The Love Rocks Benefit Concert held at the Beacon Theatre this past Thursday, March 10, 2022 was absolutely phenomenal from the beginning, with emcee Bill Murray, and Ben Harper performing “When the Levee Breaks”, to the group finale of Bob Dylan’s “ Like a Rolling Stone”.The concert clocked in at just a shade under 4 hours and there are too many highlights to mention. I had never attended this particular benefit show before but when I saw that Keith Richards& the X-Pensive Winos were reuniting after thirty years, where I last saw them play at the Beacon Theatre, I knew I had to go. It has been awhile since I drove into Manhattan for any reason whatsoever, but my wife and I rolled the dice driving in from Long Island; the traffic was not horrible and amazingly I managed to park on the street about three blocks from the Beacon. As we sat down in the rear orchestra to the left of the stage, the lights went off and the concert began; perfect. All of the artists on hand played two or three songs, they were all aiming to impress and there were quite a few cover songs performed throughout the night. Keith Richards & the X-Pensive Winos were the “headliners” but surprisingly performed in front of the house band set- up about two thirds of the way into the show. “999” off of Main Offender, The Rolling Stones “ You Got the Silver” and finishing with the classic “Before They Make Me Run”; it was a relatively short set leaving you wanting more, but clearly a nice fit in this well choreographed ensemble show. The great Mavis Maples came on relatively early on performing a Talking Heads tune and Staples Singers classic and then Mavis was gone for the evening. Mellissa Etheridge followed both Mavis and Keith near the end with the Beatles’ “ Come Together” and one of her own tunes. Hozier sang Tom Petty’s “ Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around with the unbelievably talented Allison Russell, and then he later on during his own set performed David Bowie’s “Changes”. An unannounced bearded Jackson Brown came on near the end snd played “Running On Empty” with the phenomenal house band that included Larry Campbell. A variety of other artists were mixed in throughout the evening making it just a great night and one of the best concerts I have attended in years. The concert was live streamed so there is great video on YouTube to check out.

Rock and Roll Hoochie Koo

Rock on!

GQ

I do not have any particular recollection of this August, 1994 John Mellencamp concert, however the interesting thing about this show is that Mellencamp, a notorious lifelong cigarette smoker, reportedly had a “mild” heart attack either on this night or the day before. Thankfully Mr. Mellencamp is still rocking, making music and occasionally touring all these years later.

Your Life Is Now

Rock on!

GQ

The H.O.R.D.E. Festival was a pretty cool traveling one day event that included the Allman Brothers Band, Blues Traveler, Dave Matthews Band, Rusted Root, Screaming Cheetah Wheelies, and Big Head Todd & the Monsters during this incarnation. I am not sure if it was this show or another, but there was a small tent set up near the Jones Beach Theatre entrance for impromptu performances where John Popper and Dave Matthews supposedly played together before the show proper. I never missed a chance at going to an Allman Brothers Band concert and Blues Traveler was a pretty fun jam band with Popper on lead vocals and harmonica. Honestly, I had no idea who Dave Matthews was at the time and we only arrived at the venue after they had already been on. Go figure that it was DMB that would ascend to the heights it has, end up playing stadiums and headlining festivals for all of these years. For this one my wife and I had really good seats up front in front of the stage on the right side of the orchestra where I remember John Popper blowing me away with his harp play. Blues Traveler is on a 35th anniversary tour this year

Ants Marching

Rock on!

GQ

For what might have been my only concert at Yankee Stadium thus far, my wife and I went to see the Roger Water- less version of Pink Floyd in the Bronx for The Division Bell your. My few memories of the evening are that the parking was atrocious, I parked in one of those tiered parking garages nearby the stadium, our seats were on the field to the right of the stage (not bad) and I think the flying pig made an appearance. I vaguely remember the band onstage at the “House That Ruth Built” and, being a Mets fan, I have only attended a handful of baseball games there through the years so Yankee Stadium as a concert venue made the night noteworthy.

A Momentary Lapse of Reason

Rock on!

GQ

My wife and I took our 4 year old daughter to the Big Apple Circus who famously regularly perform at Lincoln Center, however we caught them Cunningham Park in Queens which was much closer to home for us. I had grown up with the much larger scale of the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus which always performed at Madison Square Garden when they were in New York City; the Big Apple Circus came with a real circus tent and was a much more intimate an experience. My daughter was excited to go and she drew a picture with crayons to give to the lead clown Grandma. I had bought front row seats for the performance and when Grandma passed by my daughter, she stuck her hand out and gave the picture to Grandma who did not speak but was clearly happy to receive the gift while continuing on her way. At some point there was some audience participation required and Grandma returned to us and pulled me out of the audience to act as a prop for someone to leap over me during the act. Unfortunately I just read in a Newsweek article that Barry Lubin,, who played the Grandma character for years, was reportedly pressured to retire in 2012 because of sexual misconduct allegations but managed to return to the circus in 2017.

