Venn Diagram

This is coming up in a couple of weeks. Two of my favorite artists are having a concert together!!! The Counting Crows and The Gaslight Anthem!!! The two most recent shows I've seen were Brian Fallon and The Gaslight Anthem, and prior to that I've seen the Counting crows nine times, so when this show was announced (and on a night that works for me) it was an easy sell!!!

I'm putting this post together as a way to chronicle the times I've seen both groups. I had to go through some of my previous posts to get it all together.

I've previously made mention that the first time I saw the Counting Crows was in November 16th, 1995 at the Hollywood Grand with my brother in law. It was before they came out with their Recovering the Satellites album, and it was a lot of their new songs, so it wasn't stuff that the small crowd that was there was familiar with, for the most part, but it was a great show, very intimate. I'd heard that there was a bootleg of the show entitled “Launching the Satellites”, and just recently found someone had published it on YouTube!!! I converted the audio, and have it saved. It's all as one track, and I want to break it up into the individual songs. This was the set list:

1. Catapult

2. Angels of the Silence

3. Daylight Fading

4. I'm Not Sleeping

5. Miller's Angels

6. Another Horsedreamer's Blues

7. Wiseblood

8. Rain King

9. Ghost Train

10. Chelsea

11. Margery

12. Have You Seen Me Lately?

13. Suffocate

14. Goodnight Elizabeth

15. Children in Bloom

16. Round Here

17. Good Luck

I have recordings of Chelsea and Good Luck that I'm pretty sure were from this show, and possibly others (I have a lot of live recordings of their stuff).

I fell off for a while after that, and didn't even pick up the This Desert Life album, but was getting back into them when the Hard Candy album came out, and I went to see them again on December 10th 2002 at The Gibson Amphitheater, right by Universal Studios, and I was reminded of what a great live band they are!!! Toad + The Wet Sprocket opened for them. The show started with all the lights down and went right into “Have You Seen Me Lately”, and on the third singing of the line “Have you seen me lately?”, they put on all the lights on the audience, it was very theatrical!!! At some point around halfway through the set, the drummer Ben Mize had an anxiety attack or some kind of breakdown, and was unable to continue. Adam pulled out his song book and they played a couple songs as acoustic versions, then the drummer for Toad + The Wet Sprocket took over for the rest of the show. I was hooked again!!!

I think the next time I saw them was July 17th, 2003, at the Staples Center with John Mayer. This may be the worst show I've seen, the acoustics there aren't great, and there were a bunch of really annoying John Mayer fans there. I don't beleive I'd made posts about either of these shows.

The next show I saw, I'm not 100% sure of the date, but it was December 2003 at The Wiltern. The Wiltern is a place that's general admission with no seating whatsoever, which I didn't much care for, but it was a great show, especially compared to the previous one!!! The Wallflowers were the opening act, and I enjoyed them. They opened the set with Adam and one of the other Crows with an acoustic guitar off on the side playing “Blues Run the Game”, which I'd not heard before. Later on in the show was another first for me, they played “August and Everything After”, and not long after the show I found a bootleg from the same tour, possibly from the show I was at, of that song.

The next time I saw them was October 25th, 2005 at the Disney Concert Hall with the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra (I've previously had that as Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, please update my flaky brain error). Awesome show!!! I took my firstborn to this show, and made a couple of posts about it. Great show, great sound (and different from the standard versions of their songs), and we had what could have been terrible seats, but Adam turned around to be able to watch the director for most of the show, and we ended up with awesome seats because of that!!!

The next show I saw was September 12th, 2008 at Irvine Meadows Amphitheater with Augustina and Maroon 5 (I'm pretty sure it was the Verizon Wireless Amphitheater at this point, but it'll always be the Irvine Meadows Amphitheater to me!!!) I think I've seen 4 or 5 other shows at this venue, and this was unique among them (besides being the last show I've seen there) for being the only one I ever had general admission tickets on the field for.

The next time I saw them was July 24th, 2009 at the Greek Theater with Augustina and Spearhead. “The Saturday Night Rebel Rockers Traveling Circus & Medicine Show”, this was, and it was a great show. One of the main recollections I have from it is when the treacherous starter on Janice went out again!!! Oh, and Spearhead had offers to download audio from the show if you signed up with them, and I still get emails from them!!!

Next up was October 1st, 2010 at the Ford Theater for the Freeloaders screening. Great weather for seeing a movie under the stars, the first time I've been to the venue, and it's a great theater, with good acoustics for a great listening experience!!! The Ford is across the freeway from the Hollywood Bowl (another venue that I haven't been to) and Tom Petty (possibly with the Heartbreakers) was playing that night. You could hear them during some of the more quiet parts, it's the closest I ever got to seeing Tom Petty.

