Supporting music in Richmond since 2000 - "Oh, I used to be disgusted / And now I try to be amused / But since their wings have got rusted / You know, the angels wanna wear my red shoes / But when they told me 'bout their side of the bargain / That's when I knew that I could not refuse / And I won't get any older, now that angels wanna wear my red shoes" - Elvis Costello, “(The Angels Wanna Wear My) Red Shoes”
This probably won't be a long one as I must sleep because I am chaperoning at Cub Scout Day Camp tomorrow, then going from there to coaching at t-ball practice so I'll be outside for about 12 hours tomorrow in the 90 degree heat rounding up six-year-olds. Hopefully, I can hold up.
It will probably also be a shorter blog because we have hit the end of the spring concert season in Richmond. Now the tents will get put away and everyone (bands included) stays indoors until September.
Thursday night at Maymont, Groovin' in the Garden brings jam band Umphrey's McGee to Richmond. Tix are $20 in advance, $25 at the gate. Doors open at 5:30, music starts around 6. The Groovin' site says there is an opening guest TBA. The Umphrey's site makes no mention of an opener. UMG is a jam band and usually plays two sets so you may want to get there early just in case its just them. Here they playing "Much Obliged - Bridgeless" at their annual end-of-year run in Chicago in Dec. 2010:
There is an official Umphrey's afterparty at City Dogs with Tiny Boxes. This is a free show. It'll start at 10:30 and feature two sets by Tiny Boxes. Umphrey's keyboardist Joel Cummins plays with Tiny Boxes and here is how their web site describes the band:
"Tiny Boxes is an uncompromising rock group aiming for a sound somewhere between The Band of Gypsys and Jeff Beck. The band was founded by Bon Lozaga whose enduring commitment to fusion and prog-rock has won him a loyal global following. Soaring melodies, epic solos, and funk-infused rhythms have been central to his approach since his days in Gong during the band’s classic late- ’70s Expresso II period—playing alongside Allan Holdsworth—through to Gongzilla and now with Tiny Boxes.
Tiny Boxes has recently ventured into jamband and songwriting territory, with the help from members of moe. and Umphrey’s McGee. Members of both bands frequently guest at TB"s live shows. Lozaga’s forthcoming solo album titled "Tiny Boxes", released under the name Bon, continues those jamband relationships, with the inclusion of Umphrey’s McGee keyboardist Joel Cummins and Kofi Burbridge from the Derek Trucks Band.
Tiny Boxes is rounded out by a group of seasoned musicians; Leo Kishore (Barefoot Manner, Funkuponya) on Bass, Kyle Poehling (Rebus, Modern Robot) on Drums, and multi-instrumentalist Matt Williams (The Ocean, Asheville Jazz All-Stars) on Violin, Guitar, and Mandolin."
Here's Tiny Boxes performing their song "Haniface" live in Raleigh on June 10, 2011:
On Friday night for the last Friday Cheers of the year, its the soul powerhouse Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings. Tix are $10 for this one. Show starts at 6:30 with opener New Belgians. Here is Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings when they were on Austin City Limits in 2008.
Guitar great Robin Trower will be at The National on Friday night. Tix are $26.50 and doors open at 7:00 and showtime is 7:30. Things get underway with opener 3Borne. Robin Trower still playing and playing well as he was recently nominated for the 2011 British Blues Awards for Best Guitarist. Here's one of my favorite Robin Trower tunes (thanks to my K-Tel "The Rock Album"), this is "Too Rolling Stoned" as Robin performed it in 2008:
If you're up for some travel to Norfolk, they have a nice lineup for their annual Bayou Boogaloo Festival. The fest takes place Friday: Noon - 10pm, Saturday: Noon - 10 pm, Sunday: Noon - 6pm at Town Point Park, in Downtown Norfolk. Click HERE for a lineup that includes Cowboy Mouth, Rusted Root, Anders Osborne and the Funky Meters. Tix are only $10 a day or $20 for the whole weekend.
That's it for this week because I've got a long day tomorrow. Have a great weekend!
