And another for Señor hobiejoe... Eventually, you'll get most of the concert.

 

Steve Earle and The Dukes • Billings, Montana • August 4, 2012 • "Little Emperor" and "This Land Is Your Land" from Justine Larsen on Vimeo.

Just a little something for hobiejoe...

 

Steve Earle and the Dukes • Harlan Man and The Mountain from Justine Larsen on Vimeo.

More to come.

 hobiejoe wrote: 
Sorry. Not really.

 ptooey wrote: 
Sounds like a good way to spend an afternoon.

Oh. Man.

  I've been halfheartedly trying to tell myself that we can't afford to go see Steve Earle this evening.  I'm afraid I've failed.  *leaves to load up the cooler*

I've wanted to see Steve Earle for 3 decades but our schedules never worked out. True to form, he had a concert scheduled close to us (2 hours north)... and we were going to be in Jackson Hole that day (5 hours south). So we woke up in the Tetons (I was up around 6 a.m. starting a fire for coffee), struck camp, had breakfast with the HobieJoes, sent them on their way and started the beautiful drive home about noon. We didn't ever buy tickets because so much could happen it just seemed too risky, but we made some snack stops along the way, picked up a hitch-hiking Yellowstone employee from somewhere in China whose roommates had headed to Cody without him and stopped at my office to pick up a photo of one of the band members along the way, just in case we got to meet him. 4:30 we got home, took showers, schlepped the kids over to grandma's house, I went online to order tickets. At this point I was prepared—maybe even hoping—to be disappointed. How could this show not be sold out? Well it wasn't. I ordered the will call tix, made us both some coffees and we started driving again. Got to Billings, found a parking spot close enough, 10 minutes to showtime, ran into the pizza joint around the corner from the theater, ordered a pie to tide us over. I went to use the facilities and they're shared with the public's facilities of the venue, but on my way back thru the maze of doors I did a Hello Cleveland and wound up nearly onstage. Seriously. Opening act Chris Masterson was headed onstage and if I hadn't recognized him I probably would have gone further before going "uh oh." I turned around and a nice guy asked what I was looking for, I said the pizza! and he thought for a minute I was looking for catering, but then remembered there was an unmarked door around there that led to a pizza parlor. Roadie guy and I opened a couple more doors and finally said Ah ha! and we laughed about that. Turns out it was Steve's bassist, Kelly Looney, not a roadie. Woops! 
 
We mowed down the pizza, walked into the venue (at this point we could have just sat down and watched the show without tickets—memo for next time) but I got us our wristbands and we went in and... wow there were a few kids there but not many... this crowd was extremely AARP-heavy. Which meant nothing to us until we found out that the promoter expected us to find a seat and siddown. No thank you. We tried various spots until bouncers didn't make us move, but we were in a very nice spot, off to the side, but at least we could stand up and the sound in this place is great. Steve came on and this isn't really a concert review and Justine will post some photos later, but it was a very good show. Would have been great if we'd been able to stand down front with some other fans but hey. About halfway through he did some of his old stuff but for the most part it was from the later part (past 15 years or so) of his career and it was all great. Turns out Chris Masterson (the opening act) is also in Steve's band, and that was cool how he transitioned from his own style to something else for Steve's set. Encore for Steve's set, they did some songs from the album they'll be releasing in February— he played one where the protagonist's town is dying and in the chorus he admits he's thinking of burning down the WalMart... then he introduces the next song by saying, "by the way: the theme of the new album seems to be Don't try this at home. Especially this one..." ...and he launches into what I'm going to characterize as a sort of update of Copperhead Road that introduces meth to the story.

After the show, there was a meet & greet at the merch table but they announced that they'd be a few minutes before they came out so I ran to the car and got my photo and Steve's book, Doghouse Roses. When I got back Justine was standing next to a friend of ours, an art instructor from the college and his old college friend who was in town and we stood there laughing and bs-ing for another half an hour before the band came out but when they did they were very cool to talk to. Justine had Steve sign his book to Charlie & Augusta and Chris and his wife (also in the band) and Steve all had a good laugh at my photo (he got your good side! says Steve). Chris signed it, we talked about his shoes for a minute... years ago I had sent the photo to the shoemaker who put it on the company site and also sent it to Chris, so he recognized the photo from then.

Anyway, we made it, made it home, the kids are back in our house and wow, are Justine and I ever going to sleep a lot today

Mick Taylor - Iridium, NYC 5/10
I had tix for the 8 show (there was also a 10 show).  started at 8:10, set list:

Secret Affair
Twisted Sister
Losing My Faith->Tore down(?)->Losing My Faith
CYHMK
Encore: Stop Breaking Down

Mick had some dude playing sax on CYHMNK (don’t know his name but had a real bad toupee on…sounded good though)

It was a very good set, the band he's playing with is great: 
Max Middleton - Keys (Jeff Beck Group)
Wilbur Bascomb - Bass (Jeff Beck, James Brown, BB King)
Bernard "Pretty" Purdie - Drums (Jeff BEck, James Brown, Steely Dan, Beatles, Stones, Miles DAvis...)
Hamish Stuart - Rhythm (Average White Band)

Great set, but very short, came in at just about 0:55 ending just after 9.  He could have easily played another...still wasnt that disappointed

My train was at 10:14, so I stayed and had another guiness…which led to another…so I decided to be a wallflower and see if no one would notice me…pretty soon second set folks were being seated, which took a long time.  Second set started at about 10:35 (I missed my train). 

