A Night With the King of the Blues

I like live music. I usually don't even care who's playing. I like local cover (garage?) bands, and I like major concerts, too. Obviously, when it comes to the major stadium concerts, costs can get very prohibitive -- probably not in line with the mission of paying down debt. Every now and again, though, something comes along that you really just can't pass up -- and something that I just couldn't pass up came strolling into town this past Friday night.

Legendary bluesman, B.B. King, played the House of Blues in Orlando, and I was able to secure one of the sold-out tickets. This was a stark contrast to my trip to see Billy Joel at the nearly 40,000-seat Carrier Dome in Syracuse, as the HoB only "seats" 2,200. Of course, the tiny venue doesn't really have more than a couple of hundred physical seats -- so, this was 2-plus hours on my feet, plus the waiting time outside the venue. Still, the opportunity to see two RockRoll Hall of Famers in a little over a month -- for under a hundred bucks -- seems like a good way to spend some time.

Let me tell you this -- at 80 years young, B.B. King flat out rocks. I don't mean that he plays well "for an 80-year old." I mean he would put a lot of today's artists to shame. He still wails away on Lucille for darn near two full hours. He still belts out the tunes and his patented monologues with relative ease, from atop a chair set in the middle of the stage. He doesn't move around much -- doesn't milk the audience for encores -- when he's done, he's done. But, he wasn't done until nearly 11 pm, with an 8:30 start time, that sure seemed more like 9 pm. The bulk of his band has been touring with B.B. for some time -- his bandleader, "Bugaloo" Bolden, has been with him for almost a quarter-century. Needless to say, these guys know what they're doing, and they know how to make the "King" look good.

They focus on the songs folks want to hear -- "Nobody Loves Me But My Mother," "When Love Comes to Town" (which, by the way, King is quick to tell you is a song that he co-wrote with Bono, for the U2 project 'Rattle and Hum'), and, of course, "The Thrill is Gone." Still, one of my favoites from the evening was King (and the audience) singing and humming "You Are My Sunshine."

If this legend is coming to your town any time soon, GO! The tickets in Orlando were about $40 a throw. Opportunities to see someone who transcends musical legend won't continue forever, and I know that I am glad that someday, I will be able to tell my tale of seeing the great B.B. King. and

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Don't go changin'...

Yesterday was a good day to be a Billy Joel fan.

My concert tickets arrived in the mail. I suppose I always knew that they would, but I hate Ticketmaster. Four tickets cost less than $160, but the fees that they tack on brought the total to over $190. I view them in about the same regard as pillagers. In that vein, I don't trust them much and am grateful to have the tickets in my own hands.

Of course, it also means that I now have about three months to lose said tickets.

As an added bonus, BJ was on Late Night with Conan O'Brien. It was a previously aired show, but one that I had not seen. Actually, it was a good episode of Conan. He had his "Tree Lighting" episode, which featured Abe Vigoda (gotta love "Fish"); the hot chick from "Access Hollywood"; and Triumph, the Insult Comic Dog! Alan Alda, who I hate (personally, not professionally) was the "lead" guest, but he only had one very short segment pimping his new book and his new role on "The West Wing."

Joel got a sit-down segment to push his new box set and two additional, one song segments. I hope the upcoming concert echoes this mini-set -- semi-obscure older tracks, such as "Everybody Loves You Now" from his first album, "Cold Spring Harbor"; and "Vienna" from his fourth (and, arguably, best) album, "The Stranger." In all the times that I have seen/heard him live, this is the first time that I have heard either of these two songs performed live.

During his interview, I also learned that Billy and I have something else in common. He said:

My family is Jewish; my friends are all Italian; and all the women who ever broke my heart are Irish.

Even Billy knows....dang redheads'll get you every time.

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Final Holiday Post of 2005!

Yesterday, I discovered that my beloved XM Channel 107 is no more. I never really listened to an extended amount of Christmas music before, so I wasn't sure if it ended immediately after December 25 -- or stuck around until New Year's Eve?

Channel 107 was one of my favorite discoveries of 2005. XM called the channel "Special XMas" and it was a non-stop playlist of the most twisted Christmas music you have ever heard. I discovered my new favorite Christmas artist. You can keep the Burl Ives and Bing Crosby tunes. I found Dan Hart! Anyone (apparently) can sing "Santa Claus is Coming to Town," but it takes someone special to sing "Santa is a Psycho" and "Santa Eats Little Kids!" Do you see a theme here? How many issues does this dude have?

They also played a bunch from the Star Wars Christmas Album! Yes...it's as bad as it sounds!

I never thought I would be pining for Christmas music for the next 11 months!

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Billy Joel at the Carrier Dome

Lucky is me.

Billy Joel has announced a spring tour, and as luck would have it, I will be in Syracuse for work the same time that he is playing the Carrier Dome. The full list of tour dates, as of today, are as follows:



It seems as though dates are being announced in dribs and drabs.

The great thing about the Syracuse show is that tickets are discounted:

Pop music icon Billy Joel is slated to perform at the Carrier Dome on March 25, 2006 at 8 p.m. The concert is part of the popular singer’s first solo major concert tour in nearly seven years and is one of the milestone events celebrating the Carrier Dome’s 25th anniversary...Tickets will go on sale Dec. 10 at 10 a.m. for only $39.50 each, the same price tickets cost in 1998 when Billy Joel last played the Dome solo.

I managed to log on this past Saturday morning and nab four tickets -- in pretty good seats:
Tickets are already selling on the secondary market in the same section for almost $200! I guess that I will have no trouble finding three other counselors who will want to see Billy Joel with me after the Rochester NACAC fair that day.

We will just add this to the list of holiday gifts that I have purchased for myself while I should have been shopping for others. My roommate wanted to know what to get me for the holidays. Maybe I will suggest this to get me in the mood.

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