Review: Green Day

I'm probably a bit late in getting this review in, but I checked out Green Day at the United Center in Chicago on July 13, 2009. (At left, Jack with the Green Day tour bus in the backdrop)

Green Day is Jack's favorite band. When I saw they were on tour promoting their new album, 21st Century Breakdown, and that they were stopping in Chicago, I thought to see if Jack would like to go see them. He wasn't sure at first. I then asked if Buffy's nephew and niece, Max and Sara, would want to go. Turned out Max was up for it, but Sara had horse camp that week. Jack as well as Dennis finally decided to go. So I bought 4 tickets. As the date got closer, Shari and her niece got tickets for the same show, only 1 section over.

So we all headed up to Chicago on Sunday, July 12 and got a couple of rooms at a hotel on Michigan Ave so we could spend some time there. That night we went up the John Hancock building to its observation deck... and at night. Cool. After that we wondered aimlessly on Chicago streets. Jack was worried about all the homeless individuals we saw after he witnessed a homeless man in his underwear. He showed concern about them and wanted to give them money. We tried to explain that many of the homeless people only appear that way and instead are scam artists trying to get money from other people. "Why would they do that?" asked Jack. Good question.

The next day, we had breakfast at a local Greek restaurant at a total bargain price of nearly $90. I could have made a better breakfast. We then wanted to check out the new skydeck at the Sears Tower. After a bus ride and witnessing a argument between an older and younger woman, we arrived at the Sears Tower, only to learn it was at least an hour and a half wait to get to the skydeck. Therefore we switched to Plan B... Navy Pier.

We spent the late morning and most the afternoon at Navy Pier, looking around, going through fun houses, feeding birds, etc. In the late afternoon we went back to the hotel, where I got a quick nap and got cleaned up for the big show.

Getting ready to leave for the United Center, you could tell Jack was getting excited about seeing Green Day. This was really his first rock concert. He had seen the Blue Man Group and the Trans Siberian Orchestra, but he was about to see a real rock group.

We arrived at the United Center to find a group of people demonstrating something. They held up tabloids to help promote their cause. Dennis walked to an older gentleman who was demonstrating and asked for one of their tabloids. It cost $1 for one of them. Turns out they were demonstrating for Communism. If they were trying to advance their cause, would they not want to offer these pamphlets for free. And charging $1, sounds like capitalism to me. When Denni' returned, he said that he'd rather argue with the old guy all night then go to the show.

We were finally seated and waited for the show to start. I pointed out to Jack all the usual concert things; warm up band, backdrop and the mosh pit. Once Green Day started playing, we all stood up to see the band. Jack was really excited now. At times he would sing along with the band and have his hands in the air.

Green Day started the show with the first few songs from their new album. They also played plenty of songs from American Idiot and older songs from the 90's such as Basket Case, Hitchin' A Ride and Time of Your Life. The coolest thing they did during the show was they picked a 12 year old out of the audience to come up to the stage and play guitar with them. This was prompted when Billie Joe Armstrong, the frontman, asked for someone who can play guitar. We were sitting in section 120, row 17, the very far right of the stage. I was too far away. But Jack insisted I raise my hand. He even tried holding my arm up.

The kid they eventually picked held a sign that said "I can play and I'm 12" along with pictures of guitars. Billie Joe brought him up, briefly tested his guitar playing skills without the guitar amped up and then gave him the go. He got to play Billie Joe's guitar and the strap was so long that he had to sit on a floor monitor to play. They went into Jesus of Suburbia off the American Idiot album, and this kid knew it and played it perfectly. At times, Billie Joe would hold the microphone up to him and let him sing a few lines... at the same time he was playing. The vocal wasn't great because he still had a 12 year old kid voice. But I was still impressed. And this kid's name was Jack. He was invited to play on the next song, but he didn't fully know it.

There were many times that Billie Joe would try to get the audience fired up by more or less chanting at them and getting them to chant back. That's ok once or twice, but after a dozen times or so, it gets old. Then they played an extended medley of Sweet Home Chicago, Shout and a few other older cover songs. They could have played a couple more of their own songs in that time.

