Before we get to the virtual tunes, let’s have a moment of silence for John Prine, Adam Schlesinger, Hal Willner and all the other talented musicians we’ve lost to COVID-19.

As if we needed any more bad news, The National’s Homecoming festival has officially been cancelled. But list member Dale Doyle (the original D2) is doing the album artwork for Matt Berninger’s solo album and says the tunes are great. So we have that to look forward to.

It’s yet another week of live music lockdown, which stinks. But it seems like more and more artists are turning to the “home concert” option to stay connected. Here are a few of note:

List members Dave and Jacqui are turning their Parlor & Patio house concert featuring Liz Longley into a virtual event next Friday (4/17). This is sad news for people who like free pie (they serve it at intermission of their house shows), but good news for those who originally couldn’t snag a seat when the show sold out in 48 hours! Here’s the Eventbrite link. Just like usual Parlor & Patio shows, all ticket proceeds go directly to the artist.

List member Doug Hill-Harriss is still trying to convert me into a Radiohead fan, so he mentioned that they are posting a classic show every Thursday on their YouTube channel. Read more here.

The Grateful Dead are streaming an old show each Friday at 8 pm EDT on YouTube. Read more on Rolling Stone.

NPR’s list of virtual gigs keeps growing. I’ll let you peruse for yourself, but the Hamilton Leithauser show tonight at 7 should be fun, and these Saturday gigs look promising:

Billboard also has a list of virtual gigs.

Shawn Colvin is playing from her house on Saturday afternoon:

Rob Fetters will be doing gig #3 Saturday at 9 pm. Here’s what list member Lisa Collins had to say about his first show: LOVED the Rob Fetters show! Wow! Such a great songwriter!

Jesse Malin will be doing his third home show this Saturday at 4 Eastern on YouTube. Both previous gigs have been killer. (Last week’s show is posted below.) Don’t just take my word for it, here’s what Rolling Stone had to say in their “Best Streamed Performances of the Stay-at-Home Era” article:

For the past two Saturdays, Jesse Malin has been performing full two-hour concerts from his Manhattan apartment, each with their own theme. Dubbed “The Fine Art of Self-Distancing” (a play on the title of his 2003 debut, The Fine Art of Self-Destruction), the intimate gigs touch on songs from throughout his career, along with covers by Neil Young, Squeeze, and his old band D Generation. He also does a goofy show-and-tell routine and offers his recommendations for staying sane during quarantine: books by Alan Ginsberg and Debbie Harry, a doc on the Bad Brains, and what he calls Scorsese’s last great film, The King of Comedy. But it’s Malin’s stories — told by a guy who literally grew up in and around the New York punk scene — that are the rare gems, like one in which Joey Ramone tells off Lorne Michaels for never booking the Ramones on SNL.

And my boy Bill Janovitz from Buffalo Tom is doing his 4th weekly “Virtual Happy Hour” – last week’s 24-song set included covers of Hüsker Dü, Fountains of Wayne, Psychedelic Furs, Lefty Frizzell, Bill Withers and the Rolling Stones. His rehearsal version of the Fountains of Wayne tune is below.

Dan’s with the Band

“These virtual concerts are all well and good, but how about a story from list member Dan ‘Reds are gonna win it all’ Lewis?” you say…. So here’s Dan’s sordid saga about what went on backstage at a KISS concert:

My brother met the tour manager in our hometown of Lancaster Ohio (small world). He got us passes. If it wasn’t for a neighborhood buddy who I hadn’t seen in a while… back in eighth grade, if he didn’t invite me up to hear the new KISS record, I’d probably be a lawyer today. (I didn’t even like KISS but he had every Cream and Circus rock magazine …so very cool). So my brother says he’s got backstage passes for KISS. This is like 1998. I’m like, “I prefer to remember them from the Destroyer tour. But sounds like it would be fun.” Guy was great. Showed us the oxygen masks behind stage. Machines that blew the smoke out, then the machines that sucked the smoke back in!! (Because they were getting old, etc.)

There you have it, Dan Lewis’ tale of “sucking” backstage at a KISS concert.

Tributes to Prine

First Avenue Club in Minneapolis — documentary

List member Mighty Joe Sampson (as heard on the 97X podcast here) sent the link below. Cool doc celebrating 50 years of the iconic Twin Cities club. You’ll see some familiar faces mixed in the awesome archival footage

Gigs, interviews, and clips…

Shameless self-promotion

Sometime tomorrow, you’ll be able to check out a new episode of the 97X Rumblings from the Big Bush podcast featuring our interview with John Curley of the Afghan Whigs. NBD.

