DANCING WITH THE ENGLISH BEAT

The English Beat came to Denver this Thursday evening, putting on a fine performance at the Bluebird Theater.  I met someone else for dinner at the Goosetown Tavern where, to my suprise, it was pointed out that the bathroom doors were uniquely painted to help distinguish between the men's and women's restrooms.  What a suprise!

We arrived early, waiting for the doors to open.  While standing outside, Dave Wakeling stepped out and spent several minutes talking to us, chatting about his having recently stopped smoking and drinking alcoholic beverages (although O'doul's serves its purpose, he much prefers a bottle of NA St Pauli Girl), the very favorable Rolling Stone review of his soon to be released box set (he appreciates the recognition he is now getting, and that it's not such a bad thing that he and his band didn't rise to stardom with all the associated drugs, alcohol and subsequent burnout) and our request to play some lesser known songs (although one or two new songs may be played occasionally, the set list is carefully selected to keep the audience engaged, Dave's experience being that different songs may fall flat).  What a charming individual with a beautiful voice!

A really great performance that kept us hopping for the nearly two hours they were on stage.  The audience, made up of loyal fans, was genuinely disappointed when at the end of their long show the band did not return for an encore.  After continuous cheering for an extraordinary amount of time, the audience got it when the stage crew began packing up the guitars.  A fabulous time!

I biked back to the office, smoked a cigar and had a very pleasant sleep under the cottonwood trees along Cherry Creek in the cool evening air.

From The Rolling Stone:

On July 10th, the English Beat will release a new single disc, Keep The Beat: The Very Best Of The English Beat, as well as a career-spaning five-disc box set, The English Beat: The Complete Beat. The set contains previously unreleased extras, including "Save It for Later" from the Peel Sessions and "Which Side of the Bed," which was previously unreleased in the U.S. Both tracks are available to stream exclusively at RollingStone.com.

The English Beat singer Dave Wakeling considers "Which Side of the Bed" to be an "ironic celebration of the battle of the sexes." He explains that the track is about the emotional distance between a couple in bed. "Separated by what feels like a thousand miles and a thousand reasons from the person you are laying next to, you wake up to find you are touching toes," Wakeling says. "The bittersweet sensation is too intense to go back to sleep, it's hard to breathe, you cannot move, so you start to write a song in your head... 'Who started this next operation on our hearts.'"

The English Beat will hit the road at the end of March for a North American tour in support of the box set's release.

Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/song-exclusive-the-english-beats-which-side-of-the-bed-and-save-it-for-later-20120411#ixzz1zIoNsCc3

Download the show here:
https://rapidshare.com/#!download|561p8|597513615|EBBluebirdDenverCOJune_28_2012_MP3.rar|263771|0|0

VAN HALEN STORMS THE ALAMO

Yesterday I flew out of DIA and landed in San Antonio at around 6 PM. I was somewhat stressed out considering the show was due to start at 7:30.  As expected, once that stress is removed, my emotions will only rebound that much higher.  That's certainly what happened this evening.

The taxi driver was new and didn't know of any liquor stores around the AT&T Center so we drove around and I would run into a store or gas station and ask for directions, finding a one on South Ww Road off of East Houston Street, a couple miles east of the concert venue.  I'm almost ready!

I had little time to prep my gear before heading inside. I grabbed a hot dog for dinner and made my way to the seat on the floor in Row 8. Kool and the Gang were just as good as last time getting the audience in a dancing frame of mind. And of course, Van Halen was awesome! The tequila was flowing, putting me in a different time zone. I had an aisle seat so what that meant was I had more room to shake, shimmy and roll! Sometime during the middle of the show I checked the recorder (always a mistake in that frame of mind!) and realized something was wrong, suggesting that the recording would not be complete. That disappointment just made me enjoy the moment even more, the event staff having to direct me to get out of the aisle every time they walked by. Trouble maker! I just cut loose and went for pure enjoyment of the moment. Screw the camera, I'm dancing the night away!

The ending is always a letdown. I went outside and had a cigar waiting for this huge line of people wanting a taxi to thin out. I got into a discussion with a couple police officers who wanted me to step farther back from the curb and when I disagreed with the need to move, they cuffed me just to prove a point. But they were OK with the situation after I agreed I should have listened to them for "safety" reasons and they released me. They asked what the empty collapsible flask with a residue of tequila was used for and I said "for hydration." At the airport I "slept" on the concrete on the sidewalk outside the terminal where other early arrivals waited and smoked their cigarettes. Traffic picked up noticeably at 4 AM making any sleep impossible. I was somewhat exhausted with no sleep by the time I boarded the plane at 9:45 AM.

