This past Friday night, Milwaukee singer/songwriter Brett Newski played a free show in the lounge at the Southgate House in Newport, KY.
The music was great, but the crowd could best be described as “sparse.” However, there was a woman in the audience who knew the lyrics to every song Brett sang. She was mouthing along (not, it should be noted, singing along) to every tune. So much so that Brett commented on it from the stage – he was duly impressed.
After the show, that same woman and her husband talked to Brett at the merch booth, and the woman got a photo with him. Afterward, she was crying tears of joy. So of course, i had to put on my roving reporter hat and go up to the couple, and find out the backstory.
Actually, I just complimented her – said it was great to see someone so passionate about Brett’s music. But I did get the backstory – her husband likes discovering new artists, and makes mix CDs for his wife. A Brett Newski song was on one of them, and Meghan (with a “h”… I asked, as good reporters do) was hooked.
Great news for Meghan: Brett and his band will be back in town this summer, playing a house concert. My friend Jacqui (the OG Brett Newski superfan – she and her hubby Dave hosted him at her house for a concert, and now they offer him and his band free room and board and a complimentary breakfast whenever they roll through town) introduced me to the couple who will be hosting the summer show (all of us were at the Southgate show), and I passed along the ticket info to Meghan.
House concerts. Lounge shows. It’s not 20,000 plus at Madison Square Garden – but it doesn’t matter. Brett Newski played to an appreciative crowd (including people who turn their homes into concert venues and Quality Inns for him), and got to meet someone who truly loves his music. And Meghan got to meet the person who creates art that she adores. That sort of connection doesn’t fill anyone’s bank account, but it nourishes the soul.
On Sunday, a Philly band called Gladie played at the Northside Tavern.
The music was great, but the crowd could best be described as “sparse.”
However, there was an old man there who knew (most of) the lyrics to every song Gladie played, and was mouthing along (not singing along) right near the stage. And he got to talk to the band after the show and let them know how much he loves their music. You won’t find that at Madison Square Garden. And my ticket costs less than the service fees for most big shows.
Have you found your Newski? Your Gladie? It doesn’t have to be a musician. If there’s someone who creates art that nourishes your soul, let them know, and find a way to support them. Before you squander more sunsets…
This past Tuesday, I drove two-and-a-half hours to see a tribute band.
It wasn’t Hells Belles (female AC/DC tribute band).
It wasn’t Pink Talking Fish (tribute to Pink Floyd, Talking Heads, and Phish)
It wasn’t the Hot Red Chili Peppers (tribute to the Red Hot Chili Peppers).
It wasn’t Mini KISS (KISS tribute band of little people).
It was less a tribute band, and more of a supergroup — with an Oscar-nominated actor — paying tribute to R.E.M.
Jason Narducy (touring bassist for Superchunk and Bob Mould’s band, also releases solo music as Split Single) first teamed up with Michael Shannon [Oscar nominations for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, for Revolutionary Road (2008) and Nocturnal Animals (2016)] to play R.E.M. songs back in 2023.
The Shannon-Narducy project started as a one-off in a July 2023 show at Chicago’s Metro honoring Murmur’s 40th anniversary, built on a decade-long tradition of the two middle-aged men learning and performing a complete album—Bob Dylan, The Smiths, Modern Lovers—as a single event, never repeated. The Metro show sold 925 tickets on 30 days’ notice, in summer, when every street festival in Chicago is competing for attention.
Clearly there was an audience for this show. So they took it on the road.
None of this [touring] was planned in any way, shape, or form,” Narducy says. “I can tell you that.” But promoters around the country started emailing. The first tour was nine shows. Narducy financed it on two credit cards. “My credit score dropped 250 points,” he says, chuckling.
(same source as above)
This year, “Michael Shannon & Jason Narducy & Friends” was playing the R.E.M. album Lifes Rich Pageant from front to back, along with several other R.E.M. tunes. And the rest of the band members are names any indie rocker would recognize:
John Stirratt (Wilco) on bass. Jon Wurster (Mountain Goats and Bob Mould, formerly of Superchunk) on drums. Dag Juhlin (The Slugs, Poi Dog Pondering) and Vijay Tellis-Nayak (“One of Chicago’s most sought-after musicians — pianist, keyboardist, composer, arranger, engineer, and producer”) on keyboards.
The tour was selling out 1,000+ seat venues. I went to the final show of the tour, at the 288-capacity Bluebird Nightclub in Bloomington, Indiana. (Lifes Rich Pageant was recorded in that town 40 years ago.)
If you think Michael Shannon is just dabbling in music, think again. He’s put in the work to do justice to Michael Stipe’s vocal stylings.
I would’ve loved the show even if it were just the stellar band doing 23 R.E.M. songs. But they had a special guest joining them for several tunes: R.E.M. bassist/vocalist Mike Mills.
And he loved it too!
Nostalgia can be a trap. But R.E.M. songs meant a lot to a lot of folks in my age bracket. And a chance to reconnect with those songs — and with one of the guys who created them — was magical. Not just for us, but for Mike Mills too. “The power, and the joy, of an R.E.M. show… keeping the joy of our music alive for us, and for our fans.”
