Just a quick reminder that our buddies, The Cryan' Shames, will be appearing this evening at Bensenville's Music In The Park Series. (Jeez ... when's the last time that it DIDN'T rain on a Wednesday around here?!?!?) Hopefully everything will go off as planned ... they should take the stage right around 7:30 PM. (kk)
Trish and I caught Todd Rundgren out here last month ... third time in a row we've seen him here ... with Front Row seats each time ... and it was just a few days before his 61st birthday.
I've seen Todd Rundgren maybe eleven times dating back to '77 when he had the big pyramid thingey and walked up it playing a guotar solo ... if that ain't 'over the top', I dunno what is!
This last show kicked ass. They opened with oldies like 'Black Maria' and and that D minor 7th tune ... oh yeah ... I Saw The Light ... absolutely great. Then they played the whole new record 'Arena' (which I think is his best since his 70's hey-day) minus two of the shorter pieces due to time restrictions. I actually ran into Jesse Gress on my way up to the room to 'prepare' (hehe) before the show ... he was coming out, I was going in.
Of course, I recognized him. I had to speak. I go, "Jesse!" He was totally cool ... asked me if I was coming to the show ... I go, "Yeah, front and center!" That was cool. Later, just before the show, Trish and I were playing slots, killing time till 'showtime', when another familiar face strolls across nearby us. I had to do it. I go "Hi, Todd!" He turned around, put his hand up and gave Trish and I a big smile. Then he went on to put on one of the best shows I've ever seen him do.
Todd Tin Tear
We heard ALL kinds of good things from folks here locally who saw Billy Joel and Elton John perform together at Wrigley Field this past week. (Now THAT'S a show I would have LOVED to have seen!!!) They've still got a few dates left on this "Piano Men" go-'round ... hope to hear from some of our readers who also got to see this exciting show. Send us a review of the show and we'll run it in Forgotten Hits!!! (kk)
Kent ...
Sir Paul McCartney is performing the last of his three concerts tonight at Citi-Field.
Citi-Field is the home of our Mets. Safe to say that Sir Paul has more hits than The Mets.
Here in New York, we're thinking that if they want to fill Citi-Field to capacity - the way The Mets are playing - they should forget about Baseball and just use it for concerts.
If you haven't guessed, i'm a Yankee Fan.
Frank B.
Actually, I heard Sir Paul put on some REALLY good shows there ... talking about The Beatles' first trip to Shea Stadium ... dedicating songs to John and George, including a VERY moving rendition of "Here Today", the song he wrote for John from his "Tug Of War" album. (I also heard the shows are being filmed and recorded for yet another live release ... what would that be now, something like McCartney's 20th live album / video release?!?!?) kk
We saw The Beach Boys at Ravinia last night ... complete sell out ... and they sounded AWESOME!!! In fact, I had to walk up to the stage a couple of times to see if that was really Mike Love singing! Great show ... and the crowd LOVED them!!! Nicki
Lol ... yeah, the last few times we've seen Mike Love, he could barely muster a raspy whisper ... is it possible The Beach Boys are using some sort of "enhancement" to augment their shows these days??? (Maybe Mike's borrowed a page from the Britney Spears Book on Public Performing???) Anybody know for sure? Great to hear that they can still rev up the crowd ... now that Brian's been touring with HIS incredible band, we haven't been to a Beach Boys show in years! (Al Jardine's new venture sounds really interesting ... we'll have to keep tabs on that one, too!) kk
... and, speaking of Surf Sounds ...
HI KENT,
DEAN TORRANCE AND THE SURF SITY ALLSTARS WILL BE PERFORMING A FREE SHOW IN ELK GROVE VILLAGE ON TUESDAY, JULY 28. WE ARE MEETING SOME OLD FRIENDS AND I AM WONDERING IF YOU WILL BE ATTENDING ALSO? WILL BE A FUN NIGHT IF ITS ANYTHING LIKE THE LAST TIME I SAW THEM A FEW YEARS AGO IN BENSENVILLE.
LET ME KNOW,
MARK
Actually, it's the first I've heard of this show. (Would be kinda cool to see ... a couple of The Surf City All-Stars are on our FH Mailing List, too ... I wonder if Bob Greene will be stopping by???) Let me see what else we've got going that night ... weather permitting, it might be a REAL fun fun fun way to spend an evening! (kk)
MEANWHILE, SOME OF OUR READERS QUESTIONED THE AUTHENTICITY OF ONE OF THE OTHER REVIEWS WE RAN THIS PAST WEEKEND ... LET'S JUST SAY THAT THE TIMING SEEMS TO BE JUST A LITTLE BIT OFF HERE!!!:
>>>What everyone doesn't know is Blood, Sweat and Tears had played the night before and wanted to hear Columbia's new rock / jazz / fusion group. They sat directly in front of us. I believe the crying started after "Saturday In The Park!" It poured Blood, Sweat and massive amounts of tears. (John Marks)
With all apologies to my apparent fellow Corpus Christian John Marks, it looks as though the timeline has slightly blurred a bit over the years. "Saturday in the Park" didn't become part of the Chicago repertoire until 1972; Hendrix died in 1970. Doubtful they would have played a version of this tune to open for Jimi in Houston or elsewhere. I'm sure there were plenty of other tunes played by CTA that day to get the BS&T boys lookin' over their shoulders, so to speak.
... Ed44
I noticed that, too ... the giveaway was Hendrix's death in 1970. And although CTA WAS starting to make some musical waves in '68 / '69, 1969 was Blood, Sweat and Tears biggest year EVER!!! Honestly, I don't think they had too much to worry about just yet ... the CTA album didn't really take off until after Chicago II had been released. (kk)
>>>CTA warmed up the Houston crowd in introduction (God, it was all just perfect, yes?) to Hendrix. I was there from Corpus, you were there, everyone was there.What everyone doesn't know is BS&T had played the night before and wanted to hear Columbia's new rock / jazz / fusion group. They sat directly in front of us. I believe the crying started after "Saturday In The Park!" (John Marks)
I'll admit I'm a bit lost in the above comments, so maybe it's my misunderstanding, but it sounds as if he's talking about a time when Chicago - still as CTA - was new on the scene, which would be circa 1969, but then he mentions "Saturday In The Park", which was from 1972. What am I missing?
Gary E. Myers / MusicGem
I think this one confused a few of us, Gary!!! Some mixed and / or jumbled memories, to be sure! (kk)
