In the same week that had me enjoying a stellar Neil fest at the Bowery Ballroom, my daughter and I attended Phil Lesh and Friends at the Central Park Summerstage. We had such a good time last year when “friend” Warren Haynes of Allman Brothers Band fame joined Grateful Dead founding member and bassist Phil Lesh on stage, that we were looking forward to Chris Robinson of the Black Crowes, and the Grateful Dead influenced Chris Robinson Brotherhood, playing with the band on a beautiful late summer evening.
Due to worse than usual mid town traffic,we arrived at the park just minutes before the band hit the stage for a sold out general admission show. As the front of the stage was jam packed, my daughter and I decided to watch from the much less crowded side of the stage where mostly middle aged fans danced throughout a set of familiar Grateful Dead tunes led by Chris Robinson, whose vocal style and laid back pot smoking vibe fit in well during the night’s festivities.
About a third of the way into the band’s set we were invited to a catered party taking place on a deck in front of us on the side of the stage where friends of the band enjoyed gin cocktails and some food while grooving to the band’s take on Dead classics like “Sugaree”.
Phil Lesh, who played with the Dead for their fiftieth anniversary shows in Chicago this summer, will not participate in the Dead & Company fall tour. Phil was in good spirits throughout and played great right up until the 10:00 PM curfew brought the show to an end.
The smiling crowd walked off into the Manhattan night satisfied that they had seen a legend continuing an unstoppable rock and roll communal rite.
U.S. Blues
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GQ

BrooklynVegan.com

Check it out- great music and more website.

Neil Young added a West Coast swing with Promise of the Real while Dead & Company have added Fall and Winter dates after the two MSG dates sold out  solid in minutes.

Laid Back Festival with Gregg Allman, Doobie Brothers, Bruce Hornsby and others hits Jones Beach Theater on Saturday (I’ll be responding direstly from the late afternoon Mers-Red Six game at Cutifield starring a 1986 bobble head doll). 

J. Geils Band and Ian Hunter play The Paramount in Huntington Sunday night which is a must see double bill as the summer rocks on toward a furious finish and the start of the football season.

Truckin’

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GQ

todd Rundgren has been a favorite of mine forever but he is eclectic and his concerts have always been a mixed bag. Mr. Rundgren has had many hits throughout the years but is loathe to play them usually. The great artist creates new music and wants the music he has most recently worked so hard on to be heard. The trick for artists with longevity is to find a balance between playing the songs their fans have grown to love and identify with throughout their lives against the true musician’s strong desire to grow and evolve artistically. 

Neil Young has the cache to play what he wants however he wants and his core audience knows to expect the unexpected when they buy the ticket. I just saw Chicago with Earth Wind and Fire this weekend at Jones Beach, which is a fun double bill, and you know that Chicago is pretty much going to give you the same set list year after year. While I am sure that at least some of the Chicago band members would like to explore new musical territory in concert, most of their fans come back year after year with certain expectations and love the band for its reliability.

I knew this evening at The Paramount in Huntington was going to be different then the last time I saw Rundgren with a band at Westbury as a DJ booth was situated high center stage with giant video screens dominating the scene.

Todd Rundgren and two Afro wigged young ladies stepped on stage without a band in sight. After a technical mishap had Todd and the girls leave the stage mid first song delaying the concert momentarily, for the next hour and a half plus Todd Rundgren played a synth heavy new project pretty much in its entirety. Rundgren was working hard, obviously heavily invested in the project, and the 3/4 full hall appreciated his efforts and were enthusiastic, particularily during the clap along segments which were numerous. The concert was very “1980s” in feel,  sort of like Howard Jones on steroids. The passage of time and global concerns were a central theme to the musical topics for the evening and the show was also heavily choreographed in conjunction with many video effects throughout the show. 

It could have been disastrous, and many audiences expecting the “greatest hits” will hate it, but on this night it seemed to work and the Paramount crowd seemed receptive for the most part.

Except for a Utopia tune thrown in the mix toward the middle, it was a night dominated by new music and ended with a trio of synthesized hits including “I Saw the Light” and “Hello It’s Me” channeling Neil Young’s Trans-era “Mr. Soul”.

I admire the risk taking and the show worked for me on its own merits, but it left me wondering how an artist like Todd Rundgren fits into today’s music scene. Who will purchase his new music, if anyone, and in what format? It is a complicated environment but Todd Rundgren is fighting the good fight even if ultimately he may be pissing in the wind.

Global

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GQ

After seeing the legendary Carlos Santana perform an amazing show at Forest Hills Stadium last night, I’m off to Jones Beach Theater tonight to attend the once again reunited Van Halen show and the used to be legendary Eddie VH with David Lee Roth holding down vocals and assorted hijinks. Alex Van Halen, who in my estimation is the most overrated drummer in the history of rock and roll, is still in the circus and Chaz Bono  has been reportedly seen slapping the bass in place of Michael Anthony.

Kenny Wayne Shepherd is opening for a night that has the potential to be a train wreck but is sure to be highly entertaining.

Beautiful Girls at the Beach

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GQ

Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth plays the Bowery Ballroom tonight. 

Weld

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GQ

You might say that my first Neil Young concert experience was not bad. in 1978 I bought a fifth row center orchestra seat from a scalper in front of Madison Square Garden for $30; the concert with Crazy Horse turned out to be the legendary “Rust Never Sleeps” tour and I was hooked for life.

 I was in my first semester at Queens College when Neil Young and Crazy Horse raised the bar on the concert experience and I have attended every Neil Young tour that has made its way to the northeast (and beyond) ever since. 

