X Ridgefield Playhouse, Ridgefield CT Friday July 17th, 2015 Reviewed
How on Earth can you listen to a band like X and sit that still as if you’re listening to a financial planner giving you tips on how to save for retirement. THIS WAS A ROCK SHOW.
Live
Carletta Sue Kay, Birth Defects, Fuzz At The Troubadour, Thursday July 16th 2015
For his heavy metal/hard rock outfit, the very prolific Ty was on drums, in central position between Charles Moothart on guitar and Roland Cosio on bass. And as soon as they started it was a hell of a ride with more head banging above heavy metal or sludgy riffs, a myriad of garage rock chunks, wrapped in a punk fury and of course fuzzy distortion.
Foo Fighters’ “Break A Leg” Tour At Citifield, Thursday, July 16th, 2015, Reviewed
what wasn’t a problem was when the band picked up steam, they were really good: a classic metal medley of “Detroit City Limits”, “Jailbreak” and “Schools Out” was a pleasure and while the Foos songs weren’t in the same league, the energy and determination they brought to their songs was excellent, the “Under Pressure” followed by “All Of My Life” was superbly placed glam meets metal rock
Taylor Swift’s “1989” Tour: Wanna Be A Guest? Get In Line…
A mix of up and comers and big stars, often highlighting her lousy taste in music, but also her prescience: note Sam Smith before In The Lonely Hours. By the way in the four years here, I saw her seven times…
Taylor Swift At Metlife: Glamazing
She is GLAMAZING (glamorous, and amazing). When I was younger, and just started to know her, she had the most beautiful voice and still does!! She inspired me to dance and sing, and I’m not just saying this, it’s true! I can’t wait another two years to see her concert because, yeah, I’ll be there without a doubt!! I love her so much!!!!!!!!!
Andy Summers Signing At Amoeba, Tuesday July 14th 2015
‘Can’t Stand Losing You: Surviving The Police’ is based on his memoir, ‘One Train Later’ and follows his journey from his early days, when he played with The Animals in the 60’s, to his first encounter with drummer Stewart Copeland and bassist Sting. The Police became big, really big, I remember hearing their songs everywhere at the time, and I guess I could die happy if I never get to hear again ‘Roxanne’ and ‘Every Breath You take’, but I have nothing against Andy, he seemed like a great guy.
Chris Baio At Bardot, Monday July 13th 2015
Chris Baio has described his forthcoming album as ‘Bowie and Ferry-influenced pop songs and dumbsmart arena techno’, and has declared that ‘It is a record that has reverberated through my mind for much of the last five years.’ However, after this show and song titles such as ‘Brainwash yyrr Face’, ‘I Was Born in a Marathon’, ‘All the Idiots’, some mystery remains, unless I find some answers in Don DeLillo’s 1982 novel ‘The Names’ which gave its title to his new record.
Judas Priest, Verizon Theater, Grand Prairie, Texas, Monday 13 July, 2015 – Reviewed
For an old fashioned, pump fisting night of late ‘70s/early ‘80s metal, it’s hard to imagine that few bands have held up as well as the current touring version of Judas Priest. Rob Halford might not look quite as comfortable on the prop motorcycle in 2015 as he did in his youth, but he’s still aged better than most of his competitors
No Fare Thee Well: Phil Lesh To Play Central Park In September
If it was a Friday night I might even go, but since it isn’t , it’s a Wednesday, I’ll leave you to buy into this and stand for hours on end. If I was going I would absolutely pony up the hundred bucks for bleacher seats –a no brainer. So here is the info… enjoy!
Lael Neale, Tashaki Miyaki At El Cid, Saturday July 11th 2015
Alone on stage with her acoustic guitar, or sometimes accompanied by a violin or a slide guitar, the strings were just reinforcing the melancholic beauty of her crystalline voice, bringing more emotions into her folksy-dreamy songs.
