Who's Everyone Seeing Live?

[allisonsdc]

King Khan and the BBQ show tonight

Is this a mongolian barbeque restaurant or a band?

Yes

Allisonsdc knows

King Khan puts on a great show! I have to wait until June to see them in DC but I'm looking forward to it.

[Beebs]

Bob Mould saturday

[beantownbubba]

Van Morrison tomorrow night @ the wang center. One never knows what one will get from Van, but a 10% chance at transcendence is worth the gamble.

Did you get a good one?

The one time I saw him he was great, just as well really as I choose him over Thin Lizzy's final tour (although at the time I didn't know it was the final tour)

A good, enjoyable show but not great and not close to transcendent. My major complaint is that the show was TOO professional, too smooth. Top notch musicians and all but it was like listening to an LA studio band. No grit, no soul, no pushing of boundaries or pushing Van, though the back up singer had a couple of nice moments. Van himself is in superb voice so that's a treat in itself. But he basically did not move from behind the mic except to walk off stage a couple of times. He was surrounded by monitors about 5 feet in from the edge of the stage and never moved over/around them and, typically in my experience, did not engage w/ the crowd.

Some Van idiosyncracies: The show was called for 8 and no opening act was advertised. At about 7:30 some opening act went on - I wasn't paying attention and don't know who they were but they were fronted by a woman singer who joined Van later for 1 song. If he said who she was I didn't catch it. Van came out at 7:59. Even if you call it 8 even, that never happens, right? Bad night to be stuck in traffic or whatever. After "Baby Please Don't Go/Parchman Farm he said something like "I didn't write that. Mose Allison did, ok?" He said it w/ an edge like it was a sore point but if there's a back story I don't know it. He never introduced the band. The set closer and encore were signaled by Van walking off stage then coming back on, playing "Stand By Me" then walking off again and not coming back as the band continued to play for several more minutes. Very strange.

Van played more sax than he did the previous times I've seen him, including a jazzy instrumental to open. He also played some mean harmonica and at one point sort of sang through the harmonica to create distorted vocals. He didn't mention Prince or play any Prince songs though the opening act did play "Purple Rain." There was a nice duet w/ an older gentleman whose name I didn't catch/didn't recognize. Wavelength, a personal favorite was disappointing as he raced through it quickly and w/out interest. Partial setlist:

Close Enough For Jazz
Wavelength
Medley of several songs including No Plan B/Raincheck/Big Joe Turner Sings
Baby Please Don't Go/Parchman Farm
Wild Night
Brown Eyed Girl
Into the Mystic
Stand By Me

[LBRod]

Pokey LaFarge tomorrow.

[whatwouldcooleydo?]

Pokey LaFarge tomorrow.

He's here at the brewery Monday but we'll be getting back from Eugene too late. Really hate to miss him

[Smitty]

Pokey LaFarge tomorrow.

Never heard a note of him. I always had the impression he was similar to early Justin Townes Earle; is that accurate?

[Zip City]

Pokey LaFarge tomorrow.

Never heard a note of him. I always had the impression he was similar to early Justin Townes Earle; is that accurate?

More swing/big band type stuff.

[whatwouldcooleydo?]

Pokey LaFarge tomorrow.

Never heard a note of him. I always had the impression he was similar to early Justin Townes Earle; is that accurate?

More swing/big band type stuff.

love his stuff

[Beebs]

Bob Mould saturday

Fantastic show. Those guys put it to the floor and don't let up till it's done. One of the best trios working today.

Ted Leo opened with a really cool solo, electric set. Great night.

[drjayhow]

Joey Kneiser May 19th at Great Raft Brewery here in Shreveport,
Ben Nichols solo show in Dallas 6/8/16

drjay

[bovine knievel]

John Prine with Jason Isbell & Amanda Shires 5/15

[Jonicont]

Marti Jones and Don Dixon tonight

[dogstar]

YES - tonight

Saw Wussy in Derby on Wednesday night. Really enjoyable show played to about 40 people rattling around in a room that holds about 300. Shortish show and Lisa seemed to be struggling with her voice but it was a lot of fun and the crowd really got into it. They're playing 2 miles from where I live tonight but already had tickets for Yes otherwise I would be there.

