Thighs Wide Shut

Phish
The Baker’s Dozen – Night 1
Madison Square Garden
July 21st

David Bowie is no longer with us, and yet I was super lucky to even see him 1.2 times in concert.  Junior Senior are no longer together, but caught them twice and super loved it.  I missed out on those Page/Plant shows of the 90s, but I did get to hear Robert Plant some Led Zep tunes in my ear once!  The incredible Harry Nilsson barely toured when he was living, but I only grew into his genius 17 years after his passing

As for Phish, I’ve now seen them 3 times – which means I’ve seen them more than I got to see David Bowie and Robert Plant play live combined!!!  In my mind that is plain wrong, but life doesn’t work on plain wrongs – it works on plain truths.  I’ve said before that I care not for Phish and their original music, BUT they are certainly a ball of fun to see live, and are perhaps the greatest cover band of all time!  And in fact, they covered ALL the artists I mentioned above and I loved all them covers!

Donuts are handed out every night of Phish’s ‘Baker’s Dozen’ residency at MSG, and the night’s chosen flavor sets the tone for the show.  Night one’s flavor was coconut, and while Nilsson’s ‘Coconut’ was an obvious cover choice, much to the crowd’s surprise, and to mine – they opened with a cover of Junior Senior’s ‘Shake Your Coconuts’.  The Phish phollowing probably knew zero about Jr Sr, which is fitting cause I know next to nothing about Phish, and am well versed in the Denmark’s duo oeuvre, but after 3 minutes of tearing through the rip-roaring track, band, audience and me were all on the same page from the get-go

Just keep on dancing now
Just keep on getting down
Just keep on having fun
The party’s just began

it was all such awesome plain truth!

so much so, that I won’t even bother to make up a faux setlist like I did for the previous two shows I done saw!  if only Phish did a whole Junior Senior show.  that would be something… and maybe even count as my 3rd Junior Senior show, and not a 4th Phish show  

here’s another plain truth – I will probably see Phish a 4th time.  COVER ME GOODD!!

Set One – Shake Your Coconuts (Junior Senior cover) / Martian Monster / Timber (Josh White cover) / 555 / Pigtail (Trey Anastasio song) / Halfway to the Moon / Reba / Moonage Daydream (David Bowie cover) / Walls of the Cave

Set Two - Tweezer / Seven Below /  Billy Breathes /  Sparkle / Everything’s Right (Trey Anastasio Band cover) /  Slave to the Traffic Light / Suzy Greenberg /  Coconut (Harry Nilsson cover)

Encore - The Mango Song / Good Times Bad Times (Led Zeppelin cover)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3TwEQkx-8aU

Neil Diamond
Madison Square Garden
June 17th

I don’t even need to explain or expound on how great Neil Diamond is and why you should see him play live (I have twice already).  OK, I will – He’s Neil Diamond.  You love ‘Sweet Caroline’.  He plays it live – it will probably blow your mind.  It always does mine (see video at the bottom).  He used to do a 15+ minute version of it live – mainly letting the audience do all the work (besides him egging us on by saying ‘ONE MORE TIME!!’, like 18 times).  Well, Neil’s getting up there in years – this tour celebrates his 50 years in the bidness!!!  And at this show, his walk and rocking seemed a bit slowed down, but nothing else about him or his voice seemed to be losing touch.  Done too soon?  Hardly, and I’ll continue to see him play, even if eventually pars down his ‘Sweet Caroline’ to a minute, cause it remains beyond SO GOOD, SO GOOD, SO GOOD!!

Setlist – Play Me / Song Sung Blue / Beautiful Noise / Jungletime / Dry Your Eyes / If You Know What I Mean / Glory Road / Forever in Blue Jeans / You Don’t Bring Me Flowers / Red Red Wine / I’m a Believer / Brooklyn Roads / Pretty Amazing Grace / Be / Lonely Looking Sky / Skybird / Jazz Time / Crunchy Granola Suite / Done Too Soon / Holly Holy / I Am … I Said

Encore – Sweet Caroline / Cracklin’ Rosie / America

https://www.instagram.com/p/BVd4QIDDFso/

Red Hot Chili Peppers
Madison Square Garden
February 15th

Does anybody want some Magic Johnson?  I do!  I do!

