Retweeted by Chuck D:
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That sounds like the most amazing line up… I really need to perfect time travel, so I can go back and see that.
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So this happened last night. It was a mix of highs and lows. Joy and pain.
Let’s start with the opening group, The Zombies. They were simply phenomenal. The Zombies’ keyboardist Rod Argent and and lead singer Colin Blunstone are something of an aberration in that as they have grown older their voices have somehow gotten even better. Blunstone belted out every song he had like he was a twenty-something. They opened with two of their standard hits (Tell Her No and She’s Not There) and two new songs before performing the entire Odyssey and Oracle album from start to finish with the current band and original (surviving) lineup. O&O is a criminally underrated album of the era. It’s got all the hallmarks of a great chamber pop album. Lush instrumentation, trippy Mellotron loops, multi-part harmonies, and introspective lyrics. Perhaps the coolest thing was that they did everything with no backing tracks. It was all live. Brian Wilson’s keyboardist Darian Sahanaja pulled double duty with The Zombies as a second keyboardist covering Mellotron and extra key duties. It was a freaking great set. Time of the Season was the closer and Rod Argent went into a virtuosic keyboard solo lasting several minutes. After their 60ish minute set, it was time for Brian Wilson and his band to perform.
Brian Wilson is pretty infamous for his struggles with mental illness, stage fright, and past substance abuse problems. He has a reputation for having nights when he performs really solidly and others when he’s completely checked out. It’s pretty much a crap shoot which one will appear on stage. I had my expectations calibrated appropriately.
He opened strong with solid vocals on California Girls and I Get Around and then things kind of fell off a cliff. For much of the remaining show he looked physically and mentally very uncomfortable - shifting in his chair, staring at the ceiling, or touching his face. He missed many vocal cues, even with a teleprompter. Brian became re-engaged near the end with strong renditions of Heroes and Villains, and Surfin’ USA, and closed out the show with a stripped down and ragged, but not at all bad rendition of Love and Mercy. Former Beach Boy Blondie Chaplin joined for a few songs and he was pretty great. He had some scorcher guitar solos during Feel Flows and Sail on Sailor. You don’t really think of guitar virtuosity and the Beach Boys but his playing was something else. There were also special guests Ben Gibbard of Death Cab for Cutie helping out on I Can Hear Music, and The Zombies’ Rod Argent and Colin Blunstone, and Yes’s Alan White guesting God Only Knows. Al Jardine’s son Matt took over for many of the falsetto parts and sung Don’t Worry Baby. Darian Sahanaja channeled Carl Wilson and did a wonderful job with Darlin’. Brian’s band is pretty amazing and the musicianship is without fail.
With so much to love, the dark specter throughout was how miserable Brian seemed. He actually sung very little often handing off songs he would normally do to Al Jardine. He definitely seemed to be having an off night. This was all not lost on Mrs. Ficus was later said she felt heartbroken and uncomfortable watching him.
It was a real dichotomy - trying to make the most out of what may be a once in a lifetime experience to feeling genuine concern for the headliner. I’ve talked to other fans online and I guess this is all par for the course. Also I was basically right at the stage so it’s fully possible that in being so close I was able to see nuances others weren’t - or not see things others were. I still don’t know how to really feel about the whole thing but I’m glad I went if for no other reason than I was able to see one of my all-time idols perform - even if they weren’t at their best. It’s not an experience I will ever forget.
Brian himself has floated that he will retire from touring after this run and if he does I will say it’s well deserved. If he continues I’ll absolutely buy tickets again.
Lots of photos follow. Expand if you're interested.
Can’t get any closer to the stage unless I’m on it.
Can you spot the celebrity chefs in my section? Jonathan Waxman and Rick Moonen near the center.
(Left to right) Rod Argent, Chris White, Colin Blunstone, and Tom Toomey of The Zombies.
Brian Wilson flanked by Matt Jardine on stage left, and Al Jardine on stage right.
Blondie Chaplin shredding
Paul Von Merten, Brian’s amazing woodwind guy.
Closing the show with Love and Mercy
Set lists:
https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/the-zombies/2019/paramount-theatre-seattle-wa-4b9cf38e.html
https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/brian-wilson/2019/paramount-theatre-seattle-wa-5b9cf38c.html
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Lotsa nifty music trivia in this playlist:
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In a continuing series on the shows I’ve been to, I saw Howard Jones tonight. He was extremely good. He sounded great and could still hit all the high notes, seemed to be genuinely enjoying himself, and had a lot of interplay with the crowd. It was a stripped down acoustic set and he frequently broke into stories and anecdotes about his time in the biz. It was all quite charming and fun.
In a surprise moment, after talking about how inspired he is by Brian Wilson (clearly a man with good taste), he performed a stunning rendition of God Only Knows:
And of course, here’s the crowd pleasing Things Can Only Get Better:
Upcoming shows I’ll be attending this year (comprised of groups on Mrs Ficus’ concert bucket list):
Journey & The Pretenders
Bryan Adams & Bon Jovi
Europe & Kansas & Foreigner
Joan Jett & Poison & Mötley Crüe & Def Leppard
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I love the part where he describes meeting Lux and going on about buying the Human Fly single. 
He’s a pretty good storyteller.
I’ve seen Henry Rollins do his spoken word show a couple times.
The first time was way back in the late 90s, and I had no idea what to expect. I knew who he was musically1, but I didn’t really know anything about “spoken word”, I just thought it’d be cool to see him do his ting.