Send in the Clowns

Rock on!

GQ

My father has always loved Frank Sinatra and his music so in 1993 I bought a pair of tickets to see Sinatra during his multi-night stand at the Westbury Music Fair. For some reason, the Westbury dates were combined and moved to the much larger Nassau Coliseum for one night and tickets were reissued. The stage was in the center of the arena and I remember Don Rickles harassing someone late to their seat in the front. I am definitely glad that I got to see Frank Sinatra perform at least once snd that I got to take my dad to see his musical hero. Presently, he is 91 years old, in great shape, and we are all waiting for the New York Jets to get back to the Super Bowl.

Fly Me to the Moon

Rock on!

GQ

Rod Stewart has been around seemingly forever; from his days with Ronnie Wood, the Faces and “Maggie May” to the present, Stewart has managed to keep his career going with a variety of musical styles with many hits along the way, with that iconic voice and his rock and roll roots that never goes out of style. I have no particular recollection of this 1993 Jones Beach Theatre concert. Rod Stewart returns to the outdoor venue this August after a couple of years of Covid tour postponements. Sadly, the last time I saw Rod play the beach a couple of years back, the crowd looked like they had piled out of a senior center bus and the concert had a Vegas sort of vibe about it; time marches on. My wife and I swore then that we were done with Rod Stewart shows but I have been holding on to these orchestra seats since before the lockdown and we will endeavor to attend, with Cheap Trick opening.

The Warrior

Rock on!

GQ

I vaguely remember attending this Santana and Bob Dylan concert at the Jones Beach Theatre in September of 1993 with seats in the orchestra to the left side of the outdoor venue’s stage. Truth be told, I am a somewhat casual fan of Santana, and while I have been a fan of Bob Dylan through the years, I only more recently truly appreciate his genius, now finding myself playing catch up, obsessed with listening to all of the numerous phases of Dylan’s extraordinary career. Bob Dylan performed at the Beacon Theatre this past November and Santana is on tour this summer with Earth, Wind & Fire after last year’s Covid postponements. Some of the best, and most fun, Chicago concerts that I have attended through the years were when they toured with EWF and joined forces on songs from each other’s catalogues throughout the shows. While the bands are fundamentally different stylistically, they complimented each other magnificently, particularly the horn sections, making for a crowd pleasing joyous night of entertainment.

Black Magic Woman

Rock on!

GQ

I always love an Aerosmith concert but this particular one is not ringing a bell. The first time I saw the band perform live I was standing on a folding chair on the left side of the orchestra at the Nassau Coliseum. Aerosmith opened up with “Back in the Saddle” and when it came time for a Joe Perry guitar solo, they turned the volume up to 11 tilting me straight back snd nearly off my perch; it got loud fast. Stories of the band doing pop up club dates around Long Island after their peak, then drug fueled decline, and before they returned to the rock and roll mountaintop are the stuff of legend. To paraphrase Gregg Allman “the first million you just piss away” which apparently Aerosmith did, then amazingly came back bigger and better than ever. I saw the last Joe Perry Project performance at My Father’s Place in Roslyn where a YouTube video from that night reminded me that Steven Tyler joined the band onstage that night before an official reunion took place not long after. Aerosmith is scheduled to play Fenway Park this fall for a postponed 50th anniversary concert in their home town.

Kings and Queens

Aerosmith Rocks (on)

GQ

In August, 1993, Neil Young toured the northeast with Booker T and the MGs; Soundgarden and Blind Melon opened the shows making for a great triple bill. I vaguely remember seeing Blind Melon on stage from our Jones Beach Theatre orchestra seats to the right of the stage but I will never forget Soundgarden’s set that came next. The Jones Beach Theatre is an outdoor venue and when Soundgarden was on stage a summer lightening storm came through the area. A long haired barefoot Chris Cornell swirled around the stage as if possessed all the while the rain poured down and lightening lit up the sky. As puddles formed around Cornell’s bare feet, the band played on, spectators scampered back underneath the main structure for cover, and I wondered if lightening hit the water onstage would the band disintegrate before our eyes. As I recall, Soundgarden seemed empowered by the storm, and defiant, as the band powered through its set; when the band was finished, and just before Neil Young took the stage, the rain suddenly stopped and the sky cleared as if on cue.

Like a Hurricane

Rock on!

GQ