My earliest memories of being alive are of listening to my older siblings’ Paul Revere & The Raiders albums when I was three years old, and lead singer Mark Lindsay was my first musical idol—he was every bit as cool as Batman (Adam West) in my book! My mom took the whole family to see The Raidas at Starlight Theater in 1971 when I was seven, and I have very vague memories of that performance. While I generally abhor these multi-act ‘60s “nostalgia” music revues, I decided to attend this one at the Old Settler’s Days Fest in Olathe in hopes of perhaps meeting that very first musical idol of mine in person, and darned if I didn’t!Mitch Ryder opened the show and acted just like the has-been that he was. He only did five songs (three of which weren’t even his), and he wasted a good ten cumulative minutes of his set telling jokes to kill time. I never did like “Devil With A Blue Dress On” anyway. Immediately after Ryder, Gary Lewis came on. The Playboys were the backing band for the entire show, and were quite good, actually. Gary was a bit on the nerdy side, but they put on a decent set, doing all their big hits, including “This Diamond Ring” and “Everybody Loves A Clown”. I kept waiting for him to imitate his old man and go, “Way-deee! Way-deee! I’m falling dowwwwn!” but he never did.
Meantime, there were a couple of oddities at this show. For some reason, there was this conglomeration of deaf people standing off to the side of the stage, and there was in fact a signer right in front of the stage interpreting the lyrics for them—I’ve never seen that at any concert before. Then there was this old redneck just off to my right trying to control his dog on a very long leash, and he eventually tied the dog up to a tree and just left him there. Meanwhile, the dog is barking its ass off and harassing anyone who came near it while the old man was sitting in his car with his fat-ass ugly (I assume) wife in the parking garage behind us. Uh, gee, you couldn’t leave the fucking dog at home tonight? Finally, a cop came along and kindly asked the old fuck to collect his pet, and it was a mighty struggle for him to get the dog back in the car. What is it about public gatherings that makes people act so goddamn stupid sometimes?
Anyway, back to the show. Near the end of Gary Lewis’ set, I made my way around behind the stage on the street to see if I could catch a glimpse of Mark Lindsay before the show, so I parked myself in the chair on the corner near a building which I suspected they were using as a dressing room. Sure enough, a little while later, Mr. Lindsay (who was much taller than I ever realized) was being escorted by one of Olathe’s Finest over to the backstage area. I wandered back around behind the stage, and Mark immediately goes into a stretching routine, which surprised me a bit until he got on-stage and I saw why—the guy moves around a lot up there. He opened with “Steppin’ Out”, followed by “Just Like Me” and “Hungry”, and the man was in fine voice, and was clearly the standout that night. They also did “Louie, Louie”, which took a few detours into other classic Rock tunes like “Sunshine Of Your Love” and “Heartbreaker”. Mark dug out an old Revolutionary War Raider coat for that one too. As I expected, he did “Arizona”, followed by “Indian Reservation” and “Kicks”, which was followed by an encore of Chuck Berry’s “Rock And Roll Music”, during which Ryder and Lewis rejoined Mark on-stage.
Meanwhile, they announced that all three guys were going to sign autographs at the left side of the stage, so I quickly got in queue for it. I had to wait about 20 minutes or so, and endured these old rednecks in line reciting all their favorite Rock groups (this one ugly bitch behind me liked Arra-Smith, Evvis, the Mooda Blues, Fureigner, et al). I finally got up to the signing table, and whipped out my Raiders Greatest Hits CD insert for the man to sign, and his assistant gal kindly handed it to him and told him my name. I shook hands with him and said, “Hi Mark, how you doin’?” and he thanked me for coming. I said, “The last time I saw you in person was almost exactly 30 years ago this month when I was a wee lad of seven.” He said, “How old—seven? Well, I must have been about eight or nine then.” Before heading out, I said to him, “Don’t never stop rockin’, man,” and he said, “Not as long as it’s fun—we’ll keep doing it.” Helluva nice guy, Mark Lindsay is. Mission accomplished! Ironically, Olathe is also where I met John Entwistle and almost met Lemmy from Motorhead. Must be something cosmic about that town Lemmy called “almost Kansas City.”
I was euphoric on the way home, and I was in a great mood also because football season started the next day, and I was barely a month into my new (and current) job that I really liked at the time, and everything seemed just peachy…until that terrible Tuesday three days later when everything went to hell in an Al-Queda handbag for this nation.
SET LIST: Steppin’ Out/Just Like Me/Hungry/Louie Louie/Arizona/Indian Reservation/ Kicks ENCORE: Rock And Roll Music
104) Dave Edmunds/Ryan Van Imming (Wednesday, May 15, 2002—Grand Emporium) Ticket price: $15.00
The Grand Emporium was a fairly legendary blues and jazz venue in the heart of the Midtown area of K.C. near Westport. I’d always heard people raving about what a cool place it was and at the time I was having some personal problems and was hoping an evening of Dave Edmunds-type Rock ‘N’ Roll in a cool venue would pick up my spirits. Unfortunately, neither did…
As soon as I set foot in the place, I was totally unimpressed. I’d always heard what great atmosphere this place had, and how all the great Blues, R&B and Jazz people loved playing there, yadda yadda yadda, so I was taken aback by what a dump this place was! It was your basic over-sized hole-in-the-wall bar with a stage—i.e., a fucking dive. It was downright scummy in places, and even worse, there was no place to sit (my fault for arriving so late), so I wound up standing around in the back near the toilets. Apart from the Beaumont Club in Westport, this was the worst venue I’ve ever attended a concert of any kind in.
