Seeing him Monday in KC.

He wasn't English, but went to see Billy Joel a couple of weeks ago at Coors Field.

Turned out to be quite a good show. He had a good amount of banter and audience interaction between songs.

At one point, he said that he didn't have anything new, just the same old ****. But, enjoyable **** it was. (He did cover a couple of others' songs, so there was some newishness anyway).

I wouldn't say I'm a fan, but know his popular stuff from back in the day. If you like that, and he's in your area, I'd say it's a show worth checking out.

I saw Joel back in the day.....god, has to be the mid-80s. He always puts on a good show.

Joel and Elton dueling pianos at Gillette Stadium back in the day was a pretty good show.

Not English, either, but old. I caught President Clinton, nope, the other one, George! George Clinton this weekend, with Fishbone (also old) and Dumpstaphunk (young, good) opening. Holy ****, that was a great show! I think they already hit LV (Sun), but if you are still waiting for George's "final tour" to come through, go see it. Don't hesitate.

He played last night in Vegas! I forgot....really wanted to go.

Setup: Back in the early 90's (even very late 80's maybe), I used to hit the local music scene on Mill Ave in Tempe while partying at ASU and occasionally going to class. Clubs like Chuy's, Edcel's Attic, Long Wong's (Hot Wings, Cold Beer and Live Music!) and the Hayden Square Amphitheater were frequent spots where the weekends started on Thursday afternoon and went late into Sunday night or Monday morning.

One of the bands credited with developing the "Tempe sound" was actually from Tucson, called the Sidewinders. They had minor hits with Witchdoctor and Bad Crazy Sun, signed a record contract, appeared on college radio charts, produced one other LP (Autie Ramos Pool Hall), and even appeared on Saturday Night Live. My girlfriend at the time had their LP, and I copied it onto cassette tape, and wore it out listening to it. The cassette tape lasted way longer then that relationship, but I'm forever grateful to her for turning me onto the Sidewinders.

Legal action forced them to change their name (a barbershop quartet from Texas had released music as The Sidewinders previously, I'm told) and between that and the usual touring/bandmate pressures, the band lost momentum and eventually faded mostly away. Mostly.

I was able to see them again once or twice at festival-type as a support act (Thanks Four Peaks Brewing!) over the last 4-6 years. Short sets, just teases, really, but always capturing that sound I enjoyed so much all those years ago.

This week/month/year (??) marks the 30 anniversary of the release of their Witchdoctor album, and the band got together to play for us in Phoenix on Friday. It was seriously one of the best shows I've seen this year, and I do see a lot of concerts/club shows (my wife would say too many). They played a sold out show at a newish venue in downtown Phoenix called the Valley Bar. They used the Witchdoctor vinyl as their setlist, playing every song in order, and then a few (4-6) more.

Here's a couple of snaps from the event Friday. David Slutes and Lisa Novak (Lisa is Rich Hopkins wife, was not in the band back in the day, but another wife was)

The aforementioned Rich Hopkins, a complete beast on that guitar!


Thanks for letting me re-live Friday night!

Old guy sees cool, young Texan in concert:

Gary Clark, Jr., from Tuesday in Phoenix. Love to watch him play. Don't hesitate to catch him, if you can.

I saw the Cult this weekend at the Arizona State Fair, and it was freaking awesome! Played (eventually) the 3 songs I knew, and plenty of others in their 90 minute set. I was actually very impressed with their new (to me) music, seemed very psychedelic and reasonably heavy, as well. I will be looking into more of their less well known music.

I didn't even know he's English.

The Cult is awesome

I wasn't a huge fan (barely even a casual fan, really - I had a couple of their hits in my catch-all playlist on Spotify, for example) before this weekend's show, but I've been listening to 'em all day at work. I looked up the setlist (setlist.fm FTW) from the show Saturday (I guess you missed 'em in LV Sunday?) and have been cherry-picking songs off Spotify from the show.

The Cult Setlist Arizona Memorial Coliseum

Really like "The Phoenix" and "American Gothic". These seemed to stand out at the time.

Heard GCJ for the first time recently. A+

I saw David Byrne’s American Utopia on Broadway last night, and it is amazing. Show is running for a few more weeks and I highly recommend it. I’ll probably try to go again.