I tried to figure out the exact date my wife and I saw Chicago at Caesars Atlantic City in June, 2002 but was unsuccessful; I think they may have performed three nights at the casino hotel this tour. I have seen Chicago in concert so many times through the years, mostly thanks to my wife’s fandom, that I can’t begin to guess the number, but this one in 2002 just might be my favorite. Table seating with waitress service, and an overnight hotel stay, gave this show a Las Vegas vibe. Chicago generally plays the familiar hits, and does not usually stray to far into their deep catalog, but the band always put on a great performance giving fans their money’s worth. We just saw them once again last month in Atlantic City where they were filming a concert video with special guests, and the band is back on tour throughout the summer of 2024 with Earth, Wind and Fire, who are always one of Chicago’s best collaborators on the shed circuit.

Free

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GQ

My wife and sister in law sat on the right side of the stage at Madison Square Garden for The Who, with opener Robert Plant, on Sunday, August 4, 2002. The legendary rock and roll road warriors played “The World’s Most Famous Arena” on this night, and while I recall that the seats were great, I have seen both artists so many times through the years I do not have any specific recollection of this concert other than it was an excellent night out. The Who has had a few farewell tours since, and their show at Forest Hills Stadium was one of my favorites most recently. Robert Plant has continued to resist a reunion of sorts for what would surely be a lucrative Led Zeppelin tour and he continues to follow his muse creating new projects with a variety of musicians as true artists will do.
On this night in 2002, two of the greatest acts in the history of rock and roll performed on the same stage in New York City; incredible….

Face Dances

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GQ

My buddy Pete hooked up four first row center seats at Westbury Music Fair in the “ half round” for Jason Bonham’s Led Zeppelin Evening on Wednesday, November 29, 2023. After a nice dinner at Frank’s Steakhouse, we drove to the mostly sold out theatre and witnessed a nice recreation of the legendary Led Zeppelin catalog; thankfully devoid of impersonation. Mr. Bonham is a truly likable guy who played with surviving Led Zep members for the “ Celebration Day” concert reunion. Bonham is about to embark on a summer shed tour with Sammy Hagar, Michael Anthony and Joe Satriani, which should include a heavy dose of Van Hagar classics on the set list. Last week’s Bonham and Company concert was a great night of hard rock performed by talented professional players, and what more could an old school rock and roll audience possibly ask for in 2023.

In My Time of Dying

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GQ

Bob Dylan is still on the road and he performs at the sold out Kings Theatre in Brooklyn tonight and tomorrow, then the Beacon Theatre on Thursday. I will be heading to Brooklyn tonight and then the recently added date at the Beacon on Thursday. What can you say about Bob Dylan that has not already been said?; his “newer” music is incredible and he just recently did an unannounced Farm Aid set with the Heartbreakers where he he played guitar on several older tunes. I’m looking forward to the concert tonight, which will be a “cell phone free” experience, even though getting there on a weekday night from Long Island will not be an easy task (but quest for legendary live music never ends).

Maybe I will run into Steve Earle again; you never know……

Tough Mama

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GQ

While my Aunt Pat had given me “Meet the Beatles” as a youth when it was first released, and my father bought me the Moody Blues’ “Every Good Boy Deserves Favour” after a post office picnic mishap and for my love of the “The Story in Your Eyes” single, the first album that I purchased for myself was Jethro Tull’s “Warchild”. Tull was my favorite rock band in freshman year in high school long before my obsession with Yes, and then Neil Young, took hold. I first saw the band at Madison Square Garden when opening act Livingston Taylor was famously chased off the stage by thrown objects from an impatient Jethro Tull crowd. More recently on the Thick as a Brick 2 tour, Anderson had a young protege handling much of the vocals that evening which left me thinking his voice might have been shot. On this latest “Seven Decades” tour, Anderson snd the band defied expectations and blew me away with an energetic multimedia extravaganza.. Ian Anderson sounded and looked great, bouncing around the Beacon stage like a performer half his age. He was not content with just playing “the hits” (although they did end the show with “Aqualung” and “Locomotive Breathe”) but they did pull out many more obscure tunes from the group’s extraordinary catalog and with numerous flute solos interspersed through the performance. The show started promptly at 8, with an intermission during which the bathroom lines for this nature audience far exceeded the beer lines. Jethro Tull is amazingly on a lengthy tour with Ian Anderson proving, once again, that he is a true original and one of the all time great rock and rollers.

Jethro Tull should be in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame; let’s get them in while they are still around to enjoy the recognition and the ceremony.

Jack-in-the-Green

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GQ

I have neglected my rock and roll blog posts for a bit but have remained very busy rocking and rolling through the summer and into the fall of 2023. Summer highlights included Santana in Boston at the MGM Fenway venue, Styx with Joe Bonamassa and Don Felder at Northwell at Jones Beach Theatre, Chicago at NYCB Westbury Music Fair, and of course the Newport Folk Festival. My solo trip to Los Angelo’s to catch two Neil Young solo performances at the intimate outdoor Ford Theatre was awesome, as was hanging outside the iconic Hollywood Bowl as The Beach Boys celebrated the Fourth of July weekend. Since then I have attended two Peter Gabriel concerts at TD Garden and Madison Square Garden, Yes performing at NYCB at Westbury Music Fair, Tedeschi Trucks Band for one of two “garden party” dates at MSG, and then a New York Jets trip to Denver with my son where we saw Goose at Red Rocks Amphitheater snd Jason Aldean at the Ball Arena which is home to the NBA champion Denver Nuggets. Just last week, my wife and I caught the North Mississippi Allstars at the intimate Landmark Theatre in Port Washington (which was a very cool small venue). On the upcoming concert schedule for me is Morrissey at the Kings Theatre in Brooklyn on Wednesday, Jethro Tull at the Beacon Theatre on November 1st and, oh yea, Bob Dylan in Boston and Brooklyn next month.
WHEW…….