Towards the end of the show, you could tell Jack was getting tired. It was a long day for him. Overall, I enjoyed the show, but it had a few weak points. On a scale of 10, I'd probably give it a 7 to 8. But Jack really like it and will probably always remember going to his first rock concert with his Uncle Rick.

Careful What You Wish For

It was a couple of firsts for Nootril Drop, the band I'm in.

We already had scheduled to play on Friday, June 19 at the Princeville Heritage Days beer tent. But a day or so before that, we got word that we were invited to play for an hour at the Peoria Steamboat Days on the CEFCU Center Stage on Saturday, June 20. For all those out of town, this stage is located on Peoria's Riverfront. A lot of the more popular local bands play there. And playing there has always been something of a goal for us. So not only 2 gigs in one weekend, we get to play a venue long sought after.

Friday arrived and we had storm after storm. We still arrived in Princeville to determine if we were even going to be able to play. When talking with the organizers and checking things out, we learned that the band they booked for Saturday were told they were booked for Friday. Hmmm. So we used that mistake to our advantage and negotiated to play the next night on Saturday. So now we have 2 gigs on the same day/night.

Playing the CEFCU stage was a blast! We all had a good time and it went by real fast. It was hot and humid out, but there was something of a breeze going on. But it still didn't matter. We were playing the CEFCU stage.

When we were done, Ted Sumner, who is also in the band with us as well as a PACE (Peoria Area Community Event) volunteer went to talk to some of the other volunteers. He then discovered that this gig was a quasi-audition and that they wanted to book us for the Taste of Peoria in August. This is very cool.

Once we were packed up, we bolted for Princeville to do it all over again; only this time we had to set everything up ourselves. And it was terribly hot and humid among the cornfields of Princeville. But this show went well also. There was probably about 200 people in the beer tent with a handful dancing to the music at times. We even handed out a business card or two. Needless to say, we were wiped at the end of the night. But it was the first time we played the CEFCU stage and the first time we had 2 gigs in one day.

We have another gig coming up next week. Nootril Drop also played Dennis and Shari's annual Pigstock last week and two weeks before that we played Ambulance Days in Princeville. It's getting to the point we're finding gigs each and every week. I'm not so sure that's something I really want, so I guess I should be careful of what I wish for.

We will get a break; nothing's booked for July... yet.

Review: The Fab Faux

F*ing. Great. Show.  

Dave Cookson and I travelled to Chicago to see The Fab Faux this past Saturday for a dose of some good Beatles songs. It had to have been one of the best shows I've seen in quite a while, with great music and some pleasant surprises. 

The Fab Faux is far different than your ordinary Beatles tribute act. The group attempts, and is successful almost always, to precisely perform an accurate reproduction of the music of the Beatles. There's no costumes. There's no wigs. There no phony English accent. Just music of the Beatles. And as a huge Beatles fan, that's all I want.

The band is comprised of Will Lee, bassist in Paul Schaffer and the CBS Orchestra (featured on the Late Show with David Letterman) and Jimmy Vivino with Max Wineberg's band on Late Night with Conan O'Brien. Three other professional musicians, Rich Pagano (drums/vocals), Frank Agnello (guitar/vocals) and Jack Petruzzelli (keyboards/guitar/vocals) round out the main core of the band. Then include the Creme Tangerine strings and the Hogshead Horn and you've got one hell of a band.

From what I know of the group, it was originally conceived by Will Lee. He had lived in the same building as Jimmy Vivino and while the two were sharing an elevator ride going to their respective gigs, Will brought up the idea to him. Jimmy, trying to be polite, pretty much said that he didn't want to be the bearer of bad news, but Beatle tribute acts have already been done. But the difference was that the band would attempt to recreate the music as precisely as a symphony would recreate Mozart. Thus the band was on its way. And in order to learn the songs and how they were performed, they downloaded bootlegs of studio outtakes of the Beatles off the Internet.  

