A Rocking Birthday Week  

        I decided being a woman of a certain age I deserved a rock –n- roll birthday.  So I tried to hit as many shows during my birthday week as possible! I started with The Rhythm Devils at The Sherman Theater in Stroudsburg, Pa. on Friday, Aug. 27.           

       Oddly, I was late getting to this show. Crazy, being a Billy K gig and here I was treating it like Ratdog and showing up whenever! I missed the Scarlet opener and half of Fire on The Mountain!  So unlike me. I did dance hard enough to make up for it and by the start of second set managed to get to the rail.            

      For a drummer’s girl, nothing soothes the soul like Billy and Mickey!        I had all good intentions for hitting the Rhythm Devils in Tarrytown, NY the next night. Some how though I found myself heading south to see Aerosmith in Atlantic City, NJ. Again, so unlike me to miss a BK gig, but hey change is good and Aerosmith rarely disappoints. I did get a few texts from friends dancing with the Devils and wondering where I was – now you know!            

        Aerosmith was a good old rock and roll show! The Dream On encore was worth the trip alone as was watching Joe Perry try to beat himself in the Rock Band video game! Too funny.  It was nice seeing Steven Tyler with the band again. The last time I saw Perry and Tyler together was this past fall at the Fillmore East in NYC. The boys were dueling it out in the press and for the Joe Perry Project’s second set Mr. Tyler made an appearance to sing Walk This Way after having exchanged a not so nice word or two with Perry on the stage. This time as different. From where I sat in Boardwalk Hall it was all love and light.

          I went and sat on the beach for some meditation afterwards. Only thing better then Billy and Mickey is the ocean.

          I was planning to take Sunday as a day of rest, especially since I was starting a new job at 7 a.m. the next morning. However, the Blue Point Brewery and The Rhythm Devils were calling out to me and off to Long Island I went. What a cool venue. It was an outdoor show, a mini festival called Rhythm & Brews with not only the Devils, but Donna The Buffalo and another band. Sorry I am forgetting the band that opened the show. I got there late – half way through the Donna The Buffalo set – thanks to an insane amount of traffic on the George Washington Bridge! I swear there are days this Jersey Girl can get to San Francisco faster then Long Island. While it is never a bad show with Billy and Mickey on drums, I do have to say this was my least favorite of the four Rhythm Devil shows I saw. It was one set and too festival like. I did get the Scarlet-Fire opener I missed on Friday though, so that was cool.

      Shockingly I took Monday off. I thought about going to see the Les Paul Trio, but instead decided to take a break and just chill. The rest was a quick one as Tuesday, Aug. 31 saw me hitting Pat Benatar in Red Bank, NJ with my cousin. Opening for Benatar was Lindsay Rush. I really enjoyed her 30 minute set, especially this song Me or the Booze http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9-EX2wzzgY&p=63CAA8422536F5CF&playnext=1&index=5  I do have to note, she had a totally different look when I saw her. For the Red Bank show she wore and a pink glitter dress, which I simply adored. 

     Pat Benatar and Neil Giraldo – what can say but to quote my beloved friend John, what a rock and roll show! I can easily claim Benatar was one of my favorite artists, if not the favorite when I was in high school. I own every album she ever produced on vinyl (how scary is that!) and my senior yearbook quote was of course, “Knock me down it’s all in vain.” Something I strongly believed in 1984 and need to reminded of every once in a while.

       Rambling as per usual, so let’s get back to the show. They did not disappoint! Neil is a showman’s showman and Benatar still has it all going on, despite her 57 years. She hits the high notes and dances just as if it was 1984. They played all their hits and one or two so-called obscure ones. It was everything I thought it would be and worth the 26-year wait. I still find it hard to believe this was the first time I saw her!

       The next night was my actual birthday and it was the Rhythm Devils at BB Kings in NYC. What fun! Billy and Mickey as well as Andy Hess, Tim Blumm, Davy Knowles and Sikiru Adepoju were totally on.  I didn’t spend it with who I had planned when the show was announced - the one thing in life I have learned is you can never predict the future or how things will turn out - but I did have fun and the boys were rocking. 

       The first set was similar to the first two shows I saw, but the second set came out of nowhere and I have to say the highlight for me was The Other One.

       On Thursday, I was seriously planning to catch my drummer boys again in Clifton Park, NY but man oh man I was tired. I must be getting old. (Shhhhhh) I can tell you I do not like this birthday number AT ALL. Someone told me it was balanced. I could use some balance in my life, but not my age! Anyway I skipped the show.

       Friday I hit Rush in Holmdel, NJ. As much as I LOVE LOVE LOVE Billy and Mickey, this was the show of the week. Holy Moly the Neil Peart drum solo alone was worth the ticket price! There was a recent interview with Neil where he claims up until recently he was not a good drummer?! As a result, he has been taking lessons with Jazz greats. During the show, he did his regular massive kit solo then it spun around and he played a small drum kit as if he was in a jazz trio. The horns and other instruments were in synthesized in. It was truly amazing. The entire show – heavy on drums – was amazing. They played new songs and old, including the entire Time Machine album. I was the only chick dancing – well heck I might have been the only chick there – but what fun!!! I do have to give a HUGE shout out to Dude, my most favorite taper in the universe for getting me a copy of this show.  I can’t stop listening to it!

    I must note I just loved seeing this license plate in the PNC parking lot at Rush. I don't know what it really means but to me, it just screams Deadhead and warms my heart. 

       I finished my birthday week (Okay I celebrated for more then one week!) on Saturday back in Atlantic City with From Good Homes. What a fun jam band! What a fun crowd. I love the song Tree and Butterfly. In fact it inspired one of my latest tattoos. 