The Village Voice’s 4Knots Festival At Pier 84 In Hudson River Park, June 11th, 2015, Review
With the temperature in the lower 80s and puffy white clouds playing tag with the sun, a dip to deliciously fresh as the hours passed along and the headliners reached the stage, you couldn’t have asked for anything lovelier than Saturday afternoon. Standing on the bridge of the Hornblower Yacht and watching one top art guitar band after another perform, in an unusually well curated day of rock and roll, New York has never been sweeter.
Mara Hruby At Figueroa And 7th, Friday July 10th 2015 Review
Her music was quite eclectic, when she started, I thought she would be another of these old school R&B-jazz songstress but she and her band brought a lot of diversity, as they got more bluesy than rhythm-y on a few songs, then brought more fire on a few others, even getting jazzy, poppy or all doo-wop-y on another one. Her delivery was bringing the right does of emotion, and everything about her looked contained and inspiring solemnity.
King At Figueroa And 7th, Friday July 10th 2015 Review
All I can say is that the crowd was constantly cheering, there was so much love for King on Friday night! When I turned around to see the audience, I could see every face with a large smile, it was as if King’s music was pure ecstasy bringing a magical dose of happiness, with another layer of sweet icing melting against people’s eardrums.
Oldies But Goldies: Rhett Miller and The Serial Lady Killers at Webster Hall September 19th, 2009
It is a strange set, the audience like it don’t love it because there is too much from the newbie Rhett Miller and exceedingly few crowd pleasers. Miller looks out of shape, his boying good lucks seem corrupted by time for the first time ever: Miller is getting a gut and a double chin!!!
Taylor Swift’s “1989 World Tour” At Metlife, Friday, July 10th, 2015, Review
Taylor Swift is one of our greatest stars, a lovely, compassionate woman who through the social media has made a direct connection with, and improved the lives of, millions of teenage girls and one middle aged man. She writes superb songs that sell millions and performs them very well. If the 1989 World Tour was an Impressionist painting it would be a Matisse -now how bad blood can that be?
Let’s Active: rock nyc Concert Picks Week Of July 13th, 2015
A stretch I know, and to be honest I can’t remember why on earth I decided this was a good idea. Maybe because it is relatively close to my home. Or maybe I just thought it would make a fun story. Honestly, I have no idea… but, Foo Fighters at Citifield on Wednesday. You can tell your grandchildren, or maybe just the girl in the cubicle net to you, that you were there when… This Wednesday
Bryan McPherson At Vacation Vinyl, Thursday July 9th 2015 Review
He sings right in your face, looking at people right in the eyes, screaming sentences like ‘There’s no freedom of speech in the land of the sheep’, ‘How can I go to heaven if I’m living in hell’ in the song ‘Days of Rage’, which basically has to be one of the most anti-system, anti-capitalist songs I have heard for a long time.
Pearl Jam, Beyoncé, Ed Sheeran And Coldplay To Play Central Park, September 26th, 2015
How I hate 2015, everybody is always lecturing me about something: give my subway seat to a woman, help the aged, worry about global warming, fight poverty, help the transgendered, take down the Southern flag, raise the Southern flag, date rape, don’t date rape, no means no…
Kevin Hart’s “What Now” At Madison Square Garden, Tuesday, July 7th, 2015, review
Kevin’s essential shtick is taking something completely ridiculous, sex aides seducing you for instance, and making it seem reasonable. It is a great concept and he does it well and has for years and it is funnier than Louis CK, but it has no edge to it, and nothing really sticks. It is the summer movie of comedy at Stalag 17.
