Category: Legends

Rewind Review: Rare Earth – Get Ready (1969)

Rare Earth‘s Get Ready is their second album, but many consider it their first since it launched them into the stratosphere of popularity in the late 1960’s. The all-white psychedelic soul group signed to Motown was the first (and pretty much only) rock group to bring Motown hit records – to the point that Motown named it’s rock sub-label “Rare Earth” after the band (Gil Bridges – vocals, saxophone, and tambourine, Kenny James – vocals, organ, and piano, John Persh – vocals and bass, Rod Richards – vocals and guitar, and Pete Rivera – vocals and drums).

There are only six tracks on Get Ready, and all of them are good. I mean, the album did do Platinum-level sales, after all. It opens with “Magic Key” and Richards fuzzed-out guitar and Rivera’s wicked grooves and vocals about equality and mutual respect being the magic key to a better world. Their great cover of “Tobacco Road” is full of sweet solos: James’ great organ riffs, Bridges’ sax work, Rivera’s vocals that bring out the blues and don’t try too hard, and Richards’ quick, trippy solo is top-notch.

Rivera’s groove on their cover of Traffic‘s “Feelin’ Alright” is so tight that it could perform in a military parade. The funky, trippy “In Bed” is both a tribute to shagging and to life and death. Persh’s bass on “Train to Nowhere” is deceptively wicked.

The standout track is, of course, the title track / cover of The Temptations‘ “Get Ready” – all twenty minutes of it. It begins with a spaced-out instrumental jazz-rock solo with Bridges’ saxophone taking front and center stage while Persh slowly builds up to the groove of the track and you realize you’re listening to a live recording that proceeds to race off at eight miles per hour. The bass and drum breakdown around the six-minute mark is killer. Richards gets to stretch his muscles as well for a wild space rock solo that flows perfectly into Bridges’ sax solo. All these solos last about thirteen minutes before blasting back into the chorus.

Get Ready is a fine mix of funk, soul, and psychedelia and essential listening for fans of those genres.

Keep your mind open.

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Rewind Review: Gary Wilson – Alone with Gary Wilson (2015)

I have no idea why it took me so long to get around to hearing and buying Gary Wilson‘s 2015 album, Alone with Gary Wilson. It might be because Mr. Wilson was prolific in the last decade and that I was too busy buying his Christmas album, his outer space-themed album, his album about returning to Endicott, New York, or any of the other ones he released in the 2010’s. Shame on me for missing this one, because it’s one of his funkiest.

The album starts with the short jazz oddity, “Last Night I Kissed You,” which makes one think Wilson’s head was swirling from the kiss. “You Called Me on the Phone Last Night” follows. It’s a tale of Wilson crying “all night long” as he wishes his dream of a phone call, just a phone call, from his lost love would happen. The electric piano in it is delightfully peppy, making you think that Wilson isn’t too glum.

“Let’s Walk in a Dream” puts down a funky beat as Wilson sings about dancing with his girl in the park, but his band, The Blind Dates, sing, “Gary walked away into the park. He was all alone crying in the dark.” during the chorus. It’s all a dream, but at least in his dreams he can “make the scene” with his girl. “I should’ve listened to Dear Abby’s advice,” Wilson sings on “Linda Walked Away.” The whole tune slinks along as seductively as the tick-tock of Linda’s hips, but Linda still wants nothing to do with him.

Wilson reveals that he’s the (in)famous “Chromium Clown” in a quirky track that reveals he just wants to make his girl laugh, but she’s too full of despair to enjoy a ride on a merry-go-round or anything else he has planned. The groove of “Every Night Is Friday Night” is smooth. Damn smooth. “A Thousand Trees Were Dancing in the Park” has Wilson feeling as cool as he did in high school, but then feeling weak when he sees his girl’s lovely eyes. All he can do is walk into the North Side Park and wonder how he can build the courage to approach her. Why can’t she tell (judging by the groovy swing of the tune) how cool he is?

“I Know That You Kissed Me” has some of Wilson’s sauciest lyrics as he puts down some great electric organ riffs and sings about wrapping his girl in a sheet. “Please Don’t Make Me Cry Tonight” has him lying alone as the sun goes down on another Friday night and he can only dream of taking a walk to the lake with his girl. The song dissolves into a weird nightmare.

