| Tue 31st Oct | Pearl Jam and Supergrass @ Shoreline, Mountain View The days leading up to this show resembled soemthing out of Noah's Ark, with persistent precipitation, however Halloween dawned bright and clear, staying that way through the day and into the night... On the other hand, traffic was at it's Bay Area best - it took over an hour to get from work in Burlingame to the Shoreline in Mountain View - shoulda taken 20mins! Ashley, Colette and Dina piled into the O-Mobile, and we headed down 101, arriving at the venue just in time for Supergrass to start. The next 30 mins were spent waiting in a bloody queue while security stopped and searched people for offensive weapons and banned goods such as blankets and the like - Lord knows why, but anyway Colette managed to sneak one in for us cunningly disguised in her backpack... When we finally secured our position on the not-too-muddy grass bank, we listened to Supergrass roll through about a 6-pack's worth of songs, including "Pumping On Your Stereo", and a cool cover of the 30-year-old Kenny Rogers and the 1st Edition classic "Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was iI)" - the crowd were only half into it, the US being particularly slow to pick up on Supergrass and their sound! Geez, their latest CD was released here 6 months after the rest of the world got it!!! I'd love to see them again in a club venue like Bimbo's, where I caught them earlier this year... Aside from bitching about the volume (or lack thereof!) @ Shoreline, Pearl Jam actually performed bloody well! Not being a major aficianado, I couldn't name names when it comes to the complete setlist (might scrape it up later), but I CAN say that they performed pretty much all my fave tracks - always a bonus! These included, in no particular order of relevance or chronology, "State of Love and Trust" (cool), "Black" (real mindf#$%), "Animal" (woof!), mucho other songs, and the one I was hangin' for - "Rearviewmirror". Talk about a triple-guitar-fest! Yeah baby - pity about the %^$@#&* volume!!! :-( Anyway, the walk back to the car was a nice refresher, it didn't rain, and we didn't have to queue to get out of any carparks due to my awesome regular parking spot! :-) |
| Wed 25th Oct | One Tree Hill (Auckland, NZ) chopped down :-( (Thu 26th Oct back in NZ) |
| Sat 21st Oct | Channel 104.9 Day of Decadence w/ Berlin, The Fixx, Men At Work @ Bay Meadows Raceway, San Mateo Saturday dawned bright and clear, unlike the previous day, which was slightly dodgy weather-wise. After picking up a copy of The Fixx "Ultimate Collection" and "Just Can't Get Enough: New Wave Vol. 5" (featuring Tommy Tutone) from Tower Records @ Hillsdale Mall, for artist-scribbling purposes, we found our way to the Bay Meadows Raceway, usually home to creatures of equestrian nature, but today hosting the Channel 104.9 Annual Day of Decadence (as well as horses), featuring, in order of appearance, Tommy Tutone (he of the "867-5309 Jenny, Jenny" 1-hit wonder, The Fixx (they of the excellent "Red Skies", "Stand or Fall" and "One Thing Leads to Another" lineage), Berlin ("Sex (I'm A...)" - need I say more?!) and Men At Work (think Vegemite sandwiches). After gaining admittance by flashing our VIP Passes (standard tickets), Chitra and I proceeded to find ourselves back outside the stands where we had just come through the gate, in an attempt to make our way to the actual concert area... hmm... on second try, we joined the growing queue waiting for the gate to open at midday, leading to the subway under the track, which then meandered past various vendor tents to the grassy knoll, or front-of-stage area. We plonked ourselves down mere metres (more mere feet) from the stage, and eagerly awaited the days attractions. And a cold Beer... Tommy Tutone kicked off the proceedings with 2 sets of rockin' material, slightly archaic but entertaining nonetheless. The reason there were 2 sets is that the horses require quiet to run around the track, and apparently also so the punters can hear what's going on. The horses may have run faster listening to some Rock'n'Roll, and the only update of the race that matters is the final result anyway! Tommy closed off with his signature tune "867-5309/Jenny", provoking the first of many singalongs for the day... Channel 104.9 considerately provided an autograph tent for those of us that way inclined, so after Mr Tutone had finished I moseyed along to join the throbbing mass of about a dozen people with the same idea, and obtained a scribble on both my "DOD2K" t-shirt and "New Wave Vol. 5" CD, which conveniently had a nearly-20-year-old pic of Tommy for him to scrawl over - same face, more hair... By now the weather was rather nice and warm, so before The