Last Summer's Concerts

Here my concert season has started, and I realized I had unposted blogs about LAST year's concerts. Oh well...

So this is all from 2010!

First up, a double bill with Peter Frampton and Yes.

BABY I LOVE YOUR WAY! DO YOU FEEL LIKE I DO?

Frampton Comes Alive was one of THE biggest albums at the end of our high school years. (He's touring again this summer, doing the complete album.) Although he doesn't have the hair he used to (my husband can commiserate with that), he was still quite awesome. So cute and self deprecating. His band lost instruments and equipment in a flood in Nashville (I think -- this is what happens when I wait months to blog about it) and were very grateful for the help they got to replace them. He talked about the banjolele he found in his grandmother's attic. I love unusual instruments -- the Handy Grandpa has a ukelin. And then there's his talkbox -- you can't talk about classic Frampton without it. And he can't talk into the talkbox when he's laughing. Only it's not a box, it's a plastic tube.

"Do you feel like we do? Still? I don't. Sometimes when I hear it I change the channel... ... ... I'm lying." And he laughs.

His son Julian is pretty cool, and came out to do a song. A song. One. Not as much of the old nepoTIZ as Wolfie Van Halen benefited from.

Then there was Yes. There were some know-it-alls behind me during the intermission, annoying me with their trivia, but they didn't know it all. Let's see, they said the bass player owned the name but everyone else was new. Excuse me, Steve Howe is not NEW. He looked pretty OLD, as a matter of fact.

As for the newbies, the singer, Benoit David, who sang in a Yes tribute band, was a temporary replacement when Jon Anderson had throat surgery last year, but he seems to be permanent now. Benoit dressed like a Las Vegas lounge singer in a black vest and a yellow shirt with large lapels. He reminded me of a short, stocky, pirouetting David Hasselhoff. But man, does he have pipes! And Oliver White, Alan White's son, was an amazing keyboard player.

Rush again.

I know some of you don't care for Rush, but I have to say they've really grown on me. And I love that they have a sense of humor.



American Idols. There was criticism that last year's Idols weren't Idol-worthy, but it was the first year I was ever interested in watching the show and that's all due to Crystal Bowersox.
After the bottom 4 performed, I was wondering why I wasted the money on the show and the fancy hotel room. But as we moved into the top 6, it got better. Anyway, I loved Crystal!

Roger Waters/The Wall Unfortunately I didn't write anything down about this one but it was fantastic! We had great seats, just one section away from the Wall.

OK, now I'm caught up to 2011. Who have we heard so far this year? Jake Shimabukuro, Jeff Bridges and the Abiders, and Eddie Vedder.

Steve Martin and the Steep Canyon Rangers

Is there anything Steve Martin CAN'T do? Comedian, actor, author, songwriter, banjo picker? Next thing you know he'll be on Iron Chef or Dancing with the Stars.



And he was still funny, too.



The Steep Canyon Rangers are amazing, too.

At Long Last Aerosmith

After the previous year's debacle, we finally got to see Aerosmith last night. Believe me, we were plenty worried to hear about Joe Perry's motorcycle accident last week.

A whole bunch of my friends took their daughters to Justin Bieber a few days ago, and I was glad I had sons so we could see the anti-Bieber. And they were Cocked, Locked, and Ready to Rock, as their tour slogan goes. Steven looked great in his skin tight yellow spandex pants, which were tight enough to tell that not only was he cocked and locked, he was also sporting the male equivalent of camel toe, moose knuckles.

Since the venue was at a county fair, pungent aromas wafted through the air. What, you thought I meant the herb? No, I meant MANURE. Whoo-eee, what a strong aroma.

I think Sammy Hagar's been opening for them on the tour, but he got his own night at the fair (I wish I'd gone...). The opening act was a local group who'd won a radio station contest. I thought they sounded good, but my musician children said they were boring: "They always played in the same key and time and only used 8th notes."