[Markalanbishop]

Old 97's and Heartless Bastards tomorrow night. Never seen either band, really looking forward to it.

[Tequila Cowboy]

Jimmie Rodgers Festival today

James McMurtry
Keller Williams
Elizabeth Cook
The Lone Bellow
Billy Joe Shaver
Lucinda Williams

[bovine knievel]

I scored!

Mudcrutch 6/20 - SF Filmore

[walthers]

Good for you BK! I was looking on Craigs List last night for Mudcrutch tickets in Denver, way out of my price range. I bet that show will be awesome.

[ilockyer]

Got a few decent bits coming up this year:

2 x Gov't Mule this week (12 & 13/5)
John Moreland (27/5)
British Sea Power (24/6)
Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow (25/6)
Band Of Horses (5/7)
Springsteen (13/7)
Mudhoney (15/7)
Augustines (16/10)
Wilco (19/11)
The Men They Couldn't Hang (1 & 2/12)
Levellers (3/12)

[Markalanbishop]

Just back from seeing the Old 97's for the first time. I was a little underwhelmed. Couple of things jumped out. First, there were absolutely no dynamics in any of the songs. It was just full bore all the time. So no matter how well the songs were written, they became uninteresting live. Second, and this is kind of esoteric, but the soundman was supremely bored. I spent most of the show standing right next to the sound guy and he never once even kept time to the music or nodded his head. I thought this was weird, especially since this was I think only the third show on this tour. The house was about 3/4 full to begin with and they lost a significant number of people as the show progressed. I left before the encore. Still really enjoy their records but won't go out of my way to see them live again.

P.S. Put IGTBA on the car stereo on the way home to hear how it's supposed to be done.

[PonyGirl]

Saw Tommy Stinson a couple of nights ago. Loved it. He exceeded all expectations.

[Kudzu Guillotine]

Just back from seeing the Old 97's for the first time. I was a little underwhelmed. Couple of things jumped out. First, there were absolutely no dynamics in any of the songs. It was just full bore all the time. So no matter how well the songs were written, they became uninteresting live. Second, and this is kind of esoteric, but the soundman was supremely bored. I spent most of the show standing right next to the sound guy and he never once even kept time to the music or nodded his head. I thought this was weird, especially since this was I think only the third show on this tour. The house was about 3/4 full to begin with and they lost a significant number of people as the show progressed. I left before the encore. Still really enjoy their records but won't go out of my way to see them live again.

I saw them last night at Cat's Cradle in Carrboro, NC. My only complaint would be how loud they were. Not loud to the point of distortion or anything but when I went down front for the first few songs I felt articles of clothing moving. Even DBT's don't play that loud anymore, at least at the majority of shows I've attended in recent years. As much as I love Old 97's, I was actually more psyched to see Heartless Bastards last night. They did not disappoint but from the way the show was billed (Old 97's and Heartless Bastards w/ B.J. Barham), I figured we were going get a full set as I was under the impression they were co-headlining. Instead, we got 45 minutes. Not bad as there was never a dull moment but I was expecting more. I unfortunately missed B.J. but my friend (who's a longtime American Aquarium fan) was quite impressed. Maybe next time. Old 97's gave a tip of the hat to Cheap Trick with an inspired cover of "Southern Girls" towards the end of their set as a salute to their recent induction into the Rock n' Roll Hall of Fame. I thought that was a nice touch.

[jr29]

I just saw the Blasters at the Hi Tone in Memphis. With or without dave Alvin....go see the Blasters. "Border Radio" was transcendent.
Total professionals and nice guys.

