Record Review 19: Neil Young: Chrome Dreams

Diner Review Pics Bush As Worst Ever

Sooooo... if your lucky enough to be reading this then you will one day in the position to tell your children and/or grandchildren that you had the blessing of living through the eight year term of the worst President...ever. Seriously... I mean I didn’t live through the Harding (supposedly he was fabulously corrupt as was his administration which frankly seems like an upgrade on where we are at now) years so I cannot really comment on them one way or another. I also missed out on James Buchanon (Presided over secession of the the south), Andrew Johnson (presided post Lincoln and took the side of the South in reconstruction and Franklin (Doughface) Pierce who tried to expand slavery to the western states. I have been however been conscious for Lyndon Johnson (14 who would have thunk it?), Richard Nixon (32), Jimmy Carter (28 tie), Gerald Ford (28 tie), George H.W. Bush (25), Ronald Reagan (15), Bill Clinton (21) and now this putz. According to historians this group in my life has been a pretty middling, muddling bunch. I mean, we have had 42 Presidents and if my math is correct they average out to about a 20+ and that is pretty much right in the middle.

But think about it. This guy won (some say stole but that is a whiny weak response because if he stole it we ALL watched it happen) an election by the barest of mandates inheriting a White House at peace, a robust economy with projected budget surpluses (whoever those guys were projected that need to be treated the people who put together Communist China and Russia’s much vaunted 5 Year Plans) and was off to just being a screw up, a caretaker President busy figuring out how to make the rich get richer with tax cuts for the rich and tax breaks for business, trashing the environmental laws and ignoring global warming. He did not believe in interventionism of “nation building” since they were bad for business. He was trying to be a good dogmatic, pro business republican. he paid lip service like a good business republican to abortion issues and gay marriage which helped elect him but did nothing because they had nothing to do with getting his friends richer.
Then we have 9-11. A disaster, devastates a mentally weak nations psyche and he becomes a hero. He invades Afghanistan with massive focused force and although he fails to get the bad guy, he and the folks he surrounds himself with suddenly see the vision...a stable democracy in Iraq. Lets clean up dads screw up there not unseating Saddam. It can all be ours...the oil, the glory, the no bid contracts... That is when his Presidency teetered and then fell with a thud. Either he lied us into the war or led us into war relying on such fantastic incompetence that he and his cabinet should be water boarded and executed in short order. WE WERE THE ONLY SUPERPOWER! We had a moral gravitas and a budget surplus to do so much good in the world and...he and Cheney literally...pissed it all away.

Perhaps we judge our recent Presidents too harshly because their failings are apparent but their long term victories are not yet judged. Lyndon Johnson at 14 seems like a stretch and Nixon at 32 seems unduly harsh for just being a mean spirited greed head. I mean he opened up China and that took a little guts and forethought. He messily got us out of Vietnam which was not his war. Makes you wonder how we will treat Hillary or Barrack for what will be a very messy retreat from Iraq (and it will be a shameful retreat). I think when comparing Bush to Nixon that Nixon comes out very favorably. Sure he surrounded himself with hustlers and crooks but they were used car salesmen type crooks. Fast talkers with wide ties and white shoes and bad teeth. Perhaps they were trying to screw us but it was a kinder gentler time.

Bush has surrounded himself with Haliburton type neo-con crooks who are looking to rape not just us, but the world in favor of lining their pockets, their family members pockets and implanting their “vision” all over the map. I guess the difference is that these guys are smarter, meaner and more dogmatic then Haldeman, Erlichmann, Mitchell and Dean could have ever mustered. Nixon had his enemies “audited” by the IRS. Bush sends his to Guantanimo. Nixon listened in on phones, Bush “data mines”. Nixon at least genuinely liked pro football (according to Hunter Thompson) and I do not think Bush likes anything. Since his PR Campaign of coming to Jesus he no longer has any public use for vice and that is just wrong on so many levels that it makes me queasy.


Sure Clinton was banging his aides (only to fulfill his Kennedy fantasies) but it is comforting to see the man in the White House has human failings, even very public ones. It really was not until Clinton that we knew it was wrong to carry on such dalliances because the prior guys since Kennedy were all to old and mentally screwed up to have sex anyway and I suspect sadly that the same is true of George now. There is something meaner about Presidents who are not getting laid regularly while in the White House. That is my theory. Hell, Kennedy was all smiles even when invading Cuba and enmeshing us in Vietnam. Perhaps that is the key lesson of the Bush Presidency. I would like to be able to draw at least on lesson out of it because this guy is going to be sitting in the bottom 5 sooner rather then later.