Fortunately, they liked Aerosmith better. The music was great, of course. Here's the setlist, if you're into that. For all the animosity that was going on in the band last year, they seemed pretty friendly, with Tyler hanging all over Perry. It was fun when Perry duelled his Guitar Hero avatar and won.

(Bad pictures, I know. We REALLY need to replace our obsolete cell phones.)

So Ernest has FINALLY gotten to see Aerosmith--cross that off the kid's bucket list.

What concert's up next? I think it's Rush again in August, plus I am dragging the handy husband to the Americal Idols tour so I can see Crystal Bowersox. We saw Peter Frampton and Yes a few weeks ago, but I haven't written anything about that yet.

Turn it up!

Carole King and James Taylor

The older I get, the longer the hike to the Bowl gets. And a lot of the audience was even older than me! The crowd stayed seated most of the time (enjoying the new padded seats I think!) except for the two babes who got up to dance to Smackwater Jack. Were they aware they were the only people dancing in the whole venue?

It was a great evening of classic music. They alternated songs, with Carole mostly at the piano.

When she did get away from the piano, Carole King was a real spitfire. Sixty-eight years old and dancing around on tall spiky heels. Amazing. And tiny! (although compared to 6'4" James Taylor, who isn't?)

Yes, the earth moved!



And here's some Sweet Baby James.

Patti LuPone has the Hots for my Husband

You'd think I would have picked the Argentinian restaurant before the Patti "Don't Cry for Me Argentina" LuPone concert Thursday night, but no, I am saving that for my birthday next week. Instead I picked "California wine country cuisine." Doesn't that cover just about everything around here? Bouchon ("little cork") was very good.

The concert was great, but that Patti? She had her eye on my husband. Which wasn't too hard because we were in the front row. And he was wearing a red shirt. She sang songs about love and lust. And anytime she said lust, she looked right at him. At the end, she handed him a red rose.

And he, like a good husband, gave it to me.

Green Day

My husband and I love concerts. His first, at age 14, was the Allman Brothers. He was my first took me to my first, Blue Oyster Cult. Both at Rob Gym, UCSB. (Sidetrack...Who else did we see there? The Tubes! Anyone remember The Tubes??? "What Do You Want From Life?")

So we were really pleased when our kids got old enough to drag along (we started them early, at 10 or 11), because let's face it: theme parks get old after a while. We've taken our sons to a lot of great shows, but it's been a while since our last major concert.

We were supposed to see Aerosmith last Sunday, but you know what happened.

Thankfully, seeing Green Day Tuesday night made up for that. Although, if I'd know we weren't going to see Aerosmith I would have bought more expensive (closer) seats for Green Day.

Frank had a ticket for the floor. (We had an extra ticket for a friend of his, who couldn't go, and Frank did not find anyone else to take the ticket. Maybe he should have asked harder.) The rest of us had real seats...because my feet get tired! I have no commentary on Frank's experience, except he didn't get trampled and he got back to the car before we did.

The show opened promptly at 8:00 with Franz Ferdinand, from Scotland. Not a group I'd ever listened to before, but they were great. There were random explosions (probably from testing Green Day's pyrotechnics) which made everyone jump, a toilet paper blower (I hope the folks who have TPd us don't get one), and even bagpipes at the end.

Green Day took the stage at 9:11 and they TOOK OVER. This was their last US show, and I have never heard a band express so much pleasure over their audience ("this is the most people we've had on the floor the whole tour") and their location ("Los Angeleez!"). Billie Joe said they were going to play all night and they did, literally, till midnight. So much for getting home early!

My husband says: "I loved the cadence of his voice and his crunchy, hard guitar." I don't review the music...it was great. You can find lots of clips on YouTube. These are from Tuesday's show. No doubt there will be more later.



The audio on this one is not great, but...what the heck...



This show was ALL ABOUT audience participation. I've never been to a show where so many people were encouraged to crawl up on stage. The security guards, instead of pushing people back, were pulling people up onto the catwalk to dance and prance. Some audience members got special treats: two kids were pulled up to be saved, a boy sang a whole song, and a supposedly 21-year old long-haired blond guitarist, after downing an entire beer, played on Jesus of Suburbia. He was so good, I thought he was a plant! But there's a video of another show, with someone completely different, so I think it's legit.



