Bands of Gold
Jun. 11th, 2010 09:16 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
captainsblogAs we get deeper into summer, the performances start to pile up that I'd like to be a part of.
The first is tomorrow night: Cameron's final vocal performance with the school's male specialty chorus (along with its distaff counterpart) is tomorrow night. Hopefully the auditorium won't be as beastly hot as it was for the last time he had a gig there, which Em attended with Eleanor.
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Fast-forward a couple of weeks. I just got word that Girlyman is finally(!) returning to Western New York, for their first show since opening for Dar Williams a few years ago in a now-shuttered, and even-then-seatless, venue in the onetime flagship of the Statler hotel chain.
At Thursday at the Square? Artpark? Even the North Tonawanda canal concert series? Nope. A town festival in Livonia, of all places, on June 27- the afternoon after Emily graduates. I am now almost-confirmed to be running a service for a city Methodist church that morning, so the road trip will be tough after all that activity, but I will still try to make it out of love of the band. I'm still a little puzzled by how Girlyman wound up in Upstate's closest county, geographically and philosophically, to the set of Deliverance; whoever has the "Paddle faster, I think I hear banjos" icon would do well to use it in reply to this, because I rather fear for Nate on the streets of downtown Mount Morris the night before.
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Then, one I just saw an ad for as I drove out to a client's office late this afternoon: 10,000 Maniacs are finally back! July 16, in Clarence, at yet another benefit, this one for the sake of Meals on Wheels, called Rock the Barn. Ten-dollar tickets. As I've mentioned here before, I've somehow managed to go almost the entire life of the band, with many changes and at least one seeming institutional death, without ever actually seeing them play live. This may be the final chance to remedy that.
It's timely, too, because we've both been digging Natalie Merchant's latest solo album, a collection of childrens' nursery rhymes set to distinctly Nata-ly music. It would be a miracle if she showed up to gig with her old mates, but at least they've got Mary Ramsey back in the band, who knows their old and new stuff and is really a more talented pure singer and musician than Natalie is.
----
One that's not on my list, mainly because of the venue, is one that all the local stations, from sports to talk to the Lake, have been promoting feverishly in the past few days: Tom Petty at Darien Lake, with CSN opening for them. (Where did THAT crack in the universe come from?) Sorry, but Darien Lake is a pit- almost literally. We saw Alison Krauss and the rest of the O Brother Where Art Thou tie-in tour there several years ago, and we still have pebble injuries on our feet from shlepping through a mile of gravel to get under the overhang.
----
Great Big Sea at Artpark, Carole King and James Taylor touring together, I could have listened all night. I suspect those will be mere dreams, though.
The first is tomorrow night: Cameron's final vocal performance with the school's male specialty chorus (along with its distaff counterpart) is tomorrow night. Hopefully the auditorium won't be as beastly hot as it was for the last time he had a gig there, which Em attended with Eleanor.
----
Fast-forward a couple of weeks. I just got word that Girlyman is finally(!) returning to Western New York, for their first show since opening for Dar Williams a few years ago in a now-shuttered, and even-then-seatless, venue in the onetime flagship of the Statler hotel chain.
At Thursday at the Square? Artpark? Even the North Tonawanda canal concert series? Nope. A town festival in Livonia, of all places, on June 27- the afternoon after Emily graduates. I am now almost-confirmed to be running a service for a city Methodist church that morning, so the road trip will be tough after all that activity, but I will still try to make it out of love of the band. I'm still a little puzzled by how Girlyman wound up in Upstate's closest county, geographically and philosophically, to the set of Deliverance; whoever has the "Paddle faster, I think I hear banjos" icon would do well to use it in reply to this, because I rather fear for Nate on the streets of downtown Mount Morris the night before.
----
Then, one I just saw an ad for as I drove out to a client's office late this afternoon: 10,000 Maniacs are finally back! July 16, in Clarence, at yet another benefit, this one for the sake of Meals on Wheels, called Rock the Barn. Ten-dollar tickets. As I've mentioned here before, I've somehow managed to go almost the entire life of the band, with many changes and at least one seeming institutional death, without ever actually seeing them play live. This may be the final chance to remedy that.
It's timely, too, because we've both been digging Natalie Merchant's latest solo album, a collection of childrens' nursery rhymes set to distinctly Nata-ly music. It would be a miracle if she showed up to gig with her old mates, but at least they've got Mary Ramsey back in the band, who knows their old and new stuff and is really a more talented pure singer and musician than Natalie is.
----
One that's not on my list, mainly because of the venue, is one that all the local stations, from sports to talk to the Lake, have been promoting feverishly in the past few days: Tom Petty at Darien Lake, with CSN opening for them. (Where did THAT crack in the universe come from?) Sorry, but Darien Lake is a pit- almost literally. We saw Alison Krauss and the rest of the O Brother Where Art Thou tie-in tour there several years ago, and we still have pebble injuries on our feet from shlepping through a mile of gravel to get under the overhang.
----
Great Big Sea at Artpark, Carole King and James Taylor touring together, I could have listened all night. I suspect those will be mere dreams, though.
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Date: 2010-06-12 02:56 am (UTC)