The They Might Be Giants Concert

A couple of months ago, I saw that They Might Be Giants was coming to Ann Arbor.  They are one of my favorite bands and I saw them in Ann Arbor a few years ago.  It was a pretty good show and the Michigan is a nice place to see a concert.

 The sign announcing the band.  The band was formed in 1982 by John Linnell and John Flansburgh in Brooklyn, New York.  In the early years, they performed as a duo and over time they added more members.  Around 1985, they did a thing called "Dial-A-Song" where they would record a song on their answering machine.  They released their first album in 1986 and it became a college radio hit.   Then in 1988, they released an album called "Lincoln".  In 1990, they released "Flood" which contained "Birdhouse in your Soul" and they never looked back since then.  They are a quirky but talented band.

 The guy in the yellow jack is John Flansburgh.  He mostly plays the guitar.

 The guy next to him in John Linnell, he plays the keyboard, accordion and a clarinet type instrument.

 They played a number of their fan favorites plus some stuff from their new album.  They have released 20 albums over the years.  They've also released a few children's albums but they are actually pretty good and not insulting.

 It's amazing to think that they've been around for 36 years and you don't generally hear them on mainstream radio.

 I kind of wish I had my proper camera, so I apologize for the quality of the pictures.

But again, I'm glad I didn't because I would have spent much of the time in the viewfinder.  As it was, my battery died after this shot.

It was a really good show and I really enjoyed myself.

The Passing of an Icon

I don't really get upset when I either read or hear about the passing of someone famous, however this one kind of touched me.  As I turned on the radio this morning, Classic Vinyl on Sirius was doing a tribute to David Bowie.  They played some of his songs and they had listeners call in with their thoughts of David Bowie.  And then I learned that he passed away on Sunday.  I thought that was kind of odd because I just read that he released a new album.  Then I learned that he was battling cancer for the last 18 months.  I can't imagine working on a album, let along working on one while you are dying.

My first experience of David Bowie was catching him play "Space Oddity" on Saturday Night Live.  I thought it was a pretty cool song because it was about an astronaut but at the time I didn't realize that it was about an astronaut lost in space.  It was a pretty cool song.  My next exposure to him was with the "Let's Dance" and the videos on MTV.  In fact, that was one of my first cassettes.
As I got older, I discovered his other albums and I've pretty much enjoyed all of them.  There is just something about his music that touches me.  I also like the way that he managed to stay relevant throughout the years.  His music managed to adapt to the changes around him.
So the picture represent my favorite albums of his.  He will be missed.

And the Party

I couldn't do much shipwatching because I was going to a party with my mom.  We were meeting her cousins (they are my great aunt's kids and I'm not sure how they fit in with me...second cousins?).  One of her cousins used to sail in the Port Huron-Mackinac Race and we used to gather his sister's house to watch them pass.  He unfortunately died and we stopped having those gatherings.  I think this is an attempt to get something similar going.

I honestly had no idea what to expect but I was definitely not expecting to see a live band.

 The band was actually pretty good and it presented me an opportunity to take pictures of a band.  This is something I've wanted to do but I didn't want to run afoul of "no photography" rules.

 It was also nice to get pictures of a band in natural lighting.  Any concerts I've been to have used stage lights and that's not the easiest thing to shoot pictures of.

 This guy filled in for a song and was pretty good too.

 The bassist.

 One of the guitarists.

 Another guitarist.

 A full shot of the band.

 Singing.

I slowed the shutter speed down a bit to get some motion in the drumsticks.

All in all, I had a pretty good time.

A Fun Time at the Maritime Center

They had some musicians playing at the Maritime Center today.  I stuck around for a couple of acts because I needed to take of laundry and stuff.

 The first person I saw was a guy named Jimmy Zimmer.  He was pretty good and had a pretty good voice.

 Next was a group called the Barones.  They are a family act.  I just loved the looks of this hat.

 The trio.  The guy on the right played the ukelele for a couple of songs.

The last act I saw was a person named Larry James.  Apparently, he had a couple hits with a band in the 80's.  He's been on Sunday Mornings with Pam Rossi a couple of times.  He's pretty much doing acoustic stuff and sounded pretty good for what I heard.

Roger Waters - The Wall

I have been a Pink Floyd fan ever since high school and I started to listen to Roger Waters' solo stuff with his album Radio KAOS. I wish that Pink Floyd didn't have their rift because I think they are one of the few bands where the whole is greater than the sum of their parts. I enjoy Roger Waters' solo music and I enjoy it when he does Pink Floyd stuff. Well I must since this is the fifth time I've seen him in concert.

