Diary of a Madman

Around the time Stuttering John opened for Ozzy at Jones Beach (21 years ago?) and my all grown up daughter was a little girl, MTV played rock videos and I would hold her in my arms and we woud fist pump to “Mama, I’m Coming Home” while standing in front of the television.

Ozzy Osborne’s No More Tours 2 arrives at Jones Beach Theater in September.

 I caught “the end” of the new Black Sabbath documentary on Showtime last night and was kind of shocked at how good the band played. I attended the Madison Square Garden show on the last Sabbath tour and they put on a great show. Ozzy looked and sounded amazingly healthy, and the band kicked ass one last time. The Black Sabbath documentary is well done and it is really hard to believe with the reckless rock star lifestyle Osborne has led that he can kick it into gear for not one, but two, lengthy farewell world tours. 

Ozzy’s next  solo tour is yet another expensive ticket with all sorts of “special” VIP treatments and hopefully he can keep it together for another year or two; with Ozzy you never can be 100% sure. This next tour makes me long for the days of inexpensive seats with rock and roll unpredictability and volatility, special nights of heavy metal mayhem. I would not spend 200 bucks to see Ozzy Osborne one last time but I have seen  him before and have gone to Ozzfests (and besides I won a pair for September’s concert on Q104.3 last week!) but for Ozzy diehards with the disposable income to spend, bang your head against the wall and have fun.

Bark at the Moon

Rock on!

GQ

Don Henley is an extraordinary person and not a bad musician. On the heals of piecing the Eagles band back together for The Classic West and East concerts last summer after Glenn Frey’s untimely passing, Henley has once again found a way to cash in, this time by adding Frey’s son to the mix in an effort to mitigate whatever guilt he might have in continuing under the Eagles brand name to keep the money rolling in and as an apparent attempt to appear to legitimize the project. The music is iconic but the greed of this band is legendary. The Eagles were the first $100 concert ticket while also adding a surcharge to parking fees to be donated to their favorite charity. I have not seen the ticket prices for this upcoming tour, but considering the outlandish numbers being charged today ($169 for Smashing Pumpkins at Madison Square Garden?) and the special VIP admissions and “Dynamic Pricing”, it will not be an inexpensive date night with the bride. I love the older acts but even I am getting nauseated by these retirement fund tours. Elton John’s three year farewell tour is supposed to net him $400 million plus and the shows are selling out a year in advance. I’ve seen Elton John several times through the years, and it least one time with Billy Joel, and I will see him again, but a 73 year old John is surely not the same performer he was the 1970’s, 80’s, 90’s or 2000’s. But we will go hoping to hang on to the past glory’s and foggy memories. There will be Grateful Dead stickers on Cadillacs in the fifty dollar parking garages. 

Radiohead sold out four nights at Madison Square Garden yesterday.

Turn the Page

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GQ

The Showtime documentary “A Life in 12 Bars” is a bit slow moving but chock full of interesting information and insight as to how Slowhand became a rock and blues legend. His childhood revelation is illuminating and his  love affair with George Harrison’s wife, which led into “Layla and Assorted Love Songs” by Derek and the Dominos, heroin, cocaine, alcoholism and a mixed bag of solo efforts, is enlightening. The birth of a son by a lover and the child’s tragic death is particularly heartbreaking. Eric Clapton was God with John Mayall, then Cream and supergroup Blind Faith. A rain storm knocked my power out two hours in but I think you get the drift. The documentary is mostly for diehard fans of the great EC but those with stamina will find a mesmerizing portrait of a guitar legend and the rollercoaster life that truly earned him the right to sing the blues.

Money and Cigarettes

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GQ

Panel discussion is killing me. 

Play All Night!

GQ

Dave Matthews, Trey Anastasio, Aaron Neville and others play a benefit concert for Puerto Rico  at Radio City Music Hall  tonight on a frigid New York City evening. The Rockefeller Center Christmas tree comes down tomorrow and the NFL playoffs began today so after a disastrous New York Jets campaign we are firmly in the winter doldrums  dreaming of pitchers, catchers, and outdoor shows at Jones Beach and Forest Hills Stadium. 

What kind of show to expect is a complete unknown as my son and I sit outside in the car waiting to go in but I’m hoping a special guest or two perform and I’m sure that Trey may jam with Dave at some point.

(Frozen) Ants Marching

Stay warm and rock on!

GQ

On New Years Eve, December 31, 1981 my girlfriend, now wife,  and I traveled to the Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale to see the reunited Allman Brothers Band on the Enlightened Rogues tour with Molly Hatchet and Peter Rowan.

