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

Rock on!

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

Rock on!

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

Rock on!

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

Rock on!

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

Rock on!

GQ

Neil Young played a multi- night stand at New York’s Beacon Theatre in February, 1992 which turned out to be his preview to the “Harvest Moon” collection which was released later that year. As I recall, the concerts did not receive overly great reviews at the time which, in retrospect, is kind of amazing considering the accolades and popularity for the Harvest Moon album that was to happen after its release in November, 1992. My only beef at the time, as I recall, was that the solo acoustic shows were on the short side, about an hour and a half, maybe even an hour and a quarter, and the set was almost entirely the new tunes that had not been heard, for the most part, yet. It reminds me that on one of the nights, I was supposed to go to the Beacon with my lifelong buddy Eric who was working at A & S Department store in Manhasset at the time. He had a dispute with a girlfriend that day, punched a wall at work, broke his hand or wrist snd ended up in the emergency room. Now he had to miss the Neil Young concert that evening so he gave me his ticket to sell for him. I arrived at the Beacon Theatre close to show time and quickly sold the loge seat to the left of the stage to someone outside at a huge discount and went inside. The show started and at some point an apparent homeless guy, who stunk to high heaven, sat down next to me in what should have been Eric’s seat. No good deed goes unpunished as the pungent odor put a bit of a damper on that particular Neil Young experience.

Surfer Joe and Moe the Sleaze

Rock on

GQ

My personal archive entry for this particular Tom Petty concert was a little off so I am hoping I found the correct date off of Tom Petty’s concert archive on his website (which is pretty easy to scroll and use). If my memory serves correct (not a guarantee) it was a show attended with Mr. Vegas AKA Mr. Nut and the band performed on stage in front of a giant tree that reminded me of the Rainforest Cafe at Roosevelt Field and which stage set up I was not particularly thrilled with that night; “Rust Never Sleeps” it was not. I remember I was not particularly digging the show but that could partly be because I had to go directly into work for a midnight tour; I do not recall if I worked the night before but that would have only added to the exhaustion level if I had. I did see Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers with much better results at the Beacon Theatre and on their final tour at Forest Hills Stadium where a black SUV with tinted windows slowly drove through the concourse crowd at the outdoor venue shortly before the band hit the stage. I wondered then, and I wonder now, if Tom was staring back at us as we watched the vehicle travel past us. Getting out of Forest Hills Stadium is always problematic as the tennis stadium dumps out into one mass exodus into sort of pen along the railroad tracks, so we decided to beat the crowd, we listened to the band perform “American Girl” as we walked toward the Forest Hills business district.
Tom Petty suddenly and unexpectedly passed on not too long after that Queens summer concert; I am so glad we got to see the band perform one last time and at a great venue.

End of the Line

Rock on!

GQ

Let me start off by saying I am an Eddie Vedder fan and Pearl Jam did try to fight the good fight against Ticketmaster price fee gauging back in the day, but I have been occasionally checking in on. the Vedder dates at the Beacon Theatre scheduled for this week and I am wondering if he has any say on ticket pricing for these gigs. The shows have been periodically “sold out” making his real fans anxious in these live music scarcity times, to sporadic seats at hundreds of dollars for sale popping up occasionally, to today where entire rows for both gigs have suddenly become available at a slightly more reasonable $281 plus (it makes me glad I took a road trip with Mr. Nut to see a solo Vedder sitting in a giant hand chair at an Albany, New York theatre some years back). Ticketmaster’s “dynamic” pricing is completely out of control, and I suspect many ticket purchasers do not even realize they are being hosed. A couple of weeks ago I was contemplating picking up Zac. Brown tickets at Citifield (ugh) for my wife, and while I hesitated buying the approximately $130 pit tickets when they first went on sale, the prices jumped 20 or 40 bucks.” out of nowhere. Right now the Zac Brown prices are all over the map; it is really rather insane, like trying to hit a moving target to get a good deal, or to just not get ripped off.
Who is making the money on these wild pricing variations, the performer or the promoter?

Mr. Vedder, your fans should not have to pay over $600 per seat in desperation only to have similar tickets sold for less than half of that today (I will not even get into what the TM charges could be on a $600 ticket).

Jones Beach Theatre just added a couple of more shows for the summer that include a Black Keys/Band of Horses concert. Hopefully the summer outdoor concert season pans out and life can continue toward normal.

in the meantime, I will check the Beacon day of show in hopes that some standard price tickets for Vedder pop into the system; otherwise I will be skipping this one.

Earthling

Rock on!

GQ

While I have no particular recollection of this Rod Stewart concert at the Nassau Coliseum in November of 1991, it does make me wonder how my wife and I managed to sneak a night out on my daughter’s second birthday (and purely coincidentally, Neil Young’s birthday as well).
Rod Stewart’s Covid delayed summer tour will hopefully take place this summer; I have been holding on to my two orchestra seats for the Northwell Health at Jones Beach Theatre now for about two years now.

Rhythm of My Heart

Rock on!

GQ

If I am remembering this Sting concert at Jones Beach Theatre correctly, I had orchestra seats to left of stage and for some reason I took a work buddy’s son with me to the show. I am not sure how history will ultimately judge The Police or solo Sting but “ The Soul Cages” album still works for me. Now that Elvis Costello is busy trying to “cancel” his own “Oliver’s Army”, I wonder if that seemingly earnest punk anger back in the day was nothing more than a Dice-like persona marketing an image to sell rock and roll records; I hope not, since I have always been an Elvis Costello fan going back to when we hung out at Beefsteak Charlie’s cook John’s apartment above a store in Douglaston, where he would blast the latest New Wave music to all hours of the night (and morning) since he had no neighbors to speak of. Perhaps the next Johnny Rotten is practicing in a garage somewhere and will be inspired by Costello’s apparent hypocrisy.

I have been scouring the internet looking for live music to attend and the concert landscape is bleak. Where we are headed, I do not know, but it is starting to feel like rock and roll is gasping for air. Let’s hope the spring and summer and warmer weather revives the concert industry as the clock is ticking on the usual road warriors, while many stars scramble to sell off their catalogs for the nest eggs that will provide a well deserved retirement for our 1960,s, 70,s and 80’s rock stars.

Englishman in New York

Rock on!

GQ