Friday, July 25, 2008

David Sanborn, Black Cash, Hoots & Hellmouth, Old 97s

Let's jump right into this weekend's offerings.

Jazz saxophonist David Sanborn plays tonight at Kanawha Plaza as part of the Fridays At Sunset series. Tickets are $25 and the show starts at 6:30. David Sanborn started as a session player in the late 60s and played with some of the biggest rock artists of the 70s including Clapton, Springsteen, Bowie, Stevie Wonder, Paul Simon, Little Feat, Elton, Billy Joel, Roger Waters, Steely Dan, The Eagles and more. In 88-89, he hosted a great show on late night NBC called Night Music that brought together great musicians from varied genres and they played alone and together. Click the link to see some of the people he had on the show. Hopefully they'll release it on DVD one day.

At 9:30 on Friday & Saturday at the Tobacco Company for FREE is Black Cash & The Bad Trips, the Johnny Cash cover band. They are always good.

At Toad's Place tonight, are Hoots & Hellmouth and three other bands. Show starts at 7:30 and tix are $12. Per the Toad's Place web site: "Hoots & Hellmouth are like a rocking revival meeting from hell, playing their unique, raucus blend of southern bluegrass and gospel-inspired rock. The Old Ceremony, of Chapel Hill, Richmond's own Prabir and The Substitutes and The Hotdamns round out the bill to create a full night of true musical talent."

At Toad's on Sunday night at 7:30, the Old 97's will perform with Sleepercar and The Cut Off. Tix are $20. Toad's web site has this to say, "Gaining acclaim in the mid-90's, the Old 97's, fronted by solo artist Rhett Miller, was the answer to the post-grunge fad that swept America. Touring in support of their new album "Blame It On Gravity", released May, 13, 2008, they will be touring through The House of Blues, Nashville's famous Mercury Lounge and of course, Toad's Place of Richmond on July 27th, 2008. Joining the Old 97's is Sleepercar, with At The Drive-In vocalist Jim Ward, and the Cut Off."

In this week's Tony's Spectrum Memories, I had a realization this week that The Cars were not my first Spectrum show. I was watching a recent Genesis concert on VH1 Classic. I was a pretty big Genesis/Phil Collins fan in 1983. I was turned on to them with Abacab and dug their '83 album, Genesis, with tracks such as "Mama" (still a pretty cool tune), "Home By The Sea/Second Home By The Sea", and "It's Gonna Get Better". By the time the Invisible Touch tour was over, I didn't like Genesis anymore and by the time they released "I Can't Dance" I despised them. I had moved into alternative/college and jam rock and they went pop, and after listening to their older albums, I felt that Genesis/Phil Collins had betrayed their roots. I did like the recent show I saw on VH1 Classic though as it touched on all of their periods and I've been reevaluating Genesis though still don't like that "I Can't Dance" crap.

Anyway, Genesis was doing a big three night run at the Spectrucm over Thanksgiving weekend in 1983 and my friend, Dave, and I figured we would got to try to scalp tix as the shows were sold-out. Genesis had always been huge in Philly since their early days thanks to WMMR. Dave and I scalped tickets for the exorbitant price of, get this, $40 for first level seats. That doesn't even get you a third of a ticket to see them these days, but back then it was probably $15 - 20 above the list. We bought them from an older guy who looked like Bob Hope (but a young Bob Hope) and I remember he got quite testy with us as we tried to pull our money together. The show was very good and I especially remember Mama with Phil lit from below in creepy orange lights still showing a flair for the drama that Genesis could do so well since the Gabriel days. And when you think about it he could look pretty child-molester-ish creepy witht he right lighting.

Next up: Yes on the 90125 tour.

Have a great weekend.

Tony Jordan

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