Bell Biv DeVoe
B.B. King Blues Club & Grill
October 24th

We all make tough decisions in life – like – should I eat more pizza?  should I beatoff less?  should I stop loving the sports teams that tear out my heart season after season?

But the best decisions in life are the easy ones, like – should I go see Bell Biv DeVoe in concert, even if they only play for barely an hour and the only song I really want to hear is ‘Poison’????  (I think you can see where this one’s going)

Bell Biv DeVoe’s ‘Poison’ was like the greatestestestest, mos illestest, mos jamminiest song on the Bar Mitzvah circuit of 1990.  In fact, I won the cassingle at a Bar Mitzvah!!! CASSINGLE!!!!!!!!!!

And that music video, OH that MUSIC VIDEO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I do them dance moves and hand gestures in my sleep!!!!!!

Sure, BBD had other songs, but really, all they had (beyond their New Edition upbringing) was ‘Poison’.  Poison, p-p-p-p-Poison!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Of course I was going to hear this song sung live in life, at least once!

I mean, ‘Poison’ doesn’t turn 25 years old every year!!!!!!

https://instagram.com/p/9Pv8yRm3xf/

and of course I was gonna lose my fcukin shit!!!!!!!!!!!

https://instagram.com/p/9QvcXMG3z9/

Setlist – Do Me! / (some other BBD songs) / (a few New Edition hits) / Poison

Blur
Madison Square Garden
October 23rd

The above pic is all you need to know about how much Blur enjoyed playing Madison Square Garden for the first time ever!!!

The pic below is all you need to know about how me and the crew enjoyed RAWKING out to Blur playing Madison Square Garden for the first time ever*!!!!!

*although Damon played MSG before with Gorillaz

https://instagram.com/p/9NE7pehWAb/

Setlist – Go Out / There’s No Other Way / Lonesome Street / Badhead / End of a Century / Ghost Ship / Coffee & TV / Out of Time / Country Sad Ballad Man / Beetlebum / Thought I Was a Spaceman / Trimm Trabb / Tender / Parklife / Song 2 / To the End / This Is a Low

Encore – Stereotypes / Girls & Boys / For Tomorrow / The Universal

https://instagram.com/p/9OzIlsG300/

–

so where does the show rank?  probably the 2nd best Blur show I’ve seen, right behind the 2009 Hyde Park gig, and ahead of the Bowery show, which was really a 1/2 a Blur show (no Rowntree, and Graham wasn’t in the band)  

What about Damon shows?  Too hard to compare, juss ultra blessed he makes many kinds of musics and tours these musics in whatever form they is in

perv-iously on Damon shows…

Grahamer Rodeo – Damon @ Irving

Where’s North From Here? - Gorillaz @ MSG

Hyde & Seek – Blur @ Hyde Park

Thighs By Thighswest Day 2- The Good, The Bad & The Queen @ Webster Hall

Shaun Ryder Cup My Balls of Noodles – Gorillaz @ The Apollo Part 2

Things To Dee And So* – Gorillaz @ The Apollo Part 1

Art Garfunkel
Carnegie Hall
October 3rd

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Dude, Simon and Garfunkel are ALIVE and WE LIVE IN A TIME WHERE THEY BOTH LIVE!!!!!!!!!!!!  BLESS THIS TIME!!!! And while they may be taking a break from being old friends with one another, they are still worth seeing on their own (although I literally pray day in and day out that they reunite, and if they do, I would literally and figuratively pay whatever to see them play together again… even though I’ve already seen them together twice, which was the best everrrrrrrrrrrrr, and probably already told you all these things already a bazillion times already).  Anywho, for Simon & Garfunkel, Paul wrote all the songs, and Art sang them all beautifully, sometimes more so than Paul, so seeing Art solo is essential.  I did it before, I did it the other night, and I’d do it again.  ART!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  But where for Art thou Paul????

Setlist - April Come She Will / The Boxer / A Heart in New York / All I Know / Perfect Moment / Scarborough Fair / The Side of a Hill / A Poem on the Underground Wall 

Second Set – Devoted to You (The Everly Brothers) / Smile (Charlie Chaplin) / Homeward Bound / Real Emotional Girl (Randy Newman) / For Emily, Whenever I May Find Her / Bright Eyes (Mike Batt) / The Sound of Silence / Kathy’s Song / Let It Be Me (The Everly Brothers) / Bridge Over Troubled Water 

Encore – Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep 

Neil Young + Promise of the Real
Jones Beach
July 21th

Neil Young was one of those remaining guys high on my list of people to see before he or I die, and while I’ve had many chances in the past to see him, I kept kinda avoiding it, and apparently for no good reason.  F’reals, cause had I seen him a decade before, I probably would have seen him 10 times already.  YEP, Neil Young live is necessity!!!!  