Diner Review XII: The Crystal Grill

Crystal Grill
North Broadway and North Market
St. Louis

It is always a pleasure to find a jewel. A place real and authentic and old. Not dirty but...old..really old. The Crystal Grill has evidently been around for over 50 years but since I don’t get to North Broadway much and since their signage is so minimal I never noticed the place. It is just north of Downtown, probably a mile north of Dome. It is not quite all the way out where all the warehouses and trucking companies are but it is in a non residential area.

It is a little scary to walk in there at 7:00 A.M. on a weekday. I drove up to the place twice and then went to more familiar ground before I finally mustered the nerve to go in and boy am I glad that I did. I did. On any given morning there is one women working the place and her name is April. She is friendly and talkative without being too chatty. As you sit there reading your paper there are a variety of people who wonder in. Most of them do not appear to be businessmen and at least one looked rather scary...but was not. There is one guy in the kitchen who cooks everything and cooks it fresh. The owner is allegedly a city employee (which explains why health inspectors have not been more diligent about the bathroom) and other then looking like he had been chain smoking and drinking since before he was born is a pleasant enough guy.

The place is set up with one classic diner with one room set up with a counter and about 14 stools set in a U around the waitresses area. There is another large room through a doorway that has a cavernous dining room filled with a bunch of very old tables and chairs and a steam table and although I have not been there for lunch they tell me they pack the place and serve a mean roast beef. Likely I will never know. They also have a back room which she tells me was used by gangsters back in the day. Even if untrue it is very believable and adds to the mystique. This place is old... and cool.

They serve Jimmy Dean’s sausage which they buy at Sams (for God sakes) in bulk and then form into nice 1/4 pound balls. The hashbrowns are shredded, as God intends and although they might be considered slightly greasy they are very tasty indeed. they do not have chili and as such cannot make you a slinger. I questioned her about this and she was rather defensive. Their cream gravy is excellent in color (just off white) and consistency (thick without being gluey) but what makes it different is that it has little bits of ham cut up on it. A very nice touch we have not found in other St. Louis diners. On a recent trip they had run out of biscuits (which they allegedly make from scratch) due an early run at 6 A.M. by some truckers. This caused your diner reviewer to split a biscuit with his companion which still was more then enough. The eggs were cooked to order and seemed fine yet unremarkable (as eggs should be) and the bacon was thick and well fried and was frankly...impressive in it’s grandeur on the plate.

Celebrity Diner Reviewer Sal Pagano had this to say:
"Crystal is basic, personal, conducive to customer interactivity because of the close horseshoe seating, with April in the center position. Like a mother robin, she drops the exact freshly, prepared ordered to her customers in a family sort of way, glad we showed up and eager to serve. It is her raison d'tre. The seats are ancient and worn by the many years and thousands of persons who have patronized the place. The sink is made of PVC legs, by the owner, and April is making a colorful fabric cover to hide the plastic and freshen things up.She is the owner's partner. Crystal is a much appreciated and authentic experience. It has genuineness of the neighborhood and real individuals, compared with the smooth perfection of BreadCo and the ubiquitous Starbucks.
There was a guy telling his story about eating mustard sandwiches during the depression, while he enjoyed a post depression real meat hotdog sandwich; he savored it's juiciness as he reflected on his meatless past. The Crystal was for sale but now the owner, who is 2nd or 3rd generation diner operator, has decided to keep it in it's original state and operate it as a diner. They are trying to attract new business, investing in new signs and painting the place - work in progress. The coffee needs to be upgraded to get my official approval. The service is personal and fast. Lonnie Tettaton, Tettaton Signs, named the number 5 the Bitch Breakfast - "made by a bitch, served by a bitch and eaten by an asshole." April will acknowledge and serve the Bitch with a knowing smile if ordered in this manner. "

Sal has an uncanny ability to chat up people and gain valuable insight into any locale.

If you love diners and ambience and good food this place appears to be a keeper. Make the trip to North Broadway and North market and enjoy a little bit of old school breakfast...a newspaper and a little good company. Say high to April and tell her that we sent you.

Record Review 18: Radiohead: In Rainbows

Soooooo... did Radiohead just suddenly change everything? Somehow it seems unlikely but in any case...how cool was that? On October 10th (my birthday) those pretentious English fucks Radiohead released their brand new CD “In Rainbows” on their own web site. Not on iTunes. Not in stores. Just on their site. Other people, bands etc... have released songs on their own site and sometimes given them away but no one has released a whole CD for free on a web site for nothing. Of course it was not really for nothing and that was the kind of cooler part.