Dave and I left a little earlier than we had originally planned due to expected sleet/snow in the forecast. So I drove the truck which would prevent us from driving on Lake Shore Drive. Instead, I found an alternative route into the city, which I think got us there faster than LSD. Once parked, and that took a while with a big ass F150 in downtown Chicago, we ate at a place called Rockstar Hot Dogs. It was just down the street from the Park West, the venue for the show. It was a small place, but had quality dogs, brats, Italian sausage with rock star names to them.

We then went across the street to Gamekeepers for a couple of beers. We stayed close to the Park West as we wanted to be the first in and get a good spot in front of the stage. The Park West is a small, but nice place for a show. It is all general admission, but there is a balcony and on the main floor is a dance floor, booths and tables. And it has been kept up and maintained, despite the outside design (it looked like some late 70s or early 80s futuristic design).

There was some confusion about when the doors open and the band starts. At any rate, we were there very early. All was not lost as we got to hear some of the soundcheck and last minute rehearsals. Among this was the horn section working on Got To Get You Into My Life and the string section doing I Am The Walrus. We also heard some pieces of Day Tripper and Helter Skelter.

Once they opened the doors, Dave and I bolted for the front of the stage like we were two teenagers. And once there, we were the only ones standing in front of the stage. Everyone else took a booth or table. We wondered if we were going to be allowed to stand in front of the stage. And when I say standing in front of the stage, I mean it literally. There was no fence or barrier. We actually could lean on the floor monitors.

Having a Heineken and waiting for the show to start, I noticed what looked to be a guitar pick on the floor. I went to pick it up and found it to be a Cheap Trick pick. We were perplexed and wondered it belonged to one of the roadys or something. Then checking out all the gear and equipment, we noticed a guitar amp with a Cheap Trick sticker on the side of it. 

But finally, the show started. The band walked out and took their positions and started things off with Got To Get You Into My Life. At this point you could tell that Will Lee is the major frontman of the band, though he only sings lead on about 20% of the songs. We could see the set listing as we stood front and center in front of the stage. Dave even held his hand out and Will Lee came down to shake it; we were that close. 

I wouldn't look at the set listing as I wanted to be surprised with the selection of songs. And it was a good selection. Not only did it have many Beatles favorites and popular hits, but also a dose of some obscure and less known work. My favorite might have been Martha My Dear off of the White Album. In the song when the tempo picks up and the horn section and guitars kick in, it just sent shivers down my spine.

Towards the end of the first set, they played the last 3 tracks off of the Sgt. Peppers album. During the Sgt Pepper Reprise, I saw out of the corner of my eye someone casually walking onto the stage. For a split second, I thought "that looks like Rick Neilsen (from Cheap Trick)." He turned around with a Gibson Les Paul, sporting a bow tie and ball cap... it was Rick Neilsen of Cheap Trick. That blew our minds. Dave was so surprised, he first thought it was Bun E. Carlos (the drummer of Cheap Trick). So I guess that explained the guitar pick I found and the Cheap Trick guitar amp. They closed the first set with A Day In The Life. Very cool!

The second set was as entertaining as the first. During both sets of the show, we managed to score some Fab Faux guitar picks that Will Lee would throw out to the audience. Standing next to my right were 4 kids, with approximate ages of 5 to 8. They were very into the show. And the band members usually paid more attention to them and made sure the kids got guitar picks. I even helped them out at times to make sure they got one.

As the second set was starting to come to a close, Rick Neilsen joined the band on stage one last time to play Day Tripper (which Cheap Trick had done a cover of) and Helter Skelter.  It was during Helter Skelter where Jack Petruzzelli who was singing lead, took a semi-hollow body guitar and slid the strings against the microphone stand to make added noise for the ending of the song. He then lowered the guitar into the audience to let the kids next to me play. They were a bit hesitant, but I told them was ok and prodded them a bit to go ahead on play on it. Then Dave and I couldn't resist and we started playing on it. So I guess you could say that we had a guest appearance with the Fab Faux.

But then one last surprise... they closed the show with Surrender, a song of Cheap Trick from the late 70's. Once the show ended, Dave and I was able to shake hands with Will Lee, Jack Petruzzelli and Rick Neilsen. 