I want it, and anything from Mother’s Milk! And ALL of Blood Sugar Sex Magik!!

Is that so much to ask for, for my very first Red Hot Chili Peppers concert ever????

I mean, when I finally got around to seeing Pearl Jam last year, they pretty much played a setlist that pretty much perfectly suited what I pretty much REALLY needed and wanted to hear them play. I mean, I kinda left off with Pearl Jam back in the 90s, and didn’t know of anything they did since, but I’ve kept better tabs with the Red Hots over the years, as some of their songs were not only popular, and not only catchy, but downright good!!

And so I cannot complain hearing them rock ‘Dani California’ or ‘By The Way’, but they only dropped 3 songs from Blood Sugar Sex Magik???  And 5 songs from the new album?  OK, I didn’t do my homework, like I normally would, mainly cause I didn’t have time to, cause I got a last minute ticket, but c’mon man!  Old stuff!  Not new stuff!  I know new stuff was gonna happen, but it can’t make up a 1/3rd of your barely 100 minuted show.  Pearl Jam played for double the amount of time and played double the amount of songs, and so when PJ played stuff I didn’t know, it was fine, cause they played like 381283812 things I DID know!

Damn you Red Hots!  You sounded great (when I was hearing what I wanted to hear), but I think you owe it to yer old fans to play the old stuff

But it’s not their fault.  It’s all mine.  Why didn’t I see them on their Blood Sugar Sex Magik tour when it came to my area???  OK, I was 14, and about a year away from going to concerts all the time, but still!!!  How come I didn’t beg/force one of my parents to take me?  Or how come I didn’t decide to visit my 5-years older brother at Tulane a year before that, and see Pearl Jam AND the Smashing Pumpkins open for the Red Hots like he did!!??!?!?!??!  OMGGGgGgGgGgGG!!!  Lucky fcuking bastard.  More like, my lovely man

Setlist – Intro Jam / Can’t Stop / Dani California / The Zephyr Song / Dark Necessities / The Adventures of Rain Dance Maggie / Right on Time / Go Robot / Californication / Sick Love / Search and Destroy (Iggy and The Stooges cover) / The Getaway / Suck My Kiss / Under the Bridge / By the Way

Encore – Goodbye Angels / Give It Away

https://www.instagram.com/p/BQjztwcjB8k/

Ellie Goulding
Madison Square Garden
June 22nd, 2016

A few days back, I noticed that Ellie Goulding was playing a(n un-sold out) show at MSG, and then realized how many of her songs I knew, and BAMMMM – a few days later - the wife and I + a hella lot of teenage girls and gay men were sweating to her oldies (cause I don’t really know the new Delirium stuff)!!

LIGHTS!!!!!

https://www.instagram.com/p/BG8Hhukm3zn/

Setlist – Intro (Delirium) / Aftertaste / Holding on for Life / Goodness Gracious / Something in the Way You Move / Outside / Devotion / I Do What I Love / Keep on Dancin’/ Don’t Need Nobody / Heal / Explosions / Lights (acoustic) / Army / Lost and Found / Figure 8 / On My Mind / Codes / Don’t Panic / We Can’t Move to This / I Need Your Love / Burn

Encore - Anything Could Happen / Love Me Like You Do

I NEED HER GLOVES!!!

https://www.instagram.com/p/BG8THqkm38X/

Pearl Jam
Madison Square Garden
May 2nd

https://www.instagram.com/p/BE7i-7_G315/

It’s never too late to right wrongs.  Never have regrets in life, and if you do, fix them, if they are fixable.

