Last night, the Police wrapped their mega reunion tour at Madison Square Garden. The NYPD band joined them on “Message in a Bottle.”
Other things I noticed:
the scalpers outside were offering tickets for “Sting.” As I walked by, I remember thinking, “pssh, typical scalper. Not even knowing what act they’re selling for. Stewart and Andy would be ashamed.” But then I woke up this morning, and realized, that scalpers probably don’t want to be running around saying “Police” really loud.
Sting shaved his beard during the encore break. It looked painful.
Before the houselights went down, the Spanish dude behind me was heard to remark “this is about to be, the most important concert, of my entire lifetime.” I’m guessing he wasn’t at the Led Zeppelin reunion.
Two links for today.
Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks set at Sirens here. I was lucky enough to be up close and personal, and maybe I was too close- the sound wasn’t all that; very bassy mix, and it was hard to hear ol’ Malky. Maybe this’ll be a better representation.
Last night, I went to the Beacon to see Lyle Lovett and his Large Band, who are just getting around to touring for last years’ “It’s Not Big, It’s Large.” As suspected, the set weighed heavily from this record- which I’m afraid is being overlooked- stand outs are “South Texas Girl,” “Up In Indiana,” and “Don’t Cry A Tear.” Lovett and co. had a gospel choir with him, and they closed with the traditional “I’m A Soldier in the Army of the Lord.” I found two pretty sweet versions this morning.
First up is from a tv show appearance by the Soul Stirrers, in the early 60’s.
Next, is Ezra Fufford’s take with a hammond B3. This pretty much rules.
Girl Talk released his latest record today, in a pay what you want format over at IllegalArt.net. I wrote several pieces over the last few months on this record and Girl Talk himself, including a nearly 3,000 word piece for Billboard a few weeks back.
(Read here: Girl Talk - Billboard)
Anyways, he’s one of the nicest dudes I’ve met in this whole r’n'r game, and for those of you that think he’s just a cut and paster, and that you could do this in your spare time, go ahead, I’d like to see. Then you email me your fruits. In other words, he got all mad skillz and having him actually sit down with me, and his laptop and show me how he constructs everything was utterly fascinating.
I think Errors are from Scotland. Or the U.K. Somewhere over there. No matter; they sound a bit like Tortoise to me, but have enough interest in short, punch arrangements that makes me think they are on to something. I haven’t heard much about them around these here parts, but I’d gather that they could do pretty well. They also have a knack for good album titles: their debut is called “It’s Not Something But It Is Like Whatever.”
Last night, I was fortunate enough to see Robert Plant & Alison Krauss do their thing at MSG’s Theatre. One of the highlights was them trading off verses during “Battle of Evermore,” a most fantastic Zep song. Here’s the best vid I could find of the complete version. Mandolins make things better.