“You Looked So Cool While You Were Dancing” is serious bedroom rock. Wilson and the Blind Dates are at the top of their funky forms on it. “I Really Dig Your Smile” has this cool beat breakdown in it before Wilson whispers the names of his secret loves. “Sea Cruise” isn’t a cover of the song by Frankie Ford (although that would be amazing), but rather Wilson singing a nice little love song about taking his girl on a nice cruise to get the both of them away from their troubles and dance the nights away at sea.

“I Will Do What It Takes” proclaims Wilson on the next track. He will do what he needs to do to take his girl fall in love with him – be it take her on a sea cruise, a date at the bowling alley, or just a walk in the park or to the beach. The slow jam sexiness of the track practically drips like honey off a spoon. The album ends with another freaky instrumental, “One More Kiss.” That’s all Wilson wants. That’s all any of us want, really.

Don’t miss out on this album like I did for five years. It’s too good for that.

Keep your mind open.

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Anthology Editions to release “13th Floor Elevators: A Visual History.”

“Their journey still occasions wonder and awe. For so many years, it was hardly told. Here it is, in pictures and words. This is the way, step inside.” – Jon Savage 

13th Floor Elevators: A Visual History, written and curated by Paul Drummond and published by Anthology Editions, will be released April 21st, and is available for preorder now. Direct orders  of the book through the Anthology website will be shipped immediately. 13th Floor Elevators: A Visual History tells the complete and unvarnished story of a band, which, until now, has been thought of as tragically underdocumented. Drummond has spent years amassing an unprecedented archive of primary materials, including scores of previously-unseen band photographs, rare and iconic psychedelic artworks, and more. A full list of visual assets can be found below.

Preview 13th Floor Elevators: A Visual History

Born out of a union of club bands on the burgeoning Austin bohemian scene and a pronounced taste for hallucinogens, the 13th Floor Elevators formed in late 1965 when lyricist Tommy Hall asked a local singer named Roky Erickson to join up with his new rock outfit. Four years, three official albums, and countless acid trips later, it was over: the Elevators’ pioneering first run ended in a dizzying jumble of professional mismanagement, internal arguments, drug busts, and forced psychiatric imprisonments.

In their short existence, however, the group succeeded in blowing the lid off the budding musical underground, logging early salvos in the countercultural struggle against state authorities, and turning their deeply hallucinatory take on jug-band garage rock into a new American institution called psychedelic music. Before the hippies, before the punks, there were the 13th Floor Elevators: an unlikely crew of outcast weirdo geniuses who changed culture. 13th Floor Elevators: A Visual History places the band finally and undeniably in the pantheon of innovators of American rock music to which they have always belonged.

13th Floor Elevators: A Visual History Visual Assets:
●      Rare photos, including many newly-discovered color shots
●      Family scrapbook photos and clippings
●      Photography and ephemera from the band’s friends, a who’s-who of the 1960s Austin arts scene
●      Stills from the band’s television appearances
●      Contemporary newspaper and underground press clippings covering the band’s rise (and fall)
●      Materials from the books that inspired the band’s unique iconography
●      Internal documents from the band’s label International Artists documenting the disastrous business side of the Elevators’ career in detail
●      Materials relating to the band’s legal troubles, from handwritten drug deal letters to Austin Police Department surveillance photos to mugshots and draft cards
●      The most complete collection of show flyers and handbills ever assembled, including many rare alternate printings of iconic psychedelic posters

About the Author:
Paul Drummond is a renowned antiquarian bookseller based in London. He has spent years documenting every aspect of the history of the 13th Floor Elevators, and is the author of Eye Mind (2007), the exhaustive and definitive biography of the band.

Order 13th Floor Elevators: A Visual History
https://bit.ly/2QY4jgv

Keep your mind open.

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Rewind Review: Public Image Ltd. – This Is What You Want…This Is What You Get (1984)

The fourth album by Public Image Ltd., This Is What You Want…This Is What You Get, came out in the Year of Orwell – 1984. The world was in the middle of the Cold War and people were wondering which side was going to first heat it up. It was the “me decade” here in the U.S. for Wall Street tycoons who were grabbing all the wealth they could while the rest of us were waiting on Trickle Down Economics to make our lives easier. Spoiler alert: We’re still waiting.

John Lydon and guitarist Keith Levene were working on the album and had an early mix, entitled Commercial Zone, completed. Levene took it to Virgin Records, but Lydon abandoned the project and re-recorded all of it to create This Is What You Want…This Is What You Get.