I met another mom in the frisk line (they were seriously patting us down). Her daughter was 11, it was her first concert, and the mom thought she was old enough to tolerate the "f-bombs." Yes, Billie Joe said FUCK a lot. Constantly! But not in an insulting way like Ozzy.

Summary: We had a great time, I hope I've written something coherent because I'm still functioning on less than 4 hours of sleep, and I'm surprised we couldn't find someone to take the extra ticket. "I don't like Green Day," was the common answer.

I say: "Keep an open mind and you might have a great time!"

Aerophernalia

You may have noticed a lack of concert posts from me this summer. That's because we blew most of our so-called "concert budget" on a big one. Some of us have seen Aerosmith. Twice. But one younger family member has been completely irritated because we left him home both times. (It was too loud for him before! That's my story and I am sticking to it.) Then a recent tour was cancelled because of Tyler's throat surgery. Finally having scored some really awesome seats through the fan club, you can imagine we were desperately horrified a little concerned when this happened:



We heard the Canadian concerts were cancelled, but so far have heard no bad news about the shows in our area. Today, a package arrived with what I call our "Aerophernalia" -- lanyards and passes, t-shirts, pins, postcards, oh, and a box of Aerosmith pens that didn't make it into the photo.


So wish us luck. Or more importantly, wish Steven Tyler a speedy recovery!

What's crazy about this? The concert is the night before school starts. 3.5 hours away. (Why didn't I get tickets to the Staples center on a Friday night? I don't know... I thought this was a Saturday when we were buying the tickets. And we wouldn't have gotten such great seats at the Staples Center.)

What's even crazier? We're going to Green Day two days later! (But their tickets were way cheaper less expensive!)


UPDATE: AEROSMITH TOUR CANCELLED. Darn it!

Sunshine Brothers

The concert season has begun for us, starting with a local fundraiser last night.

We enjoyed some sunshine in the cold dark night. And I'm ready for summer, a tropical island, and a little rum....Enjoy!!!!!

Ain't No Sunshine



Sex and Reggae



The Rum Song



http://www.thesunshinebrothers.com/

At Long Last My Metallica Post

December 17, 2008. The Forum. Metallica. Incredible.

We had better seats this time. (We were there 10 days earlier for AC/DC). We walked in the arena and were totally disconcerted because there was no end stage. There was a giant flat stage in the center. Three drumsets, one veiled in black.

The first band, with the smallest drumset, was The Sword. They were loud. Someone diagonal from us was complaining, "Your songs all sound the same. Play something that's not in 4/4." Frank said they did play something in 12/8, so there!

The second band had the big drumset up on risers. They were even louder. Their bass player had huge tattooed arms. He looked a little like a friend from high school. (Family members? Imagine Tom I. with long long hair.) I forgot their name. I was too busy looking at the activity in the pit...the whole floor area was a giant mosh pit. What we first thought was a fight turned out to be some fat guys walking in a circle and bumping each other. Someone tried to crowd surf, but fell down. This band replaced Lamb of God, who were "unceremoniously dumped from the tour," according to their replacements. The HH told me it was because the Forum is owned by a church. (Anyhoo, Lamb of God played the Ventura Theater on Friday night. See Frank's footnote.)

Then they cleared the extraneous equipment from the stage and we waited for Metallica. Lars Ullrich's unveiled drum set was not that big. It's not the size of the equipment, it's what you can do with it.

Their set started off with lasers, and just got better. Lights, smoke, fire etc. But most importantly, great music. We only own one Metallica album (the black one, of course, which has been played a lot) so I confess I'm not too familiar with the rest of their songs. The newest CD seems to live in Frank's car and I don't think I've even heard it yet. It didn't matter.

What really impressed me was how much James Hot and Sexy Hetfield interacted with the audience. And on behalf of the whole band, how much they appreciated their fans. "Is this your first Metallica show? We must be doing something right." ... "Have you seen Metallica before? We must be doing something right." ...and referring to the audience as "the fifth member of the band." All the mobile members moved back and forth across the stage, and Lars was on a rotating platform.