The show itself does not spark any particular memories. Molly Hatchet flirted with disaster with several albums and FM radio hits and the Allman Brothers Band pre- Derek Trucks and Warren Haynes was finally back together and on the road with both Gregg Allman and Dickey Betts.

The most memorable part of the evening was actually after the show while returning to Queens on the Notthern State Parkway, there was a young holiday reveler, who was wearing a  cardboard “Happy New Year” hat, walking on the middle white lane marking in the middle of roadway. I remember thinking that some poor guy with a couple of beers in him is going to hit this knucklehead and get himself arrested.

It was on this night I figured out that driving around on New Year’s Eve was probably not a good idea even if you are not drinking.

Happy New Year 

And Rock on1982!

GQ

Thanks to my wife’s fanaticism for the rock band Chicago, I have seen them as often, and in as many different venues, as just about any act I have seen other than Neil Young and maybe the Allman Brothers Band. On this night we drove to New Jersey, while trying to figure out which of my credit card accounts had been hit with $6,000 in unauthorized Italian import charges, to the Bergen Performing Arts Center where I had never been before. The Bergen Performing Arts Center is an old theater in the business district near the commuter railroad. The theater attracts some pretty good acts but the venue itself could use an overhaul and update. Perhaps I have become spoiled by the renovated Beacon Theatre but the Bergen venue was run down and offered some odd sight lines.

Chicago is not known for changing up the setlist too much, usually moving around the parts of the standard show and mixing in a few acoustic versions of hits, but in what was a big change for them, they started the show playing the Chicago II album in its entirety. It was great to hear the band play songs they had not played live in decades. It was a show for true fans of the band and the appreciative audience responded in kind. Chicago does not disappoint and gives you your money’s worth, usually playing close to three hours with an intermission. It is truly amazing that the original members are able to continue to perform the band’s grueling touring schedule after fifty years; their work ethic is truly admirable. This was a special evening for the true devotees of the band Chicago in what was a unique venue for us to see them.

Fancy Colours

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GQ

My last show, for what was a very busy 2017, took place at New York S City Winery. Los Lobos is from east L.A. and lauded world wide as a versatile group whose musical choices run the gamut from blues, country, Tex-Mex and just about everything in between. They do not look like the stereotypical rock and roll act and this adds to the charm of the band who are as talented and tight as any band you will see anywhere. I cannot claim to know the band’s music intimately but I know a good band when I see it and these men are battle tested from years on the road and an extraordinary live act.

On a night when I had to get up early the next day, the band took the stage shortly after 8 but took an intermission about 45 minutes into the show which kind of killed the show’s momentum and cut short my evening quite a bit. The band sounded great and The Gull told me they closed with Neil Young’s “Cinnamon Girl” which I would have loved to have seen.

Happy New Year’s Eve Eve

Rock on!

GQ

While I usually blog about rock and roll, I watched a movie yesterday that just infuriated me.

Resist the urge and DO NOT see “Downsizing”.

A classic bait and switch, “Downsizing” is advertised as a happy movie about shrunken people but turns into a plodding modern day liberal anti-Trump, anti-Republican parable.

Awful does not begin to describe this movie that we finally walked out on 3/4 of the way through.

Matt Damon has shown himself to be a much better actor in movies such as “Team America” however he should have died at the end of “The Martian” and saved us from this crap.

Rock on

GQ

Southern Rocktoberfest hits the NYCB Theatre at Westbury tonight and based on what I saw on Ticketmaster it will be asparsely attended event. I bought a twenty dollar ticket a few months back for this show which now looks like a promoters nightmare. This venue in the “full round” is going to be as empty as it’s ever been. There are some great songs in these bands’ catalogues but I fully expect most original members to be long gone. Lower ticket prices or a change in location such as The Paramount might have increased crowd size and the sudden chill in the air on a late October Thursday will not help walk up business. Whoever is paying the performers For tonight’s festivities is flirting with  (financial) disaster.

The second sold out night of the Tribute to T. Rex concert at City Winery Monday, while well intentioned and enthusiastically performed by a mostly little known group of artists with the Patti Smith Group rhythm section on bass and drums, ran too long and, after veering off track midway through for a variety of reasons, ultimately left me flat. Suzanne Vega and Loyd Cole were the best known artists of the bunch and while the acts seemed to be having fun I began to get bored as the show wore on. A teenager from the great Northwest flew in to perform after apparently being “discovered” performing Marc Bolan songs on You Tube, which was an interesting twist but I bailed before the encores and headed home having seen enough this night.

Telegram Sam

Rock on!

GQ