Oldies But Goldies: The Dead at MSG. April 25th, 2009: What a long, strange, long (long) night it’s been
I reviewed the Dead’s final concert ever yesterday and here I reviewed a night at MSG in 2009. As a writer I was trying to write less densely here, sixteen days after posting my first rock nyc story, after a couple of more weeks I gave up on the effort. As for this review? You’re gonna like it, but not a lot
Juan Wauters, The Buttertones, Beach Party at the Echoplex, Monday July 6th 2015 Review
But it was Beach Party’s residency, and although they rather installed a rock party than a beach party – and I am mostly talking about their stage dynamic and their classic rock moves here – they brought a lot of fun inside the Echoplex
The Grateful Dead “Fare The Well” At Soldier’s Field, Sunday, June 5th, 2015, Review
And didn’t the Dead used to be a blues band some of the time, rock band mindfuckers? They sounded like Americana, tasteful country jams? This is all rural psychedelia. More magic mushrooms than LSD (or heroine for that matter). Bashful jams that tailed off because they couldn’t figure out where to go.
Let’s Active: rock nyc Concert Picks Week Of July 6th, 2015
This is all about Taylor Swift and two nights at Metlife, the eagerly anticipated 1989 reaches ground zero (nearly, oddly enough no nyc gig though I did catch a preview of this show at Jingle Ball last December). I have tickets for both nights, pretty good seats as well, and I have sky high hopes that this will be her best show ever. Still, perhaps it is time she began including more of her old catalog? We will see this Friday and Saturday.
Television At The Teragram Ballroom, Thursday July 2nd 2015
Television were on a ‘Marquee Moon’ ride, they almost played the album in its entirety, adding just a few others on the setlist, guiding us through a maze of sophisticated guitar solos and spaced-out sonic convolutions. Their line up may have changed over the years, but Tom Verlaine is still an interesting frontman, tall and thin, he looks young at 65, inspiring coolness and visibly not interested by stage antics.
Oldies But Goldies: Taylor Swift At Madison Square Garden August 27th, 2009: Fearless In Manhattan
She changed about 9 times. All cute sparkly dresses. She opened with You Belong With Me. When she sang Love Story it was the same performance from one of the awards shows with the castle and the quick change into a white dress on stage. She encored with Should’ve Said No and danced in the rain, like another past performance
John Fogerty At Radio City Music Hall, Wednesday, June 24th, 2015, Review
I wish he would talk less, especially since I’ve heard most of these stories before. A few times he brought out his guitar rack and started talking about the different individual instruments and what sounded good on each one. Interesting for a guitar nerd like me but probably not so much for most of the crowd.
Failure At Amoeba, Tuesday June 30th 2015
They played a set of six songs, a few new ones and some old stuff, as they said, for the crowd’s greatest pleasure. Their heavy rock sound was guitar-driven with discordance and morose vocals… may be Interpol and all these new bands embracing the detached-mournful vocals have been schooled by Failure
Nathaniel Rateliff, Teenage Wrist, Phoebe Bridgers, Tennis System, Repeater At The Echo, Monday June 29th 2015 Review
They were a great surprise with a formidable energy and a lot of soul. I am not using the term soul lightly, despite the cowboy hat on the head of one of the guitarists, they undoubtedly had an old-school rhythm & blues sound, and one of their songs even had a true Sam & Dave vibe. The sax, the horns and the wobbling Hammond were part of their audacious and lively R&B, with an explosive sound and a powerhouse that may have channeled some Springsteen or Joe Cocker gig.
Lolipalooza II Part 2, Saturday June 27th 2015 Review
He was holding his guitar very high and tight, pointing it like a gun toward the amp, he has recently collaborated with Ty Segall and his sound couldn’t have been more punk-psychedelic with a heavy layer coming straight from the 70’s.
Which makes me think, I have probably use the terms psychedelic/psychedelia way too many times in this review, but try to see 24 bands in 10 hours!
The Best Of 2015: Concerts Through June 30th, 2015
Live is where he comes into his own as a no nonsense UK rocker who has a better feel for harmolodics then you might imagine, everything here is about arranging a sound where nothing sticks out and nothing goes under, just like Be Here Now taught us, it is like a mountain that is all peak.