The pit was a living organism, a cell full of arm-waving cilia and belly bumping organelles. Crowd sufing mitochondria? (Hey, it's been years since I took biology so cut me some slack here.)

Truly, this was one of the best concerts EVVVVERRRRRR.




Frank's Footnote. Not really his, it's still me. He saw Lamb of God at the Ventura Theater on Friday. He said it was a great show. Lots of action in the pit...apparently the pit divided into two groups and ran into each other. The skinny guys lost. Frank exhibited a mature level of common sense and stayed up a level. He says he got home at 1 a.m and took a shower to get rid of "the man smell." OK.

HB 2 HH

Happy ??TH Birthday to my Handy Husband.

His dad (the Handy Grandpa?) took us out to breakfast on Sunday. The HG quizzed him..."How old are you going to be?" And the HH answered "48?" With a question in his voice. Wrong! Sorry, that was so last year. This year, it's 49. But I told him, "If you really want to start subtracting years I'll go for that." I don't like those 5 - 0 numbers and would gladly go backwards a little bit!

But only for a few years. You don't want to go overboard with the subtraction. My mother was "39" forever, even when it was ludicrous. She covered up her birth year on her driver's license. When you're 59 or 69 or 79 and say you're 39... it just doesn't fly.

Now, my BFF, the opera singer, automatically subtracts a certain number of years off her age because that is what they do in that profession...lying about their age is a given. But it's a consistent number. And she can totally pass as the younger age!

At this point I'm still 48 but I reserve the right to lie about it in the future. Funny how this age thing turned around to be all about me, but as I always say, it's MY blog.

For my husband's birthday: he already got the Blu-ray player (and yes, he was delighted that it was set up for him before he got home).

And tonight, on his birthday, the concert we are taking him to is......

METALLICA!

And everyone else except me is taking the next day off.

For Those About to Rock (We Salute You)

We had a great time at the AC/DC concert, once we finally sat down! We hid a dead end walking around the lobby, turned around, hit another dead end, finally got into the arena, walked all the way around to the other side and battled vertigo climbing up into the nosebleed section to our seats. When we got there, a giant pillar was in our way! Oops, we were in the wrong section. We finally found the seats. Actually, not too bad. We looked straight down at the side of the stage (better than being all the way in the back). It was fun to look out at the sea of blinking red horns!

Photo from PremierGlow.com

The opening act was The Answer, a hard rocking band from Belfast, Ireland. Lead singer Cormac Neeson had hair like Ernest (if Ernest brushed it out) and sounded like Robert Plant. They were smokin'! "Cheers!"




Here's the opening we couldn't see, from our seats at the side. (We did have a good view of Angus's bald spot, a little incongruous with the schoolboy costume!)





The show was full of great classic tunes. Even the new stuff sounded like the classics. At one point the beat changed and they went into She's Got the Jack, which included an Angus Young striptease.


BeefCake or ManCake, he's not. ScrawnyChickenCake?


Here's the end, complete with cannons!



Fun! We had a great time. In the "it's a the small world" area, I ran into a fellow mom at the store today...her boy and Ernest went to pre-school together. She mentioned her son liking AC/DC and I said, "we saw them last night!" Turns out she had seen them long ago in San Francisco, early in their career.

Can't wait for our last concert of the year, on the Handy Husband's birthday. I'll leave you hanging as to who we are going to see!

Raconteurs

Last night we saw the Raconteurs. A woman climbing up to her seat stopped to take a cell phone call. "I'm at the Bowl. I'm seeing the...um...Racketeers?" Ma'am? Here's your pronunciation guide: rac·on·teur [rak-uhn-tur; Fr. ra-kawn-tɶr] –noun, plural -teurs; a person who is skilled in relating stories and anecdotes interestingly.

