Had a great time at the Dukes of September concert on Sunday night. Dukes of September of course being Donald Fagan of Steely Dan, Michael McDonald & Boz Scaggs. This show was heavy on the covers including a nice version of the Grateful Dead's "Shakedown Street" and a mini-set of songs by The Band with each singer taking a song. And kudos to them for not choosing the obvious. I really don't need to hear "The Weight" again. Fagan did "King Harvest Has Surely Come", Boz did "Rag Mama Rag" and McDonald did "The Shape I'm In" with Boz faring the best, I think. The backup singers, Carolyn Escoffery and Catherine Russel, were also prominent all night including taking front stage for a couple songs. One did Aretha Franklin's "Rock Steady" and the other did Muddy Waters' "I Love The Life I Live", and this allowed the prime players to just sit back and groove. Other highlights included Boz doing Teddy Pendergrass' "Love TK" in which he really nailed the soulful vocals, Donald Fagan's "I.G.Y." from his "The Nightfly" album, and Michael McDonald doing Ray Charles' "I Got News For You".
I was reading some of the commetns on the Richmond Times-Dispatch review and some people seemed upset that they didn't play more or all of their original songs but that wasn't really what this was meant to be and I enjoyed seeing a great band, including guitarist Jon Herington who shone all night, and a crack horn section play some of their favorite songs. I do think that they should have loaded some of their originals toward the end of the show. Of the encores, ("Help Me Rhonda" by the Beach Boys, "Something In the Air" by Thunderclap Newman, and "Them Changes" by Buddy Miles) only "Something in the Air" really took off with Fagan, Boz & McDonald each taking a verse.
I was also reminded of what a lame venue Innsbrook can be when it is packed. We got there at 5:30 to get a good spot and by the time they opened the gates, the line was literally about 200 yards long. Innsbrook has no slope whatsoever making it hard to see if you are in the back. As predicted, this was a sit down crowd in fact virulently so, with one of the biggest cheers of the night in the area I was in coming when security told some dudes in the Gold Circle to sit down. We also had a couple who tried to stand in front of us. Look, I know you paid the same amount as we did but when 99% of the crowd has brought chairs, just move to the edge or to the area near the very front where people are standing. As someone said, "Just because you have the right to do something, doesn't make it right". They did move shortly before the show started after a member of my party informed the standing gentlemen that he had a brown stain on the back of his white shorts from a wet fart. And that was not a lie. He really did.
Just a suggestion here. How about taking the land that the Classic Amphitheater is on, tearing down the old shed and building a new shed or even just a stage like the one at Innsbrook? You can take out the seats too and have a set up like Charlottesville Pavilion with an open area in the front that you can leave open or add seats to depending on the show. But at least you'd have the natural slope to enable better sight lines. Or if we must keep Innsbrook, then they should buy some dirt over the fall/winter and add a little bit of slope at Innsbrook. I do appreciate that you keep the prices down (tix for the Dukes at Innsbrook were $30 for GA, $50 for gold circle. Tix for the Dukes at The Chicago Theater start at $58 and top seats are $153!) but I've gotta think twice next time about going to a show there with a large Gold Circle (or any Gold Circle for that matter) that I know will be heavily attended.
Now, if you would like to see some Yacht Rock in a more comfortable venue, check out some of the guys I met at the Dukes show from a band called 3 Sheets to The Wind. I started a conversation with them when I saw them dressed in their finest Yacht Rock attire including aviator shades and captain hats. The band will be at The Republic on Thursday night. The show starts at 10 and is FREE. They are promising "Nautical Costume Contest (free tshirt prize), New Songs, Hall & Oates 3-way, Premier of "3 Sheets TV", New Stage Antics, Same old smoothness!". Here's a little promo video from them:
Also this weekend, if you are hangin' out and having that final summer bar-b-q, tune into the Moedown XI fest on iclips.net. As usual, iClips has nothing on their site about the webcast yet but they did say it was coming on their Facebook page. The actual festival runs from 5 PM Friday - 1 AM, noon Saturday - 2 AM, and noon Sunday - midnight. So tune into iClips around 5 on Friday and see what's what. Bands at the festival (though all may not be shown on the webcast) include Tortoise (playing in Richmond next week), moe. (duh. Its their fest so they'll do 6 sets over the weekend.), Lotus, Built to Spill, Grace Potter & The Nocturnals, Mike Gordon (from Phish), and Black Keys among others.
One of the top band of the 80s will be in town on Sunday night. Tears For Fears will be at The National. Doors open at 7 and show starts at 8 with opener Wainwright. Tix are $42.50 in advance and $47.50 at the door. A great pop band and I don't think they toured much in their more popular days let alone now. They of course had the hits "Everybody Wants To Rule The World", "Shout", "Head Over Heels", "Woman In Chains" and my favorite TFF song, "Sowing the Seeds of Love":
Cee-Lo Green of Gnarls Barkley fame has done it again. Just like "Crazy", he has made an insanely catchy song that once you hear it, you will want to hear again and again and it will be playing in your head for days, maybe weeks. But don't sing it around your grandma or your kids. After all, the title is "F**k You". Never did those words sound so happy. And it has an awesome video too. Language obviously NSFW. But listen anyway and get your whole office to sing along. Here is the link. Embedding is not allowed: http://www.buzzfeed.com/mjs538/cee-los-official-fck-you-music-video.
Have a great weekend!
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