I have, but a lot of it has to do with my kids. Specifically, the older boy. He keeps asking me — before I’ve even had a single sip o’ coffee early in the morning — if I’d like to go see someone with him. Here’s what we have booked so far:
Bill Burr in Bethlehem, PA. We’ve had these tickets for a long time. I’m going with the older boy, and am looking forward to it. I’ve been to some standup shows* during my life, but it’s been a while. Many years, in fact. This one will be fun, I have no doubt. I think the boy ambushed me, like described above, and tickets were purchased before I was halfway through my first cup of Eight O’Clock Bean Coffee. It’s a very vulnerable part of my day, and I think he knows this.
Rolling Stones in Pittsburgh. I’ve never seen the Stones. I had opportunities when I lived in Atlanta 25 years ago, but thought they were past their prime, even back then. Ha! Mick just turned 78, roughly the same age as my parents. The older boy had to work on me for this one. I said no, right out of the box. ‘Cause the tickets are very expensive, and Pittsburgh is far from here. It would require an overnight hotel stay, and maybe two days of PTO burned. But he reminded me I said the same thing about the ticket prices for Tom Petty in Philly, and Tom was dead six months later. “Aren’t you glad we went?” he asked. So… fast forward to 30 minutes later and we’re ordering breathtakingly expensive concert tickets. Now I find out Charlie Watts won’t even be there. Oh well. It might be fun. We’ll see. This one makes me a little nervous. It’s going to cost us a thousand bucks, I think, when you add it all up. And that’s straight-up insane. I saw Queen for $11.
Louis CK in Reading, PA. These tickets were purchased a couple of days ago, following the latest early-morning ambush. I’ve never seen the “disgraced comic,” but think he’s some kind of genius. Brilliant, for sure. Yeah, he’s a flawed sumbitch. But this one didn’t take too much convincing. I was all-in from the jump, as they say. This will be the third time the older boy has seen Louis, and I’m touched that he wants to go with me this time.
Eels in Philadelphia. This one isn’t until next spring, but tickets are already on sale and purchased. I’m going with both boys, and Steve. I’ve seen the Eels more than any band, by far. It’s gotta be ten times or more at this point. Heck, I saw them at the Roxy in Los Angeles, when we lived out there. And many times in Philadelphia. I’ve seen them multiple times at the Theater of the Living Arts, multiple times at World Cafe Live, the Keswick once, Union Transfer once, a Unitarian church once (bizarre!), and maybe others that I’ve forgotten. We never miss an Eels show. Never!
And those are the shows we have on the docket so far. Who knows what tomorrow might bring? Do you have anything booked? Please tell us about it, won’t you?
*Here are the standup shows I’ve seen during my ridiculous life:
Steve Martin at the Huntington Civic Center, at the height of his white-suit, arrow-through-the-head “wild and crazy guy” fame. Fantastic!
Jay Leno at a deli in Charleston, WV, way before The Tonight Show. That’s right, a deli in Charleston, WV. He was hilarious.
Sam Kinison at the Greensboro Coliseum. The tickets were free, through Peaches somehow. I went with a guy named Eddie, from the store. It was madness.
Jeff Foxworthy, closing out a WEA convention. I was disappointed that he was doing the closing night, because it had previously been people like Prince, Iggy Pop, and Rod Stewart. But the man is a pro and had that place rocking with laughter.
Robert Schimmel in a hotel bar, somewhere in California. Possibly Anaheim? This was also at a WEA convention, but wasn’t on the main stage. It was an after-hours thing, open to convention folks after the regular festivities were completed. I’m not kidding… I laughed so hard and so often I was sore the next day, like I’d done a thousand sit-ups or something. That guy was filthy and incredibly funny. RIP Robert. And RIP Sam too.
I can’t remember any others, although it’s possible I’ve forgotten one or two. Have you seen any big-time comics? Please tell us about that, as well.
And I’m calling it a day, my friends. Have yourselves a fine, fine weekend.
See you again soon!
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I haven’t bought any tickets to anything. Everything seems way too high right now ($300 per ticket for the Eagles???) and quite frankly, I’m not ready for any crowds yet, I still wear a mask. I can’t help it.
Jeff, I think I spent $150 per Stones ticket 2 years ago. I’m interested to see if they spiked in price, too. And you will enjoy it. Fun vibe to the entire show. It’s a shame about Charlie Watts not being there, but Steve Jordan is fantastic.