It starts with the buzzy “Bad Life,” which was the first single off the record. It mixes funky bass with cool horn blasts as Lydon sings, “This machine is on the move. Looking out for number one.” It’s a nice shove at 1980’s yuppies stepping on others to get what they want. The title of the album is repeated over electric drum beats toward the end of the track (and throughout the album).

“This Is Not a Love Song” was Lydon’s poke at people who kept asking him, “Why don’t you write a love song?” He write a brassy jam that mostly repeats the title and ended up being one of his biggest hits. “Happy to have and not to have not. Big business is very wise. I’m crossing over into the enterprise,” he sings, telling all of us that he could take the money and run if he wanted.

Louis Bernardi‘s bass on “Solitaire” is downright nasty. You could easily slap it onto a funk record and it wouldn’t sound out of place. “Tie Me to the Length of That” is a reference to Lydon’s birth, even referencing the doctor who slapped him when he was born. It crawls around the room like a creepy goblin. The horn section echoes from the background like some sort of distant warning.

“The Pardon” has Lydon calling people out for being resistant to change. The beat is a weird tribal jam that is hard to describe but one that sinks into your head. “Where Are You?” is barely controlled chaos as Lydon searches for…someone. I’m still not sure whom.

“1981” is a post-punk classic with Lydon ranting about everything he could see was going to go wrong in the decade and how he figured it might be best to leave England for a while. The drums are sharp, the baritone sax angry, the cymbals sizzling, and the lyrics biting: “I could be desperate. I could be brave…I want everything in 1981.”

The album’s title is repeated again at the beginning of the last track – “The Order of Death” – killer drum beats back dark piano chords. The guitar chords are like something out of a Ridley Scott film score. It’s a cool ending to a cool record, and somewhat of a forgotten post-punk classic.

Keep your mind open.

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Review: Randy Holden – Population II (2020 reissue)

Randy Holden, former guitarist and vocalist of metal pioneers Blue Cheer, debuted his first solo album, Population II (because it was just Holden and his drummer / keyboardist Chris Lockheed – and it’s also a term for a star cluster with heavy metals in it), in 1969 to stunned audiences. He recorded the proto-doom metal record with sixteen 200-watt Sunn amps in an opera house and troubles with releasing it bankrupted Holden. The album was bootlegged and copied many times, but RidingEasy Records has unleashed it in a new, high quality remaster that sounds like, as Holden once put it, “Godzilla walked into the room.”

The album opens with the cosmic sludge of “Guitar Song.” Holden moves back and forth between heavy stoner psych and gold old-fashioned metal shredding. Lockheed keeps the drums minimal, letting Holden’s guitar take center stage. Don’t ask me to figure out the meaning of “Fruit Icebergs,” just enjoy the epic riffs and iceberg-heavy drums as they come at you like an unstoppable force. The song (with lyrics about enjoying colors and heaven, among other things) is so massive that there’s a groovy break in it entitled “Between Time” in which Holden sings about loving his guitar before “Fruit Icebergs (Conclusion)” comes back for nearly another two minutes.

“Blue My Mind” could refer to Holden’s time in Blue Cheer or a woman who once gave him a wild ride. Either way, Lockheed thumps out the heartbeats of a titan while Holden’s guitar seems to be the marching music of an orc army. The album ends with the stunning ten-minute long “Keeper of the Flame.” Holden compares women to beautiful blue skies and rainbows, but don’t let the lyrics make you think the track is some sort of acoustic hippie love jam. It’s a chugging blues-influenced rocker that sounds like an out of control big rig truck at some points.

This could easily be one of the top reissues of 2020, and it’s a treasure if you’re a fan of cosmic / stoner / doom rock. Many thanks to RidingEasy Records for giving it a proper release.

Keep your mind open.

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RidingEasy Records releases first track from remastered rare Randy Holden album.

“Population II is considered one of the world’s first doom albums of all time.” — Metal Injection

RidingEasy Records proudly announce the official reissue on physical and digital formats of the extremely rare 1970 proto-metal album Randy Holden – Population II. Considered one of the first doom metal albums ever, the ex-Blue Cheer guitarist’s solo debut has long been sought out by collectors. The remastered full length will be available on all streaming platforms for the first time, with a master more true to the original mix on LP, CD and streaming.