After the show, Dave headed to the rest room while I waited in the lobby. I bumped into a couple of the kids that were standing next to me in front of the stage. "That was cool, wasn't it?" I said to one of them. "Yea" he eagerly responded. He asked if I was able to get any guitar picks that were thrown out. I told him that I had got a couple of the Fab Faux picks, but none of the Cheap Trick ones, with exception to the one I found on the floor. "Here, you can have this one," he said and handed me a hot pink colored Cheap Trick guitar pick. I told him to keep it, but he said that it was ok because he got 2 of them. I still told him I had others from other shows, but he insisted. I then asked him if he played anything musically as I told him I played in a band. He said he didn't, but his sister corrected him and claimed he played the drums. I asked if she played anything and she said she played piano and guitar. Dave came back and we were ready to leave. The sooner we got on the road the better as we didn't know what the weather was going to be like. I told the kids to "Rock On" and we headed back to the truck in the rain.

The ride home mostly went fast and it was very easy getting out of the city. The biggest trouble was once we got out of Chillicothe, IL. It had started snowing at that time and the visibility got so bad you could hardly see. The roads became covered so fast, you could not find any dividing lines. But we arrived home without incident and was still too pumped from the show to go to sleep.

The Fab Faux show was the bomb! So I guess it is true as the Beatles sang, "a splendid time is guaranteed for all."

All Paul

This past month I've been listening to SiriusXM satellite radio channel 33 which has been playing the music of Paul McCartney all the time. It includes his work with Wings, solo and promoting his new album under one of his aliases, The Fireman. During the 1990's, he recorded under this pseudo-name until recently his fans caught on that it was him. The only Beatles songs we hear are from his live concerts.

As a long time Beatles/McCartney fan, I've been listening often. Not because I love the music; not because to listen to music I don't have on CD (I've got 95% of his albums), but rather they occasionally have been playing rare and/or unreleased songs. Most that I've heard I've either known it existed and have never heard it or I have already heard it and have in my collection. But on 1 or 2 occasions, I've heard something I've never even known about. In fact, right now they're playing a song called This Loving Game, which I've known nothing about. I've also heard many remixes, including a disco-remix of the 1970's song Silly Love Songs. I can probably do with out that. But it's also fun to hear the original demo of a song and to hear how it progressed to the final product. It's also been fun to hear some songs I haven't heard in years. 

Paul McCartney undoubtedly has one of the largest back catalogs our there, if not the largest. I think the only artists to rival him is probably Frank Zappa or perhaps Bruce Springstein. So thank you Sirius for bringing Firman Radio to us. If you want to catch it, you'd better hurry as it ends in the next week or so.

Review: The Pretenders

Standing. Second row, center stage. It was loud. It was crowded. It rocked. I got trashed. It was great.

Buffy and I along with Dave and Kate went to see the Pretenders yesterday at the Riviera Theatre in Chicago. I've been a long time fan of the group and this is the first time I've had the opportunity to see them live. The Pretenders first made it big in the very late 70's. Their first hit was "Brass in Pocket" in 1980. Chrissie Hynde, the frontwoman and drummer Martin Chambers is all that is left of the original members and continue on with the band. Original members bassist Pete Farndon and guitarist James Honeyman-Scott passed away about a year after the group released its second album in 1981. Since then the Pretenders have had several changes in line ups. I haven't really followed the band that closely after 1990.

We drove up early and got some drinks and appetizers at an adjacent bar called Fat Cat where they had a very large selection of beers. Wanting to get a good place for the show, we headed over to the Riviera early. We had to wait in line for about 10 minutes and it was cold.  During this time, security continued to walk up and down the line letting us know that no cameras and camera phones were allowed. So Dave had to run back to the car and drop off his camera. Good thing we parked only a block away.

Upon entering the theatre, we had to divide into a boys line and a girls line. This was so security could pat us down for cameras, weapons and any thing else that would cause problems. I've never had to do this for a rock concert. I've been patted down only twice; once in 1985 in Europe where there was more terrorist activities and once by a Peoria county police officer (and that is entirely another story for another time).

