Last Saturday, I saw my friends Cereal Killers play a gig at the brewery down the hill from our house.
Tons of our friends were in the audience for that one.
On Memorial Day, I met up with my friend Ken at another brewery (if you’re sensing a pattern, you may be correct) for the countdown of the Inhailer Radio “Indie 500.” My friends Amy and David were there too. (David works at the same company where my son Peter works!)
Ken has a show on Inhailer, and several of their on-air folks were there.
(Ken does a great “sorority squat”…) They let me sneak into the photo because my friend Dave and I did some of the breaks during the countdown.
Dave and I both worked at 97X back in the day, and we met up with some other 97X alums at… yes, a brewery (the same one as Monday, in fact) on Thursday.
If you’re sensing a pattern, you may be correct.
Sandwiched in between those two outings, my friend Tom (a.k.a. “Freaky Tiki”) and I had dinner with our friend Felicity on Tuesday. Yes, it was at a brewery.
If you’re sensing a pattern, you may be correct.
Oh, and somehow I managed to squeeze in a quick road trip to Cleveland for a concert on Wednesday.
AC/DC was playing the stadium, but if you know me, you know I’m much more of a “bands at a small club” type of guy. Which is why I was at the Grog Shop to see The Tubs (my new obsession) open up for The Wedding Present.
Before the show, I met up with a bunch of college friends. At a bar.
If you’re sensing a pattern, you may be correct.
Last night I met my brother at Ramundo’s Pizzeria (where two of my sons were working) to watch Creighton (his alma mater) in NCAA baseball tournament.
If you’re sensing a pattern, you may be correct. If you’re thinking that the pattern is bars and breweries, you’re incorrect.
Those places are merely the setting.
The pattern is friendship. Band friends. Neighbor friends. Radio friends. College friends. Folks I’ve known for 40+ years, and people I’ve met in the last year or so. I feel blessed to know them, and lucky to call them friends.
I’m an old man who has no business going out nearly every night, much less driving back and forth to Cleveland in the middle of the week, but I draw energy from the connections.
And the Tuesday dinner was a sobering reminder of how fragile life can be. Felicity is the widow of my dear friend Ned. We lost him nearly two years ago. (I’ve posted about that here.)
It’s easy to stay glued to the couch and say “next time.” But there may not be one.
The older I get, the harder it is to get out to meet up with friends. Yet the older I get, the more I cherish the opportunities.
My friends are here, there, and everywhere. And that’s why I’ll be there too!
A week and a day ago, I went up to Columbus to see Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds in concert at the Palace Theater. Nick’s always been on my bucket list for artists to see, but originally the math of (ticket price + 100 miles away) didn’t work for me. However, my friend Ken’s friend Suzanne wound up with a couple of extra seats two days before the concert, and was willing to part with them at a discounted price… AND she’d drive us to Columbus and back too. Sold!
In hindsight, I should’ve been willing to pay full freight. The concert was one of the best I’ve ever seen!
Our seats were on the main floor but pretty far back. However, Ken knew that Nick invites the audience to get closer. Sure enough, after the first song, he said “You feel so far away” and that was our cue to race down to form our own “standing room” in the aisles right by the stage. When Nick came stage left, he was about eight feet away from me.
Here’s the one and only photo I took of Nick, who looks like a cross between Dan Ackroyd and Eddie Munster:
I didn’t take any more shots because I wanted to be fully present for the show, and luxuriate in it.
His voice is ominous. His songs are dark and brooding. The lyrics can be a downer. But the concert felt like going to church. The dude is 67 and runs around the stage like a manic faith healer… which is kinda what he is.
HIs band is fantastic (the bass player Colin Greenwood also plays in a band called Radiohead… perhaps you’ve heard of them?). He has four backing vocalists straight out of a gospel church choir. And they ripped it up for 22 amazing songs.
Nick Cave isn’t just a fantastic performer, though. He’s also a philosopher of sorts, and deeply spiritual. He has a blog called The Red Hand Files. (Side note: if you’ve watched the show “Peaky Blinders” they used Nick’s song “Red Right Hand” for the opening titles.) In the blog, he answers questions from fans. Check out this excerpt from five years ago, when he responded to a question “A Prayer to who?”
A prayer provides us with a moment in time where we can contemplate the things that are important to us, and this watchful application of our attention can manifest these essential needs. The act of prayer asks of us something and by doing so delivers much in return — it asks us to present ourselves to the unknown as we are, devoid of pretence and affectation, and to contemplate exactly what it is we love or cherish. Through this conversation with our inner self we confront the nature of our own existence.