So it wasn’t a tribute band. It was great band, playing tribute to another great band that paved the way for them.
… we are young despite the years… we are hope despite the times…
R.E.M. “These Days”
BTW, Jason Narducy is playing a solo “songs and stories” show at my house on May 14. You can get tickets here.
This past Friday, I spent about an hour visiting the box offices at three different concert venues in the Cincinnati area, buying tickets for seven different shows for my friends and for myself.
It saved us $180 in ridiculous Live Nation/Ticketmaster fees. Actually make that $180.14.
I despise all the made-up fees that Live Nation/Ticketmaster charges.
The lawsuit, filed by the Justice Department alongside numerous states, argues the company has used its position across concert promotion, venue ownership and ticketing to stifle competition and increase costs for fans.
Attorney General Merrick Garland previously said Live Nation and Ticketmaster’s control of the industry means concertgoers face “a seemingly endless list of fees,” according to reporting cited by Newsweek.
The lawsuit is spot-on. The Live Nation/Ticketmaster monopoly is costing fans money. And their strong-arming tactics would make a Mafioso running a protection racket blush. “If you want to play our venues, you need to use Ticketmaster. And you need to pay us a higher percentage…”
I had texted several music-loving friends in advance, and told them I was going on a ticket run, and to let me know what tickets they needed. I was like a cast member on Alice, taking orders, but instead of eggs and coffee it was Spoon and Sugar.
My first stop was the box office at the indoor/outdoor venue in Newport, KY. (It’s called MegaCorp Pavilion – a local logistics company bought the naming rights, when they should’ve spent that money on coming up with a name for their company that doesn’t sound like a fictional company from Office Space.) Their box office is only open Tues-Fri. from 11 a.m. until 3 p.m. (extremely unfriendly toward in-person purchase for working stiffs). I bought:
3 tickets to Spoon with The Beths (great double bill!)
4 tickets to Death Cab for Cutie with Jay Som (another great double bill)
3 tickets to Courtney Barnett
2 tickets to Sugar
Then it was off to Bogart’s, the long-in-the-tooth club venue near the University of Cincinnati. I got a ticket to the 40th anniversary show of a band that started in Cincinnati, the Afghan Whigs. Mercury Rev is the opener. The Afghan Whigs played dozens of shows at Bogart’s back in the day, so this should be a nice homecoming set.
My final stop was the Ludlow Garage. I got a ticket to the Patterson Hood/John Moreland show. And I bought four for the Built to Spill show, with Wussy as the opener.
Lucky for me that the bands I like aren’t typically going to sell out a venue. Pity the poor folks who want prized tickets to high-demand tours. They have to pay through both nostrils.
And having used websites and ticketing apps for both Ticketmaster and much smaller ticketing sites, I can assure you that Live Nation is NOT using all those fees to create a better user experience. Their website and their app are awful.
Whenever I can, I’m gonna stick it to the Live Nation man. A Reddit user quoted in the article above said it best:
3 shows. 9 performers. From all over the musical spectrum.
Friday was Wussy with Advance Base and Moontype. Indie rock.
Saturday was a singer/songwriter “listening room” showcase featuring shorter sets from Sami Riggs, Lydia Shae, and Ash Taylor. Country-leaning.
Sunday was a punk show with Snõõper, Shrudd, and Pal. Three short but very high energy sets.
Am I too old for rock and roll? (Jethro Tull said I was.) I don’t think so. But I was on the fence for last night’s show. My buddy Dave and I were supposed to go. Dave’s son Jack works at a recording studio in Nashville and has worked with Snõõper. But Dave’s other son — who also lives in Nashville and is an ace guitarist — was in a car accident over the weekend. Concussion and dislocated shoulder… and totaled car. So Dave went down to Nashville. And I was trying to talk myself out of going to the Sunday show. But our mutual friend Matt took Dave’s ticket. So off I went. And I’m so glad I did. Matt and I brought the audience’s average age up by 20 years, but we didn’t care. In fact, we fed off the energy of the kids in the band and the kids in the mosh pit (yes, there was one!).
I know my music obsession isn’t normal. But then again, neither am I.
There used to be a large pool/amusement park near our house called Coney Island.
They tore it down a couple of years ago (to make room for a new concert shed, btw). But I will always remember the George Bernard Shaw they had painted on a wall that faced the street:
Sub out “going to concerts” for “playing” and that’s me!
On Valentine’s Day, FeedSpot released their list of the “100 Best Indie Music Podcasts.”
You probably didn’t even know that there were 100 podcasts about indie music. (Neither did I!)
But if you scroll down the list… keep scrolling… just a bit more… there, that’s it! You’ll find this gem:
“97X – Rumblings from the Big Bush” is the weirdly-named, shoddily produced podcast that I co-host with my friend and former 97X colleague Dave. I’ve posted about it before:
My 97X buddy Dave and I started a podcast a few years ago, recording episodes in my basement. We had no idea what we were doing. Still don’t, honestly. “Shoestring budget” would be inaccurate. No budget. Actually it’s a “loss leader” given the hosting and website fees we pay. We’ve done very little promotion of it. But somehow, someway, the small-but-mighty group of people who loved 97X found it.
