The Drive-By Truckers are one of my favorite bands, but I was a pretty disappointed with their show Saturday in Madison, WI. First of all, they kind of just strolled out on stage like one of the roadies. I don’t even think the crowd noticed them at first. I was just kind of waiting for the show, and then I was like, “oh, that’s Patterson and Cooley”. They just walked out and sat down and started tuning their acoustics while there was still music playing through the PA system. It was like they didn’t even want to be there.

The show wasn’t labeled as an acoustic show, so I figured they’d start out the show acoustic and then rock out a little later. I was wrong. They sat down and put a very enthusiastic DBT crowd to sleep. I mean, everyone still enjoyed it, but I think everyone expected to see DBT, not DBT unplugged.

I left after the first encore song, but at that point they hadn’t played a single song off of their new album, and I was starting to hear comments about that from fans. I was surprised to hear a lot of material from Pizza Deliverance.

Anyway, I hope this isn’t the new post-Isbell Truckers, because I wasn’t impressed. I can’t wait for Jason Isbell to come back through town.

I recently just joined a new band called Marcus King & Thee Royalty. It’s the first cover band I’ve played with in many, many years, but get this, it’s 60’s and 70’s funk/soul band. I wasn’t playing with anyone, so how could I say no?

The band consists of 10 people. Two members from the Kissers, Neil “Motherfucking” Diamond, Jessica Lee, guitarist from the Bar Tabbies, three horn players, and another backup singer….and of course, myself.

Our first show is November 14th at Cafe Montmartre. We’ll be player there every 2nd and 4th Wednesday of the month, with a few other gigs thrown in. We also have a show coming up at the High Noon on November 21st.

If you haven’t seen it, Kanye West was upset at the VMA’s because he didn’t win any awards, although he was nominated five times, and he was upset about Britney Spears opening for the show. I have two words for Kanye, “You’re right”. Kanye didn’t handle it the best backstage, but he is absolutely 100% dead-on correct.

YouTube Kanye West Meltdown
MTV is NOT “music television”. There are next to no videos, and if there are videos, it’s like 4 o’clock in the morning. MTV has gone from music television, to a network that features reality show after reality show. I guess at the VMA’s Justin Timberlake even challened MTV to play more videos. Even the pop stars are feeling neglected.

It’s Britney BITCH!

Secondly, MTV booked Britney Spears purely for ratings. They knew with all of the turmoil Britney has gone through lately with having kids, getting divorced, drug problems, and just plain ignorance, they’d get viewers tuning in just to see her fail. Of course, she didn’t let her fans down with an embarrassing performance.

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Even if Britney didn’t have all of these problems, when is the last time she put out a record, or had a hit? There are a ton of hardworking performers out there that would kill to open the VMA’s. Yet, another reason why MTV doesn’t stand for “music television”.

I think more people need to stand up and make a statement the way Kanye West did, and demand more from a network that plays such a big part in the music industry.

What should MTV do?

First, I think the entire staff of MTV should sit down and watch “High Fidelity” a few times. Second, make MTV “music television” once again. Focus on the music. Third, create a network for the reality shows, something like “MTV Reality”. Fourth, quit booking performers based on ratings, and book acts based on talent. Fifth, don’t EVER, EVER, EVER book an act that lip syncs. Don’t feed the monster that is destroying the music industry. Lastly, apologize for losing track of what “music television” should be about, the music!

We drove through some heavy, heavy rain to get to Alpine Valley, so we weren’t quite sure what to expect. I figured it would be a muddy mess, but I wasn’t quite prepared for what was in store. We got there around 7:00, so we were parked farther back, which we were happy about so we could get out a little quicker.

We start walking toward will-call to get our tickets, and there was just craziness going on. The typical pre-concert tailgating…..but with mud. Before people in got into the concert they were wrestling in the mud, throwing mud….being one with the mud.

