Well, through the years I have been fortunate enough to see The Kinks perform at The Palladium in Manhattan, Ray Davies solo at the Westbury Music Fair snd at this July, 1993 Kinks concert at the Jones Beach Theatre. Unfortunately, I have absolutely no recollection of this particular show at Jones Beach; I wish I did as The Kinks are an iconic rock and roll band with so many great songs. Unfortunately, as great an all time band as The Kinks are, they have not really gotten the well earned recognition from the masses in the rock and roll pantheon of all time greats as some other acts who came up with them in the 1960’s and beyond. Undoubtedly, Ray Davies is one of the great songwriters of our time. Rumors of a 50 (plus) anniversary tour have been going on for years but the notoriously cantankerous brothers (Ray and Dave) have somehow never agreed on when, how, or if to tour again. I suppose some things are better left undone.

Waterloo Sunset

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GQ

Don Henley, drummer and founding member of the Eagles, played a solo gig at the Jones Beach Theatre on a Saturday night in June, 1993. I have seen the Eagles, and Don Henley solo, on numerous occasions, and if memory serves me correct, this was the concert that Henley sang Kermit the Frog’s “It’s Not Easy Being Green”.

Huh

The Last Worthless Evening

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GQ

Next up for me after Bobfest at MSG, another top 5 or top ten concert of all time took place at the Beacon Theatre on Tuesday, February 23, 1993. I never appreciated the genius of Keith Richards until I saw him play with the X-Pensive Winos. Keith as front man blew the roof off of the Beacon Theatre that night and if memory serves me right, I think I had strep throat but managed to still attend this extraordinary performance. My buddy Eric, the biggest Rolling Stones snd Richards fan, and I had seats in the orchestra to the left of the stage and had the best pure rock and roll time with an ecstatic audience that was into every tune. There is a live album and DVD of another of the Winos gigs, not the New York City, and as luck, and coincidence would have it, Keith Richards & the X-Pensive Winos will reunite on that same Beacon Theatre stage early next month for the Love Rocks We Deliver Benefit that will also include Hozier, Mavis Maples, and Warren Haynes. I was fortunate to grab a pair up top during the presale of the benefit that is now completely sold out and I am completely pumped for this upcoming show.

Talk is Cheap

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GQ

Thanks to my friend, the late great Pat, who owned the Video Connection on N. Park Avenue in Rockville Centre, I managed to purchase a pair of tickets to the star studded celebration of the music of Bob Dylan held at Madison Square Garden on Friday, October 16, 1992. Pat was what you would call a “character”; a heavy set bundle of energy Irishman with a husky voice and a hearty laugh who played softball and claimed to have gone to every recent Super Bowl at the time. For those old enough to remember, the Video Connection rented VHS tapes and had a Ticketmaster machine. Before the internet, if you wanted to obtain a ticket to a just about any show, one would have to wait on line at a Ticketmaster location early enough so to hopefully not get shut out of the hot concert tours completely; it seemed that popular shows would sometimes sell out in a half hour or less and good seats were pretty much impossible to get your hands on unless you went to sn old school scalper. This was also before tier pricing was invented, so tickets for the front row to the last row nosebleeds were the same price. Thanks to my buddy Pat, my wife and I were able to attend Bobfest and we sat up high to the right of the stage in the green seats. This was not only a top 5 or 10 all time concert for me, but one of the most celebrated concert events of all time well documented by audio recording and film; it was an amazing evening with too many highlights to mention. Fast forward to my European road trip a couple of years ago after I retired where I caught Neil Young and Bob Dylan together in Ireland snd Hyde Park, London. I would think that Neil, Bob and I, possibly a handful of others in the crowd, can claim to have been at both the MSG celebration and the Kilkenny gig. Back then I was still I was chasing the live rock and roll experience, and now I am really glad that I did at the time as Covid has crushed the live music industry for a few years now and Neil Young says he will not perform live again until Covid is under control. None of us is getting any younger, and the artists of the golden age of rock and roll are busy selling off their catalogs for a nest egg. Thankfully, I just saw Bob Dylan perform again at the Beacon Theatre just before this past Christmas and it was outstanding. I am holding some tickets for the summer concert scene, of course heavy on the Chicago shows; a gtoup that seemingly never stops touring snd still my wife’s favorite band, but where the rest of this is all going is anyone’s guess.

Forever Young (check out the Bob Seger version)

Seven Days

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GQ

Neil Young & Crazy Horse’s latest album BARN is yet another classic and the documentary by dhlovelife is extraordinary. Crazy Horse needs to be inducted in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Let the band members, past and present, enjoy the induction ceremony, and think of the raucous jam that might end the evening’s festivities.

Crazy Horse

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

It is really a no brainer.

