Reliving My Musical Year Circa 2011, Part Two Because I'm Chatty, Yo

JULY

Dear July: I will always and forever have a special place in my heart for thee. 

July was all about the Old 97's. Three incredible shows in four days with the added bonus of post show drinks with Ken and Murry (Baltimore)...



Hanging backstage before and after (Brooklyn)



and one non-stop, laugh-filled day at Brooklyn's famed Coney Island. To say they were the most memorable three days of the summer is not an overstatement, even if I embarrassed the hell out of myself by almost eating the pavement in Baltimore. Call me Grace.

AUGUST

Dude, I went to see The Monkees. Yes, THE Monkees. Okay, well 3/4 of the Monkees anyway. I had no intention of going, but GD if I didn't have a blast. Who knew all those lyrics were still living somewhere deep down in my grey matter.

A steamy August evening featured the Dynamic Duo of Ben Gibbard's Death Cab For Cutie and Scott Hutchinson's Frightened Rabbits on Stage AE's outdoor venue. (for once, two great bands for the price of one) Nestled between a signature skyblast fireworks display (we Burghers go ape shit over incendiary displays) with Train performing at the ball field and an evening shoot of Batman, The Dark Night Returns at Heinz Field, these musical Super Heroes held their own.





Sweaty, happy and hoarse, I walked away victorious clutching the lone FRabbits doodle postcard created especially for the evening.

KAPOW!

SEPTEMBER

Once again, September vacation was bookended (is that even a word?) with our two faves. Geo and I had our charts read by Francis Dunnery at our friend Kate's house in Malvern, PA. It was enlightening and huge fun. Hmmmm... seems I didn't blog about that either. Major slacker this past quarter. Blah. Anyhoo, the following evening we attended a house concert in the biggest home, nay, estate we've ever been in. Whoa! Kate and I were convinced it was haunted. For realz.

After spending a restful week at the Jersey shore, we ended our vacation with a double shot of, who else... Rhett Miller. This time at  World Cafe at the Queen in Wilmington, Deleware followed by a rare matinee show at one of my favorite out-of-town venues, Annapolis' Ram's Head On Stage. In both we were treated to a new song, Picture This from Rhett's upcoming solo CD due out in the Spring. Heather Robb from Spring Standards adds her beautiful voice to this duet.



The Ram's Head show was stupendous, with an eclectic setlist filled with deep cuts, newer gems and one terrific cover. Mr. M kindly fulfilled all of our requests. Couldn't ask for a better way to close out a holiday.

Mixing it up with the youngins.



The final outdoor WYEP freebie of the year was Alex Dezen of the Damnwells backed by Harper Blynn. JesusGoodGodAlmlighty it was ridiculously cold and damp for that time of year! But the music was warming, along with my awkward white-girl, Elaine Benis dancing in the corner.

"Help her! She's having a seizure!"

OCTOBER: You need to step it up this year, slacker.


NOVEMBER

Mary Ann (aka, Betty) and I had back-to-back evenings out starting with Louis CK and his delightfully raunchy, twisted view of life, followed by the legendary Kinks front man, Ray Davies. Don't let his age fool you, he can still kick it up for a senior citizen. Outstanding gig, even if I did get busted while recording Waterloo Sunset. Still was able to sneak this one. Ha! Take that, video recording Nazi!

I got to celebrate Thanksgiving Eve with the charming, elfish Norwegian, Sondre Lerche. He packs a lot of power in that little frame.

DECEMBER

Let the holiday festivities begin!! Raul Malo pulled into town in a big, black tour bus and offered up his Christmas Show to put us all in the spirit of things. There's no escaping that catchy Tejano beat. Don't even try. Just roll with it, baby!



 And just for fun, a half song medley followed by... a POLKA!

And finally, we ended the year as we began, with a Francis house concert to begin vacation and Francis playing his Christmas show at the Tin Angel. Our final musical night cap for 2011. The only thing missing was a Rhett holiday show chaser.

That's 2011 in a nutshell. It was a lovely year that provided a lot of opportunities to enjoy a ton of great music at great venues with great friends. I can't wait to do more of the same this year.