Stand up – let’s see:
George Carlin (at least 8 times)
Rodney Dangerfield
Don Rickles
Kevin Nealon
Lewis Black
Bill Mahr
maybe others – can’t remember
I’d LOVE to see Sebastian Maniscalco but he’s playing huge places (Barclay’s Center in Brooklyn? No thanks). Like Carlin, he’s a comedian you need to see facial expressions. I’ll catch him when he returns to smaller venues.
Looks like you have some fun evenings coming up, Jeff. Enjoy.
I saw Jerry Seinfeld at the local comedy club here in Raleigh, Charlie Goodnights, about 3 months before the first season of Seinfeld went on the air as a summer replacement series. Someone in the audience asked when he’d be back and after joking that he was “here now and if I came back it would be just like this” he said he’d be back in the fall during the same stand-up grind after his series failed. We never saw him come this way again until he sold out the auditorium downtown a decade or so later.
At the same club I also have seen Rich Jeni who did something like a 3-hour set until I think the management asked him to wind it down so they could clean up and go home. And then we saw Mitch Hedberg there as well.
We are seeing Roy Wood Jr in a couple of weeks but the one I am looking forward to the most is the Cruel World Fest next spring, https://cruelworldfest.com/
It’s going to be a ridiculously expensive trip and I’ll probably bitch about the heat and crowds the entire time but right now it sounds like heaven.
I saw the Stones about 30 years ago. I went under duress because I thought they were past it old farts, and they were excellent, really good. I’d take some convincing that there aren’t session musicians in the wings propping them up when they play today, they are just so old, and Keith Richards seems so addled now.
I’ve been to Ron Wood’s house that he doesn’t own any more (his wife got it in the divorce). Nice place a few houses away from (one of) Rod Stewart’s gaffs, and I’ve pee’d next to Ron Wood in club in London but never actually spoken to him.
Ticket prices are insane today. I would have seen essentially no bands when I was younger if tickets were priced like that back then.
Limey, it’s a pretty open secret that the Stones, particularly Keith, have top-notch sidemen back stage. RS and other music publications have reported this. What they can’t know (or at least seem not to know) is whether the default to the house mixing board is Keith (with unknown but well-paid sideman filling in on the tricky parts) or the sideman (with Keith strumming a few strum parts).
Keith seems addled occasionally — other times he seems pretty rational. That sounds like a periodic toke on the kind of dope the Stones probably have access to. Anybody who writes Satisfaction in his sleep will be capable of brilliance as long as his heart beats, but those moments of brilliance probably get more rare as time marches on.
None of this is to say that I wouldn’t go see the Stones now if I could do so without standing in the longest line in the world and not be jostled by people who pay more for their haircut than I did for my car.
John
Limey and John,
When I saw the stones in 2019, you could just tell Keith wasn’t playing the way he used
to. Just Google “Keith’s hands” and you can see how gnarled and twisted they are from arthritis. Ron Wood did most of the work.
That being said, you also could not miss the joy and happiness on all of their faces. it was 2 evenings of brilliance, fun and comrade with the band and the audience. I’ve seen them repeatedly since 1981. This was one of the most joyous tours I’ve been part of.
Cheers,
Madz
John, I didn’t know that was common knowledge about the Stones having additional musicians propping them up. It just seemed probable to me. Charlie Watts is 80 – I can’t believe they’re still doing this (although as Jeff notes he won’t be this time around). I remember seeing a interview with Keith and his attitude was “well what else am I going to do?” and I can kind of see his point.
I want to be clear about what the underground music sites and mags have said about the Stones’ using backstage (and some onstage) talent and electronic gimmicks. I’ve never read that the Stones use Cher-type tracking — that’s probably really Mick’s voice, and the primary and backup instrumentation are probably live. For example, for You Can’t Always Get What You Want, there’s a French horn and a choir onstage, playing live. At the end of the song, I’m pretty sure I can hear two pianos and an organ. There’s a piano and a small organ onstage, so I assume that the second piano, which is only needed for a couple of bars on the way out, is backstage rather than prerecorded. That would be easier, and Mick usually has the crowd singing along at the end, so tracking doesn’t seem practical.
I’ve never heard or read that Charlie doesn’t do his own drumming. He’s never been a fancy-lad or a pounder on the drums anyway: he’s a jazz drummer in a rock band, so he doesn’t smash his arms and shoulders every time he gets on stage.