This year’s tour with The Promise of the Real is in support of “The Monsanto Years” album and Neil Young provided a free copy of the CD or download with each ticket purchased. Mr. Young’s beef with Monsanto (and Starbucks) regarding GMOs had become unsettling as the cantankerous elder statesman of rock will play what he wants to play (irregardless of the ticket prices). Ticket sales had been slow prior to the start of the tour as those periphal fans who only want to hear “Harvest Moon” may have been scared off by the possibility of a political rant and a twenty minute distorted guitar solo. Just when you think you have Neil figured out, Young will change course and usually will provide the unexpected. If you want “greatest hits” only, there are plenty of acts on the road year after year playing the same fifteen hits from the 70’s. Neil Young is a vital artist following his muse. 

I emmersed myself in The “Monsanto Years” before the Camden, New Jersey show and, much to my surprise, it is some of the best work Neil has put out  since “Psychodelic Pill”.

I got a late start toward Camden, and traffic crawled, but I made it to the Susquehanna Bank Center in time to hear Mr. Young singing a solo acoustic “Old Man” 

This tour starts off solo acoustic and after players in white Hazmat suits spray the seeds that had been placed on the stage with faux pesticides, the Promise of the Real appear on stage with Neil to play “Hold Back the Tears” and what turns into a country rock set before finishing up the three hour plus concert with a fiery electric barrage by Young and his baby colt.

Solo acoustic, greatest hits, golden nuggets, new music, electric distortion; this show had something for everyone from the casual fan to the hardcore fanatic. The Promise of the Real started out as “the band with Willie Nelson’s sons” but turned into another brilliant decision by Young as he fed off of the much younger group who is earning a Masters degree in rock and roll all the while standing toe to toe with the king of grunge. It is an amazing concert alive in the moment as Young and the band travel the country changing up the setlist as his new cohorts learn the tunes along the way. There are too many highlights to list them all but the energetic frontman shreds on the new tunes as well as “Down by the River”, “Cortez the Killer”, or “Cowgirl in the Sand” which he played in Bethel Woods near Woodstock where he voiced his displeasure at there being no pit in front of the stage.

In Camden and Bethel Woods, Darryl Hannah was seen on the down low wearing a hoodie while videotaping the show from the side of the stage with what looked to be an IPad and a cell phone.

At Jones Beach Theater, we arrived before the venue was open to the public and my wife managed to outmaneuver some Neil Young fans from all over the country who came to see a true rock and roll legend; we had a front row view from the general admission pit as Young added yet another extraordinary chapter to a career like no other.

Long May You Run

GQ

On Friday, the unannounced special guest was My Morning Jacket who played an hour long set and then backed Roger Waters to close out the day. This was a reunion of sorts since the two performers played the Love for Levon tribute show at the Prudential Center in New Jersey similarly together. During Roger Waters’ set at Newport yesterday Amy Helm joined Waters, G.E. Smith and My Morning Jacket to play a Levon Helm tune. Roger Waters also played a John Prine tune and ended the day with Bob Dylan’s “Forever Young”.

On Saturday the unannounced long rumored special guest was James Taylor whose 1969 Newport set was interrupted by Neil Armstrong walking on the moon. No moon walk this time, only some technical difficulties, but a nice acoustic set anyway.

The Decemberists close out today’s festivities with more to come tomorrow.

Rock on

GQ

If recent shows are any indication, Neil Young will hit the Jones Beach stage at 8:45 PM solo acoustic and progress through country rock, new songs, classics and deep cuts, finishing up with a distortion filled last hour of Crazy Horse- like guitar pyrotechnics. There is something for everyone during the three plus hour performance and if you look closely during the show you may see a special guest in a black hoodie videotaping the proceedings from the sides of the stage.

Tickets are still available.

A Rock Star Bucks A Coffee Shop

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GQ

While the Foo Fighters and Neil Young continue to fight the good fight rockin’ in the free world, when I see Kim Kardashian on the cover of my Rolling Stone magazine and I get an email from Groupon offering discounted Neil Young concert tickets for Jones Beach, the future of rock and roll would seem to be on life support.

Those of us who subscribe to Rolling Stone magazine count on the continued integrity of the publication and its commitment to the past, present, and future of rock and roll. Let Vanity Fair and ESPN pander to the Kardashian nation; Rolling Stone magazine should be better than this or go away graciously.

It is Better to Burn Out

Than to Fade Away.

Rolling Stone Magazine should 

Not Fade Away.

And while I occasionally purchase the inexpensive Groupon concert ticket for a cheap night out, when I see Gregg Allman with the Doobie Brothers on Groupon for Jones Beach and their Laid Back Festival, or Neil Young at the Beach for $18.00 because the show is not selling, it makes me a bit sad for the future of the industry. Although I am confident somehow it will survive, with the ever increasing difficulty for less established acts to sell their music and make a living, never mind get rich, I wonder how the rock and roll music will evolve and in what form. 

Go to a concert, put your smartphone away and live in the moment.

Support your favorite bands with your disposable income and discover new music.

and Rock on

GQ

Rhiannon Giddens is a must see and the concert is FREE as part of the Celebrate Brooklyn program. Prospect Park is a great outdoor venue in a cool neighborhood with great food trucks inside the venue which will be general admission for this performance.

On Thursday 7/16/2015  I traveled to Camden, New Jersey. just outside of Philadelphia. to attend Neil Young and the Promise of the Real with opener Band of Horses.

On Friday, 07/17/2015 I traveled to Bethel Woods near Woodstock to see Neil Young and the band with opener Puss N Boots featuring Norah Jones.

The tour continues Tuesday at Jones Beach Theater after which I will provide tales from the road, Darryl Hannah in a hoodie videotaping the concerts on the down low, and passing Neil Young’s custom tour bus on the New Jersey Turnpike.

The road goes on forever

The Monsanto Years

Walk on

GQ