Lolipalooza II Part 1, Saturday June 27th 2015 Review
But most of my day was occupied with all these 60’s revival surf-rock-worshiper bands, and they keep multiplying with more nuances than I can describe. Most of them played with a punk spirit and a personal twist each time, but as I said, they duplicate themselves at infinity.
Lolipalooza II At The Echo & Echoplex, Saturday June 27th 2015 Review
I wanted to call this post the small label which could because this is a real phenomenon here in Los Angeles, two minuscule labels are revolutionizing music festivals, Burger Records has its Burgerama now in its 4th year and taking some mini-Coachella proportions, then Lolipop Records has just put its second Lolipalooza – great name by the way – at the Echo/Echoplex and the festival is simply here to stay and grow every year.
Morrissey And Blondie At Madison Square Garden, Saturday, June 27th, 2015, Review
The MSG set was a goodie, maybe a little better than his Radio City Music Hall set from 2012. A solid B+, except Helen Bach just warned me I better give it an A-. I never said, I never her grade was completely unfounded…
Kanye West’s Setlist From Glastonbury Last Night
“I AM THE GREATEST LIVING ROCKSTAR ON THE PLANET!” Kanye West claimed at Glastonbury yesterday and if you disagree maybe you should move on to bro country… I can’t think of a planet where that probably isn’t true and if West is the divining line in modern pop music stick me on any side he is on.
Maxi Priest And Bunji Garlin At VP records 35th Anniversary Concert, Summerstage, Saturday, June 27th, 2015
Maxi Priest we expected to be great, on record he is pop and reggae and on stage he is a rock and reggae with a masterful lead guitarist. Sly and Robbie produced some of last years Easy To Love, but on stage this was not Lover’s Rock. he opened the set with the 1990 “A Little Bit Longer” but while the recorded version is bright eyed UB40ish reggae riddem soul pop, on stage it was a barnstormer
Let’s Active: rock nyc Concert Picks Week Of June 29th, 2015
I am gonna miss this because 1) I’m broke, 2) it is at Jones Beach and I don’t have a car on 3) a weekday, 4) The Big Huerta and little Stevie Crawford have already written terrific reviews of the concert in LA and Dallas, 5) plus Alyson reviewed the tribute gig months ago and 6) did I mention I’m broke? However, if you have a car and are not broke, get to Jones Beach on Tuesday and check out Brian Wilson.
Oldies But Goldies: In Honor Of The Country Fest This Weekend, Here is My Review Of Brad Paisley And Dierks Bentley In 2009
Not only did I not get a press pass to the Farmsborough Country Music Festival this weekend on Randall’s Island, I didn’t get a courtesy “sorry, none left”. business as usual here at rock nyc. So to make up, here is my review of two of the three headliners some six years ago!
Bette Midler’s “Divine Intervention” At Madison Square Garden, Thursday, June 25th, 2015, Review
Yeah, I know, she’s a national treasure, she is funny and fun, saucy and self-deprecating, she has a great reputation as simply a good one and has been married to the same guy since 1984,, and at 69 years old, unlike Delores DeLago, she is still going fine. But man, can she suck a song dry.