[chuckrh]

I have quite the rockin' week starting on Sunday. At long last, the Who in Seattle. I've had the tickets so long they are growing rust. A few days to recover then off to Vegas on Wednesday. Wednesday night I'm leaning toward going to see Purple Reign. Not too into tribute bands but these guys are pretty good. Thursday is the main event for me. The Cure @ the Cosmopolitan. I've been trying to see them for 25+ years. Early reports on the tour are quite promising. Long shows with 2 new songs. Lots of material that hasn't been played in a long time. They did 2 nights in New Orleans & only repeated 5 songs. I'm quite excited! Finally on Friday, I'm debating between Santana @ House of Blues, the Scorpions @ the Hard Rock & the Cirque du Soleil "Love" show again. "Love" is amazing & I had seats in the rafters the first time. I'm being offered a great seat for half price. I'm going to decide in the next few day. Fly home a week from Saturday to recover. Should be fun!

[sactochris]

I just saw the Blasters at the Hi Tone in Memphis. With or without dave Alvin....go see the Blasters. "Border Radio" was transcendent.
Total professionals and nice guys.

I saw them in December and they were great. First time I've seen them without Dave and I was really impressed. They put together a six or seven song run to end the set that was amazing. I saw them the first time in 84 when Steve Berlin and Lee Allen was still with them. I was 15.

[beantownbubba]

Peter Wolf @ the Somerville Theatre last nite. I am happy to report that the man still has his fastball. The patter, the moves, the voice, the songs, the crack band featuring the superb Duke Levene on geetar, the whole package. Plus the usual hometown lovefest.

I'm always a little ambivalent about the part of the crowd that's just there for the J Geils Band connection: It's obviously a part of Wolf's history and those songs tend to be the barnburners in the set and there's nothing wrong w/ barnburners. But his solo career has been so good and so under-recognized for so long I wish that at least in Boston the whole crowd was on board w/ that part. It's not like they were negative, but the difference in energy and recognition was palpable.

He played about 1:45 w/ well-chosen songs from throughout his career including the bizarre new bluegrass arrangement of "Love Stinks." Unfortunate imho but the crowd ate it up. The new songs were great and you could hear a pin drop during the ballads which was very satisfying. As always, Wolf was the master of stories and patter and always, always, always gave full credit to his influences, his co-writers, the writers of the covers he played and his band. The guy is a music junkie and I love that about him.

I left w/ 2 takeaways: Wolf is as good as I think he is and we DBT fans are totally, completely spoiled. Wolf put on a great show and I enjoyed it thoroughly. There are even some interesting compare & contrast elements between Wolf & DBT. I won't go into all of that but I did have the perhaps interesting thought that Wolf as frontman is what you might get if you merged Hood w/ Cooley. But despite all that there was an absolutely noticeable and tangible gap between a show this good and a "typical" DBT show. It turns out that there's actually a lot more to "the band was on fire and the people were great" than meets the eye.

Curious to hear what you think, MAB.

[Kudzu Guillotine]

Thanks for the review. I have a feeling the only way I'll ever see the likes of Peter Wolf or Garland Jeffreys is to travel as they don't seem to perform in these parts. Not opposed to the travel, it's just not doable at this point.

[jr29]

Pokey LaFarge tomorrow.

Never heard a note of him. I always had the impression he was similar to early Justin Townes Earle; is that accurate?

More swing/big band type stuff.

I am so/so on his albums but his live shows are wonderful. North Mississippi All stars and JD Wilkes fall into that category for me too.
I saw a couple of his band members in the crowd at a Bottle Rockets show in St. Louis last year and that made me like them a little more.

[Bill in CT]

5/15 Def Leppard/REO Speedwagon/Tesla
5/17 Hard Working Americans

[Beaverdam]

The Kentucky Headhunters played a birthday party in my neighborhood last night. The sound guy let my son on the bus! The KH seem to be a band who go out of their way to be good to fans!

[rlipps]

Sturgill tomorrow night at the Opera House in Lexington, KY