2011 was absolutely the most amazing year of live concerts that I have experienced in my life so far.  I have been going to shows regularly since 1982, this August will mark 30 years of attending live concerts so when I make that statement, I do not make it very lightly.

I saw a lot of Punk and New Wave shows in the 80′s and some amazing artists like The Police, The Dead Kennedy’s, Black Flag, Oingo Boingo, The Cure & PIL.

In the 90′s my shows were all over the spectrum and I saw a lot of diverse acts like Neil Young, Buddy Guy, The Black Crowes, REM, U2, The Pixies, Social Distortion, X, Peter Murphy & Pearl Jam

I mention this history because in the 29 years I have been going to concerts I have seem some amazing gems through the years as well as some pretty bad ones as well. In all that time, I cannot recall a single year that I experienced so many amazing shows in a row.

My 2011 concert year kicked off by seeing some riveting blues by John Hammond with Robin and our friends Mark & Nikki.  He was actually the opening act and we left after he walked off stage. No sense sticking around for what would have been a letdown compared the the amazing show we witnessed for sixty minutes.

A short while later Mark and I saw Robert Plant and the Band of Joy which was a long time wish of mine.  I was too young to see Led Zeppelin tour but I still got chills watching Robert Plant on stage.

Bill and I saw Wynton Marsalis play some incredible Jazz to a very welcoming crowd in Portland at the Schnitzer Concert Hall.

A week later, Robin and I saw the first of two absolutely phenomenal shows just one month apart.  The first was Lyle Lovett & John Hiatt just singing their songs and telling great stories.  The second was Gillian Welch & David Rawlings touring with their first new album in almost a decade.  Those two summer shows firmly cracked into my long stable top five best concerts of all time list.  I am still stunned at how incredible these two acoustic shows were last summer.

The August sunshine and the zoo combined for two great back to back shows of Big Bad Voodoo Daddy and Imelda May. Big band swing and kick ass rockabilly at their finest. The end of summer came with a very fun show by CAKE outdoors at the Edgefield.

The fall kicked into place by seeing Boom Chick come through Portland again and Frank and Moselle stayed with Robin and I at our house.  Boom Chick have really grown in their art over the last year and I love the new music. They were kind enough to give me an advanced copy to their new songs and I enjoy them even more than Show Pony which I didn’t think was possible.  I can’t wait to see them live again soon.

Robin and I finished the year off on December 23rd by seeing Brian Setzer perform some serious kick ass rockabilly and fulfilling a life long goal of ours to see him live. He did not disappoint and I’m glad I pushed through my fever I had to see what was an absolutely perfect book end to such an unique and incredible musical year.

2012 is starting out with Emily Wells next week and Wilco next month so we will see if it can live up to the last 12 months.

I love Rockabilly as I’ve already written about and The Stray Cats were my first real exposure to the genre.  Last night, Robin & I got to see an absolutely amazing performance from Brian Setzer fulfilling a long time dream of both of ours. This was no bloated 80′s revival tour, this was two solid hours of kick ass rockabilly and I mean kick ass.  As Robin said to me with a huge grin on her face in the middle of the show: “SMOKING!!!”

These guys were on fire coming out of the gate with some killer riffs and booming beats that just kept going.  There was only a brief pause or two and a quick acknowledgement of the crowd.  You could tell these guys loved playing music and they were having a ball.  The action did not stop until about 50 minutes into the show when the bass player and the drummer quietly left the stage and Brian slowly played to a stop.  He switched out his guitar with one that he said he bought when he was 17 and playing in the Stray Cats.  He slyly said with a big grin “If I’m going to play some Stray Cats songs, I better bring out another Cat” and out came Slim Jim Phantom the drummer from the Stray Cats.  They played a set consisting of their hit songs and some rockabilly classics and they sounded perfect.

Throughout the night, musicians (Two Bass Players, Two Drummers, One Piano Player) came on and came off as the songs progressed.  It was a Rockabilly rave up and the crowd was loving it.  There was a dueling bass players bit towards the end where the two very enthusiastic players were having a slap off.  They were joined at the end by Brian playing a stand up bass himself and for a few minutes the crowd was treated to three stand up bass players making music together.

Brian Setzers Rockabilly Riot show was  loud, fast and we loved every single minute of it.  It was a perfect way to end what has been the most memorable year of live musics that I have ever had.

Steve Jobs has died.  That sucks.  Love him or hate him, Steve Jobs changed the world and he changed what I expect from the technology I use.