It almost doesn't seem possible, but the most recent time I saw them was November 24, 2012 at The Wiltern, this time with Mean Creek and Tender Mercies. Good show, I enjoyed Tender Mercies more than Mean Creek, and Counting Crows did not disappoint!!! I remember between the acts they played Black Keys' “Gold on the Ceiling”, and sure enough, I looked up, and the ceiling of the Wiltern is indeed gold!!! Another thing I remember is for both shows at The Wiltern, while we were waiting to go in, a couple of girls were going down the line and trying to drum up business for a vegetarian place down the street from there.

After that, it seemed like every time they were playing locally, it was on a day that wasn't good for me, or in one particular case, they were playing at a casino with a small theater, and the tickets were quite expensive. I would have liked to have seen them more recently, but it just didn't work out.

Not like this upcoming one, it's come together about as good as I could ask for!!!

Positive Charge

It's been a long while since I had been to a concert, but I took care of that last week!!! The last time I'd been, it was Brian Fallon, the frontman for The Gaslight Anthem, who had been on hiatus for a while. Well, they got back together and put out an album at the beginning of the year, and have been touring in support of it!!!

It was at the Greek Theater in Griffith Park, probably one of the closest venues to my house. I like it, especially in the evening in the warm months. The parking, not so much for the most part. I had a few times when I've gotten tickets from my work, and they have included a parking pass, which makes it better, but otherwise they stack park you on the grass. I took the younger, it was the first concert he's been to.

I figured there would be an opening act, but I didn't look into it any. Turns out there were two!!! First up was Dirty Nil, from Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, a factoid they mentioned a few times. It was a trio, and they sounded pretty good, nice rocking tunes, and they looked the part. Truth be told, both opening acts sounded better than a LOT of the stuff they play on the radio these days!!!

Second was Joyce Manor. Didn't mention, I got tickets on the side terrace, in the second row from the front, directly opposite where I was when I saw Counting Crows there. The old lady who was ushering that area said they are great seats, in her opinion better than the opposite side!!! Anyway, those seats have 4 seats in the row. We had the row to ourselves for Dirty Nil, but a couple showed up for Joyce Manor. The girl, Mary, had heard of them before and knew a lot of the songs. Mary was the kind of person you want around when you're at a concert!!! Joyce Manor sounds very punk, the singer mentioned they had gotten rid of all their CD's except The Offspring and another group in their teens (but kept a cassette of another group) but they didn't sound very Offspring, actually reminded me a bit of Rancid. One of their songs was called “Catalina Fight Song”, and you know I like Catalina!!!

Before The Gaslight Anthem came out, they brought down the lights, and started playing “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” over the PA, then pulled that down and went right into “45”. When it would get to the part of the chorus where it goes “Whoah-Oh-Oh”, they brought up the lights on the audience, who would sing along and pump their fists. Good start!!!

After that they went into “Handwritten”, then “The Patient Ferris Wheel” (which, as it turns out, was the first that the boy recognized!!! Thought he knew 'em better than that!!!)

Following those, they broke out a couple from their latest album, “Little Fires” and “Weatherman”, then back to some classic stuff for the next three, then, “since we're in L.A.”, they covered the Chili Peppers' “Soul to Squeeze”, a pretty close to the album version.

I took the close up of Brian Fallon to get a picture of the bass drum head, I have no idea who that's supposed to be a picture of!!!

The complete setlist was as follows:

1. 45

2. Handwritten

3. The Patient Ferris Wheel

4. Little fires

5. Weatherman

6. Film Noir

7. Bring it On

8. Here's Looking at You, Kid

9. Soul to Squeeze (Red Hot Chili Peppers Cover)

10. Positive Charge

11. Even Cowgirls Get the Blues

12. Miles Davis and the Cool

13. Keepsake

14. American Slang

15. Mulholland Drive

16. Autumn

17. Michigan 1975

18. Mae

19. Great Expectations

20. The 59 Sound 

I thought it was a great show, just about all you could hope for!!! The boy enjoyed it as well. Sure, there's always a few songs you wish they had included (for the record, both times I've seen Brian Fallon now, the cover songs he's done haven't been ones that I particularly care for!!!) but they played a lot of my highly ranked songs, and some of the good ones off the new album (could have also gone for the title track of the new album, “History Books”)!!!

An interesting post script, the time noted above where I saw Counting Crows there, I had one of Janices' famous starter issues. Nothing like that while we were there this time, but the very next evening Kutcher had a no start issue, like the battery was almost completely dead. Put it on the boost function of a large charger, and nothing. Ran said large charger for about 15 minutes, and boosted it again, and still nothing. Called for roadside assistance, and the guy came out with a portable booster, and that fired it right up... but it died the moment he took it off. Boosted it again, and it fired right up, and as long as I had it revved up some, it worked, but as soon as I let off, it died again. The guy concurred that it sounded like the battery had a sudden failure, likely a dead cell. I've still got most of a year of warranty on it, but this was also right at the time that all the AutoZones are closing for the night. I let it go, and the next afternoon after work (this was the last week of our once-a-month in office for 3 days, starting is September it'll be every week in office for 3 days... I wasn't going to be out late, then have to get up at 4 AM to go in, so I took that day off, leaving only 1 day I had to go in for the win!!!) I yanked the battery out and took it to the AutoZone. The guy checks it, and it shows 100% charged and good battery. Huh, maybe it had something to do with that crusty looking positive terminal, which didn't want to even come undone when it was on the battery, and looked like it was developing a crack near the bolt when I got it twisted off!!! Bought a couple new terminals, wire brushed the heck out of the contacts and wires, and all was good!!!