It took a bit of logistical planning to get us all to the same place. In the morning Frank dropped the HH at work, then went on to school. In the afternoon I picked up Frank's friend Kyle (of stage band fame, often known as my middle child) at the high school, Ernest at the middle school, and then Jeff at work. We were supposed to meet Frank in front of a Borders in the downtown big town. But Frank took a wrong turn somewhere and parked 3 blocks away. We eventually located him, had dinner, and sent him and Kyle on their way, hoping that they could navigate on their own to the venue and find a parking place.

As we settled in our seats, we were surrounded by a swarm of moths. Two of them got intimate on the bench next to me. Later I saw them on the shirt collar of the man in front of Ernest. Still intimate, they ended up looking like one moth with a head at either end, like a pushme-pullyu.

[Whoa, did I get sidetracked.] We saw Frank and Kyle walk into the general admission area and they got standing room right next to the stage. It was fun to spy on Frank from a distance until it got too crowded! I think I spotted him once when the lights were on the audience...everyone was dancing around and one person was standing still. That would be Frank.

The show was great. If you're not familiar with the Raconteurs, you might recognize the name Jack White (from the White Stripes). We were supposed to see the White Stripes a year ago, but the concert was cancelled because Meg White (is she his sister or his ex-wife?) had anxiety. (The Raconteurs have a better drummer.)

Here's a nice close-up of Jack:




The guy in front of me was a big fan (not the man with the moths). With lots of head bopping and air guitar, I'm glad he didn't spill his two beers! It was a great show...the opener was The Kills who we (old fogies) had never heard of but they were pretty good.

The only downer was when we got back to the car, we found the driver's side mirror smashed off. $550 for a replacement. Ouch. That made the evening a little pricier than I anticipated.

John "Cougar" Mellencamp

We saw him in concert Wednesday night! Awesome dude. 56 years old and he still rocks. I'll get to the music eventually. Regular readers may know that my concert reviews are usually a commentary on my whole experience.

We went out to dinner beforehand. I've been feeling empty-nestish, but as I people-watched I realized the emptier-nest has its benefits. Across from me was a couple with a toddler boy (about 1 1/2) and the mom was pregnant again. The dad was kept busy the whole time chasing the boy and hardly got to sit down and eat. Next to them was a table with a 3 to 4 year old girl, who was just the wrong size for every seating device they had: High chair, booster, regular chair. Nothing fit. Or maybe she was just squirmy. So that made me appreciate the benefits having older children -- you can go out to a lovely dinner ALONE with your handy husband. Steamed mussels, a nice filet, and a good local Syrah. Mmmmmm!

We borrowed Frank's car because it is easy to park! (Yet another perk of having an older child. Of course it's still legally OUR car so I think we're within our rights to ask to borrow it. Plus we filled the tank afterwards.) Six blocks to the venue, a hike up a hill, and then the stairs in the ampitheater. Why were so many women wearing high heels? They were tottering and wobbling all the way up.

Between the two acts, Lucinda Williams and Johnny boy, the woman next to me got up. "I have to go potty," she announced. "You should go too!" Warning: rant ahead! I don't like strange women telling me to go potty. I have issues with the word "potty" when said by anyone over the age of 3. I worked all school year to get kinders and 1st graders to say "bathroom" or "restroom" instead of the P-word. But I'm polite in public, so instead of ranting like I did just now, I said,"Thank you, but I already went."

This woman caused me issues all night long. Because she was a jiggler, a bouncer, a dancer. Hips, thighs, elbows. She bumped me with all of them. And that was while we were still sitting down. Not to mention she was apparently his biggest fan, because she was singing along to everything. I like to have a good time at a concert, but I don't like someone else's good time to be so distracting!

The man in front of Jeff spent most of the show playing with his new Blackberry. Two rows ahead of us was Frank's friend Boomer (real nickname) and his dad. Boomer looked a little like Frank does when we drag him along to concerts. Bored? I also saw one of my Rose Sisters!!!! (That's a blog post on its own: one of the great group of women I used to work with...and we lunch at Rose Cafe, hence the name.)

