Thighs Wide Shut

Joan Baez
Beacon Theatre
May 1

At the end of July, on a stage in Madrid, Spain, Joan Baez will play the final show of her fare(thee)well tour and call it a career.  No Joan, no!!!  She’s earned the right to do as she pleases (actually no one has to ‘earn the right’ to do anything they please, juss do as you please – as long as you don’t harm anyone!!), but we still need you Joan.  We need you to folk the sh#t out of stuff, cause we are still trying to overcome, but things keep coming, and they suck, and your still voice is the guiding light at the end of our ear tunnels!

JOAN!

WE MOAN FOR JOAN!!!

Have never been a big Dylan fan, but I knew I had to see him before he or I goes.  I did.  He was fine, but he didn’t play Dylan songs I wanted to hear.  And even if he did, they wouldn’t sound Dylanesque enuff for me.  Well Joan, an ex-lover and contemporary, played FOUR of his tunes AND a song she wrote about him (‘Diamonds and Rust’) and they sounded even better than the real thing!  And she played plenty of other peoples stuff!!  Including Lennon’s ‘Imagine’, making it the 4th time I’ve heard it played in concert – joining the takes I’ve heard by Christopher Cross, Petula Clark AND Stevie Wonder!

What I don’t want to imagine is that there’s no more Joan Baez!

but don’t worry kids, Joan Baez is just warming up

Setlist – Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right (Bob Dylan cover) / Honest Lullaby / Lily of the West / Whistle Down the Wind (Tom Waits cover) / Silver Blade (Josh Ritter cover) / It Ain’t Me, Babe (Bob Dylan cover) / Deportees (Woody Guthrie cover) / The Things That We Are Made Of (Mary Chapin Carpenter cover) / Diamonds & Rust / Catch the Wind (Donovan cover) / Birmingham Sunday / No More Auction Block / Another World (Antony and the Johnsons cover) / The President Sang Amazing Grace (Zoe Mulford cover) / The House of the Rising Sun / A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall (Bob Dylan cover) / Gracias a la vida (Violeta Parra cover) / Ain’t Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Around

Encore – Forever Young (Bob Dylan cover) / The Boxer (Simon & Garfunkel cover) / Imagine (John Lennon cover) / Dink’s Song (Fare Thee Well)

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bw8Wc_tB2A9/

John Mellencamp
Beacon Theatre
February 27

Didn’t realize seeing Mellencamp in concert was something I needed and was sorely missing from my life.  Thanks John! 

Btw, where do melons send their kids to camp?  Why John Cougar’s Mellencamp, duh!  aint THAT america!!

Setlist

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

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

Bob Dylan
Mavis Staples
Beacon Theatre
November 21

I never wanted to see Bob Dylan.  I respect Bob Dylan, but I’m not a giant fan, and everyone always said how awful he was in concert anywayz.  But when Tom Petty died, I was like, OK, let’s not mess around here – Bob aint gonna live forever (and probably has already lived longer than any of us have ever thought he would) – and I need to see him before he goes.  HAVE TO!

To my surprise, a Bob Dylan show is wholly and udderly musically enjoyable.  His band is incredible!  And Bob totally seems with it, switching between piano jangling, and straight-up crooning, with a microphone stand in hand.  And shockingly, he sounds like Bob Dylan!  The problem?  He’s not singing the Bob Dylan songs the way that the Bob Dylan songs sound, or at least on how they are suppose to sound.  Also, he didn’t play guitar, AT ALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WTF BOB????  Look, he’s earned the right to do whatever he wants to do with his music, and while I’m not a deep Dylan catalog guy, the songs I knew that he played, I could barely recognize.  Oh, that was ‘Tangled Up In Blue’?  FOOLED ME!!!