I depend and work on computers for a living.  October 1st marked my 15th year as an IT professional (meaning I get paid for what I like to do anyway).  At the end of the day, computers are just a tool to get a job done.  I’ve used a lot, from my early days with Commodore PET’s & Apple II’s, to Amiga & IBM clones, to self built Linux boxes and Sun server hardware to iEverything.

Just like you tend to use different tools in a toolbox, computers and operating systems have different uses as well. I’ve used A LOT of computers and operating systems through the years.  When I come home and am no longer working, I choose to use the tools that are made by Apple. To quote a marketing line that Steve Jobs used in the past: “It just works”.

I got sick of feeling like my work followed me home, I just wanted my stuff to work when I needed it to.  This didn’t happen over night, it started because I was tired of recompiling my linux kernel just to get music to play one day.  I moved my Unix needs over to OS X a few weeks later.  Today, as I look around my house at all my technology I realize just how much Steve Jobs has slowly changed my life:

I write this on a 27″ iMac. My iPhone 4 sits on the desk along with my iPad and my iPod nano from 2007.  Sitting next to me on the floor my a G5 from 2005 that I’m giving to our nephew.  In our family room is a Mac-Mini acting as the media center. In our bedroom is an Apple-TV.  In our kitchen is an airport-express playing music, in our living room is another airport-express playing music.  It is all talking to each other perfectly through an Airport Extreme router.  You could call me an Apple fan and you would be right to do so.

Tonight, I’m sad for his family.  Cancer Fucking Sucks.  I hope they find a cure in my lifetime and I don’t have to witness anymore people I know suffer or hear about others dealing with it.  Steve changed the world and we are better for having had him in our lives. I will miss his vision.

Rest in peace.

A list off the top of my head of the various operating systems that I have used:

• Amiga OS
• Apple System Software (Many Versions)
• Debian Linux (Many Versions)
• Commodore Basic
• FreeBSD (Many Versions)
• Gentoo Linux (Many Versions)
• MS DOS
• Mac OS 6.0
• Mac OS 7.0
• Mac OS 8.0
• Open BSD (Many Versions)
• OS X 10.3
• OS X 10.4
• OS X 10.5
• OS X 10.6
• OS X 10.7
• Red Hat Linux (Many Versions)
• Slackware Linux (Many Versions)
• Sun OS 5.5
• Sun Solaris 2.6
• Sun Solaris 7
• Sun Solaris 8
• Sun Solaris 9
• Sun Solaris 10
• Sun Solaris 11
• SuSe Linux (Many Versions)
• Ubuntu Linux (Many Versions)
• Windows 3.1
• Windows 95
• Windows 98
• Windows ME (yes)
• Windows NT
• Windows 2000
• Windows 2003
• Windows 2008
• Windows 2008R2
• Windows Vista
• Windows 7

I was fortunate enough to receive Wilco‘s new album “The Whole Love” on Friday when I got home even though it doesn’t release until this week.  A nice perk of pre-ordering the release directly from their website.  I’ve been pretty much listening only to it since it arrived.

If you are one of the three or four people who actually read this blog, you should not be surprised that I am a huge Wilco fan.  They have been my favorite band for about five years now.  I first saw them live during the “Sky Blue Sky” tour in 2007 and have seen them two more times after that.

Their last release “Wilco (The Album)” was interesting and a bit silly but it didn’t really hold my ear very long.  I was thinking it may grow on me like “A Ghost Is Born” did eventually but as an album their last effort is not something I put on to listen to as an album.

“The Whole Love”, which is the third effort with the same six band members does not have that issue at all. I have not been skipping around at all when I listen to it. The whole piece flows very well which is one of the things that really impressed me about “Sky Blue Sky”.

I know a lot of people look at “Yankee Hotel Foxtrot” as the Wilco album which all others must be measured.  I’m reading a lot of early reviews saying “The Whole Love” gets back to the greatness of the YHF album and erases the recent efforts.  I personally think that’s a really stupid way to listen to music if you are always wanting a band to get back to a sound they once did.

The music on this album is a great blending of their styles and almost every song makes me recall previous songs or slices of sound but not in a repetitive way, simply it is a solid effort and you immediately know you are listening to a Wilco album.

The album opens with “Art Of Almost” with some loops and very electronic keyboard, sound that builds to a blistering all out rocking effort at the end of it. The start makes me think of “Spiders (Kidsmoke)” but that comparison quickly fades away.  It is a great opening song and really sets the sonic tone of the album to come. It is currently my favorite track on the album.