Let’s Roll

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GQ

There are a lot of shows I have no memory of but this one is not one of those. My wife, her sister, my buddy Eric and I drove to Shea Stadium, home of the Mets, to attend the Eric Clapton and Elton John concert on a Friday night in August, 1992. Since I have an aversion to paying for parking, and knowing the neighborhood a little bit, I parked on a side street in Elmhurst where a young man offered to keep an eye on my car for $20. As I was in a legal spot, I found this odd until the light bulb came on and I realized he was asking for $20 street insurance. As I was not comfortable with this generous offer, we moved the car to another legal parking space snd made our way in. Our seats were on the field near the front of the second part of the orchestra on the left side of the stage. Once we entered the field, Eric and I soon realized that they were not selling beer on the floor and that you could not exit and return. This was long before cell phones were common place, so we went to a security guard and told him we had to leave to make an emergency phone call. The guard let us leave and we headed straight to Casey’s Bar within the stadium and furiously pounded down Heinekens. I think we went back in again and managed to return to Casey’s at least one more time. Once we returned to the field to stay, my sister in law saw us coming and said “oh my god”. When Elton John performed “Funeral for a Friend”, Eric was in the aisle in front of our section playing air guitar and doing his best Chuck Berry duck walk during “Love Lies Bleeding”. This is where the memories begin to get fuzzy. As I am recalling now, I think a security tried to curtail Eric’s performance in the aisle and somehow he was asked to leave. As I further recall, I think in a move of solidarity, I left with him and we ended up in the parking lot together. Oh yeah, my wife and sister in law were still inside the concert while all this is going on, and as I previously stated, there were was no cell phone technology at the time to save us. I’m not sure why, but Eric snd I were rolling around the parking lot half ass fighting when two of NYPD’s Finest broke us up and were pleased to realize that we knew each other. There was literally no way to contact my wife and sister in law so we left and I headed to my parents apartment in Oakland Gardens, Queens to sleep on the couch; the trip included a cab ride that got derailed and quite a bit of walking. Needless to say, no one was happy with the events of the evening, including me for missing most of the show, nor my wife, for the obvious reasons.

Can’t Find My Way Home.

It just dawned on me that this happened almost thirty years ago; now I am 62, a grandfather, and eligible for social security.
I’m Still Standing

Don’t Let the Sun Go Down On Me

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GQ

My childhood buddy Joe Fisk emailed me out of the blue, to remind me of the 45th anniversary of the Queen with Thin Lizzy show at Madison Square Garden we had attended together and which was my first concert (I was supposed to see Lynyrd Skynyrd with Bebop Deluxe at the Paladium before this MSG show but that is a story for another day). Thin Lizzy’s “ Jailbreak” and Queen’s “Now I’m Here” sent me off down the road to rock and roll ruin. Then Joe reeled off a list of upcoming shows he’s going to, some of which I already have tickets to: Chicago, Rage Against the Machine, Leonid and Friends, the Beatles tour with Todd Rundgren and others. Joe did clue me in on a Martin Barre concert at nearby Molloy College in Rockville Centre coming up this Friday that I was not aware of. Jethro Tull was my favorite band freshman year at Holy Cross High School in Bayside, Queens and I remain a fan to this day. Original Tull guitarist Barre is doing his own “50th anniversary” tour much like Ian Anderson had done the last time I saw Jethro Tull perform at Forest Hills Stadium. It reminds me to ask, why is Jethro Tull not in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame?

Aqualung

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GQ

As I had predicted, tickets for last night’s Eddie Vedder concert at the Beacon Theatre came back down to earth with entire rows of tickets sold at standard face value prices of $199 snd $179 (with $32 dollar TM charges, but that is another issue) put on sale day of show after weeks of “sold out” venue $600 “platinum” seats popping up sporadically. Today, Friday, there is an entire row of $601.00 orchestra seats for the second night tonight for sale. If they don’t sell early, you can count on the same seats going for $199 this afternoon. The price gauging, the “bait and switch”, the fake “sold out” venue to give the appearance of the hard to get ticket is outrageous. Does Eddie Vedder see this? Has his management waved the white flag? I had wanted to check out these shows but I will pass; the weather sucks, ice storm imminent and these games played by Ticketmaster leave a bad taste in my mouth. Music lovers are getting hosed; how would you feel if you bought a “platinum” seat for the “sold out event only find out the person next to you spent $400 less on the day of show- ripped off? TM is not doing a good job disguising their deceptive sales practices; it is a sad state of affairs.

Buyer beware!

Guaranteed

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GQ

Since Chicago is still my wife’s favorite band since she was a teenybopper, we have attended every one of their tours forever. Some of the touring line up has changed through the years, and they will plug in a stand in without warning on occasion, but they always play the hits (and there are many) giving the bulk of their fans what they came for. The band seemingly never stops touring and will play the sheds again this summer with opener Brian Wilson.
Brian Wilson was completely shot when I saw him at Westbury Music Fair with Jeff Beck some years back so I am expecting the worst for this your. When he left the stage that night before Jeff Beck’s band came on, Wilson gingerly worked his way around the crowded Westbury stage set up for two bands in the half round. Wilson held on to the equipment onstage as he made his way to the back curtain where a handler gave him a twirl around signal reminding him to acknowledge the applause. The disoriented looking Beach Boy quickly raised his arms then quickly disappeared rear stage. There was word at the time that Jeff Beck and Brian Wilson had been working on a project together, that was apparently never finished or released, prompting the joint concert.

Since we do get to see Chicago perform every year (sometimes several times) , it is always a plus, particularly on their summer tours, when they have a great opening act. The Moody Blues are obviously one of those great acts. Unfortunately I do not have any particular recollection of this Jones Beach concert, and I believe the Moody Blues as a band may be no more. I did recently go to see Justin Hayward perform at the Paramount in Huntington where, even as a solo act, Hayward is still an extraordinary performer in fine voice with obviously an incredible song catalog. Justin chats up the tunes between songs, with some great stories, some of which he repeated from when I saw him at City Winery,, but mesmerizing nonetheless.
The band Chicago is in yet another transition as a couple of long time members have recently left the band. I am sure they will regroup with another round of replacement musicians and tour on. My guess is that, like Blood, Sweat and Tears, the band will exist as a touring entity long after all of the original members have retired.

Every Good Boy Deserves Favour

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GQ

I do not go down to the Garden State Arts Center as a matter of course, and it has been years since I have made the trip, but I have traveled south to New Jersey for the occasional concert. This Neil Young show, with opener John Hammond, does not bring back any particular memory. What I do recall mostly about the Garden State Arts Center as an outdoor venue is that the general admission lawn area was steep.

Mansion on the Hill

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GQ