A few months ago, I heard that he was going to tour with the Wall which I thought was cool. Then I found out that he was going to actually build the wall like he did when the album first came out which I thought was even cooler. The only way it would have been cooler is if I found out that David Gilmour and Nick Mason would be touring with him (that didn't come to fruition but two out of three ain't bad).

Anyways, I apologize for the general crapiness of these pictures as they were taken with my camera phone. I wish I realized that I probably could have taken my proper camera in but I guess I'm glad I didn't because I would have spent more time behind the viewfinder and less time watching the show.

The Wall was originally released in 1979 as a double album. It mainly deals with alienation and the loss of Roger Waters' dad. It is probably the quintessential Pink Floyd album although it's not my favorite Pink Floyd album (that would probably be Meddle). It also deals with the walls that we put up between ourselves and others. At some point Roger came up with the idea to build a wall between the musicians and the audience. Because of this, the concert was only done in Los Angeles, New York and London. It was later done in 1990 in Berlin after the collapse of the Berlin Wall. It was probably this album that started the wheels in motion for the breakup of Pink Floyd.

This is the opening song, "In the Flesh?". As you can see the Wall is forming on both sides of the stage. Roger is dressed up like a fascist dictator.

At the end of "In the Flesh?", a Stuka crashes into the wall. It looked pretty cool in person and unfortunately, this picture doesn't do it any justice.

This was during "Another Brick in the Wall Part I". The pictures are of people that have been killed either in combat or as the result of terrorism.

This is "Another Brick in the Wall Part II". There was a group of kids singing the chorus.

This is during "Goodbye Blue Sky". It was kind of cool as the bombers filled the screen.

This was during "Goodbye Cruel World" as the last brick is added to the Wall. The next song would be played entirely behind the wall with only a little crack allowing some of the light behind to come through.

This was during the Intermission, the pictures are of people killed in combat or terrorism.

This was during "Vera Lynn" and "Bring the Boys Back Home". The next song would be "Comfortably Numb", unfortunately I couldn't get a good picture of it. It had Roger Waters alone in front of the Wall and his guitarist playing a solo on top of the Wall. This would be reminiscent of David Gilmour doing it in the original tour (the guitarist was good but not as good as David Gilmour).

This was during "In the Flesh!". Again Roger donned the dictator outfit.

This was during "Waiting for the Worms". Roger was still in the dictator outfit.

And near the end of the show, the wall collapsed. Unfortunately this picture doesn't do it much justice. I couldn't get a shot of the wall in pieces as my battery was in the process of dying,.

All in all, it was a very cool show and I'm glad I went. I seriously hope that this isn't Roger's last tour but I have a feeling it may be.

Ray Davies at the Michigan Theater

I've been a Kinks fan ever since the early 80's when they had the song "Come Dancing". I realize they've been around longer than that. A few years ago, they released their catalog in SACD so I went on a Kinks buying spree and I realized that their catalog is much deeper than that song. Then Ray Davies released his first official solo album, "Other People's Lives" and as I listened to the lyrics, I realized that he's alot deeper than people give him credit for. I guess coming up in the shadow of the Beatles, Rolling Stones and the Who probably doesn't help.

Anyways, I saw that Ray Davies was going to be on tour and coming to Ann Arbor so I decided to go. Unfortunately, I wasn't sure about the camera policy so I didn't bring my proper camera and took these pictures with my camera phone, so I apologize for the quality of these pictures as they are a bit on the grainy side.

The sign in front of the theater announcing the show for tonight.

The Michigan Theater is definately a movie palace from the 20's. It's a shame they didn't have the pipe organ going like they do sometimes. It's a really neat experience.

The warmup band was called The 88 out of California. They weren't too bad and the lead singer had a Ray Davies like quality to him.

The warmup band off the stage, the anticipation building.

Ray Davies. Most of the show was like this with Ray playing different accoustic guitars. The show was mostly stuff from the Kinks. He played many of their famous songs and a few of their obscure songs. He only play a couple of his solo songs. He definately knew how to work the crowd.

He also told a few stories between the songs. The really neat part was when he did "Ray's songs in the movies" and explained different movies the songs were in.



Then for the last couple of songs he was accompanied by the warm up band and really electrified the theater. The rendition of Lola was awesome as he encouraged the crowd to sing with him.

I've only been to a few concerts and I'll have to say this was probably one of the better ones I've seen. Ray definately still has it and still has quite a bit of energy.