My final post before we leave Sunday night for San Diego. I still can't believe that I'll be on the floor for the first night of the world tour of the greatest freaking band in the world. Here's my proposed set list. It probably sucks and I am probably no where NEAR accurate, but I have to try!1. Vertigo - (Not where I'd put it, but it's the "Virtigo Tour" after all)2. Original of the Species (Two new album cuts to open)3. Beautiful Day4. City of Blinding Lights5. Electric Co. (Or another old song, this was in rehearsals, and I think it'll fit well)6. Miracle Drug (slowing it down a bit)7. Love and Peace (I think this will be one of the best live songs...)8. Sometimes You Can't... (..followed by this, the breakin'-it-down section)9. 40 (why not, it's the worship portion of the night)10. Yahweh (worship continues)11. Where the Streets have No Name (speeding things up with a little J-Tree)12. Running to Stand Still (More J-Tree, because this album truly propeled them to their recent HOF induction)13. One (Because it isn't perfect to open the encore this time around, and it HAS to be played)14. Stuck in a Moment - (Awkward placement, I just gotta hear it, though)15. Crumbs from Your Table16. All Because of You (if it won't open the show, it should close the regular set)ENCORE17. Elevation (Great to open the encore)18. I Will Follow (after SNL, this is the new "With or Without you", i.e. the older song in the middle of the encore)19. Walk On (I'm probably livin in the past, but I want this song to continue to close their shows. If not, it'll be perfect in the middle, spritual/emotional section. Truly, a song from this album belongs in the encore. If All Because of you doesn't close the regular set, maybe it'll be in the encore?). Also might be played:* With or Without you ( I hope it is, I just don't know where I'd fit it in)* One Step Closer (lul of the album, would be lul on the tour)* Man and a Woman (could be good and sexy live)* Sunday Bloody Sunday (they revived it last tour and might keep it alive)* Bullet the Blue Sky (A live staple I would LOVE to hear, I just have a hunch it's taking a breather this go roundOther notes:>>Maybe opening night will see an extended set? Why not?!?!>>They'll probably sandwich City of Blinding Lights with New York when I go see 'em in Madison Square Garden. That'll be pretty sweet.
I took a break last night from sitting around wetting my pants in anticipation of Monday night, long enough to go the Pantages with my dad for The Bob Dylan Show. The opening act was Amos Lee. He's signed to Blue Note Records (home to Norah Jones) and the comparisons to her are pretty accurate. He's got a voice very similar to that of the Train lead singer and musically, he fuses jazz, blues, folk and a little bit of country into a very cool sound. He's sort of in the same category as Jack Johnson and John Meyer. I REALLY liked him. Next on the bill was Merle Haggard. Yup. I sat through 50 minutes of redneck country. Amazingly, though, it was probably the highlight of the evening. Merle is a very good song writer. He had some sweet war protest songs back in the day and he has a new one called "That's the news" which was pretty cool. He also covered Nat King Cole's Unforgettable and apparently it's on a new standards album he's put out, ala Willie Nelson's Stardust album. Don't get me wrong, here, I love Dylan. It is amazing just to be in his presence. He IS the history of Rock and Roll (along with a few others of course). I've now seen him perform four times, all with my dad, and this was probably only the third best show. The first time I saw him has to rank on top, simply for senimental reasons. Joni Mitchell and Van Morrison opened for him and I got to taste a true slice of American Music History. Next would be when we saw him at the Grove in Anaheim. We were much closer to him and could be a much better part of the concert. The worst was the show with Paul Simon at the Pond. Our seats were terrible (at the back of the floor) the sound was terrible and it was just a miserable experience compared with the other three. Last night was very interesting, to say the least. Dylan diverted greatly from his standard set list that he's used on the 12 previous shows on this tour and the songs he chose were new to me and some, new to my dad, who's been a Dylan fan since he was an 18-year old draft-eligible hippie. Dylan hid behind his piano for the entire 14-song set, with a perfectly good acoustic guitar sitting right next to him. Dylan was also very distant. His only interaction with the crowd was saying thank you towards the end of the regular set and introducing the band. He played five or so songs off the newest album, Love and Theft (A fantastic piece of music). But he left out Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum, probably the biggest "hit" off the album, for the first time of the tour. With a 40-album (400+ song) catalog, it's hard to hear all of your favorites, but the ones we did get were all "alternate" versions. I understand the need for him to do this after 40 years, but I would have loved to hear an original version of All Along the Watchtower, his closing song. For years when he's been performing this song it's been Dylan-Doing-Hendrix-Doing-Dylan. On this night he took it a step further and was almost doing an out-of-body imitation of himself. Very Strange. It wasn't terrible by any means, It just wasn't as great as I expected. The band was awesome. His fiddler is INCREDIBLE. The musicianship has never been at a higher level. Most of the songs were well known, and appreciated. I enjoyed hearing classics such as Mr. Tamborine Man, Forever Young and Highway 61 Revisited, even if they weren't in their original forms. If nothing else, it set me up for an even better concert experience on Monday night!AND, we got a great dinner, too. I've always wanted to go to The Stinking Rose, a garlic restaurant on Restaurant Row in Beverly Hills. It's across the street from where Ed Debevics (RIP) was once housed. We had this appetizer spread for their garlic rolls, which was basically full garlic cloves bathed in olive oil. Then I had a neon ravioli pasta dish, stuffed with cheese, garlic, potato and carmelized onions, topped with a creamy basil sauce. Then for dessert, Garlic Ice Cream.
