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

Rock on!

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

On a night in New York City where Dave Matthews Band played Forest Hills Stadium, Bryan Adams played with Joan Jett at Madison Square Garden and Lizzo performed at the Governor’s Ball at Flushing Meadow Park, the bride and I went to see John Mellencamp wrap up a multi-night stand at the Beacon Theatre. I do not trek into Manhattan as much as I used to for a variety of reasons, societal, traffic and parking related, and the drive in was as as expected, although not abusive. I managed to get a parking spot on Columbus Avenue and we ate at an Italian restaurant located right there. No opening act but a half hour of Turner black and white movie clips was entertaining for awhile but went on just a little too long. At 8:30, Mellencamp and a band of mostly hired guns, except for his guitarist of 50 years, hit the stage and performed for two solid hours. The legendary chainsmoker used to grab those last few puffs behind the stage curtain but on this night smoked right on stage during the first number. Anyone who has seen Mellencamp perform the past couple of decades knows his voice is pretty shot now, but once you get used to the raspiness it becomes a non-factor quickly. John Mellencamp provided a performance of thoughtful and energetic entertainment; it is amazing just how many incredible songs he has written. John and the band were great and well worth navigating the June Friday evening traffic in New York City.

Neil Young announced his west coast solo tour for July and I am currently struggling with whether to hop on a plane to catch a show (or two).

Hurts So Good

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GQ

Now if memory serves me correctly, Mr. Nut AKA Mr. Vegas and I went to the Nassau Coliseum to see Rob Zombie open for Nut’s favorite, Ozzy Osborne. The concert took place four days before Christmas, and Osborne opened his portion of the show in an overhead sleigh which traveled from the back of the arena, over the orchestra, as Ozzy fired t-shirts down at the crowd. To further set the mood for the Christmas season, behind the stage, there was a drunken Santa hanging on a cross with a bottle in his hand. Ozzy had pulled out all the stops for this one and it was heavy metal mania. At the end of the evening when the lights came up, Mr. Nut found a ring on the floor which he wore for quite a few years, and may still have for all I know, referring to it as his “Ozzy” ring. These are the things that memories are made of!
The “Merry Mayhem” tour, also known as the “Black Christmas Tour” was a big success for those of us lucky enough to spend some quality time during the holiday season with Ozzy Osborne and friends.

Psycho Man

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GQ

Aerosmith’s “Just Push Play” tour arrived at New Jersey’s PNC Arts Center on a Sunday night in June, 2001. We happily, and enthusiastically, partied hard prior to the highly anticipated show and we were pumped up for a night of old time rock and roll. Unfortunately security at the gate recognized that my friend had over indulged while trying to enter with outside spirits and had us wait until some equilibrium ruled the day. There is no particular recollection of the performance itself, and the evening is a bit of a blur, but a good time was had by all!

Same Old Song and Dance

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GQ

Yes performed with a symphony at the PNC Arts Center on Thursday, September 6, 2001. I’ve attended many Yes concerts through the years, the first at Madison Square Garden during the “ Going for the One” tour and the return of Rick Wakeman (who happens to be on a solo tour this spring). The PNC concert is not particularly memorable, although I do remember making my way up the general admission grass hill on the way to the concession stands once or twice.

Magnification

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GQ