It was during this time in 1979 my friends and I would travel from Queens to attend any and every Dr. Pepper Concert at Wollman Rink in Centrsl Park that we could make. I know that festivals are a huge part of the concert scene these days and the Dr Pepper Concert Series felt like a summer long festival where if you did not buy a ticket to get in you could hang out on the large boulders outside the fences and hear the shows pretty well. I have no particular recollection from the McGuinn, Clark and Hillman concert as it was likely just another summer night in the big city.

I wore my tie dye Allman Brothrrs Band last run at the Beacon Theatre t- shirt while grocery shopping with my wife in Massapequa on Sunday the day after Gregg Allman passed. I’m not usually big on such somewhat corny tributes to a departed legend but it felt good throwing it on for a trip around the neighborhood as my tip of the hat to Mr. Allman.

While in the grocery store a man working there slightly older than me acknowledged to me that it was a sad day. While talking about Gregg’s passing it somehow came up that we were both at the Dickey Betts & Great Southern show at Central Park where Gregg Allman sat in and that ultimately turned out to be the beginnings of an Allman Brothrrs Band reunion. It is truly a small world sometimes.

Enlightened Rogues

Rock on!

GQ

Even though Gregg Allman had been off the road for a couple of years now, reports of his poor health have been frequent, news of his passing still felt like a shock and almost as if unexpected. Some artists are like touchstones, intertwining with your life as you  grow, evolve and accumulate experiences throughout time. Even with Mr. Allman’s somewhat checkered past and reckless  lifestyle, it felt like he would always be around, touring, performing the great Allman Brothers Band catalogue in some form or another, and bringing joy to a community of rock and roll fans.

The Fillmore East live concert album brought the band to the forefront of all of our consciousness at a time when the double live album flourished, and performing live in concert was where Gregg Allman thrived.

I’ve seen Gregg Allman so many times since the late 1970’s and there were so many memorable moments with the Allman Brothers Band and as a solo artist creating new songs and reinventing the classics.

I was at Central Park when Gregg joined Dickey Betts & Great Southern after the Allman Brothers had been broken up for awhile and New Years Eve at Nassau Coliseum with Molly Hatchet around the time Enlightened Rogues was released. Gregg performed as a solo act at My Father’s Place in Roslyn, more recently at an album release show at the Bowery Ballroom, and shows at the intimate City Winery in New York City. There was the appearance with Warren Haynes at the Love for Levon concert in New Jersey and The Speaking Clock Revue with Elton John, Leon Russell, T-Bone Burnett and Elvis Costello at the Beacon Theatre where the Allman Brothers Band played so many great concerts through the years.

The last time I saw Mr. Allman in concert was a couple of years ago at his Laid Back festival at Jones Beach. Surpringly, although frail, Gregg looked and sounded great and I expected that his health may have rebounded to the point that he would be around for some years to come. When City Winery postponed a string of shows, and then eventually canceled them altogether, you had the inkling his health had gone south. Rumors of his entering hospice apparently proved to be true.

There have been so many great recording artists who have passed on, particularly in the past few years, but this one stung deep. Gregg Allman was a one of a kind artist with an incredible soulful voice but also with demons and addictions that ultimately proved to be too much to overcome. Gregg Allman was a talent and a legend who will be missed but his incredible music will live on.

The Road Goes On Forever

Rest In Peace 

Rock on!

GQ

Amazingly Guns N Roses are still touring together and will come to Madison Square Garden this fall following a worldwide jaunt that includes Europe.

I skipped the MetLife Stadium shows but after seeing Axl Rose with AC/DC I had wished I had gone. I’ve seen Axl perform with his Guns N Roses sans any other original members. I’ve seen Slash with his own band and with parts of the original band performing with the late Scott Weilamd in Velvet Revolver. I grabbed four tickets tonight by joining their fan club through Ticketmaster so I am set for their return to the states.

Welcome to the Jungle

Rock on!

GQ

I don’t quite remember when I discovered the Patti Smith Group. Patti and the band was different than anyone else around at the time. They were edgy, heavy, and had a punk rock tenacity that were mesmerizing. 