       Being in Atlantic City, they of course played Atlantic City! Check it out here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-FTbdfxhrMU

       They are completing a year long Reunion Tour and rumor has it they are going to keep going! I highly recommend seeing them when they come to your town.  

       Just because my birthday is over doesn’t mean the music stops. The Music Never Stops! Sept. 11 found me driving to Burlington, VT. To catch the last show of the Rhythm Devils’ tour, it was also Mickey’s birthday show. It is a must listen. You can stream or download it here. http://www.archive.org/details/rd2010-09-11.nak.shivaho.flac16 The second set is truly killer with Mike Gordon of Phish joining Hess on bass. I keep going back forth from this show to Rush and back again.

      On Sept. 12, I went to a small but cool place in the middle of nowhere aka Ararat, PA called Arlo’s. A very talented singer songwriter performed. His name is Mike Mizwinski aka Miz. He will be opening up for Shawn Colvin on Oct. 22 at The Sherman Theater. It will be worth the ticket price just to see him. When he plays more then one set, he does a very nice job with Grateful Dead covers. However I am sure he will be doing his original stuff this night. His originals are beautiful, if not sad. The major theme is being a heroin addict who loses his girlfriend – yeah I could have used a warning before listening to a set of that with Cassidy in the middle. As gorgeous as it was, knowing what I was going into would have saved me a several mile walk in the rain. I felt like Brenda Barrett of General Hospital.

      Even so, I love this artist and encourage you to check out his music here: http://www.sunlightofthespirit.com/product/90-Mike-Mizwinski-The-Madness-In-My-Mind I will be at the Colvin show, more to see Mike then the headliner! Besides Miz, so far all I have planned for October is Roger Waters and Phish. Maybe Thievery Corp in Atlantic City and who knows what else will pop up. Until then keep dancing.  

Love and light to you all xoxoxox

     This summer I saw less music then in previous years. I am not sure why that is! In any case the music started Memorial Day weekend with a run of Bill Kreutzmann’s 7 Walkers. Troy, Brooklyn, Woodstock were the shows I hit.  Kreutzmann along with George Porter, Jr. Papa Mali and Matt Hubbard add a bit of funk and New Orleans soul to classic Grateful Dead tunes as well as new Robert Hunter songs.            

     The band has already been in the studio to preserve the new tunes to a CD expected out in October. Do I need to tell you I can’t wait?!           In the meantime I will hit the August run of Rhythm Devil shows (including a birthday show for me!!) There is nothing like seeing, hearing, feeling those drums in small venues.  It is always a fun time!

  

     Phish!!    

     After Billy, I did a short series of Phish shows: two in Hartford and one in Saratoga Springs.  It was the first time I saw Phish live, and I must say I was impressed.  They are one tight band! The lyrics don’t always move me the way a Grateful Dead song does, but the jams are incredible. My daughter hit these shows with me and she was also hooked. Sadly, after rough housing with some other 7-year-olds she ended up in the emergency room before the show was over.             

      In my 14 years of parenting, this was my first trip to the ER with one my own children. It was a bit trippy to be there in matching hippy dresses and KB covered in head to toe glow sticks!            

      Despite the negative experience at the end of our little run, we cannot wait for Phish to come back around. In the meantime we are listening to the summer tour shows. We both agree Tweezer is our favorite song – at least for today!

   We missed most of our usual musical festivities, but we still managed to hit Gathering of the Vibes in Bridgeport, Conn. and Music Fest in Bethlehem, Pa.  We were only at the Vibes on Sunday, but Jimmy Cliff renewed my soul and KB had a great time being a hooper! It was also good to run into my “family,” most I have missed liked crazy this past year. So don’t be surprised to find me at a Furthur show this fall. I need my hippie love hugs from all my brothers and sisters!  

        Musik Fest was nothing what I thought it would be.  It was more like a street fair with bands playing. KB and I only went the one night Splintered Sunlight was playing. The whole thing was a bit surreal.  First there was the insane heat and humidity, then Splintered playing at a street festival topped off by the fact it was a first date! Any man who would take both myself and my daughter out together on a first date certainly deserves some credit since each of us alone is like roping the wind never mind us together! We will see if he is still talking to us when this published!

            Every summer – if not every season – I discover a new band. Neither one this summer is exactly new, but all are certainly new to me. The first was Hot Tuna! I know I know where on this planet have I been?!

           I was finally inspired to go see them after seeing Jorma play with the Les Paul Trio eariler this year. All I can say is I cannot get enough of these guys and I have a huge huge crush on Jack Cassidy.  I can watch him dance and play that bass for hours on end! I adore that man!  

          Next, I finally got to see Mark Karan’s Jemimah Puddleduck live!  We reviewed (and loved) his CD over a year ago and since then I have been meaning to catch him, but some how he was always zigging when I was zagging.  Finally I caught up with him in Wilkes-Barre, Pa. That is one fine little band he has there and MK’s stage presence is incredible. Something that got a little lost on the Ratdog stage - or maybe I was just always paying too much attention to Jay Lane, you all know drummers and me!  

          While I am quite familiar with his music, I finally got to see Willie Nelson live! Levon Helm opened the Radio City Show and I truly enjoyed both performances. Although I will confess I missed Willie’s braids! Katie Belle loved Levon, but fell asleep midway through Willie!  

          It was also a summer filled of local bands - some beyond horrible and some quite nice. You can find me enjoying the Les Paul Trio, (yes they still play two shows every Monday), Lou Pallo and Jiggs’ house Jazz band on any given weekday night. If you see me, stop by and dance. Music is meant to be shared.  

Love and light xox