When I got home I downloaded the photos and music, it was then that I realized that the complete show was in hand. Since I assumed the recording would be crap, there will be more cheering, "Eddie!!" clapping and other noise that will need to be edited out, if even possible.

I already went on line to check how much it would cost to see them in New Orleans. A fantasy, but I know it won't happen. I now wait for their return in 2013.

Here's a sample of what to expect:

Eddie, of course, didn’t miss lick or a beat despite being the first tour he’s ever played sober and apparently so wracked with stage fright before every show that he pukes his guts out. Wolfgang was amazing on bass. I think his note-to-note ratio to Mike Anthony was like 10 Wolf notes per 1 Mike Anthony note…the kid is rock steady when needed and then walks over the bass fretboard like a lead guitar player.

Were they as spry as they were 10 years ago? Of course not, they’re in their late fifties, but even so DLR pulled off a handful of splits and jump kicks…and I’m not sure what sort of shoes he had on, but he kept running and sliding around on the stage like a kid wearing socks on the kitchen floor.

 The rapport with the crowd and each other was genuine and conversational with plenty of laughs.

The set list was comprised primarily of VH material pre-dating 1984…much of it obscure stuff that only rabid fans like myself and my buddy Jarrett Brown who was there would recognize.

It was a very stripped down performance. Other than having a big screen behind them, they basically just played music…guys with instruments…no explosions, high wire stunts, choreography, etc.

Read it all here:
http://clifhaley.com/2012/06/23/van-halen-concert-in-san-antonio-texas-2012/

Download the show here, mp3:
https://rapidshare.com/#!download|871p7|1082096049|MP3%20VHSATXAT%26TC072212.rar|295152|0|0

Download the show here, flac:
Part 1:
https://rapidshare.com/#!download|115p6|742359881|PART%201%20FLAC%20VHSATX%20AT%26TC062212.rar|344464|0|0

Part 2:
https://rapidshare.com/#!download|811p5|2919691177|PART%202%20FLAC%20VHSATX%20AT%26TC062212.rar|330073|0|0

Part 3:
https://rapidshare.com/#!download|635p7|916824597|PART%203%20FLAC%20VHSATX%20AT%26TC062212.rar|206746|0|0

OOPS...I DID IT AGAIN

Like the junkie only thinking about his next fix...I broke down and pressed the "purchase" button.  I am going to party Friday night in San Antonio, Texas.  And that concludes the 2012 Different Kind of Truth tour for me, although it will go on in my head with all the bootleg recordings available out there.

Wanting to taste  a little punk this evening, I pulled up The Rezillos, Peel Sesions from 1977 and 1978. 

Their bio reads:

The Rezillos are a punk/new wave band, who formed in Edinburgh in 1976 and still play gigs around the world in a re-formed line-up. Although frequently aligned with the punk movement, the Rezillos' (later known as the Revillos) irreverent glam rock image and affection for campy girl-group iconography, set them distinctly apart from their peers. They are probably best known outside of the UK for their cover version of the song "Somebody's Gonna Get Their Head Kicked in Tonight".

Download it here:
http://www.mediafire.com/?ynuzmndnni1
http://www.mediafire.com/?ttt5j5mmdyl

Next up was The Doors, their fourth and final show in New York at the Felt Forum on their Live in New York CD set.  Another great recording and performance.

It might seem overkill to splurge on four shows of similar material recorded over two days, but their Forum mini-residence was one of those gigs where fans would have kicked themselves for not getting tickets to every show: blues covers change, an unheard “Celebration of the Lizard” is thrown in, and Morrison — the psychedelic Sinatra — keeps changing the phrasing of songs in surprising ways, though always in control both of his mysterious instrument and of the mesmerized crowd.

Read more: http://thephoenix.com/boston/music/94095-doors-live-in-new-york-2009/#ixzz1yX1gBHep

Live in New York 1970 is an incredible document of band that had just recently reignited the burning blues mojo at their core. Morrison Hotel, released just a few months after, was the studio crystalization of these efforts, however here in a live context the mojo is that much more apparent. The band is poised to rock hard and loose and there is an electricity in the air – partly the band’s and partly the near hysteria crowd- that is simply mesmerizing. The Doors, free of the confines of the studio are truly alive and downright dangerous. Everything I like about the Doors, from their unique organ based grooves to Morrison’s unique ability to make an oft played song sound new again, is here in fully embracing sound.

Read more here: http://www.musicmookreview.com/2011/05/the-doors-live-in-new-york-1970/