The show had already begun when I arrived, as the opening act, Ryan Van Imming, was playing a solo acoustic guitar set. I quickly noted that there were no drums or other instruments set up on the dinky little stage, which was about the size of two phone booths side-by-side. I then realized that Edmunds was going to play a solo acoustic set as well—this from the same man who at the height of the “Unplugged” era in the mid-90s, did an album called Plugged In, as a not-so-silent protest to all the wussy acoustic stuff people were doing then. I was never a fan of the whole “Unplugged” thing anyway, despite of how it indirectly led to the Kiss reunion in 1995. To me, acoustic guitars should be used only in moderation—they’re the equivalent of black-and-white TV as opposed to the “color” of electric guitar.
I was fully-expecting Dave and his backing band to play, but I tried to keep an open mind about the acoustic thing. The opening act Van Imming wasn’t bad, but he got rather boring after a while. Edmunds came on after a short break and he did indeed play acoustic guitar all night. He alternated between his biggies and some instrumental stuff (like the late Jerry Reed’s “The Claw”, et al), but I didn’t like how he did little medleys, like the first two verses of “Crawling From the Wreckage” and part of “Queen of Hearts”, etc. The crowd was also quite annoying, as they were drowning Dave out at times with their incessant chatter. Dave seemed to get the biggest response to “I Knew The Bride” (which he didn’t truncate), but he did truncate “I Hear You Knockin’”, which is utter heresy! He showed a little class though, by doing a tribute to the recently-departed George Harrison with a nice rendition of “Here Comes The Sun”. He saved the best for last, too, following an acoustic encore of Fats Domino’s “I’m Ready”, he whipped out his Fender Telecaster, turned on a drum machine, and tore the place apart with “Sabre Dance”, and the crowd went nuts. It was nice to see Dave live again, but I really would have preferred seeing him playing electric with a full band.SET LIST: Blue Moon Of Kentucky/The Claw/Girls Talk/Lady Madonna/Warmed Over Kisses/Mystery Train/Walk Right In/Crawling From The Wreckage/Queen Of Hearts/I Knew The Bride/Sukiyaki/A Mess O’ Blues/I Hear You Knockin’/Promised Land/Here Comes The Sun/Classical Gas/Mozart In G-Minor ENCORES: I’m Ready/Sabre Dance
105) The Who/Robert Plant (Sunday, August 25, 2002--Verizon Wireless Music Center, Indianapolis) Ticket price: $30.00
I was really pumped in the Spring of ’02 when The Who announced they were touring again and when the dates were announced, the closest they were coming to Kansas City was Indianapolis (a proposed St. Louis gig was subsequently scrubbed, for some reason), so naturally I ordered me up a ticket on-line and couldn’t wait to see the ‘Orrible ‘Oo again. I was really pumped until June 27, 2002, that is. When I heard the terrible news that John Entwistle had died, the first thing I looked at was my concert ticket tacked on my bulletin board, and I felt so deflated. I immediately assumed that the tour would be cancelled altogether, and was extremely miffed when it was announced that the tour would resume in a mere four days following The Ox’s passing. I understand there are logistical problems in canceling/rescheduling concerts, but I thought it was very disrespectful of Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey to just callously move on that soon—as if they’d merely lost one of their roadies or something—without a more suitable period of mourning. The fact that John’s replacement, Pino Palladino, was already lined up to jump right in didn’t sit well with me either, but at the time I was unaware that Entwistle wasn’t taking very good care of himself, so in retrospect, Pete and Roger probably did the right thing. I was even more disappointed to learn that John’s death was caused in part by cocaine—I thought he was smarter than that. Drugs are bad, mmmm-kay?
In the interim, I debated whether to even bother attending the show or not, as an Ox-less Who wouldn’t have been as much fun for me, but I figured the ticket was paid-for, so I might as well go. Turned out to be a good move, as it was still an enjoyable concert. The venue, then known as Verizon Wireless Music Center (who knows what it’s called now), is actually located a little ways northwest of Indy in Noblesville, right smack dab amid the cornfields of central Indiana. For being out in the sticks, it was a fairly impressive outdoor joint, and light years better than our Sandstone and St. Louis’ Riverport Amphitheaters. I liked the layout of the place, as you actually enter from behind the stage, and they have this huge concession/souvenir area which you pass en route to the seating area. The lawn is sloped much more evenly than Sandstone, and its pitch is less steep, plus they have this wooden fence at the top of the hill that actually holds in some of the sound. Like Riverport, the seating pavilion has a roof over it, and there were four pretty decent video screens in place. I generally don’t care for these outdoor “sheds”, as the promoters call them, but this one is easily the best I’ve been to so far.