Still, it had to be done. And while the concert was nice, it almost felt more like a chore, which I can now add a giant check mark next to…  

see Dylan before he dies ✓

Real best part of the show?  Opener Mavis Staples.  Long security line made me miss 2 of her 7 songs played, but the 5 she beautifully belted made me wish that she was the headliner, and Dylan the opener

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

Dylan Setlist – Things Have Changed / It Ain’t Me, Babe / Highway 61 Revisited / Why Try to Change Me Now (Cy Coleman cover) / Summer Days / Melancholy Mood (Frank Sinatra cover) / Honest With Me / Tryin’ to Get to Heaven / Once Upon a Time (Tony Bennett cover) / Pay in Blood / Tangled Up in Blue / Soon After Midnight / Early Roman Kings / Full Moon and Empty Arms (Frank Sinatra cover) / Desolation Row / Thunder on the Mountain / Autumn Leaves(Yves Montand cover) / Love Sick’

Encore – Blowin’ in the Wind / Ballad of a Thin Man

https://www.instagram.com/p/BbvjM88D-Mf/

Brian Wilson
presents Pet Sounds – Celebrating the 50th Anniversary with Al Jardine and Blondie Chaplin
Beacon Theatre
September 24th

The Beach Boys are America’s Beatles, and while the line-up has changed, and separated, and divorced, and talked smack, and reunited, and broke apart again – the only thing that matters is the music – and man, there is so much of it, and it’s all great (minus ‘Kokomo’), however you hear it, and by whomever is playing it – and however it is, I’LL TAKE IT!

I saw the Beach Boys numerous times as a child in the 80s, when they played the Mall in DC 4th of July, after 4th of July, after 4th of July, then other times in the 90s, when Brian Wilson was on a mental sabbatical, and then again when he was back and solo in the 00s, and again in the 10s!  And I’ve seen the Mike Love Beach Boys in the 10s too, and then when the Mike Love Beach Boys reunited with guys who are ACTUALLY Beach Boys, and then again.  And I’ve loved it all!!!

And now Mike Love doesn’t love Brian and Al no more, and so Mike Love does his thing (which is important, but not as important to me), and Brian (and his amazing backing band) goes on and does his thing, and rightfully keeps Al with him, which is MOST important to me

Juss being in a room with Brian Wilson feels like an honor – in the same way as being with Paul McCartney, or Simon and Garfunkel. I say this same thing all the time, but we are so blessed to live in a time when all these people are alive, and we can still hear them do their thing – and that thing – is EVERYTHING!!!!!!!!!!!!

This tour tackled Pet Sounds and its 50 anniversary.  I’m more of a SMiLE guy, but who am I to complain.  Oh wait, THIS WHOLE WEBSLIGHT IS BUILT ON COMPLAINTS (and boobs!)! And so Brian and his awesome band, and Al Jardine rocked the sh!t out of it, and oh yeah, that Blondie Chaplin guy was there too!  Former Brian Wilson right-hand man Jeffrey Foskett recently re-joined the Mike Love Beach Boys, but the falsetto parts void was EASILY filled by Al’s awesome son Matt!!!!

Brian and Al and Mike Love won’t be with us forever, but the music truly will.  And so will their offspring, and you know what, I’d see them play their parents’ music, cause the music is all that matters (although if we can figure out a way to freeze Brian Wilson and keep him for future centuries, methinks that that would be the way to go!)

Set 1 – Our Prayer / Heroes and Villains / California Girls / Dance, Dance, Dance / I Get Around / Shut Down / Little Deuce Coupe / In My Room / Surfer Girl / Don’t Worry Baby / Salt Lake City / Wake the World / Add Some Music to Your Day / California Saga: California / Darlin’ / Sail Away / Wild Honey / Sail On, Sailor

Pet Sounds – Wouldn’t It Be Nice / You Still Believe in Me / That’s Not Me / Don’t Talk (Put Your Head on My Shoulder) / I’m Waiting for the Day / Let’s Go Away for Awhile / Sloop John B / God Only Knows / I Know There’s an Answer / Here Today / I Just Wasn’t Made for These Times / Pet Sounds / Caroline, No

Encore – Good Vibrations / Help Me, Rhonda / Barbara Ann / Surfin’ U.S.A. / Fun, Fun, Fun / Love and Mercy

https://www.instagram.com/p/BKw3M6XjFhn/