Dear 2012: You have some mighty big shoes to fill. Just saying.

In Which I Go Rocking Around The Tex-Mex Christmas Tree With Raul Malo

Okay, so I ask you, is there anything that can get you out of your chair and dancing faster than a festive mariachi beat played on the accordion? Seriously, in the correct hands an accordion is a magnificent thing.

Last night Betty, Barney and I ventured out in the cold night air to soak up some San Antonio sunshine in the form of Raul Malo (sporting a fetching fedora) and his band of merry men. Raul's rich and smooth voice is enough to get us out of the house, but when they bust out the accordion and trumpet, it's a PARTY!

CHA CHA CHA

The place was packed which meant we couldn't grab our normal table, but no worries, man. The best place to enjoy one of his shows is on the dance space near the bar because there is no way you can stand still for this one. The rhythm grabs you and won't let go. 

At one point an obviously drunk woman bellowed a request to "play Girl in the White Dress". What the Hell is that? Raul called her on it and started getting all up in her shit about screaming for a song that doesn't exist. Next thing you know, the audience is chiming in on the ribbing of both. It was hilarious and all in good fun! 

At one point the upright bass player started playing the line to You've Lost That Loving Feeling, which set them on a medley of what he referred to as "half songs". Bits of songs they sing when they're hanging around the garage drinking beer and goofing off. Can you name the covers?




The sick thing is we knew the words to those oldies. The Polkas were a nice touch though. Appropriate for the South Side of Pittsburgh known for its Polish population.

Being his official Christmas show, he sang a number of traditional and non-tradtional holiday tunes (Blue Christmas, Silent Night) as well as heating up the place with his classic Maverick's, jumping crowd pleasers. They ended their main set with the ever popular (and my favorite) I Said I Love You that had every drunken one of us enthusiastically singing and bouncing.

I love this song. Normally I would have been obnoxious and taped it, but honestly I just wanted to sing and dance with abandon. So as you watch this video, just imagine him with a brown fedora on and not so much... visible chest hair. That would be last night. 

His evening closer was a rousing, high energy, full-tilt extended version of All You Want To Do Is Bring Me Down, leaving us a sweaty mass and promising to bring the Mavericks through again next year. We're holding you to that, Raul.


WEIRDO ALERT:

I have no idea what it is about a Raul concert, but there was some weird-ass, disturbing shit going down in this crowd of predominantly oldsters, most of which was playing out in front of us.

Blech!

I have no problem with older fans. Hell, I'm in that category, but there were more PDLs (public displays of lewdness) springing up than in any younger skewed crowd I'd been around.

First off, WTF was up with the old guy probing his much younger, beach-blonde chippie with the painted on skinny jeans and mangled orthodontia? Dude. You're standing right in front of me. Hello...I can see your creepiness .

Holy Crap! Stop it.

It's icky.

We debated whether or not she was a paid escort (public pubic probing is an extra $50) although, I don't know, do they let escorts have messed up and missing teeth or was she the Groupon of the day?

Oh, and then get this, ANOTHER woman shuffles over and starts hanging on the other side of him. This frumpy old Tom Cat better be loaded with dough or at least lay some major pipe to attract that action. It's a Viagara night. Again, BLECH!

Guy standing around in the long flasher trench coat. Why? Just...why?

Sporting a boner and sexually mauling your girlfriend is not really the appropriate reaction to a beautiful rendition of Silent Night. Okay, so he wasn't showing wood that I could see (thank God), but seriously, pawing, groping and tongue-bathing your woman to Silent Night... Sorry Jesus.

You can't make that shit up.

I know it sounds like we were completely repulsed by the antics of our lascivious neighbors, but honestly, it made for entertaining fodder. These crazies certainly didn't detract from the true entertainment of the evening, a Texas band whose members were having as much fun playing for us as we were listening to them. His form of Tex-Mex makes me happy beyond belief.

This morning my ringing ears, achy dance neck and burning thighs tell me it was a very good night indeed.