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Once we got inside, we right to our seats. We were in section BB, dead center, which were incredible seats….thanks Chris and Bob! We got there about 20 minutes before Queens of the Stone Age started. Queens put on a good show, but they were REALLY loud for not being the headliner, and the sound was muffled….but it could have been muffled because it was so loud that my ear drums were failing me. My only complaint about their show is the singer’s guitar tone was terrible.

Rage Against the Machine was awesome! Actually, they were better than awesome. I’ve seen a lot of concerts, and I have to say, that was by far the best show I’ve EVER seen. They didn’t have any pyrotechnics or special effects….just ROCK! After Queens of the Stone Age, I was actually surprised to see them rolling out their amps. The bass player had two SVT 8×10 cabinets that looked terrible, like they had been through a house fire and then dragged behind a vehicle from New York to Los Angeles. Tom Morello had one Marshall half-stack, and that’s all he needed. The band kept it simple and used the energy of their songs to fuel the set, and the crowd loved it.

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The crowd was insane. They same almost every lyric to every song, and were going crazy the entire set. There was almost an electricity in the air. It was incredible.

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A RATM show just would be the same without some politics. Zach talked about how his comments at Coachella…

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Maybe the craziest part of the evening was trying to get out of that place. Normally, after a show at Alpine Valley, people start heading up the grass hill, but that wasn’t possible because of the mud. People were trying, but they kept sliding back down the hill. Once we got the parking lot, we hauled ass to our car, only to be stuck in it without being able to move for a couple of hours. Once we did start moving we got stuck in the mud multiple times.

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Everyone was getting stuck, it was insanity. We originally got to our car at 11:30, and we didn’t get out of the parking lot until about 2-2:30am. At that point I was pretty irritated and getting in a couple of arguments with some people on the way out. I apologize to the girls in the VW Bug, although they called me a “dick”, and we exchanged some words, she did offer to spank me for being a bad boy, and then we all just kind of laughed it off.

Either way, the people at that show will never, ever forget the muddy evening at Alpine Valley with Rage Against the Machine.

I’ve been a huge Drive-By Truckers fan for many years now, so I was pretty upset when I learned one of my favorite members, Jason Isbell, left the band. But, he’s a great singer/songwriter, so everyone just knew he’d go solo, and he did. He’s playing this Friday at the Union Terrace, I’ll be one of crazies trying to get as close to the stage as possible.

www.jasonisbell.com

www.myspace.com/jasonisbellmusic

www.union.wisc.edu

Singer Jason Isbell keeps on Trucking

I decided this past weekend that I no longer want to be a member of 20 Reasons Taken. The 20 or so reasons for leaving I’ll keep to myself, except for the manner on how I left the band. I told the band last Thursday I was unhappy with the band and needed time to think about things. The band members, whom I thought were my friends, decided it wasn’t cool I was honest with my 20 reasons for being unhappy, and decided to do the dumping before getting dumped. Either way, I wish them the best of luck.

Email they sent me:

“Since email seems to be your choice mode of communication, we will communicate in the same manner. This last week, you have brought a lot to our attention that, not only were we unaware of, but now have now also become issues that we have to deal with as a band. Due to the fact that a meeting was not an option until you had reached your decision, the three of us have gotten together to discuss our situation, and have reached our own decision. It is not one we wanted to make, but we feel that we have no choice. 20 Reasons Taken has decided to move on without Brett Farrey on bass guitar, and continue on with our current schedule as planned. We would like to finish out our 2 shows in August with you if you would choose to do so. For a further explanation, you may feel free to contact anyone of us at anytime, or simply reference any one of your emails to us. Thank you for the great experience, we have enjoyed playing with you. Good luck in the future.”

SWS plans to have a reunion show at the High Noon Saloon in Madison, WI on December 14th. All members will be there for the show, including Joy Dragland. The last time we played a show was June 29th, 2004. We’re also trying to put together a show on the 15th, which may be in Dubuque.

http://www.myspace.com/smokinwithsuperman 

I played at Summerfest yesterday with 20 Reasons Taken. What a fun show!