Hate to start on a sad note, but losing Adam Schlesinger from Fountains of Wayne and Ivy (and other projects) was a real kick in the trousers. This line from a Washington Post tribute sums it up nicely:

… his sharply tuned ear for both catchiness and emotion meant that Schlesinger could do something rare: He wrote songs that were not only wonderful but also could help you understand what it was that you loved about an entire genre of music.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/04/02/adam-schlesinger-wrote-great-songs-helped-us-understand-why-we-loved-them

A couple of nice tributes are in the WaPo and The Ringer.

Here are a few links to check out over the weekend (and in some cases, ongoing) for your semi-live music fix.

KEXP in Seattle has a list of Virtual Concerts here: https://www.kexp.org/events/

NPR’s list is here: https://www.npr.org/2020/03/17/816504058/a-list-of-live-virtual-concerts-to-watch-during-the-coronavirus-shutdown

A few shows of note for Saturday 4/4:

• Jesse Malin plays at 4 p.m. on YouTube. Last week’s gig is here (and below)
• Bill Janovitz (Buffalo Tom) is doing another Happy Hour at 4:30 on FB (at that link he has video of his rehearsal of the Fountains of Wayne song “Hackensack”)
• Rob Fetters is playing another “from home” show at 8 p.m.

FWIW, I think the Instagram interface is the worst of the bunch… small screen, and the artist is usually partially obscured by the comments stream.

Shows already recorded for your viewing pleasure:

Richard Thompson did a great gig. Then again, every gig he does is great.

Here’s Jesse Malin’s show from last week:

Joe Pernice is doing Barry Manilow covers here: https://vimeo.com/user6808878/videos. (This Paste interview with Joe has more details.)

Sofar has a YouTube channel with several artists’ performances: https://www.youtube.com/user/Sofarsounds

Just for fun

If you’ve never checked out the Comedy Bang Bang podcast, you need to do so. And here are videos of the host (Scott Aukerman) and a frequent guest (Paul F. Thompkins) adding their own version of the Star Wars cantina music to classic scenes from several movies. The entire playlist is below… watch all of them as it has a cumulative silliness effect.

Adam Schlesinger’s passing reminded me of this great Robbie Fulks tune:

And finally a great tweet from Craig Finn:

Stay positive indeed!

This coronavirus lockdown is a real kick in the trousers for fans of live music. Yes, it’s flattening the curve, but it’s also flattening the hearts of music fans everywhere, and flattening the already-skinny wallets of many performers.

Several artists are turning to “virtual concerts” to raise funds for themselves, raise funds for charity, or just to keep from going stir-crazy.

NPR is listing a lot of the virtual gigs here:
https://www.npr.org/2020/03/17/816504058/a-list-of-live-virtual-concerts-to-watch-during-the-coronavirus-shutdown

I’ve tuned in to a few: Lucius with Courtney Barnett, Josh Ritter, Indigo Girls, Orville Peck, Julia Steiner (lead singer of Ratboys – check ’em out), Bill Janovitz from Buffalo Tom, Liz Longley… not the same as being at a club, but better than sitting in your basement staring at the same four walls.

List member Michael Orzali offered up these viewing options as well, courtesy of Nugs.net: YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCs9tH6M6AW16i3s8WabzAfA

1. The Brothers: “Mountain Jam” – Madison Square Garden 3/10/20
2. Billy Strings – Tipitina’s New Orleans 1/24/20 FULL SHOW
3. Melvin Seals & JGB ft. John Kadlecik plus George Porter Jr. Trio FULL SHOW 10/17/19
4. Drive By Truckers – Tipitina’s New Orleans 9/26/19 FULL SHOW
5. Wilco – Live From Brooklyn Steel 10/13/19 FULL SHOW
6. Bob Weir and Wolf Bros – The Ryman Auditorium 3/7/20 FULL SHOW
7. Circles Around the Sun & Greensky Bluegrass 1/18/19 FULL SHOW
8. Dead & Company: “Shakedown Street” – Bristow, VA 6/26/19
9. Joe Russo’s Almost Dead – The Peach Music Festival 7/27/19 FULL SHOW
10. Widespread Panic – Sweetwater 420 Festival 4/21/19 FULL SHOW

And Michael said you’ll find more “couch tour” shows here: https://www.jambase.com/collection/couch-tour-alert

(In case you couldn’t tell from the links above, Michael is a jam band fan.

Happy listening, until we meet (in person) again!