Fixx jumped onstage I grabbed a couple of Millers for liquid refreshment. Mention should be made of the days MC's, 104.9 breakfast hosts Wank and O'Brien. Yep - Wank. These people don't have a clue. Of course his handy moniker (not Monica!) begged the catcall of "WANKER!" everytime he mounted the stage, so in the absence of anybody else volunteering, I did the honours. This drew a few snickers, so apparently I wasn't the only one considering the appropriate fit of name and person! OK - on with The Fixx, who's van apparently broke down somewhere near Bakersfield (?!) so Channel 104.9 helped them out so they could make the show on time - seems pretty bloody obvious to me that they should help, but the station made a big deal of patting themselves on the back - good on ya mate! The crowds were piling in by this stage, sometime around 1.30pm although I could be wrong, so it was on-the-feet time, and rightly so, for The Fixx played a rollicking set, packed with their hits from the 80's, including of course my all-time faves "Red Skies" and "Stand or Fall", although the crowd seemed more familiar with "One Thing Leads to Another" and "Sign of Fire" - well no, they actually seemed to appreciate the whole set. Good show - interrupted again by bloody horses mid-set! S'pose it saves the concept of an encore... Another beer later, and i'd braved the throbbing masses to obtain Fixx signatures on my shirt and CD's - very obliging chaps they were too, given I had a couple of CD's begging to be written on, disc and cover... some bastard had an original "Shuttered Room" LP like I have back in NZ... buggar... It was pretty obvious that a lot of folks were hanging out for Berlin, who apparently brought the house (paddock?) down as last years DOD, so it was back to front-of-grass for a scantily-clad Terri Nunn, who bounded around with mucho energy, while singing most peoples Berlin faves, although a notable absentee was "Dancing in Berlin". Two nice touches to the performance (aside from a sheer black top with nothing underneath) were the dedication of "Take My Breath Away" to recently deceased Cars member Benjamin Orr, who also performed last years DOD, and an interpreter for the deaf who remained onstage for a few songs, signing words and making it look like a modern dance performance... Other songs played include "No More Words", "The Metro", "Masquerade", and a Marilyn Manson cover of all things, carried off pretty good! This time it was the queue from hell for Berlin autographs, as every man and their dog wanted to get close to Terri, never mind the signatures! We made our way to the booth at the start of "Sex" for that very reason, and were only about 30ft from the front of line, but this took an hour to get through - Terri is very appreciative of Berlin's fans, hence the time factor... in the end it was 1 item for signing per person, so I snatched one on the cover of first album "Pleasure Victim", and subtly dropped into the conversation that i'd seen her perform at the Logan Campbell Centre (Auckland, NZ) back in 1984! Terri was suitably impressed and thankful for coming to see them again - lovely lady! We were just out of the queue when Men At Work hit the stage around 5.30pm, the sun much lower in the sky, the temperature dropping somewhat, but the skies still absolutely clear... Kicking off with a couple of lesser-known numbers, MAW of course got around to playing a generous helping of the antipodean classics that helped them make generous inroads on the US charts in 1982/83. These included "Overkill", "Dr Heckyll and Mr Jive", and of course the 3 biggies, "Down Under", "Who Can It Be Now?" and final song for the day "Be Good Johnny". I was looking forward to hassling some Ockers, but Men At Work apparently didn't want to play that game, as they weren't coming out to sign stuff. I don't think they were fore-warned of my presence?! Oh well... it was decidedly dusky and cooler by this stage (7pm-ish), so after a wander through the exit tunnel with drunk loud Americans, Chitra and I headed back home to eat something and watch "High Fidelity" (with John Cusack - great flick!) on DVD... |