I may have missed something but I will elaborate on my various rock and roll exploits in more detail at a later time; I am still living the dream, chasing the rock and roll music and grabbing every opportunity to see my heroes, and the occasional new artist, perform live whenever, and wherever, the opportunity presents itself.

The Road Goes On Forever indeed

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GQ

I am sitting in the Jet Blue Terminal at JFK Airport for my flight to Los Angeles to catch Neil Young’s long awaited solo Coastal Tour for two of the four nights at the Ford Theatre in the Hollywood Hills. I was planning to catch an Angels baseball game tomorrow afternoon and just found out The Beach Boys are playing the Hollywood Bowl tomorrow night, so I will hit that also before seeing Neil again on Monday and returning on the Fourth of July.
I have attended over ninety Neil Young performances since Rust Never Sleeps in 1978 and I am always thinking that “this one” could be the final tour. After Neil sold half his catalogue and Covid shut everything down, with the success of the Archives website, release of reissues, compilations, and rediscovered, formerly scrapped album projects, I was starting to believe we had seen the last of Young in concert. Neil has not done Farm Aid in a couple of years, but after the Willie Nelson birthday bash and the Stephen Stills “Light Up the Blues” benefit show, Young apparently found the urge to perform in front of an audience again. For now, the tour is only on the west coast, so rather than take the chance he does not make his way east any time soon, I am flying out for the beginning of the tour that started last night.

Chrome Dreams

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GQ

My aunt gave me the Meet the Beatles album when it first was released; the first album I bought with my own money was Jethro Tull’s Warchild (but that’s a story for another day).

Still have it- yea my aunt was all hopped up over the Beatles as many were in the early 1960’s, the album cover is a little ragged on the edges but it’s there.

After she died I sent an email to 104.3 FM’s Sunday morning Beatles show on the day of her memorial and the DJ told my story and gave us a shout out- a fitting tribute for the cool aunt and a gift I will always treasure.

On a Sunday evening in April, 2002, my wife and I stopped at the Outback Restaurant in Merrick, Long Island, where I had a couple of tall mugs of beer, on the way to see Paul McCartney at the Nassau Coliseum. Our seats were literally in the last row up top to the right of the stage however it did not matter because when Sir Paul started playing those Beatles classics we grew up listening to on the radio, we were dancing in the aisle. A Paul McCartney concert is quite simply a joyous occasion and we had a great time. Fast forward approximately 20 years, and approximately one year ago, we went to see the soon to be eighty year old McCartney play Fenway Park and it was, no exaggeration, amazing on every imaginable level. I have seen McCartney, Ringo Starr with his All -Starr Band, and even George Harrison play at Madison Square Garden for Bobfest, but I never did get the opportunity to attend a John Lennon performance (I will never forget being woken up by my mother who told me Lennon had been shot the night before). For those who may not know or appreciate, the Beatles during the late 1960’s were musically and culturally on a consciousness level that we had never seen before, (even eclipsing Elvis Presley and Frank Sinatra) and certainly have never seen since, Bob Dylan not withstanding. If McCartney has another tour in him, I will certainly be there as there is no happier place in the world than a Paul McCartney concert (Disneyworld not withstanding).

Egypt Station

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GQ

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GQ

The ever changing Chicago line up makes a stop at the former Westbury Music Fair on Friday, and Bald Hill in Suffolk County on Saturday, with no Jones Beach concert on the schedule this year. Chicago’s truly never ending tour continues on through the summer everywhere and anywhere at a theatre near you. The music is still great although you sometimes wonder if Robert Lamm had just met some of the newer hired guns back stage prior to the show. Honestly, I could skip it at this point but the bride still loves them so here we go (again).

Born For This Moment

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GQ

Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young toured America during the first part of 2002 and I managed to attend two shows at Madison Square Garden in February, and one at the Nassau Coliseum in April. Fast forward to 2023- David Crosby is no longer with us, Stephen Stills in enjoying semi-retirement, Graham Nash is still out there performing at primarily smaller, theatre sized venues, and Neil Young is about to embark on a west coast solo tour at the end of this month. On July 1st, I will fly to Los Angelos, head to the Hollywood Hills during Fourth of July weekend, and catch two of the four Young solo concerts at the Ford Theatre located near the Hollywood Bowl (with a baseball game at Angels Stadium thrown in for good measure). I struggled with the decision to go on this Neil adventure, or roll the dice and hope for a northeastern swing, but I decided to see all the stars as I walk along Hollywood Boulevard (thank you Ray Davies) in a little less than two weeks for what is advertised to be 80% rarely played tunes, with some familiar favorites thrown in. It’s been 3 1/2 years since Neil and the Promise of the Real played Indy, and 90 plus Young performances attended by me since 1978; the road has returned and goes on forever!

Ambulance Blues

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GQ