Peter Noone and Herman’s Hermits
City Winery
June 28

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SEVENTY-EIGHT MINUTES OF SIXTIES FUN, FUNNY AND FURY!!!!!!!!!

Setlist – I’m Into Something Good / Wonderful World (Sam Cooke cover) / Love Potion No. 9 (The Clovers cover) / Ring of Fire (Merle Kilgore cover) / Dandy (The Kinks cover) / A Must to Avoid / Daydream Believer (John Stewart cover) / Sea Cruise (Huey “Piano” Smith cover) / All My Loving (The Beatles cover) / Just a Little Bit Better / Silhouettes (The Rays cover) / Listen People / Travellin’ Light (Cliff Richard & The Shadows cover) / No Milk Today / The End of the World (Skeeter Davis cover) / I’m Telling You Now (Freddie & The Dreamers cover) / Ferry Cross the Mersey (Gerry & The Pacemakers cover) / Do Wah Diddy Diddy (The Exciters cover) / Jumpin’ Jack Flash (The Rolling Stones cover) / Can’t You Hear My Heartbeat / Mrs. Brown, You’ve Got a Lovely Daughter / I’m Henry the Eighth I Am / There’s a Kind of Hush (New Vaudeville Band cover)

Chromeo
Webster Hall
May 20

The Lordz of Funk reigned supreme last night at Webster Hall (which reopened recently, but looked no different), by making everyone’s footwork get mad fancy.  If anyone can bring peace to the Middle East it would be Chromeo, a Montreal duo consisting of a Jew and a Lebanese guy.  Lay down your guns and your hate and freak the funk out, yo!

Setlist – Chromeo Intro / Fancy Footwork / Juice / Hot Mess / Come Alive / Bonafied Lovin’ / Bad Decision / Night by Night / My Girl Is Calling Me (a Liar) / Needy Girl / Old 45’s / Must’ve Been / Slumming It / Don’t Turn the Lights On / Over Your Shoulder / Don’t Sleep / Count Me Out / Jealous (I Ain’t With It)

Encore – Momma’s Boy / One Track Mind / 100%

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Billy Joel
Madison Square Garden
May 9

Happy 70th Birthday Billy Joel!  YOU ARE THE PIANO MAN!!!  Well, there’s Elton and Stevie and other dudes who tickle the ivories as well or better, but this night was all about you – and seeing Frampton play the two songs I’ve needed to hear Frampton come alive to, which means now I don’t need to see Frampton solo.  So thanks for being born Billiam, and on reaching 70, and of course for playing my favorite ‘We Didn’t Start The Fire’ (unlike last time when I saw him). 

ROCK N ROLL A COLA WARS I CAN TAKE IT ALL THE MORE!!!!!!

Setlist – Big Shot / My Life / Vienna / The Longest Time / The Downeaster Alexa / The Entertainer (The Lion Sleeps Tonight / Runaround Sue / Sherry intro) / Don’t Ask Me Why / Satisfaction (The Rolling Stones cover) / Start Me Up (The Rolling Stones cover) / Keeping the Faith / New York State of Mind (with Alexa Ray Joel) / She’s Always a Woman / Allentown / Show Me the Way (Peter Frampton cover with Frampton) / Baby, I Love Your Way
(Peter Frampton cover with Frampton) / Movin’ Out (Anthony’s Song) / I Go to Extremes / Sometimes a Fantasy / Only the Good Die Young / The River of Dreams / Nessun Dorma (Giacomo Puccini cover With Mike DelGuidice on vocals) / Scenes From an Italian Restaurant / Piano Man

Encore – We Didn’t Start the Fire / Uptown Girl / It’s Still Rock and Roll to Me / You May Be Right (with Peter Frampton)

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Cher + Chic
Prudential Center
May 3

Cher-man of the bored?  Well, Cherilyn Sarkisian started 30+ minutes late, played one song, then recounted some meandering story that lasted 30+ minutes (or what seemed like an eternity). I was starting to get fidgety, then sleepy, then fidgleepy.  Can we turn back time to an hour+ before when Chic set the stage ablaze, tearing thru jamming hit after hit???? 

