U2, Heinz Field, Pittsburgh, PA

7/26/2011
Last night I had the opportunity to see the roving U2 extravaganza due to the benevolence of the ubiquitous Dr. Mark Chase. I was also accompanied on this journey by Dr. Joseph Harry and designated driver extraordinaire Jeremy Saylor. I don't have much to say about the show other than it was a competent arena rock show with the requisite flashing lights, giant TV screens, and pompous posturing. I have to say I have gotten spoiled over the last few years because most of the shows I see are in smaller venues so watching a concert on giant TV screens leaves me a little cold. Below is a brief clip of the concert that will at least give you an idea of their immense stage set up for the show.

Ft. Myers Beach, Florida

7/23/2011

Ft. Myers Beach at sunset.

I recently took a quick trip to Florida and spent most of my time on Sanibel Island. Sanibel Island is a pleasant place but not terribly exciting so I did manage to make a side-trip to Ft. Myers Beach on my last night in Florida. Ft. Myers Beach has a nice assortment of beach bars and I enjoyed walking the "Times Square" area bar-hopping and people-watching. All of the bars I went into had some form of music although most of the places featured one-man band set ups, not full bands. I did find two clubs that featured full bands and I a brief video of each of the bands. The first band was in a nice outside venue called Top O' The Mast.  I thought the  band had a nice contemporary sound although they did some classic rock as well. They had a very dedicated female fan club as well.

The second band video was, I believe, taken at The Beached Whale although I admit things were getting a bit fuzzy at this point. As you can see in the video everyone was having a good time at this point in the evening.

All in all I enjoyed my visit to Ft. Myers Beach and next time I'm in Western Florida I'll spend more time checking out the local clubs.

The Sauce Boss, Quaker Steak and Lube, Sharon, PA

7/11/2011
The Sauce Boss (Bill Wharton) returned to Sharon, PA last Monday night to provide his usual mix of music, hucksterism and gumbo. I've seen Wharton four or five times over the last few years and his schtick is always the same. He plays a little blues, works the audience into a fever with some rants while simultaneously cooking a big pot of gumbo for the audience to eat at the end of the show. Monday night's show was interesting because the crowd was relatively small and not very interested in participating or dancing. Wharton even exclaimed at some point that this must be a "listening" crowd and perhaps the bikers and  party people were waiting for his appearance Wednesday night at a Biker and BBQ event at this same venue.  In any event, Wharton put up a good fight and provided some entertaining moments as always. The clip below is of a particularly good guitar solo of Wharton 's. I include it because with all the rants and comedy bits it is easy to forget he is a pretty good blues guitarist.

This next clip is more typical of Wharton's act. He is behind the bar giving a rant about relations between men and women while drumming a couple of beer bottles into a state of excitement. You'll see what I mean. I didn't include any clips of Wharton singing because frankly, that is the weakest part of his performance. By the way, his gumbo isn't that great either. To be fair, you can't cook a great gumbo in three hours so it is pretty good for the time he has available. I wish he would start cooking the gumbo in the afternoon and let the crowd eat it during the show but I guess that would disrupt the structure of his act. Oh well.

St. Louis, St. Joseph, Kansas City, MO

7/5/2011-7/11/2011
Last week I went on a road-trip to visit the city of my birth St. Joseph, Missouri. On the way I stopped in St. Louis, Columbia and Kansas City and found a few musical experiences. There are actually three excellent music clubs across the street from the baseball stadium in St. Louis. My main goal was to see Kim Massie at Beale on Broadway but typical of my luck, the club picked this night to close unexpectedly (I assume because it was the night after the 4th of July). Instead I checked out the club across the street called BB's Jazz, Blues and Soups and saw a great blues band fronted by Miz Shay. She is a superior blues belter and does a great version of Let The Good Times Roll on this video clip.

I then ventured to the Broadway Oyster Bar across the street. They had a fill-in band there and I didn't catch their name but they are what I would call a Missouri hillbilly band. They were great instrumentalists and put on a nice demonstration of this genre of music.

A statue to Coleman Hawkins.

Later in the week I was staying in downtown St. Joseph when I discovered that the town sponsors musical concerts in the Coleman Hawkins Park in the center of town (this despite the fact that the town is rotting around this little oasis).According to our good friends at Wikipedia Coleman Randolph Hawkins (November 21, 1904 – May 19, 1969) was an American jazz tenor saxophonist born in St. Joseph.  Hawkins was one of the first prominent jazz musicians on his instrument. As Joachim E. Berendt explained, "there were some tenor players before him, but the instrument was not an acknowledged jazz horn". While Hawkins is most strongly associated with the swing music and big band era, he had a role in the development of bebop in the 1940s Phil Vandel was the act on this night and he proved to be a competent country-rock band and the crowd seemed to enjoy him. Sorry, I forgot my flip cam so I took this video on my phone.

Tiffany Miller

After St. Joseph I moved on to Kansas City and found myself in a piano bar. Tiffany Miller was the official talent this evening although she had several guest pianists guesting during her show. Tiffany is not a great pianist or singer but she knows her job as an entertainer and worked the crowd effectively. The club was dark as tar so none of my videos or photos were of an acceptable quality so I stole a photo of Tiffany from her website. Let's hope she doesn't sue me.

The Hern Brothers, Conneaut Lake, PA

7/2/11

This unidentified blonde was typical of the crowd at The Beach Club last night. 

The Saturday during 4th of July weekend is always a raucous time at The Beach Club on Conneaut Lake and last night proved to be no exception The band in residence was The Hern Brothers, a Beach Club perennial and a band I have seen many times. The Hern Brothers have been playing in this area for over 30 years and they have an act polished from years of playing crummy bars and clubs in Western Pennsylvania and Ohio. They are probably the best classic rock cover band in the area and they always bring their own wild crowd which turns up  the energy. I have several video clips of them but I chose to include only one because it pretty much encapsulates the night. In this clip you will see several rather unattractive women in even more unattractive bridesmaids dresses serving as part of the entertainment. You will also see a quite inebriated  blonde woman jump up and talk on the mic at the beginning of the song (I still can't figure out what she says-email me with your translation) and about half way through the song the lead singer will stop singing because she has hit the deck. All in a night's fun.