SET LIST: ????/Celebration Day/Morning Dew/Going To California/Tie-Dye On The Highway/Fixin-To-Die/Four Sticks/Tall Cool One/Babe, I’m Gonna Leave You ENCORE: Whole Lotta Love
Meantime “Another Tricky Day” was a surprise on the set list, but it came off really flat, in part because Pete and Roger couldn’t hook up properly on the vocals, and partly because Entwistle’s bass line was so heavy on the original recording, and it was sadly missing here. I could’ve done without “You Better, You Bet” in favor of say, “Shakin’ All Over” or “Young Man Blues” perhaps, but otherwise, it was generally a good set, and Townshend was cooking on guitar just like he did two years (almost to the day) ago when I saw them in Dallas. Roger was in fine voice as well, but Pete did most of the talking on stage again this time. “My Generation” was a bit a disappointment, mostly because of the bass solo. In all fairness to Pino, he’s a fine bassist, but this was like trying to replace the Wayne Gretzky/Michael Jordan/Tiger Woods of bass players. Apart from standing still all night, Palladino didn’t resemble Thunderfingers at all. “Won’t Get Fooled Again”, ended the set, and I was windmilling away again, just like in Dallas. For the encores, Pete and Roger chose to play three Tommy classics to wrap things up. All in all, this turned out to be a far better show than I anticipated, but The Who just wasn’t the same without their anchor on stage.
SET LIST: I Can’t Explain/Substitute/Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere/Who Are You?/Another Tricky Day/The Relay/Bargain/Baba O’Riley/Sea And Sand/5:15/Love, Reign O’er Me/Eminence Front/ Behind Blue Eyes/You Better You Bet/The Kids Are Alright/My Generation/Won’t Get Fooled Again ENCORES: Pinball Wizard/Sparks/See Me, Feel Me
After this concert, I unintentionally went into retirement as a concert-goer. Oh sure, there were numerous concerts I thought about attending, and I even had free tickets to one or two, including the infamous Sammy Hagar/David Lee Roth tour debacle in '02, but for whatever reason, I just didn’t go. Essentially, after over 100 concerts, I’d pretty much seen it all and done it all, and with concert ticket prices being absolutely obscene now, they're just totally not worth it anymore. There are still a few people I’d love to see, like Springsteen and U2, but I just can’t see paying 60 bucks-plus for nosebleed seats. I’d much rather spend 20 bucks on a concert video DVD and enjoy it over and over in high quality sound. Little did I know at the time that The Who and Robert Plant would be my last concert. Until…
106) Shooting Star/Head East (Saturday, July 12, 2008—Kearney Amphitheater) Ticket price: $5.00
…just two months ago. Just out of the blue, I un-retired and attended my first real concert featuring nationally-known acts in nearly six years at a new venue in Kearney, MO with several friends, a few of whom are musicians themselves and play in a local band. Kearney Amphitheater just opened this year and it’s sort of a mini-Sandstone and while it wasn’t totally completed yet, it wasn’t a bad place to see a show. There are no permanent seats, thus it’s all lawn, and patrons are encouraged to bring their own chairs, and the sightlines and sound system were quite good. I would estimate the crowd was about 2,000 or so to see a couple of longtime local favorites bands, each of whom still had one original member. We caught a huge break with the weather too, as it had been hotter than blazes all week until some showers came through during the day and cooled things off to a more human level.
Head East scored a huge radio hit around these parts with 1975’s “Never Been Any Reason” and that’s about all I remember them for. That, and the awful post-game concert they tried to stage after a Kansas City Comets indoor soccer match at Kemper Arena back in the late ‘80s on two flat-bed trailers rammed together at midfield. I remember they sounded just dreadful, and we didn’t bother waiting around to hear “Never Been…” that night. They sounded a tad better this time, although the lead singer blew his voice out on the first song and was very screechy the rest of the night. Original lead singer John Schlitt was long gone, having become a born-again Christian after years of drugs and alcohol abuse, so original keyboardist Roger Boyd acted as the emcee, and the rest of the band were pretty decent musicians for the most part. To cover for the fact they had so few original hits, HE augmented their set with covers of other people’s songs like Stevie Ray Vaughan’s “Pride And Joy”, Trooper’s “Raise A Little Hell” and an old Grand Funk favorite of mine, “Footstompin’ Music”. The place went nuts when they launched into "Never Been...", during which Boyd employed his handy portable synthesizer, and for a few brief fleeting moments, it seemed like 1975 all over again. Not the greatest set I’ve ever seen, but the crowd seemed to like the band a lot.
Kansas City’s own Shooting Star featured original guitarist/singer Van McLain and four newer players, including a chick violinist named Janet Jameson to replace the long-departed Charles Waltz. They got right to work playing their big hits like “Tonight”, “Last Chance”, “Flesh And Blood”, “Hollywood” and my personal SS favorite, “Bring It On”. They sounded good and tight, and it was almost as if the band had never broken up. The highlight of the set was probably “Hang On For Your Life”, which had nearly everyone on their feet. Made me wish I’d seen them during their heyday in the ‘80s. Not too shabby for five bucks, either.
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