October starts with a busy weekend here in Richmond. We kick things off tomorrow night with U2 at Scott Stadium at the University of VA in Charlottesville. Doors open at 5, show starts at 7 with opener, Muse. Tickets range from $30 - $250. As of 9:40 PM on Wednesday, there were seats available (and pretty good ones) at the $250, $95, and $55 levels. The only ones sold out were the $30 seats. (Sidenote: In looking up the Scott Stadium site I discovered that it has the completely ridiculous full name of "the Carl Smith Center, home of David A. Harrison III Field at Scott Stadium".) If you're going to the Carl Smith Center, home of David A. Harrison III Field at Scott Stadium to see U2 (I really hope Bono works the whole name in. "Hello, Carl Smith Center, home of David A. Harrison III Field at Scott Stadium in Charlottesville, Virginia! Are you ready to rock!?!"), they aren't allowing you tor bring anything into the stadium not even a bottle of water. All the better to get you to buy those tiny $4 bottles they'll be selling. And the bastards don't even serve beer!
If you have never seen U2, you really must. They are a legendary band at this point, one of the biggest bands in rock history and one of the few bands left that can do a huge stadium show and do it well. And the stage for this one is the largest stage OF ALL TIME. The previous largest stage, the Stones' Bigger Bang tour stage, could fit UNDERNEATH this one. It should be a site to behold.
I will be there on the field with the rockers who don't mind standing and going nuts for hours on end. I have seen U2 on each tour since the Joshua Tour, except for the last tour, so the layoff has me rather excited to see them. I have been avoiding pictures and setlists so as to keep the show as much of a surprise as possible. So I have come up with my dream setlist. My rules: At least one song from each album, 25 songs and in order of where they should be in the show. Feel free to contribute your own setlist in the Comments field. Here we go: No Line on The Horizon - from album No Line on The Horizon (They usually start with a song from the latest album and I think this one will make a good opener.) Vertigo - How To Dismantle an Atomic Bomb (Hello! Hello!) I Will Follow - Boy Where The Streets Have No Name - Joshua Tree (No pauses between the first four songs. Come out banging!) Sort of Homecoming - Unforgettable Fire (A breather. Great bass line from Clayton.) Surrender - War (Been listening to War a lot lately and this one just seems to stand out. No New Year's Day or Sunday Bloody Sunday. Overplayed.) Pride In The Name of Love - Unforgettable Fire Even Better Than The Real Thing - Achtung Baby Gloria - October Bad - Unforgettable Fire Exit - Joshua Tree (A great song that just builds and builds until it explodes. Was phenomenal in the Joshua Tree show. Watch Rattle & Hum if you forgot.) Until The End of The World - Achtung Baby (Some of Bono's best lyrics. He takes the point of view of Pontius Pilate speaking to Jesus.) Elevation - All That You Can't Leave Behind Angel Of Harlem - Rattle & Hum (Perhaps their funnest song. Great horn lines that would have to be pre-recorded or played on keys.) Stay (Faraway So Close) - Zooropa (When I worked overnights at the radio station, I used to crank this one way up. Perfectly captures that half-awake/half-asleep dream world of 2 AM.) Love Is Blindness - Achtung Baby (Some of the Edge's best work at the end of this one. Really jammed it out at the end of the Zooropa show.) Red Hill Mining Town - Joshua Tree (Just something different to play off of this album.) The Saints Are Coming - single (w/Green Day) (This would be killer live.) Do You Feel Loved - Pop (A great song with another great Clayton bass line. Listen to it again. You'll thank me. Really nice production on this one too.) Moment of Surrender - No Line on The Horizon (This one is standing out early for me as I learn the new album. Will probably have a new fav from the album after seeing some of the songs in concert.) Bullet The Blue Sky - Joshua Tree (The Edge as Hendrix, all squawling semi-controlled feedback. Off the charts.) Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me - single (A great song from a lame movie. The movie also gave us "Kiss From A Rose" by Seal. Listen to that one on the headphones. Beautifully sung by Seal and produced by Trevor Horn.) Please - Pop (I think this one of their best songs ever. No shit. This album also had one of their worst songs ever ("Miami").) Beautiful Day - All That You Can't Leave Behind (A great, feel-good song. And they gotta get the lights all rainbowy at the proper moment.) Ultraviolet (Light My Way) - Achtung Baby (A great closer. They must bust out the mirror ball for this one.)