| Fri 20th Oct | Santana @ Shoreline, Mountain View I was determined that nothing was going to get in the way of us making it to and enjoying THIS concert, so an early arrival was called for at the Shoreline Amphitheater, after spending the day chauffering Chitra around San Francisco, over the Golden Gate, up Coit Tower, up and down Taylor and Lombard Streets to experience the finest (and steepest... and crookedest!) in San Francisco roads, and down to Fishermans Wharf to partake of the compulsory Clam Chowder in Sourdough Bowl. Parked down the road from Shoreline around 6.30pm, and walked about 10 mins to get to the venue itself, and headed straight for the T-Shirt stalls. There were some nice designs, although many were already sold out or at least out of certain sizes - we ended up getting a nice one each, mine a blue and purple tie-dye with the "Supernatural" cover on the front... :o) After fighting our way through the sold-out Shoreline crowd, we managed to secure a spot dead centre about a third the way down the grass bank. Everlast had just gone on, so we were treated to a generous helping of their tunes, including a new track that Carlos Santana appeared to guest on, and closing off with US hit "What it's Like" sometime after 8pm, by which time it was well and truly dark... Santana and co. appeared about 8.30pm to a not-unexpectedly rapturous welcome - this is, after all, his home territory, having first found fame in San Francisco in the late 60's. Heavily concentrating on songs from last years Grammy-winning "Supernatural", the band pulled out all stops in performance and stage show, ripping through the likes of "(Da Le) Yaleo" and "Love of My Life" with passion and style, while also pulling Everlast back out onstage to reprise his album-appearance singing his "Put Your Lights On". At one stage Santana's guitar technician even guested, playing some fiery acoustic as a song intro. "Maria Maria" and "Africa Bamba" were particular crowd-pleasers, the latter dedicated by Carlos to the originator of Latin American Rock - the late Ritchie Valens... After over an hour and a half, the band left the stage, returning for an encore that could serve as a stand-alone Santana set. After the concentration on recent material in the first set, the focus now shifted back to the origins of the band, pulling out "Black Magic Woman" (the writer of which, Peter Green of Fleetwood Mac, played The Fillmore mere weeks ago), "Oye Como Va", an extended "Jingo", and the smash hit from "Supernatural", "Smooth"... So after about two and a half hours the first of two sold-out Shoreline shows was over. The band also sold out a Sacramento show two days later, and another Bay Area appearance at the Chronicle Pavilion in Concord the following week. Santana has always seemed to be one of the bands on the verge of superstardom, even though the legendary musicianship of leader Carlos should have guaranteed that status decades ago. Now they are there, and rightly deserving the accolades and attendance... |
| Thu 19th Oct | King Crimson @ The Fillmore, San Francisco United strikes back! I was all set to pick up Chitra from SFO @ 6pm, after flying from NAN by way of LAX, when it became apparent that, yet again, all United Shuttle flights were delayed. Confirming their reputation as least on-time airline on the planet, although radar failure @ LAX was a contributing factor, United managed to find a way to reverse-schedule all LAX-SFO flights, so that later ones were virtually ontime, and earlier ones, like the one I was waiting for, would end up being delayed over 3 hours. Not at all convenient when King Crimson awaited our audience at The Fillmore in San Francisco @ 8pm. UA888 finally sauntered in around 9pm, a mere 3 or so hours late, so we grabbed Chitras bags, hopped the lift to the top deck of the carpark, and high-tailed it into the city, arriving just in time for the final song of the evening, a cover of Bowie's "Heroes" (in English). Buggar. We did manage to score a copy each of the Fillmore poster for King Crimsons 3 shows, so joined with a small bunch outside the venue to await the exit of the band. Adrian Belew was out quite promptly, and spent a good 15 mins or more signing whatever people threw in his direction. It was a fair while before we caught sight of Robert Fripp however, and true to form was not overly obliging on the autograph front. In fact he didn't sign a single thing for anybody! His prerogative however, and to his credit he did stop briefly to pass the time with the fans. All in all a somewhat hectic if not overly productive first night in the US for Chitra, capped off with some late-night cable TV... *yawn* |
| Tue 10th Oct | John Lennon "Plastic Ono Band" (1970) and "Double Fantasy" (1980) remasters released |
| Mon 9th Oct | Happy 60th Birthday, John Winston Ono Lennon :o) |