Calm down.  Once Cher finally carried on, taking us on a musical journey thru her life story, everyone became a believer!  DO YOU BELIEVE??  And I had never seen a men’s bathroom so empty at a concert!  Which is strange, considering that Cher has a lot of male fans. 

Anywho, Cher – wow.  Since last fall, and thru the end of this year, the 72-year-old will perform at least 80+ shows on her latest ‘farewell tour’.  My word.  My mom is three years older than Cher, but I couldn’t picture her doing anything remotely like this even once, in a year, and especially at anything after 7pm!

What’s the secret Cher?  Care to share Cher?  Carry on!  I mean, who wouldn’t want to see you as a 92-year-old, strutting around in that fishnet-pantyhose-see-thru outfit???

Chic Setlist – Everybody Dance / Dance, Dance, Dance (Yowsah, Yowsah, Yowsah) / I Want Your Love / I’m Coming Out / Upside Down (Diana Ross cover) / He’s the Greatest Dancer / We Are Family (Sister Sledge cover) / Get Lucky (Daft Punk cover) / Let’s Dance (David Bowie cover) / Le Freak / Good Times / Rapper’s Delight

Cher Setlist – Woman’s World / Strong Enough / Gayatri Mantra / All or Nothing / The Beat Goes On / I Got You Babe / Welcome to Burlesque / Waterloo (ABBA cover) / SOS (ABBA cover) / Fernando (ABBA cover) / After All / Walking in Memphis (Marc Cohn cover) / The Shoop Shoop Song (Betty Everett cover) / Bang Bang (Guitar Solo) / I Found Someone (Michael Bolton cover) / If I Could Turn Back Time

Cher Encore – Believe

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Joan Baez
Beacon Theatre
May 1

At the end of July, on a stage in Madrid, Spain, Joan Baez will play the final show of her fare(thee)well tour and call it a career.  No Joan, no!!!  She’s earned the right to do as she pleases (actually no one has to ‘earn the right’ to do anything they please, juss do as you please – as long as you don’t harm anyone!!), but we still need you Joan.  We need you to folk the sh#t out of stuff, cause we are still trying to overcome, but things keep coming, and they suck, and your still voice is the guiding light at the end of our ear tunnels!

JOAN!

WE MOAN FOR JOAN!!!

Have never been a big Dylan fan, but I knew I had to see him before he or I goes.  I did.  He was fine, but he didn’t play Dylan songs I wanted to hear.  And even if he did, they wouldn’t sound Dylanesque enuff for me.  Well Joan, an ex-lover and contemporary, played FOUR of his tunes AND a song she wrote about him (‘Diamonds and Rust’) and they sounded even better than the real thing!  And she played plenty of other peoples stuff!!  Including Lennon’s ‘Imagine’, making it the 4th time I’ve heard it played in concert – joining the takes I’ve heard by Christopher Cross, Petula Clark AND Stevie Wonder!

What I don’t want to imagine is that there’s no more Joan Baez!

but don’t worry kids, Joan Baez is just warming up

Setlist – Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right (Bob Dylan cover) / Honest Lullaby / Lily of the West / Whistle Down the Wind (Tom Waits cover) / Silver Blade (Josh Ritter cover) / It Ain’t Me, Babe (Bob Dylan cover) / Deportees (Woody Guthrie cover) / The Things That We Are Made Of (Mary Chapin Carpenter cover) / Diamonds & Rust / Catch the Wind (Donovan cover) / Birmingham Sunday / No More Auction Block / Another World (Antony and the Johnsons cover) / The President Sang Amazing Grace (Zoe Mulford cover) / The House of the Rising Sun / A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall (Bob Dylan cover) / Gracias a la vida (Violeta Parra cover) / Ain’t Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Around

Encore – Forever Young (Bob Dylan cover) / The Boxer (Simon & Garfunkel cover) / Imagine (John Lennon cover) / Dink’s Song (Fare Thee Well)

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