Music Madness No. 43
You can tell I'm getting older, losing energy, am less tolerant of crowds, and simply no longer so interested in the same ole things.... Tonight, for the third time this year, I canceled plans to attend a free concert I initially was very excited about attending.
The Kentucky State Fair has hosted lots of cool free concerts over the years. Among the musicians I've seen and enjoyed in past were Ray Charles, Pat Benatar, and Rick Springfield. All relics of the 20th century. But this year, I just can't do it again. So I'm sorry, Joan Jett, but you'll have to love Rock & Roll without me tonight.
Back in May, I had elaborate plans to attend free concerts downtown by the Goo Goo Dolls and the B-52's. I say elaborate because the two bands were playing on the same night, almost simultaneously, several blocks apart. So I was going to see just a couple of songs by the Goo Goo Dolls, then run down the street and spend the rest of the night with the B-52's, who I like better anyway. But something different was happening this time around. For the first time ever, in the week leading up to the big night, I felt a strong sense of dread that never went away. When it started pouring down rain an hour or so before I was to head downtown, I gave myself permission to stay home, and it was a big relief... to not do something I initially felt I had to do, just because those were bands I always liked back in the old days.
If I had more energy to get up and go out for a concert tonight anyway, I don't think it would be the free Joan Jett concert. For in the months between the time I heard she was coming and tonight, I bought the new album by popular Louisville band My Morning Jacket and fell in love with it. Evil Urges (a title that will cause some to shiver in their booties) is a great set of songs.... the first album in at least five years wherein I love every track. It's a very unusual album, in that each song is stylistically quite different. "I'm Amazed" comes closest to the sort-of Southern rock sound they've done before, but there are also new wave-ish songs, one or two songs sounding Prince-like, and 1970's ballad sounds too. There is also one called "Highly Suspicious" that sounds like Cameo's old "Word Up" jam, wherein they keep repeating the unusual phrase "peanut butter pudding surprise". I can tell I'm quite taken with the album because I don't want to go more than a day or so without hearing it again.
Evil Urges is regarded as a breakthrough for My Morning Jacket, receiving nearly universal praise from music critics. It made the Top 10 on Billboard's album chart, and the band has been featured on the cover of every major music magazine and played on all the late night shows including SNL and Conan. They already are the most popular rock band Louisville has ever produced.
Anyway, they are back in town tonight for a hometown reunion, playing to several thousand fans down on the waterfront. So that is where I would go tonight, if I had the energy. After burning that new album into my brain over the past month, I couldn't imagine choosing to sit through the same old Joan Jett crap over thrilling new music from a prominent local band.
You can tell I'm getting older, losing energy, am less tolerant of crowds, and simply no longer so interested in the same ole things.... Tonight, for the third time this year, I canceled plans to attend a free concert I initially was very excited about attending.
The Kentucky State Fair has hosted lots of cool free concerts over the years. Among the musicians I've seen and enjoyed in past were Ray Charles, Pat Benatar, and Rick Springfield. All relics of the 20th century. But this year, I just can't do it again. So I'm sorry, Joan Jett, but you'll have to love Rock & Roll without me tonight.
Back in May, I had elaborate plans to attend free concerts downtown by the Goo Goo Dolls and the B-52's. I say elaborate because the two bands were playing on the same night, almost simultaneously, several blocks apart. So I was going to see just a couple of songs by the Goo Goo Dolls, then run down the street and spend the rest of the night with the B-52's, who I like better anyway. But something different was happening this time around. For the first time ever, in the week leading up to the big night, I felt a strong sense of dread that never went away. When it started pouring down rain an hour or so before I was to head downtown, I gave myself permission to stay home, and it was a big relief... to not do something I initially felt I had to do, just because those were bands I always liked back in the old days.
If I had more energy to get up and go out for a concert tonight anyway, I don't think it would be the free Joan Jett concert. For in the months between the time I heard she was coming and tonight, I bought the new album by popular Louisville band My Morning Jacket and fell in love with it. Evil Urges (a title that will cause some to shiver in their booties) is a great set of songs.... the first album in at least five years wherein I love every track. It's a very unusual album, in that each song is stylistically quite different. "I'm Amazed" comes closest to the sort-of Southern rock sound they've done before, but there are also new wave-ish songs, one or two songs sounding Prince-like, and 1970's ballad sounds too. There is also one called "Highly Suspicious" that sounds like Cameo's old "Word Up" jam, wherein they keep repeating the unusual phrase "peanut butter pudding surprise". I can tell I'm quite taken with the album because I don't want to go more than a day or so without hearing it again.
Evil Urges is regarded as a breakthrough for My Morning Jacket, receiving nearly universal praise from music critics. It made the Top 10 on Billboard's album chart, and the band has been featured on the cover of every major music magazine and played on all the late night shows including SNL and Conan. They already are the most popular rock band Louisville has ever produced.
Anyway, they are back in town tonight for a hometown reunion, playing to several thousand fans down on the waterfront. So that is where I would go tonight, if I had the energy. After burning that new album into my brain over the past month, I couldn't imagine choosing to sit through the same old Joan Jett crap over thrilling new music from a prominent local band.
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Ah, but I can't completely escape from the old stuff. Billy Joel has just released a 30th anniversary box set of The Stranger (which actually came out more than 31 years ago), filled with bonus concert CDs, a DVD of performances from the period, and a replica of his original handwritten composition book for this album's songs. All quite cool... and a reminder of how great he used to be. I hope he does this one more time, for 52nd Street, which turns 30 years old this October and is my favorite Billy Joel album.
Additionally, the Police played their final reunion concert in New York last week. I quite enjoyed seeing them at Churchill Downs last summer, and hope Sting gets busy on a new solo album as it has been five years since his last one. I guess that's better than Mr. Joel, though... his last all new album, River of Dreams, was released 15 years ago! Although he claims to be in a state of semi retirement, he has been touring on the same set of songs nearly every year since then. So what is the point of not treating us to some new ones?
I admit, I would still go see either Billy Joel (even without new songs) or Sting for the umpteenth time if they were to return to Louisville... and I would also really like to see Paul McCartney and the Eagles. But that's about it, in the 20th century relic category. Music is one area where I definitely do not long for the old days.
2 comments:
We all have our own flavor of growing up, eh, Jer? I'm totally with you on this one...I've made some similar choices myself in the past few years. (I passed up the opportunity to see Toad the Wet Sprocket at Live on the Levee in St Louis a couple of summers ago.)
But I would drive MANY hours to see The Cobalt Season. Or, maybe I'd just stay home and lounge on my couch and thank God for iTunes... ;-)
By the way, shortly after I wrote this post... I got tired of Evil Urges. Sometimes it happens that way with albums. Maybe it's because, in the end, I couldn't relate any of the admittedly catchy songs to any aspect of my life.
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