The “Easter”, and particularly the “Wave” albums, were my favorites of theirs and I only discovered the “Horses” and “Radio Ethiopia” albums later on.

We traveled from Queens to Hempstead, Long Island to see the Patti Smith Group at the Calderone Concert Hall. The Calderone was a bit off the beaten track, particularly for us, and was located in what used to be not a great neighborhood. At some point during our travels I bought  long stemmed carnation in the unlikely event I got close enough to hand it off to her for dramatic effect. We sat in the orchestra on the aisle and at some point during the show (I think it was at the start) Ms. Smith walked down our aisle and I held out the white carnation in her direction. Patti whipped her hand around, aggressively grabbed the flower without breaking stride while heading toward the stage. There was a big video screen in the front and I was sure that this moment would somehow make it into a rock and roll movie and Immortilize the moment for all time. In retrospect, it was likely an in house video screen but at the time it felt like a big deal. Details of both the Calderone and Central Park Concerts are unclear but the thoughts of this brief interaction with a rock and roll great are emblazoned in my memory and on my rock show resume forever. 

The former Calderone Concert Hall location is now home to a church.

Because the Night

Rock on!

GQ

The last time I saw Chris Cornell in concert was at the Hammerstein Ballroom in Manhattan when Soundgarden played a couple of shows.? I’m kicking myself for not seeing the more recent Temple of the Dog show at Madison Square Garden as ticket prices had dropped and the set list looked pretty cool. 

Mr. Cornell had, without question, one of the great voices in rock and roll. My favorite memory seeing Chris in concert was when Soundgarden played Jones Beach with Neil Young and Blind Melon some years ago. Soundgarden was the second act on the bill and an extremely violent lightening storm passed through the area during their set. The squeamish among us bolted underneath the stands to avoid the downpour  and lightening strikes above the crowd but my wife and I remained in our orchestra seats and stood in amazement as a barefooted Cornell spun in circles, long black hair swirling,  ankle deep in water surrounded by electrical equipment and seemingly unperturbed by the danger in the air. Cornell seemingly dared the gods to send down a bolt that eould have lit up the stage and sky. Which became part of the light show. He and the band played on as the ongoing deluge at the beachfront venue continued throughout Soundgarden slot ending only right before Neil Young would hit the stage when  the audience found their way back to the seats. 

The power and the glory of unfettered rock and roll was on full display for anyone willing to withstand getting soaked.

I believe I saw Chris Cornell st a Beacon Theater show sometime after that and, if I remember correctly, one of his small children came on stage to join him near the end of his set. For whatever reason, I always believed that Chris seemed like a nice guy and  a family man. It must be a terrible thing to be in such pain or anguish to take your own life. 

“In My Time of Dying” is a great Led Zeppelin song that will unfortunately be connected to this tragic event going forward.

Say Hello 2 Heaven

Rest In Peace Chris Cornell.

Rock on

GQ

Metallica plays the “intimate” confines of the newly renovated Nassau Coliseum tonight following their concert at MetLife Stadium Sunday night. There are not a lot of stadium ready acts these days and Metallica are one of the few. They are scheduled to play only a couple of arena shows during this current stadium tour so this should be special and, of course, loud.

The new album “Hardwired…to Self-Destruct” is very good and they were smart to advance a CD or a download with each purchased ticket to appease the appetites of those only attending to hear the greatest hits. 

Dream No More

Rock on

GQ

Canadian legend Gordon Lightfoot takes the stage at the NYCB Theatre at Westbury tonight. I do not think I’ve ever seen the seventy eight year old Mr. Lightfoot in concert before and none of us is getting any younger. Robbie Robertson, Neil Young and Bob Dylan are Lightfoot fans so it is time for me to check out a “national treasure” and one of Canada’s greatest songwriters live and in person myself.