Oh, did you want to know about the music? He opened with "Pink Houses." [Can't embed the official video.] That brought back memories. The HH and I had just moved into our first house. His stereo with the giant 7.5' foot speakers went into the teeny tiny spare bedroom. (The master bedroom was the same size.) "Pink Houses" is one of the first songs I remember blasting out of that system. I worried it would bother the neighbors...we soon got over that after we heard how much noise THEY made. One night while the parents were out, one of the 3 older brothers broke the little brother's nose. Nice neighborhood. We weren't there too long.

Next was "Paper in Fire." And his PA went out! Here's this, from another show:





Please, CHECK OUT THE VIOLINIST! My new best friend, bumping around next to me, was totally hot for her. And told her husband that, many times.

By the third song, the PA was intermittent so I went to the bathroom. Privately. Because at that point the restroom was relatively empty, and my seat neighbor wasn't in the bathroom at the same time! After that there was more and more great music.

I can't embed anything "official" from YouTube so here is an a capella group doing an old favorite:





And here's a home video by some nice person,






More and more great songs.

I think he ended, appropriately, with this:





Goodnight, all!

Go hang a salami; I'm a lasagna hog!

If you have tweens, I highly recommend taking them to a Weird Al concert. Because he's funny. And his band is great. And you'll all have a great time. And generally because the audience is family oriented, or nerds, no one is smoking those funny cigarettes.

I have great respect for a man who can make a song out of palindromes:

The Rush Rush

A few words about the fans:

• Rush fans are loyal. Before the concert, there were text messages posted on the big screen TVs. "I love Rush, Rush changed my life, Rush Rocks, Geddy is God, Rush is the Best trio ever, etc." And some Mother's Day messages. Then there was one that seemed a little out of place: "My name is Bret and I like balls in my face." Oh dear, I'm glad I didn't have to explain that one.
• Rush fans love to air drum. A short, stout couple in front of us were drumming along and knew every beat. They wouldn't even stop when people passed in front of them.
• Rush fans drink a lot of beer. I may be generalizing here, and I apologize to the non-drinking fans. But there were long, long lines for the men's rooms! And no wait at all for the women. Highly unusual.

Our favorite moments, besides the music!:

• Frank's favorite moment was when Neil Peart dropped a drumstick. "The greatest drummer in the world dropped his drumstick," marveled Frank. "He looked pissed."
• Ernest loved the South Park clip, with Cartman wearing a Geddy Lee wig and massacring "Tom Sawyer." He says this was specially made for Rush, and not on any TV episode. He's my South Park expert.
• I loved the rotisserie chicken cookers on stage. Seriously! Alex Lifeson, the guitarist, has huge speakers behind him, so Geddy Lee balances his side out with large appliances. A person behind me said he had washers and dryers one year. This year, Henhouse chicken rotisseries.
• I think the Handy Husband loved everything.

We committed an unforgivable sin and left before the encore. I hate to do that. It's disrespectful to the artists. But if we hadn't, we would have been stuck in the parking lot for an hour or more.

Swayin' with Bublé

Oh, be still my heart. Michael Bublé has entered the secret boyfriend list (he should have been there already), along with Robert Downey Jr. (but that's another story). Unlike Mrs. G, I will share.

The Beloved Niece and I had a LADIES NIGHT OUT! Leaving Frank and Ernest to watch McQueen and Mr. Thomas, we spent a lovely evening in the midst of screaming women. Young college women screaming behind us, older women screaming in front of us. I assure you, we're not screamers.

Some women could not behave themselves. When Michael came out in the audience to take a picture with an 11 year old girl, an older implanted woman pushed forward to hug him. Later that woman stood on a chair, trying to touch him. Towards the end, she jumped into the unwilling arms of a cameraman and was hauled off by security.

Another woman was lucky enough to get a hug, and grabbed his tushie and squeezed with both hands. He appeared to like it. Thank goodness for those big screen TVs so the rest of the audience is in on the action. No panties were thrown.

Oh.....he sang, too.