I need a spark, I need a positive charge indeed!!!

Finishing Touches

Here's a few follow-ups to previous posts, some things that have been finished off...

First up is one of my dad's paintings. The flying saucer is completed with shading and the windows. In addition, the shack is now sporting one of the passengers, the fabled Purple People Eater!!!

It's a bit on the small side, but appears to be canonical, with the one eye, and a horn in his head suited to blowing out rock and roll music!!!

Next up is my latest work board artwork, now featuring the lyrics I'd said I would likely add eventually. The only notable part is how I fancied up the ampersand, complete with a light reflection that corresponds to the ones on the chess piece.

And finally, I got the transition on Scruffy's roof striped to blend better!!!

My Name Is the Knight

There are many influences and inspirations for art. Here's a confluence of a couple.

Some of my favorite new music from last year came from Brian Fallon. In one of the songs, it features the following lyrics:

And it cost me nothing, baby

Nah, nothing more than this

Nothing more than this useless heart in my chest

Nothing that I needed, nothing I regret

Nothing that I needed, and I'd do it all again

I'd do it all again

I thought that was a great lyric, along with the later lines,

Singing, "Ooh, not just yet"

When I go, I'll be going out in flames and fiery wrecks

I decided I would have to come up with some sort of artwork to memorialize it. I didn't have to go far to find it, after all. Don't know how it came to me, but it did.

For as long as I can remember, there's been an oil painting that my dad did back in the late 60's hanging in the living room of their house. A surreal knight from a chess set with a hole broken in the side to reveal his broken heart. I did my take on it on my board at work. I'm pretty pleased with the results. I'll probably eventually add the first set of lyrics to the drawing.

It wasn't until I started adding in the coloring that I realized that the whole thing is heck of a pun.

My Name Is the Knight (Color Me Black)

My Name is the Night

Get up, go to work, come home, fall asleep, repeat. That's my life most weekdays. It's OK, I don't mind being in a routine.

Every once in a while, though, it's nice to have a little deviation. That's what happened back at the beginning of this month. While at break one day, I saw an interview with one of my favorite artists, Brian Fallon, previously of The Gaslight Anthem. A good interview, and at the end of it there was a link to check out concert dates. I'd looked earlier, and it was all East Coast or across the pond. I looked anyway, and it turns out next week he has a couple shows in town!!! The one close to me is on a Friday night, not great for right before the day I have to get up earlier than any other day of the week, and the other is on a Tuesday, down in Orange County. Huh. I might be able to do a Tuesday. On the way back from break, I happen into a friend I work with who also happens to be a fan. I make mention to him, and he looks into it himself later. I was actually thinking of trying to make the Friday show, but a couple days later he asks if I'm interested in going to the Orange County show. Turns out he lives a couple miles from the venue, and has been there a few times. Yeah, I'm in!!!

The place is called The Observatory, and it's not too big, maybe 1,000 people.

He was promoting his new album, Sleepwalkers. I'd gotten it a few weeks back, and picked up the previous one, Painkillers, once I was heading to one of his shows. He had a guy I'd never heard of, Ruston Kelly, as the opening act. Only three guys in the group, one of them an old guy who was sitting at a steel guitar. Turns out that is his dad!!! He only did four or five songs, and I was pretty impressed with him!!! One of the best opening acts I've seen!!!

While they were doing the change over, my friend asks me if there's a second act before Fallon comes on, because there's a keyboard dead middle of the stage. Turns out there was not, and for most of his set it went neglected.

Here's the setlist he played:

A Wonderful Life

Forget Me Not

Come Wander With Me

Ladykiller (Horrible Crowes song)

Crush (Horrible Crowes song)

Steve McQueen

Little Nightmares

Rosemary

My Name Is the Night (Color Me Black)

Watson

Nobody Wins

Among Other Foolish Things

Smoke

Etta James

If Your Prayers Don't Get To Heaven

Encore:

The '59 Sound (The Gaslight Anthem song, and the song he broke out the keyboard on, a quite different version)

I Believe Jesus Brought Us Together (Horrible Crowes song)

Got My Mind Set on You (George Harrison cover of a James Ray song)

I thoroughly enjoyed the show, with the possible exception of the last song, which I've never much cared for. Made for a great show!!!