Nosaj Thing At Amoeba, Thursday June 25th 2015 Review
Jason Chung aka Nosaj thing, who is part of Flying Lotus’ Low End Theory crew and scene, was giving an in-store at Amoeba on Thursday night and he immediately asked to turn the lights off… ‘I am on acid’, he said with a smile, ‘no I’m not!’ This was his sole interaction,
Brian Wilson, Verizon Theater, Grand Prairie, Texas, Wednesday 24th June, 2015, Review
Wilson is a sympathetic figure, even more so do to the recent biopic Love & Mercy, and with his personal tragedies and triumphs, it’s impossible not to root for the man. He was in good spirits on this evening, giving brief song introductions (“This one’s in the key of E,” “Let’s hear the girls yell,” “This one rocks like hell!”) and punching the air for emphasis
Morrissey, Wednesday June 24th, 2015 Hanover Theater, Worcester MA Reviewed
The crowd was amazingly engaged, unlike other audiences I have endured the group assembled in Worcester tore the roof off in sheer volume of lyrics- and not just for the ‘classics’, this was an audience of fans
Morrissey Is None Of Your Business
There is a sense of today about the setlist, it is so deeply buried in the present and personally if I had my choice only two of these songs would be on the setlist and that is why, if nothing else at all, Mo goes his own way and does his own thing. Morrissey Is None Of My Business…
Dirty Laundry TV Summer Fest At The Satellite, Sunday June 21st 2015, Review
Their youthful pop exuberance put a smile on everybody’s face, and they dedicated their songs to all the dads in the audience — it was after all father’s day. They had a beachy-surfy explosive sound with tender moments going all doo-wop on you, and once again they were super retro, but they did it with a real freshness, turning punk fury into real sweetness.
Paul Weller At Music Hall of Williamsburg, Saturday, June 20th, 2015, Review
Say what you will; three-plus decades since Weller started his ascent on stage, with a band and three-plus decades later and he’s still finding new ways to make us all young and driven again. A stellar night
Dirty Laundry Summer Fest At The Satellite, Sunday June 21st 2015 Review
It’s all fuzzy in my head now, just like the guitars of Gateway Drugs, my memories in my brain are very loud just like The Birth Defects’ heavy riffs, and I have a hang over, but honestly I probably feel much better than this Sloppy Jane front girl! Man, did this crazy woman put up a trashy riot if I’ve ever seen one!
Jungle, IBeyi, And Sunni Colon At Central Park Summerstage, Saturday, June 20th, 2015, Review
Place Jungle alongside Rudimental with less electronic mayhem but better beats. Josh Lloyd-Watson is as close to focal point as they have, and he takes well to the position, but this is a collective buzz and the next album should tell the story. Meanwhile, great to see them and free of charge.
Motopony At The Troubadour, Thursday June 18th 2015 Review
Their music was a bit all over the place, but certainly led by a sort of psychedelic pop-folk with a modern R&B-synth twist, very dance-y, and bringing this old hippies-with-tambourines feeling into a more modern setting. But it was for the most part epic and psychic, with song titles such as ‘Gypsy Woman’ – during which Daniel Blue invited a few girls on stage to dance their heart out – and the upbeat ‘1971’ which had a screaming poppy chorus with an almost Sgt. Pepper’s catchiness
Brian Wilson at the Greek Theatre, Saturday, June 20th, 2015, Review
Set highlights included “This Whole World”, The Little Girl I Once Knew”, “Shut Down”, “Then I Kissed Her”, “Wild Honey” (with Chaplin singing and blistering guitar parts), “She Knows Me Too Well”, “Wake the World” and this is the first time I ever heard him do “Busy Doin’ Nothing” the bossa nova ode from 1968 Friends lp. You mix that in with the hits (California Girls, God Only Knows, In My Room, Lil Deuce Coupe….do I really have to list them???) and it was just a marvel
Bootstraps At The Troubadour, Thursday June 18th 2015 Review
They played a very emotional music, the heart-on-your-sleeve and gut-exploding type, with slow, quiet-as-a-ballad beginnings which were then exploding all over the place. Beckett had actually a smoky-weary falsetto, a sort of David Gray croon, bringing intense emotions in each one of their ascending songs.
Let’s Active: rock nyc Concert Picks For Week Of June 22nd, 2015
Welcome back Morrissey. After claiming his opening act had given him the flu and then saying he had cancer, he cancelled his American tour, advised his record company they had no contract with him thereby causing them to pull all digital copies, getting married to a man, and calling omnivores the equivalent of child molesters, missing Morrissey on Saturday at Madison Square Garden is not an option. Morrissey not showing? That’s a possibility.