Glitter and Doom

Inside a broken clock, splashing the wine with all the rain dogs

Taxi, we'd rather walk, huddle a doorway

with the rain dogs

For i am a rain dog, too

Oh, how we danced and we swallowed the night

For it was all ripe for dreaming

Oh, how we danced away all of the lights

We've always been out of our minds

The rum pours strong and thin, beat out the dustman

with the rain dogs

Aboard a shipwreck train, give my umbrella

to the rain dogs

For i am a rain dog, too

Oh, how we danced with the rose of tralee

Her long hair black as a raven

Oh, how we danced and you whispered to me

You'll never be going back home

Oh, how we danced with the rose of tralee

Her long hair black as a raven

Oh, how we danced and you whispered to me

You'll never be going back home

"We sail tonight for Singapore..."

Tomorrow morning, I'll launch myself seven hours north by northwest to see Tom Waits live in concert. I had thought about flying to St. Louis to see the show last night (Tom's first in St. Louis in 30 years). However, as I was testing the online ticket waters an hour before that city's Central time zone general on sale, I clicked and scored such a stunning orchestra seat for the Columbus concert, I decided to just Sal and Dean myself to Ohio as an early birthday present to me. $4 gas? So what? This is a once in a lifetime event, man! This is living! The open road! This is rock and roll! (Plus, you know, uh, my wife said it was, you know, okay that I went and all...)

Anyway, if I get there early enough tomorrow, I'll mess around Comfest. Should be a weekend for the ages. One I'll tell my kids about someday.

"Dad, you sure were pretty weird."
"Were?"
"Well, now you're kind of a kooky, even cool Dad."
"Ah."
"Yeah. Hey, do you happen to have ten bucks?"

High School Tony Awards

Today is my father-in-law's birthday. A retired attorney, he has successfully returned to the DC stage. He's been in several distinguished area productions and even gets paid for some of them. As a former acting student, I'm inspired by his example.

"The theater is a cruel mistress, Mike," he frequently muses aloud over a glass or two of red wine. Hey, I only stopped asking for his autograph just last week.


High School Tony Awards Honor Nation's Biggest Drama Club Nerds

George Carlin RIP

George Carlin will posthumously receive the Mark Twain Prize this fall. I always thought he should've been the first to receive this acknowledgement. Not even Richard Pryor was as deft at wielding "obscenity" as legitimately insightful and, most importantly, funny art. Grade school kids and language doctorates both can laugh equally at what he did.

Carlin was the brave realization of the etymological, epistemological, yes even scatological promise Lenny Bruce never really delivered on, in my opinion. Carlin will be talked about in 2108 more so than probably any other stand-up comic from the late twentieth century.

"Dance in the dark of night...sing to the morning light"

Alison Krauss and Robert Plant played a great set at Merriweather Post Pavilion last week. Joined by producer and player T- Bone Burnett, they featured many songs off their acclaimed, in some ways unprecedented Raising Sand album from last year, as well as additional Americana songs and creative reworkings of songs from their respective catalogs of work. It was a superlative end to my June week of four outstanding concerts in seven days. (I felt like I was on tour!)

More adventurous fans of Plant and Krauss probably turned up for this one. They had played my hometown in Roanoke a week earlier, their first stateside date after being in Europe. I was disappointed the Roanoke Civic Center, where I graduated high school in 1989, was only half full. It was still a great concert, according to the Wall Street Journal.



Raising Sand's first single was a cover of the Everly Brothers' "Gone, Gone, Gone"



They did at least a few Zeppelin songs each night on the tour. Here's "Black Dog" picked out on a banjo by none other than Marc Ribot.



"The Battle of Evermore" was a highlight, in no small part due to Alison Krauss' keening vocals. The lyrics to this song are ridiculous, but, as you know, this woman could sing all strata of silly songs and make them compelling...



Two songs I hoped to hear were "In the Mood", a reworking of Robert Plant's early 80s hit. Amidst a crushing tide of new wave synthesizers in those years, Plant sustained a memorable wash of melody. (This song features one of the most incongruous videos I've ever seen. The genre juxtapositions are so off the wall, they're like outtakes from David St. Hubbin's failed hip-hop crossover.)



They did do "In the Mood," entwining it with an early 20th century murder ballad. I missed, however, their Bo Diddley tribute "Who Do You Love?" Unfortunately, they didn't play it, but 47 miles of barbed wire and cobra snakes for neckties were definitely there in spirit.

Tim Russert 1950 -2008

In late November 2004, I saw John Fogerty at the 930 Club. I arrived late and couldn't get up near the stage like I normally do. So I went downstairs to the bar. After a while, I noticed Tim Russert was down there at a table. He was very friendly and chatty with those around him, including me. A real everyman in every sense of the word.

A bit later, rock and roll thundering above us, we waited in line together for the bathroom. I was in front of him. I turned and said I enjoyed his book Big Russ and Me. I asked him what his favorite Creedence song was.

"'Fortunate Son,' " he told me without hestitation. "My dad was a truck driver."

I let him cut in front of me to the bathroom. (And I really had to go, too.)

He'll be missed for many reasons. I only wish he could put Cheney on the hotseat one more time...