And here’s an excerpt from a very recent post. The question was:
When you say, “I love you, too,” back to fans at concerts, what do you mean by that? How can you love a total stranger?
LEAH, YPSILANTI, MICHIGAN, USA
His response is beautiful… and helps me wrap my head around why I love live music so much:
Leah, when I tell the audience that I love them, the sentiment is entirely true. I feel an emotional transaction with the crowd that is powerful and profoundly intimate. I stand before you all – strangers – witnessing you both individually and collectively, and sense an unbounded love. This love is true. It is not symbolic, metaphorical, or platitudinous. I see before me a group of human beings, precarious and vulnerable, granted a brief time on this earth, each filled with a shocking potential for beauty and terror, good and evil, and with the extraordinary capacity to give and receive love. At that moment, love is the appropriate response.
Amen, Brother Nick! Love you too!
My friend Ken took some photos and shot some video at the show… this brief clip of “Jubilee Street” gives you a bit more of the feel for how intense Nick can be.
And here’s some crowd-shot footage of “Conversion” on the current tour… “You’re beautiful!”
And some professional footage of “Jubilee Street” from a few years back.
KEXP is one of the coolest radio stations on the dial! (Gather ’round, kiddos, while Grampa Dubbatrubba explains what a “dial” is… and what a “radio station” is for that matter.)
From the “About” page on the KEXP website:
“Embracing curiosity and a shared love of music.” And this week is a shining example of that. It’s “6 Degrees Week” on KEXP.
The DJs (real live human beings!) have to figure out a way to connect every song on their show to the one they played before it. Meaning they have to go deep into their well of musical knowledge to find links between songs that may not be so obvious at first blush. Same songwriter or producer, shared musicians*, guest vocals, samples…
*Today I learned that Tom Scott, who was the saxophonist in the original Blues Brothers band, also played the sax solo on the Wings song “Listen to What the Man Said.”
Yesterday, I learned that Mick Ronson (guitarist for David Bowie as part of the “Spiders from Mars”) also played guitar on John Cougar Mellencamp’s “Jack & Diane.”
Ronson and Bowie also co-produced Lou Reed’s Transformer album, so the DJ could segue from “Jack & Diane” to “Vicious.”
For a music nerd like me, it’s pure heaven. For everyone who tunes in, it’s an amazing mix, and one you won’t find anywhere else. Which is the point, really. Real people playing hand-selected music for folks who love music. Give it a listen here – just click the play button and enjoy every twist and turn of the musical journey.
Long Live KEXP, and the other rare and precious stations like it!
Here’s what Wikipedia says about Aaron Lee Tasjan:
Aaron Lee Tasjan is an American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and record producer. Tasjan is reported to have his own distinct version of “indie folk grit.”
Here’s what Aaron Lee Tasjan has to say about the state of the world today:
It’s a funny old world right now. Maybe like a lot of you, I find myself drifting from hope to despair, from finding so much joy in the little things to feeling strung out on anxiety about massive things none of us can control. It’s at times a daily rollercoaster. I am resigned to feel how I feel though. I always try to tip my brain into the waters of hope as I believe that is and always will be the correct response to the human condition.
Aaron Lee Tasjan
“Tip my brain into the waters of hope”… that’s a baptism we all need right now. Salvation from a higher power within, when the outside world is topsy-turvy.
Aaron Lee is a darn fine singer-songwriter. And he’s shown me his “indie folk grit” both times I’ve seen him in concert. The first time was back in the summer of 2021. He was supposed to play an outdoor stage, but it was raining buckets, so the show organizers scrambled to assemble a makeshift stage on a covered street next to a parking garage.
(The opener for that show was S.G. Goodman – another stellar indie singer-songwriter!)
Then this past summer, Aaron Lee headlined a summer concert series show at Fountain Square, in the heart of downtown.
A fan in the audience yelled out a request for his song “Alien Space Queen”… Aaron said he couldn’t play it because their set was abbreviated – as is often the case for corporate-sponsored gigs. But he told that person “come to the merch booth after the show and I’ll play an acoustic version for you.” True to his word, he did just that!
He’ll be back in the area this summer, playing a free festival in Springfield, Ohio on May 17. I HOPE to make that gig.
(The venue’s fantastic logo was created by my buddy Keith Neltner of Neltner Small Batch.)
