Back to Cali Continued

Ok back to my mission. The one thing any person with A.D.D. strives for is focus! So often I find myself saying to myself and others FOCUS! So…. Back to Cali part 2 I met a new friend in my photography class to take along for the show. Began looking at hotels to find them all booked up. Recalled I had access to a RV and got that all worked out. Turned out the RV was a 76ish, no air conditioning beast. It was perfect for my bohemian, hippie, reliving my childhood camping adventure. I think the final name that stuck was the Yellow Submarine! Friday was a late start, work pays for the music, so, gotta respect the work. Missed Nickel Creek but arrived jus t in time for Amy Winehouse. She played her Back to Black verbatim which was fine. I was glad to see her when I did. She crashed and burned shortly after. She’s on this year’s line up pretty close to the top; we’ll have to see if she can pull it off! The night finished off with Sonic Youth. I was not impressed. Call me crazy, but I just wasn’t. Saturday parking was a nightmare so missed many acts but did make it to Arcade Fire, well worth fighting Indio’s finest to get a parking space. Red Hot Chili Peppers were a loud disappointment. They need to lock themselves into another house with George Clinton and find the funk. They took the breadth of the Coachella audience for grant it and played their Top 40 B.S. Although I was the only person with in an arm’s reach to know Higher Ground was a Stevie cover. Coachella is smart about how they sell 3 day passes and individual passes to insure music lovers are not over shadowed by people there to just take in the headliners. So in my opinion the Chili Peppers should have dropped their "Stadium" line up and really got into the guts of their music. The musical intelligence of the crowd would have "got it" and the top 40 kids would have got an education in RHCP's true ability. But instead they played it safe, Fuckaree. Made my way to the Black Keys after RHCP, rested in the lawn closed my eyes and listened. Enjoyed. By next time I will have familiarized myself with their tunes and take them front and center. Not a lounging in the lily pond kinda band but by that time lounging was all I could muster. I wrote these notes shortly after the show 2 years ago, just now creating a collective collection of my concert experiences. This year Black Keys will be making an appearance, I will be ready!

Stephen Ashbrook Part 1

I discovered his music in July of 04. I was given a Stephen Ashbrook show as a birthday gift, but it was not like all the other concerts I had been to in the past. It required preparation and homework, along with the gift of a concert I was given a CD, Double Live @ Long Wong’s the card said “learn it.” So I put it in the CD player while driving and doing my housework, after a couple listens it stuck to my ribs. It was inspirational, true, engaging, emotional and fun to sing along to. I began to listen deeper to the “cheers” in “Clove Cigarette” and the “oh no no no” in “the Fastest Car”, and it clicked, this show is much more than just hearing and taking in a good show, it is about the experience. A couple weeks later I went to the show, with some reserve, that a concert cannot be as engaging as this album led me to believe. Well ,it was and then some. The intimate crowd knew the lyrics written by Stephen, and all the lyrics the fan’s had added over the years. These added lyrics were testament to the musical experience. I had never left a show, feeling connected to all the people I had shared the room with. We held our glasses high, sang and danced. Not a single song turned me off. The handful of covers Prince - Raspberry Beret, Rolling Stones – Wild Horses, and Waylon Jennings – Are you Sure Hank Done it This Way, showed his breadth of music interests. Stephen has recently taken his engagement with the crowd to new level in a handful of concerts called “Bed Time Stories.” His web page http://www.stephenashbrook.com/ describes this event, “ The stage will be set up to resemble Stephen's high school bedroom, where he'll sit on the edge of his bed and sing songs and tell stories.” It appears Stephen will finally be recording these sessions this Saturday so if you want a music experience go to Mardi Gras 8040 E Mcdowell Rd, Scottsdale AZ(480) 970-5707, Price: $12 this Saturday Dec 13th.

I'm going going, back back, to Cali Cali

Spending my teenage years in the 90’s I was always enamored by Lollapalooza. I grew up in the party town of Lake Havasu, 3 hours northwest of Phoenix. On a visit to Phoenix at the tender age of seventeen, while my mom was shopping I snuck off to the Ticketmaster at Dillard’s and bought tickets to the ’93 show. Headliners were Primus, Alice in Chains, Dinosaur Jr., Fishbone, Arrested Development, Front 242, Babes in Toyland, Tool, Rage Against the Machine. In hind sight not as super as the prior year’s Red Hot Chili Peppers, Ministry, Ice Cube, Soundgarden, The Jesus and Mary Chain, Pearl Jam, Lush but still worth some trickery. So as the show approached, I had successfully arranged a show companion and a place to crash in Phoenix. Time to work the parentals, I felt my odds were pretty good considering I had just spent a hardly chaperoned 2 weeks in DC, and my Dad always told nostalgic stories of a Beach Boys audience swaying the structure of Angles stadium. The conversation went something like this Me, “Hey dad, I have tickets to Lollapalooza in phoenix in two weeks, it’s on a weekend and I’m going to stay with so and so” Dad, “What is Lollapalooza” Me, “It’s a concert and art festival kinda thing” Dad, “festival, no way is my little girl going to a festival, I know all about those places” Me, “Dad, it’s fine and cool besides what do you know about festivals?” Dad, “Everything, California Jam ’74, Black Sabbath, Deep Purple” I was like whatever. If only we had Youtube back in the day I might have believed him. But in that moment my Lollapalooza dreams were crushed, thank you Ozzie. Some great shows and 13 years later with my ¼ life crisis nearly behind me, I caught word of Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival headlining Bjork and Red Hot Chili Peppers. Bought 2 tickets and scored, Rage Against the Machine reunion was added to the line up the following week. Oh my, oh my, oh my! My Lolla dreams may come true...