“I Might” is the first single and the second track on the release.  It’s got some great feedback hidden within the main melody of the track with some interesting keyboards laid over the top of it all.

The third song, “Sunloathe” almost sounds like a long lost version of the Beatles song “Sun King” in the arrangement and the vocals.  It’s not a blatant rip off or anything, just echoes of the Beatles are heard in my head when I listen to it.

“Dawned On Me” is a good solid Wilco track with a great Tweedy whistling part near the end.

The lyrical imagery of ”Capitol City” reminds me of the title track on “Sky Blue Sky”. A very descriptive experience of being in a city.

“Standing O” sounds a bit like it was left over from “Wilco (The Album)”.  Maybe it’s chorus that reminds me of the “oh, oh, oh” in “Wilco (The Song)”.

The closing track “One Sunday Morning (Song For Jane Smiley’s Boyfriend)” is a twelve minute folk riff that keeps going and going and threatens to never stop.  It does not get repetitive but just settles into a nice groove like a J.J. Cale song and keeps on going.

I picked up the Deluxe edition so it has an extra disc with four more tracks on it.  It has a cover of Nick Lowe’s “I love my Label” which they sold at the Solid Sound Festival this summer.  There is an alternate version of “Black Moon” which is on the main album as well as a six minute instrumental jam called “Speak Into The Rose”.

Although I mention that this album has sketches of other sounds or previous albums, this is not to imply that it is a bad thing, I think it is simply these six people firmly settling into their stride and seeing where it takes them.  I’ve already heard some live shows that they have done and it appears they are playing about 75% of this album live which is a great thing.  I can’t wait until they come back to the Pacific NW so I can see them a fourth time.  Do yourself a favor and get this album now.

We saw CAKE a week ago with our friend Bill outdoors at the Edgefield.  It was a lot of fun, I mean that literally.  Sure I have fun when I go to concerts but I go to hear music and enjoy where the emotional experience takes me.  I got all that from the CAKE show but I also experienced a lot of humor, laughter, smiles, silliness that added up to a whole lot of fun.

I do not think I have ever been to a show where the band had so much consistent interaction with the audience.  Not only was there a lot of call and response but multiple times songs were extended out so John McCrea could teach the audience the lyrics or what to sing.  Often times it involved long elaborate explanations about how one side of the audience had one view and the other side had another view while encouraging us all to out-sing the other side.  I was laughing more than I was singing a lot of the time.

After more than half the show was done, the band stopped the show to talk about the small tree that was on stage with them.  Bill noticed it earlier because it was the only piece of decoration on a rather sparse stage. It turns out that at each show, they ask the audience to guess not only what kind of tree they had on stage but the specific species as well.  The winner was awarded with the actual tree.  The crowd at the Portland show guessed the type but not the specific species.  I did notice that the slacker who won it has not provided proof of his new tree.  I believe the band suggested the rest of the audience hunt him down if he did not plant the tree.

All in all, a great show in the beautiful sunshine and a nice way to end the outdoor summer concert season.  Here is a road video from CAKE themselves leaving downtown Portland and heading to the Edgefield:

Click here to view the video on YouTube.

I love Rockabilly, it’s always had a place near and dear to me.  My first exposure was actually through the Stray Cats in the 1980′s.  After that I dug into the past to discover the roots and originators of the style.  There is something about that bold guitar riff with a thundering bass and drum beat backing it up that I just love. Rockabilly has always had a very large place in my music collection.

From the classics like: Carl Perkins, Link Wray, Ritchie Valens, Roy Orbison, Elvis, Eddie Cochran, Jerry Lee Lewis, Little Richard, Buddy Holly, Gene VIncent, Bo Diddley, Chuck Berry, Vince Taylor and Wanda Jackson.

To the more modern players: Stray Cats, Brian Setzer, Billy Rancher And The Unreal Gods, The Reverend Horton Heat, Mike Ness, Social Distortion, Southern Culture On The Skids, Legendary Shack Shakers, Dollarstore Cowboys, Hank III and the Supersuckers.

A couple of years back Robin went to see Jamie Cullum with her Mom.  If you have not heard of him, you should check him out – He’s the what I imagine the love child of Jerry Lee Lewis and Frank Sinatra would be like.  I was unable to go to the show and I missed out on what was apparently an amazing experience.  When they came home they talked only briefly about Jamie (who was perfectly good apparently). The bulk of the conversation was all about the opening act Imelda May.  Robin said she was just a little thing in a bright red dress with a big booming rockabilly band and a stage presence that was just captivating.