Pearl Jam’s Ten owned the ears of high schoolers everywhere from 1991 onwards.  When grunge was grunge, these guys were like the fringe of grunge – rocking rock that had an edge (but not droning like Soundgarden and Alice In Chains’ music did), and this rock was rock built for the ages.  I LIVED for Ten.  We all did.  It’s not only the perfect debut album, but a perfect album – up their in my mind with the likes of Paul Simon’s Graceland, Pink Floyd’s The Wall, Beasties Boys’ Paul’s Boutique, most albums by The Beatles, and so on and so forth and so onforth

At the height of their and my hysteria, I somehow neglected to see them in concert, which is odd, considering how I saw a LOT of shows as a teen, including the original Smashing Pumpkins line-up, Nine Inch Nails, Fugazi, Alice In Chains, the Beasties Boys 128238823 times, Ice-T, Public Enemy, Urge Overkill, The Soup Dragons, etc.  (My lucky brother saw Pearl Jam open for the Red Hot Chili Peppers AND Smashing Pumpkins in New Orleans, in 1991.  Red Hots are another band I meant to see, and still never have)

Time passed, and then Pearl Jam released their 2nd album – Vs – and while a lovely effort, it was no perfect Ten.  More like a 6?  Probably a 7.  But time has been good to it.  It’s probably an 8 now.  But back then?  A 6.  I was so pissed it wasn’t Ten-2 that by the time their 3rd album dropped – Vitalogy (still a terrible name) – I was done – and for me – Pearl Jam was over.  And while I was done with Pearl Jam, Pearl Jam wasn’t done at all – they were just getting going – releasing 7 albums in my absence, and keeping on keeping on rocking in the free world

Eons passed, beards grew, and then I saw that they were coming to MSG this year, and was like, you know what – I’ve never heard ‘Even Flow’, ‘Jeremy’ or ‘Alive’ (my holy Pearl Jam trinity) played live – not a once, and how could I let this wrong continue to be wrong?  Boom – done – wrong to be righted.  And spank the lord I did, for in 3 hours time, my face melted (like the Nazi in Raiders) with endless and effortless and awesomebest rock n roll, and I couldn’t have asked for a better first Pearl Jam show (OK, I was a little/lot pissed when they played Ten in its entirety two shows before the one I would attend)  

Look at that setlist below!!!  They played THREE songs with ‘man’ in the title, IN A ROW!!  They played BOTH songs from the Singles soundtrack, BACK 2 BACK!!!  They did a cover of Cheap Trick’s ‘Surrender’, WITH 2 DUDES FROM CHEAP TRICK!!  They did a Police cover WITH STING – AND IT DIDN’T PUT ME TO SLEEP (cause Sting is boring).  And after studying setlist after setlist from their 2016 tour, I nailed it when I said they’d do a cover of the Who’s ‘Baba O’Riley’ (which I’ve always wanted to hear them play ever since they played it on MTV in 1992).  The two dudes who came with me to the show (one being Shreddy FCUKING Mercury!!!) each had one request each, and Pearl Jam played both (‘State of Love and Trust’ AND ‘Yellow Ledbetter’).  And they played my holy trinity of ‘Even Flow’, ‘Jeremy’ and ‘Alive’.  Think I enjoyed that?????  See video above!!!!!!!!!

Moral of the story – Pearl Jam never stopped rocking / I was an idiot for years / you CAN go back again / the mid 90s will never die / I will see Pearl Jam ANYTIME they come back to NY / Sting is still boring, but less so when Pearl Jam is his backing band

–

Setlist – Corduroy / Mind Your Manners / Once / Animal / Given to Fly / Surrender (Cheap Trick coverwith Rick Nielsen & Tom Petersson) [watch] / Elderly Woman Behind the Counter in a Small Town / Nothingman / Leatherman / Better Man / Garden / Even Flow / Sirens / Deep / Jeremy / Leash / Do the Evolution

Encore - You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away (Beatles cover) / All or None / Pendulum / Present Tense / Breath / State of Love and Trust / Porch

Encore 2 - Last Kiss (Wayne Cochran cover) / Driven to Tears (Police cover with Sting) [watch] / Lightning Bolt / Sonic Reducer (Dead Boys cover) / Alive / Baba O’Riley (Who cover) / Yellow Ledbetter / The Star-Spangled Banner (John Stafford Smith cover)