Sidebar: perhaps you read about Whiskey City’s Liberty Theater in Cincinnati Magazine’s Fall Arts Preview last year? If not, you can rectify that omission from your reading list right here. The author’s name sounds familiar to me…
I really had no business driving that far to see an 8 o’clock show on a “school night.” Especially with severe weather alerts across the Tri-State. But I want to support Dan McCabe – the brains behind the venue’s reinvention, and a legendary music promoter. He’s doing his best to bring great music (and comedy, and whiskey tastings, and record fairs, and fried chicken) to a somewhat sleepy river town. Besides, my friend Dave told me weeks ago that he’d be there for the show. Good tunes and good company – worth the trip.
Dave didn’t show – he’s had some health issues recently and his wife didn’t want him driving alone in bad weather.
The crowd was sparse. (I talked to Dan at the show and he’s playing the long game – some of the artists he’s booking might have 40 for their first show, but 150 for their next one based on word of mouth.)
The venue is a gorgeous, lovingly restored 130-year-old music hall, with a top-notch sound system.
The opener, Dale Hollow, was a lot of fun – even though he had to compete with the tornado sirens that went off during his set. (We were spared, just heavy rain… I know you were worried about my safety.)
Sarah Shook & the Disarmers are on tour to promote their latest album Revelations. But before the tour started, it turned into a farewell tour too. Health issues for one longtime band member, and personal issues for another, made it hard to keep a touring band together. It’s a tough go on the road, spending endless hours in a van with your bandmates, and sometimes playing for sparse crowds, for little money.
But the band didn’t let any of those obstacles keep them from putting on a stellar show.
The lead singer River (nee Sarah) writes some great songs, and they have a great attitude about tuning out the “business” part of the music business, and tuning into their heart.
The nice woman at the merch booth gave me a copy of the set list.
The band members stuck around after the show to talk to audience members, and sign merchandise. Good luck having that happen at an arena show.
Thank you, Sarah Shook & the Disarmers, for making a long trip on a dark and stormy night totally worth it. Thanks even more for your art, straight from your hearts to mine.
There’s an old Hollywood joke that pithily sums up an actor’s full-circle career arc:
Who is John Doe? Get me John Doe! Get me a John Doe-type. Get me a young John Doe. Who is John Doe?
There’s a similar arc for most musicians, and it can be based on their transportation:
Drive the van. Ride in the van. Ride in the bus. Ride on the plane. Ride on the bus. Ride in the van. Drive the van.
There was a big ol’ bus parked outside the tiny Green Lantern Bar in Lexington, Kentucky last night. MJ Lenderman is blowing up. And rightfully so — his music is great.
Six years ago, he was scooping ice cream at a shop in Asheville to support his musical efforts, which included playing guitar for a band called Wednesday (whose ’23 album Rat Saw God is one of my faves from that year).
Three years ago, he released an album called Boat Songs, and got in a van to do a tour that included tiny clubs like the Green Lantern Bar. By the end of the year, Boat Songs hadn’t move a lot of units, but it garnered critical acclaim.
Wikipedia: Lenderman contributed guitar and vocals to the album Tiger’s Blood by Waxahatchee, released in March 2024, and was listed as featured guest artist on the album’s lead single, “Right Back To It”. In March 2024, Lenderman performed “Right Back To It” with Waxahatchee on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.[14] Lenderman’s next album, Manning Fireworks, was released in September 2024.
The next leg of his U.S. tour will be at larger venues. And good luck getting tickets!
The Green Lantern is a tiny dive bar. But it’s very musician-friendly.
It would’ve been very easy for MJ Lenderman and his five-piece band to play a larger venue in Lexington on his current tour. Or skip Lexington altogether, for bigger clubs in bigger cities, for a bigger paycheck. (Diesel gas for the bus ain’t cheap.) Instead, he booked two shows at the Green Lantern.
I was lucky enough to be at last night’s show, thanks to my friend and neighbor Frank, who got tickets as soon as they went on sale… and before Lendermania (yeah, I’m gonna trademark that one!) reached a fever pitch.
Clearly the folks at the bar made an impression on MJ. And he was paying it backward. Because he knows what two sold-out shows means to a small club. And he still remembers what it’s like to scoop ice cream while following your dream.
“Once music and work and money all become the same thing, it gets hard to do it casually. But that was the reason I was able to do anything meaningful in the first place,” he admits. “You can see that through my whole life, just being able to go to a friend’s house and make something and not worry about what it is.”
Kevin Sullivan on 43-3=1,001: “Reading while listening to Keith Jarrett, “Guess I’ll Hang Out My Tears To Dry”, good good stuff Damian, thanks.” Oct 3, 09:29
Thomas Kuhl on We did it!: “Well done! Good and Honorable man!” Sep 29, 01:29
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