Hey kids, let’s Spring Forward into some live tunes (see what we did there?)

On Monday, you should get to bed early to make up for lost time.

You’ll need the extra rest, because it’s a very busy week of music.

Tuesday gigs:

• Fruition plays Madison Live, with former Houndmouth member Katie Toupin as the opener
• Bear Hands plays Riverfront Live
• Ms. Lauryn Hill is at the Taft Theater
• Jerry Springer records another batch of podcasts at Folk School Coffee Parlor in Ludlow, KY.

On Wednesday, Pigeons Playing Ping Pong (they’re a jam band, in case you couldn’t tell by their name… “I’ll see your String Cheese Incident and raise you 200…”) will be at the Madison Theater, with Goose as the opener.

Other Hump Day gigs:

• Theo Katzman plays 20th Century Theater
• Ladysmith Black Mambazo is at Memorial Hall
• MammaBear plays MOTR

Thursday shows:

• Whiskey Myers plays Taft with The Steel Woods
• Melvin Seals and the JGB play Ludlow Garage (Jerry Garcia will NOT be there… well, I suppose it depends on what sort of mushrooms you have for the pre-show dinner)
• Kelly Richey and Sherri McGee play Dead Low Brewing
• Fea, Patsy, and Megahussy are at Southgate
• Death Hags and Brindle play MOTR
• Ben Levin is at BrewRiver

This coming weekend is close enough to 3/17 to serve as a handy excuse for a “St. Patrick’s Day Weekend” at every bar in America. Please be careful out there.

Friday is busy night for gigs too:

• of Montreal plays the Woodward, with Lily and Horn Horse
• Caamp plays a sold-out show at Madison Theater
• Tommy Emmanuel plays Taft with opener Sierra Hull
• Christone “Kingfish” Ingram plays the Mad Frog
• Motherfolk and Bad Bad Hats play Southgate’s Revival Room
• Lost Dog Street Band plays Southgate’s larger Sanctuary
• Culture Queer plays MOTR with Disaster Class and Quotah
• Saxy man David Sanborn has a sold-out gig at Ludlow Garage

Here’s your Saturday smorgasbord:

• Guster plays an evening of acoustic music and improv at Memorial Hall
• Kasim Sultan’s Utopia plays Ludlow Garage
• Dermot Kennedy is at Taft
• The Nude Party and Boa (seems like a fitting pairing) play Southgate
• Anna Burch and Carriers play MOTR
• The Ark Band is at Fretboard Brewing
• Georgia Middleman and the Ruby Green Duo play the Downtowne Listening Room
• Ben Levin and Noah Wotherspoon play Mansion Hill Tavern
• Camp Springs Tavern (co-owned by the extremely talented designer/artist Keith Neltner) hosts a 4-Year Bash and Print Trader art show, with a nice music lineup:

On Sunday, Bogart’s has a nice double bill: Anderson East and Foy Vance. And Southgate has a four-band lineup of Tiny Moving Parts, Belmont, Capstan and Jetty Bones.

Recommended Reading

This Robbie Robertson interview (with video clips) about the new movie about The Band called Once Were Brothers is worth checking out. I hear the movie is quite good too.

Recommended Viewing

If you weren’t alive when Battle of the Network Stars was on TV, have you really ever lived? Feast your eyes upon the glory of this clip:

Check out Bill Simmons’ ESPN article about the Battle clip too.

Concert Review

Wussy crushed it, as always, at Woodward this past Friday. Such a fantastic band! In my next life, I want to be married to Chuck Cleaver and/or Lisa Walker.

Album Cover of the Week

Shows that I’m attending

A recurring theme in the tons* of emails we get every week is: “Hey TWILM Editor, you seem like a really cool person. What shows are you attending?”

Why, thanks so much for asking! Here are the shows for which I have tickets in hand (I type with my other hand):

• Rob Fetters at Roebling Point Books in Covington on Saturday, March 21
• Bob Mould at 20th Century on Sunday, March 22
• Shovels & Rope at Ludlow Garage on Wednesday, April 8
• Watkins Family Hour at Memorial Hall on Saturday, April 11
• Liz Longley at Parlor & Patio on Friday, April 17
• Robyn Hitchcock at Southgate House on Sunday, April 26
• Greg Dulli with Joseph Arthur at Woodward Theater on Wednesday, April 29
• The National’s Homecoming Festival on May 8-9
• Andrew Bird, Calexico and Iron & Wine at PNC Pavilion on Saturday, June 20

(*tons = smattering)

Have a great week!