1:30 – I picked up the drummer, Jason, loaded up his drums and headed to the singers house in Waukesha, where Dain was busy changing his strings. We leave his place with two vehicles, since Summerfest only allowed us two vehicles.

4:00 – We arrive at Summerfest. Load-in is back behind the Marcus Amphitheater, right underneath the bridge. Bands pull up, unload their gear, park their vehicles, and then wait for a Hertz box truck to come pick up their gear, and a van to pick us up. I think we waited for almost an hour….damn it was hot!

5:15 – The vehicles drive right to the right side of the stage, we load all of our gear, and then try and stay cool. Did I mention it’s hot? We hydrate. There was another band getting ready to play, so I went out front and watched the band with my girlfriend, her sister, and some other band peeps.

5:45 – Shit! We go on a 6:30. I slam a beer and head backstage to warm-up.

6:15 – The band finishes, we start loading gear on. We had been waiting for this show for a long time, so everyone was pretty frantic. I just did my own thing. I got my amp rockin’, tuned up my basses, and I was ready to roll. Thankfully, I brought an extra shirt, since the one I was wearing was already pretty sweat-soaked, and we hadn’t even started playing.

6:20 – Soundcheck. I hear, “Band to the stage for a soundcheck”. The sound company was very professional and kept everything on schedule. My monitors were amazing! It was like my own personal PA system. I had everything coming through them, including drums! They were so loud, they overpowered my amp, which was fine. A huge thumbs up to Clearwing!

6:30 – We played. We felt we had a good set, but we were all pretty drained by the heat toward the end. We all looked dehydrated and about ready to pass out. The crowed was awesome!

7:30 – We finished our last song and tore down our gear. As soon as I relax for a bit, I sat in the air-conditioned dressing room for a bit sucking on a Red Bull and splashed some ice cold water on my face. I dried off, changed my shirt, and that was it. We got our check, a ride back to our vehicles, and headed back to Madison.

We felt lucky to get the opportunity to play Summerfest, and hope we can play again sometime. Thanks Summerfest.

I just found out this morning that all members of Smokin’ with Superman have agreed to a reunion show sometime later this year. The date and venue is yet to be determined, but it’s definitely going to happen. SWS’s last show was June 29th, 2004.

Me and bunch of my friends went to Verona’s Hometown Days Saturday night to watch Super Tuesday. More than anything, we were just hanging out drinking beer. I had never been to Hometown Days, and I have to say I was pleasantly surprised. Aside from the beer tent, there was a lot to do for all ages.

Super Tuesday started at 8:30. They’re a solid cover band, nothing special as far as musicianship is concerned, but entertaining all the same. I noticed they kind of draw a non-diverse crowd of heavy beer-drinkers, which is good for a community like Verona. It reminded of a crowd you’d see at a “new country” concert…..very white, and slightly redneck. They took one break, which is when the fireworks took place. Right before the finale, there was an explosion of sorts with a huge plume of fire shooting into the air. It may have been done on purpose, but it looked like something went wrong. Soon after, an ambulance was leaving the area, but they might have just been around for the fireworks.

One of the things that I noticed in the beer tent area, was there weren’t any security guards. The place was absolutely packed, yet there was nobody there to keep the crowd in line. The later the night got, the more drunk the crowd became, and the rowdier they got. There was a huge line of porta-potties, probably 30 of them, and drunks were trying to run across the top of them. I saw one guy fall of the back, which was quite a long drop, especially for some drunk with minimal lighting. The other thing I noticed was there were empty plastic pitchers everywhere, I’d say hundreds of them. Some jackass was going around smashing them. He was encouraging others to join in on the fun, saying how fun it was to smash one with his foot.

Either way, it was fun night. Next year: how about something other than cover bands?