Its getting late now since I took 15 minutes out to watch the Phils win the NL East for the third year in a row (GO PHILLIES!). That list took longer than I thought it would too. Had to get just the right order and seperation between the slow songs. But since it took so long, I'm going to quickly run down the weekend's events in Richmond.
Thursday night, if you can't go to U2, to the National and check out jam band Disco Biscuits. Doors open at 7, show starts at 8 with opener Big Gigantic and tix are $25. As their name would imply, Disco Biscuits tend toward the dancey, electronica side of the jam band universe. Here they are at the Fuji Rock Fesitval in Japan this year:
The Austin City Limits Music Festival will be broadcast for FREE on iclips.net starting on Friday at 12:30 PM, then Saturday & Sunday at 11:45 AM. They are still working out some of schedule but highlights include Avett Brothers, Coheed & Cambria, John Legend, Medeski, Martin & Wood, STS9, The Dead Weather and you're sure to find a new favorite band in there too.
Jamie McLean & DJ Williams Projekt are at the Capital Ale House on Friday night. Show starts at 10 and its $6 to get in. Jamie is the guitarist for the Dirty Dozen Brass Band and if you like classic rock, blues and such you'll dig him. Here he is performing in July:
Steve Kimock and his new band Crazy Engine will be at the Canal Club on Saturday night. Doors open at 8 and the opener is the Jesse Chong Band. Tix are $20. Some jam band aficionados worship the ground Kimock walks on. I've found him to be good at jammy and jazzy stuff but he doesn't really rock much or get a dancable groove going at least in past bands I've heard him with. I tend to find his solo stuff a might sleepy. Maybe that's changed with Crazy Engine. Keyboard great Melvin Seals is in the band so that should definitely add some soul. Here they are at the All Good Festival this year. Look for Phil and Angie in the audience. GET WELL SOON YOU TWO! I can't lose my concert buddies for any reason.:
Bruce Hornsby and The Noisemakers will be at The National on Saturday night. Wonder if you may see Kimock stop by with Hornsby or vice versa as they were bandmates in the Grateful Dead offshoot, The Other Ones. Doors open at 7, show starts at 8. No opener, Bruce and the band will do 2 full sets. Tix are $35. Here they are doing a song from their latest album "Space Is The Place":
Sunday, the Richmond Roots Music Sessions "tour" stops at Legend Brewery. This series is leading up to the Folk Festival next weekend. At Legend will be Eden and John’s East River String Band (old timey blues duo from NYC) - with - Slack Family (bluegrass). Tix are $10 at the door and the show starts at 5 PM.
Also Sunday, Béla Fleck, Zakir Hussain, and Edgar Meyer will be at Modlin Center for the Arts. However that one is sold out so you if you don't have tix you're out of luck.
Monday, Richmond Roots Music Sessions will be at Gibson's Grill with Fight the Big Bull (multi-musical jazz blowout) - with - Miramar (brazilian love duets) & DJ Rattan. Tix are $10 at the door and the show starts at 8 PM.
On Tuesday, Richmond Roots Music Sessions is at Plaza Bowl with Jesse Lege (cajun dance band) - with - Gypsy Roots (django Jazz and gypsy music) & Horo (bulgarian dance troop). Tix are $10 at the door and the show starts at 7:30 PM.
Finally, also on Tuesday, guitar great Robin Trower will be at The National. Doors open at 7, show starts at 8 with opener 3borne and tix are $20 in advance, $23 day of show. Here's one of my favorite Robin Trower songs (had it on a K-Tel album!), Too Rolling Stoned:
Have a great weekend and I'll see you at U2! Bono, feel free to use my setlist.