But did I pick the right show to go to?  He’s supporting a new album (never fun when seeing old fogey musicians), and his backing band features two of Willie Nelson’s sons.  I don’t know them from Adam Nelson or his sons, but I assume they love farms and smoking dope.  Sounds like a match made for Neil Young.  And for me?  Well, their collaborative album – The Monsanto Years – was included with the price of admission [a practice I love!] – and is totally not bad!  It sounds like Neil Young, and he’s even angrier than ever!  The dude TOTALLY hates Monsanto, and Starbucks and WalMart and GMOs.  I try to ignore the ranting and juss enjoy the music, and not juss for Neil, but for all musics.  And live?  The album (and ranting) sounded great!  He could have been singing about how much he hates Popeyes Fried Chicken and it would have STILL fcuking RAWKED!!!

Plus the genius idea to play 5 BEYOND CLASSIC songs solo at the show’s beginning was blammmmmazin!!!

Plus he jammed the hell out of a BEYOND ROUSING 16 minute-ish version of ‘Down By The River’!!!!!  

16(ISHHHH) MINUTES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

and every second of it was ear-blowing!!!

But no ‘Cinnamon Girl’?  Hopefully he plays it once out of the next ten times I see him, GMOs or not

Setlist

Solo Neil - After the Gold Rush / Heart of Gold / Long May You Run / Old Man /Mother Earth (Natural Anthem)

with Promise of The Real – Hold Back the Tears / Out on the Weekend / Unknown Legend / Field of Opportunity / Wolf Moon / From Hank to Hendrix / Harvest Moon / Words (Between the Lines of Age) / Lookin’ for a Love / Winterlong / A Rock Star Bucks a Coffee Shop / People Want to Hear About Love / Big Box / A New Day for Love / Down by the River / Workin’ Man / Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere / Monsanto Years / If I Don’t Know / Love and Only Love

Encore – Cortez the Killer

U2
Madison Square Garden
July 19th

It was my 8th time seeing U2 (and 3rd time at MSG), and apparently the first time I had ever heard ‘October’ or ‘Gloria’ live!!!!!!!!!!  How do I know this, well you see, a week ago, I decided to create a profile on the incredible site – setlist.fm – to keep track of what concerts I’ve been to, and also to add shows I’ve been to that aint listed on the site (you should do the same and help make a better tomorrow!!!).  Well, they have a handy little statistics thing and you can see what songs a band has played at the shows you’ve attended.  Here are my U2 stats.  I haven’t heard a single song played at all 8 shows, but have heard ‘Beautiful Day’, ‘Mysterious Ways’  and ‘Vertigo’ at 7 of them!  Sadly, I’ve only heard my favorite, ‘Even Better Than The Real Thing’ at 3 of the shows.  What’s the point?  U2 are awesome, and have way TOO many songs to play, and sadly they don’t have time to play them all, so I have to keep going back, and improve my stats!

Btw – that new album that was thrown onto everyone’s tHighphones and caused mass hysteria and hate-aria – Songs of Innocence – is pretty fcuking awesome.  Of course it is – it’s a U2 album, and any U2 album sounds like U2, and thus instantly becomes a part of their prolific awesome back catalog.  ‘Vertigo’ is from an album that’s 11 years old, and yet it seems as vital and important as anything from their 80s or 90s output.  I already feel that ‘The Miracle (Of Joey Ramone)’ is a song that I want to hear them play at every show I see of theirs going forward.  That’s no miracle – it’s U2, and it’s me 3!

Btw 2 – nice frosted hair Bono.  You look like Philip as Clark on The Americans

Setlist

Set 1 - The Miracle (Of Joey Ramone) / Gloria / Vertigo / I Will Follow / Iris (Hold Me Close) / Cedarwood Road / Song for Someone / Sunday Bloody Sunday / Raised by Wolves / Until the End of the World / The Fly / Invisible / Even Better Than the Real Thing / Mysterious Ways / Volcano / Stuck in a Moment You Can’t Get Out of / October / Every Breaking Wave / With or Without You / City of Blinding Lights / Bullet the Blue Sky / Pride (In the Name of Love) 

Encore – Beautiful Day / Bad / Where the Streets Have No Name / I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For