I think the consensus is that they have to cover for Keith, supplement some of the instrumentation from backstage, and just let the rest happen as it will. RS crowds love their band. They’ll forgive overdubbing of Keith and a mistake or two more readily than they’d forgive tracking or lip-synching.
When the Stones stop selling every fucking ticket to every fucking show, maybe they’ll re-assess. But that will be well after Mick and Keith are “retired” (i.e., dead).
John
Winner! You pee’d next to Ron Wood (no pun intended).
I think the only stand-up I’ve seen is George Carlin; saw him 3 times.
We’ve got tickets to see Joe Bonamassa in October. My wife and I are big fans of Joe, and saw him when he played as a quartet here in Austin last April. First time we’d seen him live. Since it was the beginning of the lifting of Covid restrictions, they limited the audience to 700. It was a great show; they were filming it for a DVD release later this year. The Stones are coming through town, but don’t have any plans to try to go.
Joe is awesome and was especially great with Black Country Communion. Joe Bonamassa AND Glen Hughes—what a treat!
We kind of lost our minds when the local biggish venue started booking gigs. We’ve got tickets to Neko Case, the Flaming Lips, Great White, Psychedelic Furs, Calexico, and the Heartless Bastards.
The only stand-up shows I’ve actually been to in person were Steven Wright in the early 90s and Sebastian Maniscalco about four years ago. The rest I’ve just watched on video, but live comedy is really awesome.
I stopped buying the alarmingly priced tix for old school high-dollar bands with Rush in the early 2000s. I wanted to see them before Neil died, but sheesh, $300+ for each tix is too rich for my blood.
Seeing Green Day with my two boys in Hershey next week, but those were purchased 10 years ago it seems.
Comedy shows, Rodney at the Scranton CYC, Richard Lewis, Rickles twice, Ron White, Brian Regan, and the last show (of any kind) that I saw was Sebastian Maniscalco right before things shut down in 2020.
I’ve only seen Doug Stanhope, but I plan to remedy that soon. I want to see him again, hopefully more than once. He and Burr are possibly the best alive. On the list to see are Andrew Shulz, Bill Burr, Tom Segura, Joe Rogan (he’s turned into a little bit of a douche, but his stand up is solid), Nate Bargatze, Sarah Silverman, and some others. Comedians that don’t act are just like musicians – they make money by doing the road. We should support them by buying tickets.
Shows I’ve bought tickets for so far now that “it’s over”:
Lucero last Saturday – good but not great, but it was at a small ampitheater, so a nice “dip your toes” into live music again
Counting Crows August 21
Drive-By Truckers October 2
Ruston Kelly October 27
Todd Snider November 19
Jason Isbell November 30
Not sure of dates, but Flaming Lips and Hiss Golden Messenger spring 2022.
I’m in St. Louis, which doesn’t feel like Missouri, but it is. Grew up going to shows here and in Chicago.
I was at that Jay Leno show with you, we sat in booths, as I recall. Drank until we couldn’t walk down Capitol Street in a straight line. Then, partied some more. I know I’ve seen Jay, Jerry Seinfeld, Tim Wilson, whoever that guy was that was famous for “Save Up” who was a regular on the John Boy & Billy Show, Rodney Carrington. All hilarious to the point where I almost blacked out from laughing.
Stones -Big Yes. You won’t even mis Charlie. Do you think we’ve been missing Bill Wyman for the last 30 years, even though he was the original and best bass player in the Stones.
Louis CK – Absotividly yes – he was always funny. Even his cable sitcom was funny.
Bill Burr – Big no. I used to think he was funny but then I saw like 4 of his cable comedy specials. His idea of fun is now beating up on women .., Not at all funny to me. I don’t know what happened to him ..
My best stand up show was Rodney Dangerfield. As he told us , He has a lot of jokes..,.. You cant recover form the previous joke and he’s already hitting you with 5 or 6 more. Funny F**kin’ MFer always. RIP Rodney.
It’s Mike From Long Island- Not Mike From … I’m pretty ham handed – Not the best typer. I’ve been absent form comments for a while.
Happy to be back. ;_)
Thinking about Ricky Gervais in Vancouver (Oct). I was a fan since ‘An Idiot Abroad’ but since his Golden Globe speeches, I am obsessed to hear the next thing out of his mouth. As a matter of fact, I am going to look into that right now. I had planned to check out music festivals on a road trip down the West Coast but no use making plans until the border is definitely open.