So I showed up late, not expecting it to start on time (according to the ticket) because I’d never been to a show that had. I also showed up extremely high, as in so high that I entered the theater through the wrong door – I even remember thinking to myself, “man, these doors are kinda’ hard to open from the outside, why don’t they have normal handles?”.
The bouncers rolled their eyes and let me pass.
As if that wasn’t bad enough, the show had already started and an usher (of all things!) immediately escorted me to my seat. I had terrible cottonmouth and was desperately thirsty, but the audience was rapt and I didn’t want to leave my seat and risk disturbing them. And then he talked forever (like over two hours), and it was somehow both engrossing and thoroughly entertaining.
The last time I saw him was a just a few years ago. This time, I knew what to expect, but I didn’t find out about the show until after tickets had been on sale for a while. At that point, my only options were cheap seats near the rafters in the balcony, or uncomfortably pricey seats near the stage.
I decided to treat myself, and got a ticket up front. As it happens, the reason they were so pricey was that they included a post-show meet-n-greet with Henry (or Mr. Rollins, as I feel obliged to think of him), where he would chat for a bit and answer a few questions (from a pool of questions submitted in writing on index cards immediately prior to the show – it was a whole operation).
And that’s how I got an awkward photo (which I will not post for obvious reasons) of me and Henry Rollins, with him posing stoically, even sternly leaning into it, next to my dumb, camera-shy ass. 
I still don’t really know what a spoken word show is supposed to be, and I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone else do one, but if you get a chance to see Henry Rollins, do it. The guy has a certain presence on stage, and he’s led an interesting life by almost any measure.
1. Black Flag was a little before my time, but I knew who they were even if I hadn’t ever seriously listened to them. I was really into Rollins Band, though, for a while. They were my angry music. A few years later, I was a bit surprised to discover that I had something like seven or eight Rollins Band albums from that era; I must have been an angry young man, for a bit. 
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If you get the opportunity, Jello Biafra’s spoken word shows are good value. Occasionally featuring music anecdotes, but mostly entertainingly ranty politics.
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Now that you mention it, I do vaguely remember Jello Biafra doing spoken word, although I’m sure I’ve never seen him live. The Dead Kennedys were another one of those bands that were a bit before my time, but with which I am passing familiar without necessarily being knowledgeable. I’ll have to see what I can find by him online.
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His other spoken word albums are online, too.
Musically, Plastic Surgery Disasters was their best album, IMO.
Don’t be put off by the brief noise intro, they get musical afterwards.
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I don’t know what’s up with 2020 but it seems the everybody is touring. Recent ticket acquisitions:
Kraftwerk
Pet Shop Boys / New Order
Girl Talk
Negativland
RIP wallet 
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No ATL date…
Although, is it REALLY New Order without Peter Hook?
But kraftwerk is playing here…
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I was really thrilled to find that Kraftwerk is actually coming to St. Louis. As soon as I heard about the tour I started expecting to plan a Chicago weekend trip or something.
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Kraftwerk nearly sold out within a few minutes in Seattle. There’s like literally 4 seats left when I last checked Ticketmaster. I wasn’t able to score great seats but I’m not to upset since it’s as much a multimedia experience as it is a music performance so being in the balcony section may end up working to my advantage. Either way is their 50th anniversary so I figure I better see them while I still can.
I’ve seen Pet Shop Boys before (and they were amazing) and New Order is on Mrs Ficus’ concert bucket list so that’s a win win as far as I’m concerned.
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The venue where I’m seeing them is standing-room only (or else pony up $180 for a balcony seat, which, no). If I get there early enough and I’m lucky I may be able to grab a chair in front of a railing like I did for Youth Code/Haujobb/Front Line Assembly/Skinny Puppy a couple years ago.
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That is one hell of a lineup there.
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It was! VNV Nation, who I don’t like as much, was going to be part of the tour but FLA (who I used to like a lot, and they’re still sort of okay) replaced them.
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I went to my second live show since COVID - my first indoor one to see Gn’R at Moda Center in Portland. We originally were supposed to see them in Seattle last year but the show got canceled due to rescheduling conflicts, so Portland it was - it’s only a 3 hour drive.
Despite having a mask requirement in the venue there was essentially zero enforcement once getting inside despite threats of ejection for noncompliance. As for me I wore a KN95 mask through the entire thing and never took it off. As for the show itself, it was pretty good. They played for some 3 and a half hours - so you definitely got your money’s worth. It was great to see much of the original band together as well. I was wiped out by the end of it.
After getting back to the hotel as I was getting ready for bed I heard the telltale sound of burnouts and donuts coming from nearby. And it just wouldn’t stop. There turned out to be a fucking sideshow going on less than a block away from the hotel. I called the police to report it, and even alerted them to someone broadcasting the whole thing on YouTube Live. People were shooting off fireworks, too. I was expecting red and blues at any moment, but they never came, and it didn’t stop. At around 3 AM it was still going on but I was finally able to get some (terrible) sleep.
A few hours later when I woke up to get ready for the drive back to Seattle I looked this up and learned that since COVID lockdowns and the 2020 Summer protests and riots, street racing and sideshows have become huge as an entertainment outlet given the lack of options. Apparently last night there were events all across the city last night including one of the major bridges being completely shut down for hours by street racers. Police simply doesn’t give a shit and won’t respond so people involved can carry on with impunity.
I’m fucking tired.
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