Metal Injection has the first taste of the remastered album, “Blue My Mind” to hear & share HERE. (Direct Bandcamp, YouTube.) 
“Godzilla just walked into the room. People just stood there with their eyes and mouths wide open.” 

To hear Randy Holden describe the audience’s reaction in 1969 to his solo debut performing with a teeth-rattling phalanx of 16 (sixteen!) 200 watt Sunn amps is about as close as many of us will get to truly experience the moment heavy metal music morphed into existence. However, at last we have unearthed the proper fossil record.
Population II, the now legendary, extremely rare album by guitarist/vocalist Holden and drummer/keyboardist Chris Lockheed is considered to be one of the earliest examples of doom metal. Though its original release was a very limited in number and distribution, like all great records, its impact over time has continued to grow.

In 1969, Holden, fresh off his tenure with proto-metal pioneers Blue Cheer (appearing on one side of the New! Improved! Blue Cheer album and touring for the better part of a year in the group), aimed for more control over his band. Thus, Randy Holden – Population II was born, the duo naming itself after the astronomical term for a particular star cluster with heavy metals present. 

“I wanted to do something that hadn’t been done before,” Holden explains. “I was interested in discordant sounds that could be melodic but gigantically huge. I rented an Opera house for rehearsal, set up with 16 Sunn amps. That’s what I was going for, way over the top.” 
And over the top it is. The 6-song album delves into leaden sludge, lumbering doom and epic soaring riffs that sound free from all constraints of the era. It’s incredibly heavy, but infused with a melodic, albeit mechanistic, sensibility. 

“At the time, I was hearing these crazy melodies everywhere I went,” Holden says. “I thought I was going crazy.” For example, one day he slowly rooted out a powerful sound that had been nagging him and discovered it coming from a ceiling fan. “Machinery all around us doesn’t turn in a perfect rhythm. That’s what I was tuning into, I heard the music and the discordant sounds coming from the machinery. It was perfect for rendering the machine we built.”

Troubles with the album’s release bankrupted Holden, who subsequently left music for over two decades. It was bootlegged several times over the years, but until now hasn’t seen a proper remaster and has yet to be available on digital platforms. “The original mastering just destroyed the dynamics of it,” Holden says. “They flattened it out. Now we got a really nice remaster that should be the closest thing to the original recording.” 

Population II will be available on LP, CD and download on February 28th, 2020 via RidingEasy Records. 

Keep your mind open.

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Rage Against the Machine announce first tour in almost a decade.

Rage Against the Machine have announced their first full tour in almost ten years, starting with three shows in the American southwest that will benefit immigrant charities. Most of the tour includes opening support from Run the Jewels, and there’s also a headlining spot for RATM at Coachella this year. Tickets are on sale now, and I’m sure many dates (if not all of them) will sell out. Here’s the list:

03-26 El Paso, TX – Don Haskins Center
03-28 Las Cruces, NM – Pan American Center
03-30 Glendale, AZ – Gila River Arena
04-10 Indio, CA – Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival
04-17 Indio, CA – Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival
04-21 Oakland, CA – Oakland Arena
04-25 Portland, OR – Moda Center
04-28 Tacoma, WA – Tacoma Dome
05-01 Vancouver, BC – Pacific Coliseum at the PNE
05-03 Edmonton, Alberta – Rogers Place
05-05 Calgary, Alberta – Scotiabank Saddledome
05-07 Winnipeg, Manitoba – Bell MTS Place
05-09 Sioux Falls, SD – Denny Sanford Premier Center
05-11 Minneapolis, MN – Target Center
05-14 Kansas City, MO – Sprint Center
05-16 St. Louis, MO – Enterprise Center
05-19 Chicago, IL – United Center
05-23 Boston, MA – Boston Calling
06-19 Dover, DE – Firefly
07-10 East Troy, WI – Alpine Valley Music Theatre
07-13 Detroit, MI – Little Caesars Arena
07-17 Ottawa, Ontario – Ottawa Bluesfest
07-18 Québec City, Québec – Festival d’Été de Québec
07-21 Hamilton, Ontario – FirstOntario Centre
07-23 Toronto, Ontario – Scotiabank Arena
07-27 Buffalo, NY – KeyBank Center
07-29 Cleveland, OH – Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse
07-31 Pittsburgh, PA – PPG Paints Arena
08-02 Raleigh, NC – PNC Arena
08-04 Washington, DC – Capital One Arena
08-07 Camden, NJ – BB&T Pavilion
08-10 New York, NY – Madison Square Garden
08-11 New York, NY – Madison Square Garden
08-28 Leeds, England – Leeds Festival
08-30 Reading, England – Reading Festival
09-01 Paris, France – Rock En Seine Festival
09-04 Stradbally Laois, Ireland – Electric Picnic Festival
09-06 Berlin, Germany – Lollapalooza Berlin Festival
09-08 Prague, Czech Republic – O2 Arena
09-10 Krakow, Poland – Tauron Arena

Keep your mind open.