Thinking about Ricky Gervais in Vancouver (Oct). I was a fan since ‘An Idiot Abroad’ but since his Golden Globe speeches, I am obsessed to hear the next thing out of his mouth. As a matter of fact, I am going to look into that right now. I had planned to check out music festivals on a road trip down the West Coast but no use making plans until the border is definitely open.
Just checked out prices – not happening.
Stand Up Comedians I’ve seen here in Oz:
Jerry Seinfeld a couple of years back – fantastic
Danny Bohy – Scottish very funny
Jimmy Carr – English, filthy but hilarious
Billy Connelly – awesome story teller
and many other lesser known guys.
Keep em coming Jeff Great work!
Billy Connelly is hilarious.
Some Of My Favorite Concerts . . . (I’ve tried writing one long post and it keeps bombing)
THE THREE STOOGES (SUMMER, 1960)
University of Puget Sound Fieldhouse, Tacoma, WA (capacity ~ 4,500), sold out
Yeah, that’s right, something like 4,500 kids (mostly boys) and parents (mostly fathers) going crazy for the Stooges (sure, it would have been nice to have Curly Howard there, but he was eight years dead). Moe Howard, Larry Fine, and “Curly” Joe DeRita put on a hell of a show. You might think that the kids would have the inside track on the proceedings, but the Stooges did their vaudeville act, and the fathers were just old enough to remember vaudeville. It was a gathering of the tribes nine years before Woodstock. There was no opening act. It was all Stooges with a half hour concession and bathroom break. Every kid who attended got a 5×7 autographed photo. The Stooges did many of their famous routines (baking the cake with anapanacanasan and other ingredients, entry level plumbing, etc. Nope, no Niagara Falls (Slowly I turned . . .). I later learned that that routine was STILL in intellectual property dispute and the Stooges had to stay away from it. A wonderful 90 minutes with Dad and the Stooges. I don’t think he really remembered it later, when we were both adults, but I never forgot the incredible patience and balls Dad had to have to take me into the belly of that wild, raucous melee. He was a good man and so were the Stooges. They killed.
John (more to come)
Some Of My Favorite Concerts
THE JIMI HENDRIX EXPERIENCE (September 6, 1968)
Seattle Center Coliseum, Seattle, WA (capacity – 17,459), sold out
Three buddies and I had great seats: 15-20 feet above the stage, about 75 feet back, and slightly stage right. We could see Jimi using his effect pedals (not as much as you might think) and using the stage-mounted speakers to generate feedback (quite a bit, to impressive artistic effect). Noel Redding did a terrific job on bass (I hadn’t heard him very well on the albums, but I sure heard him that night) and Mitch Mitchell beat the shit out of a medium-sized drum kit (he never missed a beat). They played ten songs (and Wild Thing and The Star-Spangled Banner for an encore). They played the majority of Are You Experienced, and nobody missed a note. Hendrix talked to the audience from time to time. He sounded pretty stoned. The police moved in when the audience rushed the stage about half way through, and had the house lights brought up to the displeasure of the crowd. Damn, I’m an old man now, and I can’t remember what I had for breakfast, but I remember exactly what Jimi told the audience: “The Police say you gotta get back from the stage, but you folks do what you wanta do.” People went back to their seats, the house lights dimmed, and The Experience finished the concert.
The most surprising thing about the concert was the volume. They didn’t sell earplugs at concerts then, but you wouldn’t have needed them. The three guys certainly filled the Coliseum with sound, but even with the distortion, it didn’t hurt your ears. Certainly nothing like the volume of a Country/Western act today, much less metal. Every note was perfectly inflected, you could feel the sweetness of the sweet notes, and you could slide up and down the guitar with Jimi and hear his fingers on the fretboard. It was a pleasure to listen to.
Jesus, I remember thinking, “We have to get these seats next time Hendrix comes home,” but I missed the next show or two and then he was dead. Mostly I remember thinking, “Lots of groups can’t reproduce their album sound, but these guys actually sound better in person. That’s art.”
John
I have only a short list of comedians I’ve seen. Steven Wright in about 2004 at the Warner; he was awesome. In the early 2010s, one of our manufacturers hired Sinbad and David Spade to play a party they (the manufacturer) threw for their dealers (us) at a trade show. Sinbad had done his homework and knew his audience and was excellent. David Spade was lackluster, to put it kindly. A blunter person might say that he sucked.