| Sat 7th Oct | Picked up Heidi and Nicola (Jocelyn's nieces) nice and early, scored McDonalds for a nutritional breakfast, and headed off to San Francisco for the obligatory tiki tour... hooned up the 101 and onto the 280 to cruise past Pac-Bell Park, only to find it seemed like the rest of the Bay Area had the same idea! But no, all the fuss (and traffic!) was over Fleet Week, where a couple of big-ass Aircraft Carriers park themselves down at Fishermans Wharf, and the Navy Blue Angel F18's scream overhead whilst performing inverted crossovers and the like... pretty incredible to see them flying BETWEEN the spans of the Golden Gate - sorta comparable to flying alongside the Auckland Harbour Bridge... they buzzed us a few times, including a nice deafening flyby right over the open sunroof, then quit for the day. By this stage we were down in the Marina District - only took 2 hours to drive what normally takes 15 mins! - so made our way along to Fort Point, under the south end of the Golden Gate, then upwards through the Presidio (as per the Sean Connery/Meg Ryan/Mark Harmon film) and over the bridge itself... what was supposed to take a couple of hours had turned into a day trip, so after that it was back home to watch "Dogma" on DVD - hilarious irreverent flick that it is... if you've seen it you'll know what I mean - if you haven't, check it out! Anyways, early to bed afterwards and up even earlier (4am!!!) to drop those two off to SFO to fly to Mexico... lucky for some! |
| Fri 6th Oct | The The @ Slim's, San Francisco It's been a fair while since I saw The The in concert, back at the Logan Concrete Centre in Auckland, NZ. Johnny Marr, ex-The Smiths, was touring and recording with them at the time, and the sound still had a keyboard presence. Cut to 2000, and The The are stripped down to a classic 4-piece lineup - 2 guitars, bass and drums - supporting the release of the "Naked Self" album on Nothing Records, through the coporate megalith of Universal/Seagrams. Check out Matt's manifesto at TheThe.com. Most of the newer tracks are heavily electric, although personal fave "Soulcatcher" (not to be confused with the Headless Chickens song of the same name!) and a couple of others benefit from the more acoustic treatment they get live and on CD. Staging was kept to a minimum, and lighting to an overhead naked bulb and solitary bulbs in front of each musician. As for the performance itself, the concentration musically was definitely on post 80's material, the only concession to "nostalgia" being "This is the Day" from 1982's classic "Soul Mining". It was a late finish at Slim's, The The not taking the stage until nearly 11pm, finishing up just after 1am. I was lucky enough to catch the band after the gig, and wind up backstage downstairs to enlighten Matt of my attendance in Auckland all those years ago. I'm sure he was thrilled hehehe... pretty laidback dude nonetheless. PJ Olsson opened for The The, with a drummer and sampled/sequenced accompaniment. Hope to catch him again too - nice guy... |
| Wed 4th Oct | Burt Bacharach @ Palace
of Fine Arts, San Francisco
Dashed off from work around 5.45pm to beat the 101 traffic - except there wasn't really any until the midst of the city. Found the Palace of Fine Arts with no trouble thanks to Yahoo! Maps, and parked right outside the venue. Lovely place, created in 1915 or so for some World Fair, as part of the rebuilding of San Francisco after the 1906 earthquake and resulting fires. Due to my unfashionably-early arrival - around 6.30pm - I loitered around awaiting the opening of the venue, and who should I bump into but Mr. Bacharach himself, coming outside to use his cellphone. As subtle as I am in these situations, I wasted little time in politely introducing myself and availing him of an autograph or two - very genial fella that he is, he graciously obliged. The lucky recipient CD was the exquisite collaboration from 1998 with Elvis Costello, Painted from Memory. As for the show itself, what can you say when one of the most successful songwriter/composers ever presents a selection of his works? With backing from 3 vocalists and a 6-piece band, Burt was pretty energetic in pumping the ivories through at least 3 medleys of hits, and a generous smattering of full-length classics. Some songs that spring to mind are What the World needs now is Love, The Look of Love, Alfie, Don't Make Me Over, I Say a Little Prayer, One Less Bell to Answer, and relatively recent tracks such as That's What Friends are For and I Still Have that Other Girl from the afore-mentioned CD with Elvis. One song I would have particularly enjoyed hearing from that album was God Give Me Strength - never the mind. After nearly 2 hours, and a couple of encores, the show closed with a singalong Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head, and some very happy punters. Of course, now I'd seen the show I wanted some more keepsakes so hung out with other like-minded folk near the Stage Door - Burt didn't disappoint, even with hardly tropical temps in the Marina District, and gladly posed for pics and autographed goodies for the dozen or so fans still there until 11.30pm or so...
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