"Another chance has been engaged"

R.E.M. talked about the passion at Merriweather Post Pavilion Wednesday night. Their studio records for the past decade have dangerously drifted to detached irrelevancy. With 2004's listless, lifeless Around the Sun, they had lost nearly everything that endeared them to millions, including me. They remained strong as a live act from 1999 to then, but with the new material from last April's Accelerate album, they're back near the top of their game.



I enjoyed strong opening sets by The National and Modest Mouse, particularly the latter's during "Float On". Modest Mouse now features The Smiths alumnus Johnny Marr. Here he is jangle rocking alongside similarly iconic alternative guitarist Peter Buck during "Fall on Me"



Since they were just a handful of miles away in Columbia, of course, you knew Mike Mills would break out a cowboy hat and sing "(Don't Go Back to) Rockville"



Nobody rocks the Andy Capp in Blade Runner look like Michael Stipe. To be fair, nobody else probably wants to, either.


Few performers are on or can even figure out his frequency. A real original. (Special thanks to my sister-in-law for my concert ticket - a fantastic early birthday present!)

Hypocrisy and the City

Something to think about when you ask your girlfriend or wife to iron your "Bros before Hoes" tee-shirt.

Southern Accents

Two and a half hours of solid Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers songs Sunday night made enduring humid, muggy Nissan Pavilion tolerable. How hot was it? Hot enough that two heat-crazed teen girls got into a fight right behind where we were sitting, to the delight of the delirious crowd.

I know you're a proud Gainesville native, Tom, but, jeez, did you actually have to bring the entire State of Florida to open for you this 2008 tour? (Really, it was Steve Winwood and he was great.) I was dying out there waiting for the sun to go down. You were no doubt back there in a really nice air-conditioned tour bus, weren't you, Tom? That's right. So you really don't know how it feels to be me, do you?



No, he was a good sport about what his fans were going through. "Nice to be with you here on a very humid southern night," he said. The sun did eventually go down, of course, but it was still muggy. The show definitely made that worthwhile, yes, but it must be said: The Waiting was the hardest part:



I blogged about watching this 4 hour documentary earlier in the year. Here's the trailer for Runnin' Down a Dream:



And I was impressed The Heartbreakers included "Bo Diddley is a Gunslinger" in the encore. So with Sunday night's scorching show, I'm pretty much done forever with Nissan Pavilion. Biblical rain and the surface of the sun itself, respectively, the last two times out? Hmm. Think they're trying to tell me something?

Under the Blacklight

I experienced more live music joy at yet another sold out 930 Club concert this past Friday night. Rilo Kiley came through the Mid-Atlantic again in support of their 2007 album Under the Blacklight. It's a sexy, even sleazy but spirited examination of a West Coast milieu, particularly love and loss in the City of Angels. Reminds me of some of the darker material mined not just by Fleetwood Mac, whom the band is often compared to, but also The Eagles on their much-maligned 1979 The Long Run album. (I imagine "The Disco Strangler" is dangerously lurking somewhere underneath that blacklight, and even The Moneymaker might end up serving time in a "Teenage Jail".)


I first discovered Rilo Kiley's music in 2004 with More Adventurous. Elvis Costello had recommended singer songwriter Jenny Lewis for her lyrics and melodies. (Elvis collaborated this spring with her on his fantastic new album Momofuku, which I also recommend.) Jenny also released her first solo album in 2006 - Rabbit Fur Coat. It was also well-received.

I particularly love "Silver Lining" from Under the Blacklight. When they peformed this song at the concert, they tossed large silver balloons into the air the crowd bounced around until the balloons popped and released gold confetti:



This video for "The Moneymaker" allegedly features real and aspiring porn actors. That's notable, especially in how young the fanbase skewed at the 930 Club Friday. I was easily 15 or 20 years older, and maybe a few more than that, than nearly everybody around me. (Seriously, I felt a little like Jason Bateman's character in Juno.)



"Portions for Foxes"





Lastly, I want to brag that Jenny sang a verse of "With Arms Outstretched" looking directly at me. Of course, maybe that's because I was all alone in my Soccer Dad glory up near the front row. Hey, nineteen - maybe we can dance together...

A Laurel and Hearty Handshake

Congratulations to Barack Obama on being the Democratic Nominee for President in 2008.

Now go out there and live up to your campaign promises. Be the change you said we've all been waiting for. Today he's officially kicking off his campaign throughout my home state of Virginia:

"David 'Mudcat' Saunders, a Roanoke-based strategist who has advised politicians on how to reach out to rural voters, said southwest Virginia is 'a logical place' for Obama to start because he will need to appeal to those voters in other crucial battleground states as well.

" 'If Virginia truly is in play, it's a practical move for him because he can get the western Pennsylvania bunch, the southeast Ohio bunch,' Saunders said. 'It's the same region. It's the same bunch of people; they just live in different states.'

"He added, 'These are the people around the country who decide the president of the United States, and they are neglected. The Republicans take them for granted, and the Democrats don't try to come get 'em. God bless Barack Obama for for trying to go get 'em.' "

Good luck turning my state purple, Senator. (I'll be your Waco Kid if you need help with the locals down there.)

So What?

Hey, Bo Diddley!

Don't let those glasses fool you. Among the early architects of Rock and Roll, none had a more bad-assed sound than Bo Diddley. A 1987 Hall of Fame inductee, he passed away today at age 79.

Let's have a moment of silence....

Okay, now turn up the volume, watch this whole clip, and tell me who do you love?