Shortly after that, I picked up their first two albums and loved them which made it even more of a letdown that I didn’t get to see her live.  Their stuff is a mix of Rockabilly, Blues, Slow Jazz and some killer Rock and Roll tossed in.  Their big single off the second album, Johnny Got A Boom Boom has a killer riff and is a great example of their style:

Click here to view the video on YouTube.

I finally got a chance to see her on August 10th.  Robin, her Mom and myself all went to the Oregon Zoo where they were playing in support of their latest album Mayhem and I was amazed at the show.  I witnessed a blues / rockabilly set that blew me away.  They played stuff off all their albums but the special treat for me was hearing her belt out the Howlin Wolf classic Poor Boy and it gave me chills:

Click here to view the video on YouTube.

She paused the show early on to point out a little girl in the audience who was as she called it “An absolutely brilliant dancer”.  She called her and her dad on stage to dance during with her.  They played “Go Tell The Devil” and little Nora danced her legs off in front of a pretty large audience:

It was a great little moment and you could tell they were having a good time.  I’m really glad I got to see them live and I will go again the next chance I have.  The only bummer about the whole evening was these six people behind us that thought it was appropriate to talk really loud through the show.  I lasted about four songs before I politely bit their heads off.  I’ll never understand people who go to see live music and then talk all through the show.

Some tracks off their latest album:

Psycho:

Click here to view the video on YouTube.

Mayhem:

Click here to view the video on YouTube.

A couple of non-album tracks they played:

Go Tell The Devil:

Click here to view the video on YouTube.

Train Kept A Rolling:

Click here to view the video on YouTube.

And the classic original version of Poor Boy by Howlin Wolf:

Click here to view the video on YouTube.

The Sun was shining hot, the grass keept us cool and the elephants were staying downwind for most of the time. Wednesday night we went to the Oregon Zoo and saw Big Bad Voodoo Daddy perform.  The show was a lot of fun and the crowd was really into it and enjoyed the evening.

We were in a space that was occupied by a bunch of families with babies all under one year old.  Some were dancing on unsteady legs, some were crawling over to visit us, some were happy, some were grumpy, some were sleepy but thankfully none were crying.

If you live in Portland and have not been to the Zoo to see a show, you really should do it, it is a great venue and a lot of fun.  Where else can you enjoy the sun, good music and visit wild animals all at the same place?

Wow, just wow. We had the privilege of seeing Gillian Welch and David Rawlings very early on their new tour to support their new album “The Harrow & the Harvest” last Tuesday night.  They sounded incredible together, the crowd was wonderful and into the music, the venue sounded good, it all added up to an amazing night.  The two of them were laughing and having fun on stage as they worked the kinks out of their set.  They played a lot off the new record which is a perfect example of what the two of them sound like live (sparse but beautiful).  If you have not picked up the new album, do yourself a favor and get it now.  All in all, it was a great musical experience that I am glad to have been part of.

I have to say that the last two concerts I have seen have ranked up into my top five concerts of all time.  The show we just saw with Lyle Lovett and John Hiatt followed by seeing Gillian Welch and David Rawlings were absolutely stunning.  I know my musical tastes have changed and expanded but my “Top Five” list was unchanged for many years.  It is interesting to me that two acoustic singer song writer shows have now firmly placed themselves on that list. The Police is still the best show I ever saw but until recently that list contained a diverse but unchanged group of bands including The Psychedelic Furs, Oingo Boingo, Black Flag & The Black Crowes.  The Crowes and Oingo Boingo have now been pushed down a rank or two in my mind. Given the fact that I saw Oingo Boingo many times it is statement I never thought I’d make.  Ironically I saw them at the exact same venue but back in the 80′s it was called the Starry Night but not much else has changed besides the name.

A bootleg video of Elvis Presley Blues:

Click here to view the video on YouTube.

They came on a few minutes after 8pm and played a 45 minute set consisting of:

Scarlet Town
SIlver Dagger
Elvis Presley Blues
Rock Of Ages
The Way It Goes
The Way It Will Be
I Want To Sing That Rock And Roll
Black Star
Acony Bell
Look At Miss Ohio

Right after they finished “I want to Sing That Rock and Roll”, Gillian said something about the next song being appropriate, they then proceeded to do Black Star – A cover of a Radio Head song that they put their own unique sound on.