Only a few concerts stand out in my mind. Emerson, Lake and Palmer did a show on campus when I was in college. It was January or February of 1977 and tickets were $8. The few artists I’ve seen that most people have heard of include Pat Metheny, Talking Heads, Patti Smith, Devo, Herbie Hancock, Clutch, Evanescence. I mostly go to shows by semi-obscure jazz artists.
I just re-read Jeff’s post. Jeez, this is Jeff circa 2010, just about the peak. The syntax is startlingly close to flawless, the internal callbacks are subtle and rhythmic, and it has an intro, body and low-yield fireworks ending. Not many people can write short-form this well. It was so nicely written that I lost track of the question and started thinking about music concerts. When he takes the time and has the inclination, Jeff, as a writer, is a semi-obscure jazz artist.
John
What he said…ditto!!
I have respect for NPR as of today. Apparently they have real journalists.
I just wish they didn’t take taxpayer money.
What prompted this comment, if I may ask?
Just giving credit where credit is due. I am not usually impressed with them, but was last week.
Wow, even five years ago this would have been a place to go to share sadness over the loss of a jazz drummer who played with a pretty good rock band for almost 60 years. There was even a time when this might have been a place to commiserate over the loss of Don Everly. I understand the people who used to hang out here are a little young to stitch the Everly Brothers into the tapestry of popular music. But no comments for Charlie . . . I guess I’m just waiting on a friend who doesn’t exist any more.
jtb
Stopped by earlier to leave a comment but didn’t because it feels like an abandoned house here. I’m kinda at the why bother stage. *sighs*
I’m here and I’m mourning. Woke up this morning thinking “man, this day sucks” if I only knew.
Most of you know I’m a die hard stones fan. This news is a kick in the gut.
If you didn’t know, I had the utmost pleasure of meeting this man twice. A royal gentleman. The rock world goes silent today.
Madz,
I’ve been here a long time and I’ve never heard your stories about meeting Charlie. And twice!! If it wouldn’t be too painful, I’d love to hear those stories. Actually, even if it would be painful. Sometimes all we have are words. If you slept with Keith, or shook his hand or something, feel free to throw that story in as well.
Sometimes it’s especially hard losing talented people when you know they’re also gentlemen (or ladies). Losing Leonard Cohen and John Prine in the last several years was painful for me because I’ve followed both their careers from the very early days, and I know them to be gentlemen who had respect for their backup players and roadies and fans. Both of them did deals on a handshake, and everybody in the business knew that their handshakes were as good as notarized documents. Charlie was a notorious gentleman who refused to cheat on his wife or anybody else. Yeah, the world has lost a fine drummer, but the world has also lost a fine gentleman, and that is especially sad.
Anyway, if you feel like telling the stories . . .
love and comfort,
John
Early 90s (92?) I found out Charlie was going to be playing with his jazz quintet at the Blue Note in NYC so of course my cousin and I were going. Charlie had written the book “Ode to a High Flying Bird” in the early 60s as a dedication to Charlie Parker. We got there early and got the table right up against the stage. (deafening but well worth it). Before the show, we went upstairs to the ladies room which was next to two rooms with closed doors and we could hear talking and laughing and just KNEW it was the band. Not to intrude, we went downstairs and bumped into Bernard Fowler (back up singer/percussionist for the Rolling Stones) who was going to be onstage narrating the book between songs. We chatted with him a few moments (beaming the entire time) and went to sit down.
Show was fantastic..
At the end we ran back upstairs (as did dozens of other patrons) and a man, who had noticed us earlier talking to Bernard, pushed us into a room and told us he’d get Charlie. Meanwhile, we could see through the throngs of people that Charlie was talking to others so we were basically going to leave but then Charlie came over and asked “Are you the girls who wanted to see me? I’ll be right back.” We damn near fainted. And true to his word, he came back. the place was thinning out, he was getting ready for his second show, but damn, if that man didn’t stand there posing for pictures and taking to the time to chat. A total dream come true
Next story coming up.
Great story, well written about a man we are all missing today. Thanks. John
Wow, what a clusterfuck.
Now, now, the man has a right to enjoy NPR, even if the comment isn’t textually consistent with the themes of the blog over time. Just take some medicine and relax.
jtb
Nope, not a fan of the national proletariat radio.
David Burge @iowahawkblog said it best.
“NPR get its money from member stations, who get it from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, who gets it from the IRS, who gets it from taxpayers, so yeah it’s more of an extortion mob money laundering operation.”
As for meds, I’ll have what you’re having.
Buyer’s remorse eh?
Louis CK? Eek.