Once inside, I found many bar areas. It was not going to be a problem to get a drink in this place. We made our way to the center floor where it was standing only. Upstairs on the balcony there was seating, but we wanted to get close to the band. We got to the second row of center stage; there was already a group of people in the first row. And they were a very chatty and friendly bunch. The first guy looked a bit like Elvis Costello who followed the Pretenders very seriously. He came in from Austin, TX for this show with his friend Willie. There was another guy there who was studying lines for an upcoming play he was in. We also met some women from New York City who actually remember my name. I had to apologize as I couldn't remember their names. They didn't hold it against me.

The opening act was American Bang. They were a southern rock band from Nashville. They even brought along a bottle of scotch on stage to wet their whistle. And from the looks of things, their whistle was quite wet.

The Pretenders finally took the stage and opened with "Boots of Chinese Plastic," a song off their latest album. They followed that up with "Message of Love" from their second album and "Kid" off of their first album. I wasn't too familiar with their latest album, but I have heard the new single "Love's A Mystery" on Sirius satellite radio. Most of the songs they played were off of their new album. But they also played a slew of songs we remember from the 1980's. I was somewhat disappointed that they didn't play "Middle of the Road," or much of anything at all from their album Learning to Crawl.

The band looked a bit odd as their lead guitarist and bass player are young enough to be Chrissie Hynde or Martin Chambers' kids. It kind of looked like a rock n' roll family. But they played really good and Chrissie's voice is still holding. She has to be in her late 50's.

Sadly, they didn't play as long as I thought they would. We were leaving around 10:30pm. Security there was practically pushing us out the door. It was here that we saw one of the members of American Bang leaving out the front door with us.

Once on the road, I either fell asleep... or passed out depending upon you're point of view. Yes, the Heinekens were flowing well last night. Either the sleep made the trip seem not as long, or it was Dave's driving. We did finally get pulled over for speeding on IL Route 17 a few miles east of Lacon. We were the only ones out there. The cop was real cool about things. As he explained how to go about handling the ticket, he said to Dave that he could either "burn it or frame it" with his copy of the ticket. I had to laugh.

Though a long afternoon and evening that went by extremely fast, it was a great time. I am now checking into getting tickets for the Fab Faux in late March. I'll keep everyone posted.

Playing at the Opera House at Expo Gardens

I've seen this video a few times at a couple of other websites. The Who, live at the Opera House in Peoria on March 10, 1968. I've also heard that Ted Nugent and the Kinks have played there too.



This weekend, the Peoria Jaycees International Beer Festival is taking place in the Opera House. Waterstreet and Stepdown are the featured acts this year, which will be playing in the Opera House.

Elvis Needs To Re-Enter The Building

This was a little disturbing to read this week. Pop-star Mariah Carey has surpassed Elvis Presley in the quantity of number 1 songs on Billboard magazine's charts. Madonna, has also surpassed the King of Rock n' Roll in the number of top ten hits. Apparently, Mariah now has 18 number 1 songs compared to Elvis' 17 and Madonna now has 37 top ten hits compared to 36 from Elvis. My all time favorite, the Beatles still have them all beat with 20 number 1 hits... and that was done between 1962 to 1970 (8 years). The group broke up before any of them were 30 years old. Then factor in their post-Beatle/solo number one's and top ten hits... but I digress.

Just let me say this. In many years to come, we will still know who Elvis was and could name a number of his songs. I could name over 20 just off the top of my head. And he died when I was 12. But, in those many years to come, we will say "Mariah who?" I couldn't even name one song of hers. Madonna years from now, we'll for sure know who she was. But we probably won't know much more about her past Like A Virgin, Material Girl and her bad acting abilities (Elvis could fit into the latter category).

I guess this was bound to happen since there's hardly any decent new music out there these days. Just wait until Nootril Drop busts out on the scene!

Stacks of Wax

The latest project in the home is one of Buffy's... converting old vinyl LPs to .mp3 files and eventually CDs. She has a number of songs that appearently have never been put on CD or she's not willing to spend the money to buy the entire disc for only one song. So she wants to break out her old records and convert them into a 21st century medium. Of course, I said to her that if these songs have not been converted to CD by now, well, there may be some things best left on vinyl.