The podcast about 97X seems like a fool’s errand. Very few people listened to the station when it existed, and it’s been off the air for two decades (or a mere 15 years if you include the dot-com era). But the people who listened to the station absolutely loved it. And somehow, some way, despite the lack of promotion (and the weird name of “97X Rumblings from the Big Bush”), they found the podcast. As I tell Dave all the time “every time we publish a new episode, we make 150 people very happy.” Through the pod, we’ve been able to reconnect with old friends, meet new ones, talk to musicians we admire (the latest episode features two members of Too Much Joy), and create a place for folks to relive some of their fondest memories. And hanging out with Dave — one of the most naturally funny people I’ve ever met — is always a treat.
Never heard of our podcast? You’re not alone. 99.99% of the world has never heard of it, much less heard it. But for the few, the proud, the folks who remember a tiny “modern rock” station in Oxford, Ohio, the podcast was pretty darn cool. It helped them reconnect with the station, the music, and the people that meant a lot to them.
“I am not sure you guys realize just what impact having this modern rock format has had on my life… your podcast has brought about all of these thoughts, feelings, and memories of the soundtrack of 21 years on my life. I thank you for playing your part in it back then and I thank you for creating this podcast to help me process just what those 21 years have meant to me.”
“Thanks for the pod. It is like finally being able to talk with someone about the treasure that was WOXY.”
We tried to end the podcast a couple of years ago, but we missed it.
Now we’re back with “Season Two”… which really just means more of the same hijinks.
#33 on the FeedSpot list is great. But the measures that matter most to Dave and me are having fun, and creating something that our (admittedly tiny) audience enjoys. We’re still making 150 people happy every time we release an episode. Like Seth Godin says, “that’s enough.”
You probably won’t come up with a better mousetrap. But you might find the empathy and focus to find a small group of people with a more specific problem and solve it for them in a way that earns you trust, traction and word of mouth.
That’s enough.
BTW, the latest episode features our interview with Chuck Cleaver and Lisa Walker, the leaders of the band Wussy, and two of my all-time favorite songwriters.
Below is a post I made way back in 2015. (TBH, I didn’t even think I had a blog back then, but apparently so.) Reposting now in tribute to Bob Weir, who passed away this past weekend at the age of 78. (Also note that the “final show” referenced in my original post wasn’t really the final show… Bobby kept on truckin’ with Dead & Co. and The Wolf Bros. pretty much until the end.
“These songs are … living critters and they’re visitors from another world — another dimension or whatever you want to call it — that come through the artists to visit this world, have a look around, tell their stories. I don’t know exactly how that works, but I do know that it’s real.” – Bob Weir in a 2022 interview with NPR.
20 years ago, I couldn’t stand the Grateful Dead. I don’t like the smell of patchouli and I don’t care for $5 grilled cheese sandwiches made on the carburetor of a ’72 VW Microbus.
18 years ago, I married my wife, who is a big fan of the Dead. So I’ve listened to more than my fair share of their music since then. And it’s grown on me. Granted, I still could do without an 18-minute version of a 2-minute cover song (looking at you, “Good Lovin'”) or “Drums > Space.” But I really do enjoy many of their songs, and have a great appreciation for the fan base they’ve cultivated over the last 50 years. Whether you love them or hate them (and there doesn’t seem to be much middle ground), you have to admit that they are one of the most generous bands around, in the sense that they view music as a gift to be shared, and not commerce to be peddled. Tapers have always been welcome at their shows, and their bootlegs have helped them grow their fan base.
Two nights ago, The Grateful Dead played their final show at Soldier Field in Chicago. (Some would argue they played their final show 20 years ago when Jerry Garcia passed away.) We are on vacation and went to see a live stream of the show on a Jumbotron at an outdoor bar in Florida. It was my first time seeing them live (or semi-live on a Jumbotron). There were plenty of other fans there watching as well. How many bands could pull that off – having people spend a vacation night watching one of their concerts from a thousand miles away?
I know that there are a lot of preconceived notions about Deadheads, but as a passionate live music fan I tip my hat to them, because they obviously love live music. The Dead may not be the most technically precise band around, but they have a groove that runs a mile deep and have built a passionate community around that. More bands should be like them.
2 responses to “Eternally Grateful… still”
Chuck Wiggins
I’m ambivalent at best about the Grateful Dead’s music, but there’s no discounting the incredible community built around it. And there’s one song that transcends my ambivalence and reins among my all-time favorite songs from anyone – Unbroken Chain.
Kevin Sullivan on They greed. You bleed.: “love the smash mouth football D, keep it going !” Mar 31, 10:17
Kevin Sullivan on War… why? And now what?: “I read your post Damian and I like it very much. As we move from a Saturday morning headline of…” Mar 3, 09:22
Damian on Smartphones are making us dumb.: “Thanks for (not) reading the post, Kevin. And thanks for mentioning several other formats (article, essay, poem) that can train…” Feb 23, 19:55
Kevin on Smartphones are making us dumb.: “You know I didn’t read your post because I don’t need to. The lack of reading of all generations reveals…” Feb 23, 10:32
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