Opening Night of the tour is just six days away. Melissa and I will be leaving our children in the care of her sister and our babysitter on Sunday night to drive down to S.D. Monday morning, we will be waiting in line bright and early for our General Admission spot on the floor. First night of the tour. On the Floor. HOLY CRAP! I can't wait. There just aren't words for the anticipation of this first night of the tour. I'm seeing Bob Dylan tommorow night and I'm pretty stoked about that, but I'm almost looking past it. Here's our Dead-Head like itinerary for the first leg of the tour:3/28 - San Diego, opening night3/30 - Back to San Diego4/1 - Anaheim4/6 - Staples CenterThe one thing I keep thinking about is the fact that they haven't released the stage set up for the tour. We still don't know if they'll be any sort of inner circle on the floor (ala the inside-the-heart area on Elevation). My gut feelings all along have been that the stage will basically be set up in the round with the bullseye theme so that there aren't any bad seats. I just don't know what this will mean on opening night on the floor. It's just odd to me that they haven't come out with any design stuff just six days before the show opens.
I just found out that the Supertones are hanging up the horns. Just last week I bought the new O.C. Supertones greatest hits album (and Roland rolls his eyes at me) but I hadn't checked out the website until today. I'm sure that the timing is right, since they have faded in recent years, it's just sad. I'm sure that they will be having a major final show in Orange County in the fall and I will make sure I am there. Listening to the greatest hits CD, it's really cool to hear all the old stuff again. While it wasn't the best quality music out there by any means, it was fun. It was also always a powerful worship experience at those concerts that I can never forget. I have nothing but great memories wrapped around that band. I first heard about them when they were called "Saved" and I was one of maybe three dozen fans. I even owned their C.D. One of my favorite songs of theirs was on that album called "The Race". I was at the Saved concert at Red Hill Lutheran Church back in 1995, when they played with Plain Jane, inspiring the line from Adonai - Makes my heart beat all fast like the girl from Plain Jane (Now they sing it ...beat all fast like Rebecca St. James). I remember them climbing the rafters, stage diving off of large amps and basically having a great old time. I also saw them a few other times in south O.C. and once at my home church WCC. I saw the Supertones perform COUNTLESS times, a few shows at the Bren Events Center, once at Irvine Valley College at some all-day festival in the middle of the summer. Saw them out in San Bernadino. Saw them at the O.C. Fair. It was a such a great time, dancing like a moron, jumping up and down in unison with 1000 other people, worshipping Christ, singing "There's no life away from You" and "God look at me I'm just a man. But you tell me I'm not just a man, so hard to understand, after all I'm just a man. God you tell me not to doubt, but I'm always plagued by doubt but you always help me out I'm so ashamed and I say, who can be against me?"When I worked for KBBK, the Biola radio station, we got a pre-release copy of Chase the Sun. For me at that time, it was heavan. I was able to write a review of the album for The Chimes. I was in Foundations of Youth Ministry that semester, so I gave a copy of the article to Jason Carson's (the drummer) close friend and our teacher Daniel Hahn to give to Jason. I also took my pre-release copy of the CD and a copy of the article to an album signing party the night before the album was release. Jason and Matt new me from other places in the past (my youth pastor Frank Winans was also close to Jason) and they had been on "The Attic" on KBBK with Daryl and Hutch. Anyway, they already had read the article so that was cool. Just regular guys, but I got all star struck around 'em, it was wierd. AND, Matt Morginsky is only like two years older than me which is really wierd. Anyhoo, hopefully I'll get to see them once or twice this year. They play at Wild Rivers on June 3rd and then, as I mentioned, I think they'll be back around in the fall.
I go to check out my blog, and it looks to have been hijacked. WTF?!?!
Congrats to the boys from Dublin on thier 2005 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction.