Note for the kids: Vinyl LPs, or commonly known as records, was how we listened to music back in the day. There were no .mp3s, iPods, CDs, DVDs, etc. We took basically a wax disc, placed it on a turntable (which is now a musical instrument for the hip-hop crowd to do scratching), placed a needle on the disc and let it play. It came complete with scratches and pops so you had to be careful how you handled the record. And I'm not even going to get into 8-track tapes.

This past Saturday, I dug out my old JVC turntable of about 25 years. After about a couple of minutes of use, the first in essencially 18-20 years, it worked! I ran the RCA cable to the sound card in her computer. Now, I needed something to play on it. Looking through a few old records, I found The Who's 1982 album, It's Hard (now keep your thoughts clean). I thought, "hey, I don't even have a CD copy or .mp3 of any of the songs from this album."

I loaded up the record, started the wav editor program on the computer and started playing around with converting the music. It worked, but the volume level was very low. After recording the song into electronic format, I could adjust the level of the volume, but it also adjusted up all the hissing and pops and scratchs from the source album.

Recently, there has been some sort of revival of the record album. Even a story was featured in the Journal Star last week. Upon listening to this vastly inferior sound reproduction, I thought to myself, "Who in their right mind wants to go back to this?!" But Buffy said to me, "Oh, I like all the hissing and pops in the song." Whatever!

While converting some of the songs off of this album, I took a moment to look at the album cover and artwork. It then hit me. On the cover of It's Hard, there's a kid playing a video game. I wondered if that could have been the modern day Tommy. For those unaware, in 1969, The Who produced a 2-record album called Tommy. It was billed as a "rock opera" and was about a deaf-dumb blind kid who could play some mean pinball. Hence, he was deemed the Pinball Wizard. So was the kid on 1982's Who album a video game wizard?

I have to admit, I do miss having the big album sleeve with the artwork and lyrics. While you do get some artwork with the CD jewel cases, it is so small that you will ruin your eyes trying to read and look at it. But I guess you can't have everything.

A Legend Visits Bloomington

... and we were there to witness it.

Dave Cookson and I travelled to US Cellular Coliseum last Saturday night to see Elvis Costello and Bob Dylan. The show opened with Amos Lee, whom I'd never heard of before; but he put on a good show.

After a quick intermission, Elvis Costello took the stage, with him and only his guitar. The guy can really sing. He engaged the audience between songs with stories about his dad. It was Elvis who provided us with our brush with greatness earlier that evening.

We sat in section 102, which was lower bowl, but close to the stage. For those few sections, there is the Jack Daniels Lounge, complete with easy chairs. As Dave and I sat awaiting for the show to begin, I watched the Coliseum employees go in and out of an adjacent hallway that had glass walls separating it with the lounge. Then I saw an individual dressed all in black, with a black coat, hat and the recognizable horn-rimmed glasses. It was Elvis walking towards an elevator meeting up with someone else. I frantically point and exclaim to Dave, "Check it out, check it out, check it out, check it out.." I couldn't even think of his name and thought Dave might miss out. Dave slowly turned around and asked, "Is that Elvis Costello?"

They got on the elevator and disappeared. Moments later, they reappeared only to discover they were on the wrong floor. I guess that can happen to anyone.

Elvis finished up his set, which featured of course Allison and Peace, Love & Understanding. Bob Dylan then took the stage after another intermission. And as I joked before seeing Bob Dylan, we couldn't understand a word he was singing. Dave and I must have laughed all the way through the first 2 songs he did. I only knew 2 of the songs he performed that night.

I was never a big Dylan fan, but I do respect all that he's done. He is a good songwriter and his band that night was excellent and tight. They proved that they could rock. And there were plenty of energetic fans in the audience. There was a couple, probably around 18 years old, dancing around like hippies from the 60's to most of Dylan's songs. It was entertaining to watch.

Dave and I skipped out on the encore, which I hear was only 2 songs. It was getting late and we were tired of trying to make heads or tails of the unintelligible lyrics that were sung. But in all, a good evening with a living legend.