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Rewind Review: Iggy Pop – Post-Pop Depression (2016)

Iggy Pop once described his 2016 album Post-Pop Depression in a Rolling Stone article as “discussing issues of what happens when your utility is at an end, and dealing with your legacy.” It’s also an album with heavy themes of sex and death.

The opener, “Break into Your Heart,” with it’s heavy, menacing bass by Dean Fertita (of Queens of the Stone Age) is about Pop willing to do whatever it takes to win the object of his desire. “Gardenia” has Pop and Joshua Homme (also of QOTSA as well as Eagles of Death Metal) singing of a “black goddess in a shabby raincoat” with an “hourglass glass” and “slant devil eyes” and how he just wants to pay for one more night with her. A friend of mine wondered if we needed a song about Iggy Pop, who was sixty-nine years old at the time, getting laid. I figured a guy pushing seventy singing about how he’s wanting (and, let’s face it, getting) more sex than guys decades younger than he is pretty damn punk rock.

“American Valhalla” is a song about figuring out what’s left behind after we die. “Death is the the pill that’s tough to swallow…I’m not the man with everything. I’ve nothing but my name. Lonely, lonely deeds that no one sees…Where is American Valhalla?” Everyone wants to know the answer to this, especially when we realize it’s not found in consumerism, Instagram, or reality TV. Homme’s guitar on “In the Lobby” reminds me of Mick Ronson‘s chops, and Pop’s vocals about hoping he doesn’t lose his life as he walks behind his shadow as “the dancing kids” who are out for their kicks are oblivious to the passage of time.

“Sunday” is a tale of enduring the drudgery of the work week and, I suspect, the life of a rock star (“This job is a masquerade of recreation.” / “I’ve got it all, but what’s it for?”) just to get to a day off. “Vulture,” with its spaghetti western showdown percussion from Matt Helders (of Arctic Monkeys) is about the spectre of death and record company executives waiting to bleed you dry.

You can’t help but wonder if Pop is writing from experience on “German Days” – a song about Bavarian brothels, “champagne on ice,” and the opportunity to “germinate in a German way.” Pop did spend many years in Berlin, so I’ll take his word for it. “Chocolate Drops” is about letting go of the past and not fearing death, and it’s no secret that Homme’s work on this album helped him after the terrorist attack at an Eagles of Death Metal show in 2015.

The album ends with the angry rants of “Paraguay,” in which Pop sings about “going where sore losers go to hide my face and spend my dough.” Pop is sick of sycophants and tired of the constant barrage of knowledge and information. He’s tired of living in a place where everyone is afraid and chooses to live in that fear. The song breaks down close to the four-minute mark into a fiery rant from Pop in which he tears down us, the listeners, that he’s sick of our “evil and poisonous intentions” while Homme, Fertita, and Helders chant “Wild animals, they do. Never wonder why, just do what they goddamn do.”

Thankfully, this wasn’t Pop’s last record, as some thought it might be. He isn’t leaving for Paraguay just yet, but Post-Pop Depression is a warning that he might at any moment and not look back at us as he does. It’s also a warning for us to get off our asses, throw away our laptops, and make something of our lives before we’ve run out of time.

Keep your mind open.

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Rewind Review: Iggy Pop – New Values (1979)

Iggy Pop‘s New Values was his first post-Stooges record that didn’t involve David Bowie in some way, although Bowie would later cover one of the tracks on it, but more on that later.

The album highlights Pop’s blend of performance art, lyricism, punk attitude, and crooning swagger. The opener, “Tell Me a Story,” begins with what sounds like ice being clinked into a cocktail class and Pop singing, “What must I do to take a holiday?” and proclaiming how much he loves performing but hates people who take the fun out of it. The title track has a cool guitar riff from Scott Thurston and Pop practically stomping around the recording studio as he lets us know he has “a hard-ass pair of shoulders. I got a love you can’t imagine.” He’s “looking for one new value, but nothing comes my way.” Who hasn’t been there?