 Setlist:

Secret Affair
Losing My Faith
Late at Night
Going South (killer instrumental, Mick said his voice was getting…something, but his vocals were actually really good)
You Shook Me (Mick intro as a Muddy Waters song, then said, wait who was that guy who wrote all those songs for Muddy scratching his head)
Blind Willie Mctell
no encore

As I said, 1st set was good, although a bit sloppy at points.  2nd set was stellar from start to finish (except for one point in Blind Willie where Mick seemed to get lost a bit).  The Purdie/Bascomb rhythm section almost stole the show, especially Purdie. There was guy next to me who said he came to the show just to see him(didn’t realize he did some overdubs on some Beatles stuff, at least according to this guy).    Set also was short at just about 1 hour, so I'm obviously glad I made it to see both sets…if they had done an encore, I prob would have missed my 12:14 train, and been stuck in the city until 4.  More that a few times in both sets, the band really jelled and you can seem them getting off...having a good time. 

First set seemed filled with media, suits (seemed like half the seating was reserved), much tamer crowd. Second set crowd was much more alive.  Before they came in, I heard the hostess say, "which table is Bobby Keys at?"  He eventually showed..I was standing at the bar, and he came around asking himself,  "where is back stage?" and I pointed him in the right direction, ha.  Unfortunately, no guest appearances on stage.  Another 2 songs in each set would have been nice, or at least an encore for second set (sound man was waiting for him, so not likely the club was kicking him out).

I wouldn’t say better than the old Palomino shows I used to catch in LA in the early 90s, but definitely tighter (better band), and Mick looked good.  His playing is still real strong…I cant imagine the stones not inviting him as a guest on the "eventual" 50th tour. 

 Inamorato wrote: 
I think that is what was so moving about tonight's performance. 90% secondary school kids, 10% adults. And were those kids into it!!  Fantastic.
I recorded it on my iPhone and the file is 3.2 GB but the quality is suprisingly good. Which site hosts 3.2 GB files? not going to work is it. Anyone?

 NoEnzLefttoSplit wrote: 

Your claim about me is correct, although it has something to do, I'm sure, with my violin-playing German immigrant grandfather and a German immigrant grandmother who sang with the Metropolitan Opera!

I think children's routine exposure to classical music is necessary for it to be widespread in a culture. On Last.fm, it is common to see teen and young adult listeners to classical music from countries such as Poland and Russia and in Scandinavia. It is uncommon to see young American listeners to classical music. Now that you mention it, Germany lags behind eastern Europe in young classical listeners.

 oldviolin wrote: 
was the other a counterfeit? unfortunately no, just the genuine gone awry. Hitler was a muse, an artist before anything else. He was also totally deranged. No excuses. One of the best insights I got into THAT TIME was reading a letter by the German poet Gottfried Benn when the Nazis came to power. When people like Thomas Mann were decrying the rape of German culture by someone they saw as a clown, Benn could only talk of the exhiliration of going somewhere new, throwing out convention and staid morals and exploring what he saw as a renaissance of pagan German culture. There were a lot like him at the time. It was collective insanity. They actively threw reason and morals out the window and got what they deserved, unfortunately at the cost of millions of innocent people and untold misery.

 Inamorato wrote: 
...  I have often thought about this. In spite of tonight's performance which is simply unthinkable back home, I firmly believe that geography is less of a gulf than time: what I mean is that someone in the States (or NZ) who taps into Bach is much closer to those old (German) traditions than some German kid who's only into football and getting trashed at the Volksfest. In fact I find the European classical music tradition more accessible in NZ than I do here in Germany. It's almost as though that geographical distance acts as a lens focussing your attention on the place and time of the music whereas here it is just kind of found in the cracks and you stumble upon it by chance like I did tonight.

PS in other words, I feel pretty comfortable in claiming you know more about German classical music than at least 95% of the modern German population AND you have more affinity with it.

 NoEnzLefttoSplit wrote: 
The other was the ultimate counterfeit, I think you would agree.
I always thought that classical music and arrangements were akin to the esscence of music itself. The Germans certainly have beheld the muse for a long time.

Kid has the wit of his Dad I believe. I'm glad he has a family that exposes him to the wonder still worth holding onto in this strange world
that he has to grow through. Hasn't it ever been so?

 NoEnzLefttoSplit wrote: 
I've noticed that there is a greater appreciation of classical music throughout Europe compared to the U.S. and that one can find excellent performances of challenging music in some pretty out of the way places, particularly in Germany. I think kids in Europe are simply exposed to classical music more than American kids are, especially with the drying-up of arts programs in schools. I'm glad you could hear such a special performance with additional Sturm und Drang supplied by Mother Nature herself.

 oldviolin wrote: 
well, we all know WHERE THAT WENT.. but I like this long tradition of European music that even kids today can tap into.

btw Finn came up with a goodie during the concert (his Mum is laid low with the flu and stayed home in bed):
"Mozart composed this when he was sick?"
"Yes Finn, he was very sick and knew he was about to die."
"Well, he can't have been that sick cos Mum can't do anything at the moment."

 NoEnzLefttoSplit wrote: 
der Volksgeist

 MrsHobieJoe wrote: 
most definitely. But sometimes, witnessing something like this, it's like they are tapping into centuries of tradition that I will only ever be incidentally party to. OK that's the kiwi in me coming out (what's wrong with no. 8 wire anyway?), but still, it's impressive.

 NoEnzLefttoSplit wrote: 



It's a national characteristic, can be a bit LEAVE IT NOW sometimes but the Germans do know how to deliver very high quality.

 NoEnzLefttoSplit wrote: 
I approve this message...

 MrsHobieJoe wrote: 
the passion for excellence still freaks me out sometimes. I don't know where they get it but gosh they're good at it.