If You Could Read My Mind

At yesterday’s Relix Live Music Conference, Ron Delsoner ended the scheduled day proper as a keynote speaker. The legendary promoter Mr. Delsoner and Peter Shapiro, who owns Brooklyn Bowl and the Capital Theatre as well as promoting the Grateful Dead’s Fare Ther Well 50th anniversary shows, were interviewed by Rolling Stone magazine’s writer David Fricke. With a bottle of scotch on the coffee table set up on stage, the three exchanged stories and anecdotes while seated on a leather couch and chair. Ron Delsoner has no filter making for a lot of laughs and the segment had a great loose vibe ending the conference on a high note.

It was a great, extremely informative day and I learned quite a lot about the dynamic and intricacies of the live music industry.

Agents, promoters, managers, technology, ticketing and artists collaborate to bring us the great live events that bring joy and meaning to quite a few lives. It’s a lot harder task than it looks to the average concertgoer to be sure.

Exit…Stage Left

Rock on

GQ

The inaugural Relix Live Music Conference takes place at the Brooklyn Bowl today and is sold out at three different price levels. The conference is partially sponsored by Ticketfly whose charges are generally borderline abusive and, as expected, made a generous service charge for this event.

The conference will bring together some of the major players in the live concert business and will hopefully be an informative day of useful information for those in the music business, who would like to get into the music business or are just interested in how the whole dynamic works.

There have been two interesting panels so far about booking talent and festivals.

The attendees appear to be relatively young up and comers in the concert business.

Brooklyn Bowl is a cool room and the coffee is good.

Activism up next; So far it’s been an informative presentation.

Keep on Rockin’ in the Free World

GQ

Following a video tribute by Stevie Wonder, Jimmy Webb opened the rehearsal show for his Carnegie Hall tribute concert alone on piano and sang the Glen Campbell classic “Galveston”. The prolific Mr. Webb has written a slew of all time classic songs and helped propel enumerable artists with his iconic tunes.

A top notch band performed much of what tonight’s concert set list will be and there were several highlights even though “special guests” were few and far between during the relatively short hour and a half show.

Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis Jr. sang “Up, Up, and Away” which was a radio staple during my youth and Billy Davis Jr followed by a song made famous by Johnny Maestro and the Brooklyn Bridge. 

BJ  Thomas sang a tune and Glen Campbell’s daughter played the banjo like a chip off the old block.

“MacArthur Park” is such an all-time great song and while the band did a good job recreating it musically, on this night it needed a vocalist up to the task to take the performance to the next level.

It’s always a wild card attending these City Winery rehearsal shows but this one was a bit of a disappointment, particularly when the band had to vamp with a blues tune while waiting for the final guest vocalist to make it downtown from Lincoln Center.

The Cake and the Rain tonight at Carnegie Hall.

Wichita Lineman

Rock on!

GQ

The ticketing and venue monster that is Live Nation kicked off a week of $20.00 cheap seat offers for the summer tour season with a FREE concert at Irving Plaza in Manhattan last night.

The advertised lineup included country favorite Jason Aldean, Foreigner with Jason Bonham, Nickelback with Daughtry and the Roots. The show started pretty promptly at 7 o’clock and was hosted by a young gal from the Today Show.

Jason Aldean started the night off with a three song acoustic set with his band fousing on new material. After a short break where stagehands hustled equipment through the crowd to make room for an eight piece Foreigner band who kicked the evening into gear with “Feels Like the First Time”, “Jukebox Hero” (without the inflatable jukebox from their heyday headlining Madison Square Garden), and “Hotblooded”, which the Nickleback singer kiddingly said would be stuck in his head for awhile. Nickleback proved to be a dynamic arena ready act with Daughtry joining in for a popular tune about wanting to be a rock star.

The Gull and I skipped out before the Roots hit the stage but it was a successful early Monday night of rock and roll and the price was right- free is for me.

Tonight is yet another unusual night of music at City Winery for The Music of Jimmy Webb Rehearsal Show for the Carnegie Hall date tomorrow. I really do not know what to expect for this one but a Rolling Stone article reviewing Webb’s autobiography detailed his hanging out with John Lennon and Harry Nilsson during the infamous “lost weekend” and intrigued me enough to make me want to check out what this guy, who wrote tons of hits for other people, is all about.

MacArthur Park

Up, Up and Away

Rock on!

GQ