Another slow week in the music department. But there are a few gigs, so let’s rock:

Tuesday evening, Greensky Bluegrass will be playing the Madison Theater.

Thursday, my neighbor Ben Levin, who happens to be a blues/boogie-woogie piano wunderkind, is playing Big Ash Brewing. Big Ash is right down the street from my house, on the site of the old El Rancho Rankin Motel, so I plan to be there.

If you live in the Mt. Lookout/Mt. Washington/Anderson area, you should attend this gig too! (Sidebar: List member Whit G., who is also my neighbor, wants to rebrand Mt. Washington as “Anderson Heights” to boost property values. Kinda like when they renamed a stretch of Eastern Avenue “Riverside Drive.”) Way to sell the sizzle, Whit!

Also on Thursday, Tauk plays Madison Theater, and John Sebastian is at the Ludlow Garage. He did the theme from Welcome Back, Kotter, so I think I’ll go and ask him to sign my Barbarino puzzle.

On Friday, there are a few interesting gigs:

• It’s First Friday at the Listing Loon in Northside, meaning DJ Sean P. Hafer will be spinning some great tunes and you can get happy hour prices on Great Lakes beers from 4-8 p.m.
• Ludlow Garage hosts their 4th Annual Earthday Celebration with the Ark Band. (I thought Earth Day was 4/22, not 2/7… maybe they’re using a Jamaican calendar. Actually Bob Marley’s BD was 2/6.)
• Eskimo Brothers play Southgate’s Revival Room. Apparently “Eskimo Brothers” is also a slang term.
• Totally 80s Live is at Bogart’s, featuring The Motels, Bow Wow Wow, and When in Rome II (not to be confused with When in Rome UK or When in Rome Revisited or Farrington + Mann Original Members of When in Rome… legal squabbles are the best!) (According to the When in Rome II website, they have a new lead singer, Tony Fennell, who took over as the voice of Ultravox after Midge Ure left, and spent the past 3 and a half years playing guitar for Enuff Z’nuff!… this is the kind of research you can count on from TWILM!)
• Lee Rocker (of the Stray Cats… and Phantom, Rocker and Slick… more deep research!) plays the Fairfield Community Arts Center.

Saturday is a busy evening for live tunes. The Tillers host their 2nd Annual Stringbreakers Ball at Southgate.

Other Saturday gigs:

• The Rumpke Mountain Boys play a Fan Appreciation Night at the old Annie’s. (Uh, shouldn’t every night be a “fan appreciation night” for bands?)
• Jake Speed and Kade Puckett play the Downtowne Listening Room
• At Ludlow Garage, Freekbass & The Bump Assembly does P-Funk, featuring members of Turkuaz, P-Funk and Bootsy’s Rubber Band.
• Triiibe plays MOTR

On Sunday, Alvin Youngblood Hart plays Southgate.

Hot Ticket Alerts

Shawn Colvin and Mary Chapin Carpenter play Memorial Hall on Thursday, April 6th. Get tickets here.

List member Dan “The Reds are Active in the Free Agent Market… 2020 is our year!” Lewis reminds you that tickets are on sale for the July 2nd show at Great American Ball Park featuring Mötley Crüe, Def Leppard, Poison, and Joan Jett & The Blackhearts.

Be sure to look for Dan in the front row for that gig.

Recommended Reading

Chuck Prophet is a rare gem of an artist and a genuinely funny dude. The story below is from his email newsletter (which you can sign up for here):

So there I was holding Jakob Dylan’s phone, backstage left at the Clash tribute at the Roxy organized by Jesse Malin the other night. Butch Walker was there, Duff from Guns & Roses. Is that enough names for you yet?

I was holding Jakob’s phone, trying not think about the fact that I had no I.D. and a long drive back to the Valley after midnight in my 15-passenger Econoline van ahead of me on a weekend in L.A.

We were staying with Stephanie‘s mom out in San Fernando and as I was getting closer to the gig, I couldn’t find my wallet anywhere. Finally, I grabbed the keys and hit the road. I mean I was obviously me, right? Who wouldn’t recognize Chuck Prophet? Well, lots of people, come to think.

Thank god that when I felt around in my pocket there was a wad of merch cash from the previous gig. Cruising down Sunset I was just shy of the Roxy on Sunset, when I spotted a parking garage. And as I pulled in, I noticed a sign that said “NO VANS. NO LARGE VEHICLES. NO EXCEPTIONS.” But who wouldn’t make an exception for Chuck Prophet, right? Well, lots of people, come to think.