The Earplug Issue

The Handy Husband handed me some earplugs last night at the concert. We were really close to the speakers, and my ears ring enough as it is. So I needed them. But in his hand was one purple, three orange, and some pocket lint.

Purple is my color. Did he have any more purple? Oh, yeah, a bunch. Hand into pocket again, pulls out more orange plugs and more pocket lint. May I say: I almost chose the pocket lint (blueish) as it would not clash so much against the purple. But the thought of fishing pocket lint out of my ear was disgusting, so I had to deal with one purple, one orange.

Now some members of my family would laugh at that. They wear socks of different colors on purpose. And that's their choice and I respect them for it. But I just wanted my earplugs to match. In purple. Is that too weird?

I like patterns. For example, I prefer to wash dishes in a certain order. You can't just hand me things and expect me to wash them randomly. I have a system. And it works. Everything fits in the dishrack that way. (Although I prefer the dishwasher!)

And correcting math papers at school? They must be organized first. Etc. Etc.

There's a little (or a lot) of O/C in all of us. I can be pretty sloppy in many ways, so you wouldn't suspect I am so controlling in others!

So what's your matchy-matchy issue? What has to be perfect? What has to follow your plan? You don't have to talk about laundry if you have already blogged about it!

Concert Season Begins!

Concert season begins! And the Handy Husband and I had a Date Night!, with Thai food and a John Fogerty concert. And no kids with us!

We had great "lawn" seats. Lawn? Maybe 30 years ago. Now it is an expanse of cement with folding chairs. It should be renamed "Floor" but that's not as picturesque, n'est ce-pas?

There was also an expanse of male pattern baldness in front of us. All ranges: from the quite elderly man who seemed so proud of it that he waxed the bald spot (I'm totally serious, it was gleaming), to the combover, to the sad gray ponytail scraggling below the MPB spot. Now the HH himself has MPB but he deals with it, i.e. sucks it up and cuts his hair short. I'm just suggesting a pony tail with a bald spot may not be the most fetching sight. Nor is the combover. The waxed head, on the other hand, was strangely attractive.

It was definitely an older crowd. But then Fogerty is 62, which is hard to believe. He blasted out one awesome tune after another, changing guitars for every song, for almost 2 hours. His two teenage sons (Shane, 17, and Tyler, 16) joined him for one song. Only one song? Wolfie Van Halen gets a whole show! We had a great time. A tiny little gray-haired lady in front of me was rocking out. She took picture after picture. (Security slip-up as cameras were forbidden.)

Next up, a Girl's Night Out with MichaelBubleMichaelBubleMichaelBubleMich---Slap! Get a hold of yourself, girl!

And John Mellencamp tickets go on sale Saturday!

Concert Season

Concert Season is gearing up again...

1. We just got tickets for a repeat of Rush. Before last summer, I was "not that into" Rush, but the HH recommended we go. We saw them at the Hollywood Bowl last summer. Totally awesome. Neal Peart had the hugest drum set, ever. FYI, The Rock Band game features "Tom Sawyer."


2. Michael Buble (I don't know how to make the accent mark) , Michael Buble, Michael Buble, Michael Buble, Michael Buble, Michael Buble, Michael Buble, oh excuse me did I repeat myself, Michael Buble, Michael Buble, Michael Buble, Michael Buble, Michael Buble, will be playing for 2 nights only 45 miles away from me. My niece and I WILL be going. Husbands are staying at home. Tickets go on sale Friday. But the HH has to buy them for me because I can't get on the internet at 10 a.m. Isn't he a kind loving husband? To buy Michael Buble tickets for his lovely wife and niece? We think so. Michael Buble, Michael Buble, Michael Buble, Michael Buble, Michael Buble.

Rock Band is in the Bulding

Frank is setting up his Rock Band video game. I am still asking, "Why did you need this game?," because he and Ernest can play the real instruments. I think Ernest will be forced to sing, because he doesn't want to set up the drums. Apparently there is no bass. Those evil bassophobic game developers.

We're going to leave the room for a while while they get organized.

P.S. Later... drums have been set up. They both like the drums. Now we hear a constant tap tap tap.