“I love girls. They’re all over this world,” Pop sings on (you guessed it) “Girls.” Jackie Clark‘s fuzzy bass matches Pop’s strut well. Pop professes he wants “to live to be ninety-eight” so he can hopefully make out with more girls. He’s currently seventy-two and shows no signs of stopping, so I think he’s going to get his wish. “I’m Bored” sums up being sick of the rat race and fake friends better than any emo record ever released, and Thurston’s solo is anything but boring.

“Don’t Look Down” is the tune David Bowie found so good that he covered it on his Tonight album. It has this neat electric organ from Thurston throughout it and a sharp saxophone solo from John Harden. “The Endless Sea” gets a little psychedelic with Thurston’s synths and Harden’s horns, but Clark and drummer Klaus Kruger keep the tune grounded by putting down one of their tightest grooves on the album.

“I’m only five-foot-one. I got a pain in my neck,” Pop sings on “Five Foot One” – a song about being overwhelmed by big city life. It has probably my favorite lyric on the record: “I wish life could be Swedish magazines.” “How Do Ya Fix a Broken Part” has a cool jazz-fusion sound to it that’s unexpected and yet perfect. Pop’s vocals on “Angel” becoming wistful as he sings about missing his girl. That being said, Pop does wonder what his girl is up to on “Curiosity,” a song about trying to keep thinking good thoughts about a lover while they are away. “African Man” has Pop getting weird and funky as he sings about eating a monkey for breakfast and how he hates the “dirty white man.” Pop is a known lover of Afrobeat music, so this tune might’ve been an early sign of that. The album ends with the post-punk cut “Billy Is a Runaway,” a sharp track tells the tale of a kid who’s living on the edge of everything, something Pop appreciates to the point of buying him a drink.

New Values is a cool record that covers a neat part of Pop’s career when he was moving away from punk and into post-punk and art rock, but never losing his prowling tiger presence.

Keep your mind open.

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Top 30 live shows of 2019: #’s 5 – 1

Here we go. Who were my top five live acts of 2019?

#5 – The Well – Levitation Austin – November 09th

The Well are at the top of their game right now, and this heavy-hitting set of blues-laced doom metal was one of the highlights of Levitation Austin for me. I knew within three songs that it was going to be one of the best sets I saw all weekend if not all year, and I was right.

#4 – A Place to Bury Strangers – Levitation Austin – November 10th

I was talking with a woman after the Levitation Austin set by A Place to Bury Strangers. We’d just been flattened by it. Walls of sound, blazing strobe lights, haunted house fog, and guest spots by members of Ringo Deathstarr, Numb.er, the KVB, Cryogeyeser, and Hoover iii were added treats to the raw force that APTBS unleashed. The woman said, “You wonder, ‘Were they really as good as I remember the last time I saw them?’ and as soon as they start you’re like, ‘Oh yeah. They are.'”

#3 – Thee Oh Sees – Thalia Hall – Chicago, IL – October 11th

As I like to say, everything you’ve heard about a show by Thee Oh Sees is a hundred percent true. Crazy double drumming, wild guitar work, wall-shaking bass, psychedelic synths, and a crazy crowd mixed to produce a stunning night of music, highlighted by all twenty-one-plus minutes of “Henchlock” from their great new album, Face Stabber.

#2 – Jeff Lynne’s ELO – United Center – Chicago, IL – July 27th

In terms of sheer spectacle and sound quality, this show by Jeff Lynne’s ELO was going to be tough to beat. The light show was, go figure, amazing and was only outmatched by the sound quality. Mr. Lynne still sounds great and his backing band was top-notch. He played all of his hits and even a Traveling Wilburys song with Dhani Harrison singing and playing his father’s parts. This show by a legend could only be outmatched by another legend.

#1 – Paul McCartney – Memorial Coliseum – Ft. Wayne, IN – June 03rd

Seriously, how was anyone going to beat this show? It was practically in my back yard and was a fun show by a legend who has inspired more musicians than we’ll ever know. He played a great mix of Beatles, Wings, and solo tracks, told a lot of fun stories, and delivered a fun show that left you wanting another full set. The expensive tickets were worth every dollar.

There you have it. Another great year for live music. Get out there and see some.

Keep your mind open.

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