So I acted like I didn’t see the sign. Playing dumb, unfortunately, comes way too easy for me. Eventually there was an attendant there. A Hispanic kid. And I rolled down the window and kind of held a folded $20 in his general direction. He walked over, pointed in the direction of the next level, said “park it up there next to that Chevy truck.” And, I was like, “OK.” And yeah, I was in a little bit of a hurry, and so I did.

I started driving the van up to the 2nd level and the ceiling concrete seemed very low and I craned my neck and looked up through the windshield and there were lots of pipes and sprinklers and concrete and I was thinking, “I don’t know…” And then I looked back at the kid and he looked at me and he just kept gesturing to me, “Go ahead, Bro. You’re good, Bro.”

The ceiling seemed kind of low. (So that’s what the “NO VANS” thing was about.) First there was a popping sound. And then the roof of the van ended up getting wedged in there and it started to feel like I was inside an empty beer can getting crushed. Throw it in reverse and pull back and get out backwards or keep on plunging forward? I plunged. Next thing I hear is an even louder scraping. Excruciating. My metal beer can of a vehicle was scraping along inch by inch. It seemed to go on forever, but finally the scraping stopped.

Everybody in the lot was staring at me. Clash fans, I figured.

So I pulled the van next to the Chevy truck and thought to myself, “F*ck…How late am I? I’m playing the first damn song. Jesse said there was gonna be a curtain and everything. And that the curtain was open and I would play the opening chords of London Calling and then we would be off and running.

I jumped out of the van and I walked down the ramp and up to the attendant and we both just kind of shrugged at each other in a sort of universal no words necessary language that said “Well, that happened.” And I said to the kid, “I think we’re gonna need to let the air out of the tires later in order for me to get out of here.”

Hold that curtain!

On the way out, dude clues me in that, “Yeah bro, and don’t forget we close at midnight”.

So I ran to the club and I didn’t have my I.D. How could I prove I’m Chuck Prophet? I was carrying a guitar, but who cares? Thankfully, cool heads prevailed and they even gave me a wristband. A purple one. One of those “All Access” puppies.

I went backstage and ran straight into Jakob Dylan. He was on deck. Playing directly after me doing the second song. We’d met before so we fell into some easy small talk about how Jesse likes his strap to hang really low. And just strap pride in general.

I played my song and bam, it was over. After I played my song, I walked off stage and Jakob said something to the effect of “well done.”

And then he said, “Can you hold my phone?” And I said sure. And he said, “I don’t like having a bunch of things in my pocket on stage, right?”
So Jacob went up and killed. On “Brand New Cadillac.” It was loose and tight in all the right places.

And as he came off, I handed him back his phone. It was only later than I thought, “Oh man, I could have scrolled through his phone. Maybe memorize a couple phone numbers. But then again, it was probably encrypted or something. I mean, it was still WARM when he handed it to me. I could have searched for… I don’t know “Dad.” But why? It’s not like I’m going to text his dad and say, “Big fan. If you ever need a lift from the airport…” Yeah, right.

This is ridiculous. I would never do anything like that.

The night went by in a blur. One song and performer after another. Everybody brought something to the picnic.

And then like some animal instinct, I felt myself panicking and thought “Oh damn, what time is it? It’s like 11:58!” So I ran out of the club. And did I mention it was Sold Out? I was trying to work my way through crowd to the street exit and I bumped into Clem Burke and said, “Oh, hi Clem,” and kept pushing through the crowd.

And when I got back to the parking garage the attendant was nowhere to be found.

So I stood there not knowing what to do. Wondering if I was too late and everyone had gone home. And then I heard this hissing sound. And it went on and on and on. I looked up to where the van was and I didn’t see anybody up there. But the hissing persisted. So I walked up the ramp and there in between the cars was the attendant crouched down: he was letting the air out of my tires.

It took a couple tries and more hissing, but we eventually got that van out of there. And we shared a laugh. But, we didn’t say anything to each other. Not one word. Didn’t need to.

And then I just cruised back down Sunset going about 5 miles an hour looking for a gas station with an air pump. Thinking to myself “Oh for Christ, no license, no photo I.D., or license. And I’m in a serial killer van. Perfect!”

Well, the first place I went to said the air pump was down. Then I found a place and pumped the tires back up and got back to the Valley. And there was my wallet. In my other pants.

“How was the show,” Stephanie asked the next morning over coffee.

“Oh, you know, just another walk in the park. How’s that oatmeal coming?”

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