First off, I don't mean that as negatively as it's bound to come out to many who may read this. Number one, I flippin' love rock-n-roll - and I've passed the 40 mile marker on the highway of life, like it or not...and I do. Truth be told, Rock-n-Roll isn't the only thing that can look ridiculous from about 40 on. I bring up rock because tonight I took a rare Saturday night off and went to a Masters of Music concert put on by the Rock-n-Roll Hall of Fame. The show celebrated 50 years of The Rolling Stones - and love 'em or hate 'em, if they're not the greatest rock-n-roll band ever, they're certainly one of 'em.
I had every intention of going to another show tonight - The Tubes. I was a maybe on that show until I found out that their original drummer, Prairie Prince, was definitely going to be playing on the band's two dates close to where I live. Small venue + one of my favorite bands + one of my favorite drummers = one happy, geek-ed out music drummer/fan/snob. The venue that they were playing, Tangier, in Akron, is the closest you can actually get to being dropped inside the bottle on I Dream of Jeanie- I'm pretty sure that was the set for all the scenes they did in Jeanie's bottle actually.
I was going to go see The Tubes tonight. Saw them twice before - once, as my friend and former employer, Brad Buchanan said, was nearly billed as just their original sound man. Slight exaggeration, and a very humorous one, but damn near accurate because all it featured from the original lineup, was the guitar player and bassist. It was a train wreck that I felt ripped off by - and I talked Brad into going. No Fee Waybill, no Prairie Prince - who is one of my favorite drummers. The second time was a couple years ago at a funky small club in Mentor-on-the lake. While Fee was in the house that night, I think I may have been permanently scarred by eating my steak under a black light at this venue. Incidentally, there is no food that looks good under black light - even a higher dollar menu item like steak. It was a little bit like taking your dinner to the back of a Spencer Gifts store, where they have all the black light posters displayed under said lightning - so you can see just how cool your poster will look on the walls of your bedroom that is off limits to everyone, including your parents, who own the house your 16 year old ass both lives in and bitches about being misunderstood in. Hungry? Stay out of my room! Again, I digress - jeezus, so much sometimes that I should've named this blog exactly that.
That second Tubes show was great, even without Prairie. Ah well...I did get to see Prairie on Todd Rundgren's Second Wind tour around '92, and he was great - even from a few rows out, I was glad to get to see him, but I really wanted to see him in a close up setting. Not seeing him at the show was a bummer. It was a fun evening - I went with a fellow music fan, neither of us knew how much of The Tubes we would get, and there was a dude who seemed to be a bit of an overzealous fan who saw fit to advise me on the member's names and instruments. Outside I was all like, oh...really? Cool, because this place looked a little like it wanted to be a punch palace, but inside I was all, "dude...really? Shut the fuck UP - I know every member's name and what instrument they play and why I like this band - and I love every fucking song they put on vinyl, and they're not my favorite band....blah, blah,blah" - he also told me that Roger Steen was the guitar player and he was "fucking great" (Knew that too)...so great that "He signed my old lady's tits man!" No one signs tits being a slouch - I know that much no matter what.
So yeah, I was going to go see The Tubes tonight...but a couple of weeks ago, my mom threw a monkey wrench into those plans and presented me with an option I couldn't pass up - and that good people, is what I'll tell you about in my next post. Right now it's late, my ears are still shot from tonight's show and I'm gathering my memories from it. Good night and stay tuned....
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