After a 20-30 minute break (where we wish we had chairs) they came back on for the main set that consisted of of a wide variety of songs and two encores:

Set Two:
Dark Turn of Mind
My First Lover
Six White Horses
Everything Is Free
Wayside / Back In Time
Sweet Tooth
Tennessee
Caleb Meyer

Encore One:
Hard Times
Revelator

Encore Two:
Down Along the Dixie Line
I’ll Fly Away

Although I wished they would have played “Red Clay Halo” it was a set with very few songs I missed.  It is not often you hear a man and a woman harmonize so perfectly together, Exene Cervenka and John Doe are another pair that sound like two unique halves joined as one to me. One of the highlights of the second set was Gillian explaining that when they recorded “Six White Horses” on the new album it had an unusual arrangement of her clapping and slapping her legs. They had not considered how to play it live.  It was a joy to see Gillian spontaneously break into a dance as she worked out the slap timing of the song. It is great to see two people experience the magic of creating music together and be willing to share it with others.

(A copy of the setlist straight from their Facebook page)

I have now broken the three way tie of shows that I have seen the most. Robin and I were privileged to see an amazing evening with Lyle Lovett and John Hiatt.  There was no setlist, no plan, no agenda, simply a night of music and stories.  We managed to snag amazing seats off a pre-sale event from Lyle’s facebook page.

They came out to a long round of applause and were obviously very humbled by it. They started talking about the beauty of the Schnitzer Concert hall.  Lyle said “like all things beautiful, it’s dangerous” which led to a story about how he tripped on that very stage and broke his arm but managed to save his guitar.  This led to John Hiatt starting the show off with “Perfectly Good Guitar”:

Click here to view the video on YouTube.

And so the night went, one song led to another, one story led to another.  It was music and stories in their purest form and we loved every note of it.  The show lasted two and a half hours and we got to hear almost all our favorites. It was by far the best Lyle Lovett show I’ve seen and one of my top shows of all time.

Lyle: If I had a Boat

Click here to view the video on YouTube.

John: Have a little faith in me – his encore

Click here to view the video on YouTube.

I got my love of music from my father.  He loved all kinds of music. He had stacks of 78s, LPs, Tapes and CD’s when I was growing up.  They covered all kinds of styles and genres but his favorite by far was Jazz. When he was in the service as an MP in the south he used to go into the jazz clubs to hear Dizzy Gillespie and other greats of the time. His favorite Jazz musician was Stan Kenton.  As the story goes, on their first date, my father asked my mother what she though of Stan Kenton and her response was “It sounds like a lot of noise”. Thankfully he did not hold that opinion against her!

In the 70′s I remember him listening to a lot of the Outlaw Country movement. When I was really into Rush in my tweens I asked him to sit and listen to the song “Xanadu” and he ended up listening to the entire “A Farewell to Kings” album with me. He would watch Austin City Limits every week and he would discover new musicians and seek out their recordings. I can still remember how impressed he was when he saw Stevie Ray Vaughan doing “Riviera Paradise” on that show and how happy he was when I told him I not only knew who he was but I also handed him a stack of his CD’s from my collection.

Click here to view the video on YouTube.

From Tony Bennet to Tom Waits my father loved music. He was always seeking out new music and he loved turning others on to music as well. Even toward the last of his days he was bringing the nurses in Stan Getz CD’s because they enjoyed hearing his music during his treatments. Turning others on to music is a trait I also have in spades and a tradition that I carry on.

Thursday night I saw Wynton Marsalis and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra perform at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall in Portland. The band sounded great and it was a wonderful evening of great talent and excellent music. The opening set grabbed me right from the start and took me away. For a brief few moments as I closed my eyes and let the music carry me down the rivers of sound I could almost feel my father was sitting by me listening and tapping his feet to the music with a big grin on his face. It was a wonderful special moment that only music can do.

The last time I enjoyed Fathers Day was ten years ago. Now I try to get through it as quietly as possible. I miss my Dads humor. I miss his laughter.  I miss his smile.  I miss the all day canasta card games we used to play at the beach without ever seeing the ocean. I miss the fishing trips where we spent the whole day looking for the perfect spot and never actually fished. I miss going out to breakfast for no good reason.  I miss him teasing me and me teasing him back. Most of all, I miss sharing and listening to music with him.

Click here to view the video on YouTube.