Thighs Wide Shut

Jack White
Kings Theatre
November 17

yep, that’s me, balcony center, rocking my Nats hat and Popeyes tee and rocking the fcuk out!!!

and yep, I was thoroughly thoroughly rocked.  It’s about time Jack!  You dropped a new hot album (‘Over and Over and Over‘ forever please, like the union!) and toured it, but only came to NY for a festival and I’m too old for that festival sh!t, and also I want a Jack show indoors!  EAT IT OUTDOORS!!  But you came back!  Indoors!  Wish I went to both of yer Kings Theatre shows, and wish I went to every show there ever (movie palace + music = MOVED ME PALACE!!), but this was still one night to truly remember (like the Titanic, cept if it never sank and triumphed at rocking so hard that it melted the faces of Nazis) 

Jack – you are our last hope.  Rock flows through you and out of you and into us.  No one your age and of our generation is doing what your are doing.  Keep doing it.  Steady as it goes, or unsteady.  Keep rocking the good rock

Bless your soul, and crazy hair, and crazy no-cellphone policy which wasn’t so awful after all (and kinda liberating!) 

Setlist – Over and Over and Over / Everything You’ve Ever Learned / Black Math / Corporation / Hotel Yorba / Love Interruption / Hello Operator / Why Walk a Dog? / High Ball Stepper / That Black Bat Licorice / What’s Done Is Done / We’re Going to Be Friends / Missing Pieces / The Hardest Button to Button / Carolina Drama

Encore – Lazaretto / Steady, as She Goes / Respect Commander / Connected by Love / Ball and Biscuit / Sixteen Saltines / Seven Nation Army

https://www.instagram.com/p/BqTvZ0vBh_X/

Petula Clark
Sony Hall
November 6

With the sweet sweet sweet sounds of Petula Clark, I would NEVER sleep in the subway, and you shouldn’t sleep on her and her continuing brilliance either!

Just a week til she turns 86(!!!!), the grand lady showed all the geriatrics and me at Sony Hall that she STILL has the golden pipes, swinging and swaying us thru her groovy and classy back catalog, including tackling a handful of choice covers by the likes of John and Paul, Steve Winwood, Andrew Lloyd Webber x 2 and Peggy Lee

Clark’s fantastic performance had an air of sophistication to it, like spending a refined evening with a chanteuse in a dimly lit basement club, exactly outlined in her 1965 hit…

Wherever Petula is – that is the place I want to know, and be at!  THANK YOU PETULA!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGXRqzQJFzQ

Setlist* – You and I > Meant To Be / Don’t Sleep in the Subway / Fever (Peggy Lee cover) / Who Am I > Colour My World / Look to the Rainbow / How Are Things In Glocca Morra? / While You See A Chance (Steve Winwood cover) / My Love / With One Look (Andrew Lloyd Webber cover) / Blackbird (The Beatles cover) / Imagine (John Lennon cover) / I Know a Place > Sign of the Times / From Now On / 60’s Medley (Round Every Corner>Call Me>Don’t Give Up>The Other Man’s Grass Is Always Greener) / This is My Song (Charlie Chaplin cover) / Don’t Cry for Me Argentina (Andrew Lloyd Webber cover) / Living For Today / I Couldn’t Live Without Your Love / Downtown / Rainbow

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bp3V5M3hmYa/

*to the best of my memory

Steely Dan
Beacon Theatre
October 30

Best In Peace Walter Becker. Forgive me that I never saw the Dan live while you were still in it, but Doctor Funkenstein - Donald Fagen & co totally kicked out all the jams, on ‘Greatest Hits’ nite, and it was just a pure joy  

Setlist – Hallelujah Time / Bodhisattva / Hey Nineteen / Black Friday / Aja / Green Earrings / Bad Sneakers / Kid Charlemagne / Maxine / Gaucho / Keep That Same Old Feeling (The Crusaders cover) / Peg / Rikki Don’t Lose That Number / Josie / My Old School / Reelin’ In the Years

Encore – Pretzel Logic / A Man Ain’t Supposed to Cry (Joe Williams cover)

https://www.instagram.com/p/BplRbFCHe8s

Art Ford + Singer Vikki Carol by Weegee

Elton John
Madison Square Garden
October 18

Elton’s saying that this is his final tour (one that has dates that stretch into 2020)!!!!  BUT YOU CAN’T STOP NOW ELTON!!! (although you’re allowed to do whatever the fcuk you want!)

What a perfect show.  Just as amazing as when I first saw him in 2013, but with even more feeling – and pizzazz – and an incredible piano shaped stage!   You made Thursday night alright for fighting ROCKING!!!  

But no ‘Pinball Wizard‘?  Or ‘Lady D’Arbanville‘????  I know, I know – this is all hits – not all hits by other dudes that you may actually do better than their originals!!

But you’re still standing, even though you do a lot of sitting.  Long may you stand AND sit!!!

Thank you Elton

Setlist – Bennie and the Jets / All the Girls Love Alice / I Guess That’s Why They Call It the Blues / Border Song / Tiny Dancer / Philadelphia Freedom / Indian Sunset / Rocket Man (I Think It’s Going to Be a Long, Long Time) / Take Me to the Pilot / Someone Saved My Life Tonight / Levon / Candle in the Wind / Funeral for a Friend-Love Lies Bleeding / Burn Down the Mission / Believe / Daniel / Sad Songs (Say So Much) / Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me / The Bitch Is Back / I’m Still Standing / Crocodile Rock / Saturday Night’s Alright for Fighting

Encore – Your Song / Goodbye Yellow Brick Road

https://www.instagram.com/p/BpGaPJxAk33/