You could pay them whatever you wanted. You just filled in the blanks. How ever much you wanted to pay... in pounds of course. Anyway...once you heard about it and logged on it was rather surreal going and typing in an amount and getting to download the songs. You could also agree to pay a lot more for a special boxed set. But why? The exciting thing and the big difference was because this was one of the most popular bands of all time, arguably at the height of their game. So how did they do? Wired magazine said this:

Estimates: Radiohead Made $6-$10 Million on Initial Album Sales
By Eliot Van Buskirk October 19, 2007 | 11:35:45 Am

Thom Yorke's representative told me that the band have "decided not to give out any figures" for sales of Radiohead's In Rainbows album, but that isn't stopping people from making their best guesses based on what little information is available.
The Seminal estimates that Radiohead sold about $10 million-worth of albums as of 10/12, assuming that their source was correct that approximately 1.2 million people downloaded the album from the site, and that the average price paid per album was $8 (we heard that number too, but also heard that a later, more accurate average was $5, which would result in $6 million revenue instead).
Meanwhile, Forbes and BigChampagne revealed that on the first day the album was available, 240K people downloaded it for free over BitTorrent, and that over the following days an average of 100K people per day did the same, for a total of over 500K BitTorrent downloads over the initial week of its release.  It appears that even though the album was available for free on InRainbows.com, plenty of people preferred to use BitTorrent rather than Radiohead's site, which required an email registration (although some of those BitTorrent downloads may have been the result of slowdowns on the ordering site).
We're working on getting some sales numbers through another channel, and will post those if/when we can.

http://www.radiohead.com/deadairspace/

Wired Magazine cannot be wrong. Can it?
Anyway...what about the CD itself? Radiohead has always been problematic for me. Their “Genius” being somewhat hard for me to get at behind the drum machine and synth heavy tunes. Still, even for me there was no denying “OK Computer” being one of the top indie rock CD’s of all time. Thom Yorke aside from being a pretentious Brit prick has an ear for the tune and through his work has established serious indie cred both for himself and his high school band-mates from Oxfordshire.
“In Rainbows” is in a word... dreamy. I have listened to it about 15 times now ensconced in my office and the same word just keeps suggesting itself. I am still bothered and somewhat distracted by their reliance on electronic effects for percussion and that plays out right away in the opening track 15 step. Something I had not noticed before was how Yorke’s vocals often mimic Ray Davies of the Kinks. I look at that as a good thing. The second song is a rocker with a crunchy guitar called “Body Snatchers” and the Ray Davies thing is reinforced for me pretty dramatically.

The Yorke slows it way...way down with something that sounds like it should be a soundtrack cut because your mind conjures up all kinds of visuals...and then he starts to sing and it is just... a weird song he calls “Nude.” Then the Cd gets really good with a well crafted soft pop tune called “Weird Fishes” and this is classic Yorke for both song style and lyrics:

“I get eaten by the worms
Weird Fishes
Picked over by the worms
Weird Fishes
Weird Fishes
Weird Fishes
I’ll hit the bottom
Hit the bottom and escape
Escape”

That type of shit. But it is compelling and you cannot explain but have to listen. “All I Need” follows up with a plodding synth and drum beat that is very radio ready. It is all symbolism and metaphor with Yorke being... in order

1. The next act waiting in the wings
2. An animal trapped in your hot car
3. A moth
4. In the middle of a picture

Until he starts to tell you as the song winds down...Its all wrong. It’s all right.” No shit.
“Faust Arp” Sounds like a soft Jack White song set to strings. It is really very pretty and Yorkes’ voice is hard to fault. The strings and guitar remind me of a late seventies Fogelberg album and sadly I do not mean that in a big way. In a lot of ways this song like a lot of their songs is just so well put together, so well produced and played that it is just...too pretty.
“Reckoner” has an edgier feel and you really get an appreciation for the brevity of Yorke’s lyrics. There are no sweeping epics. Stories do not get told. He does not take you from point A to point B but each song is like a separate picture hanging in a museum with the words and tune providing color and perspective and sometimes you can even make out a picture. But it is murky. “House of Cards” clocks in as the longest track on the CD at 5:28 and it is just pretty.

“Jigsaw Falling Into Place” other then the drum machine is just an excellent pop song. I like it because i think I can discern what he is singing about which is the bad end of a relationship. That is what music is supposed to be about. Leave the sweeping themes to novelists...that is what daddy says. The end with a dreary little ditty called “Videotape’ which starts with a plodding one finger on one key piano which makes me think Neil Young is about to start singing “A Man Needs A Maid.” But he doesn't. But the song does sound a lot like that tune in style. it is either about dying...or about a great date. I guess they could be the same.

My whole sense of the CD is that is probably more accessible then any of their work since “OK Computer”. perhaps the appearance on Southpark made them take themselves less seriously but with Yorke I doubt it. He is one of those guys that I would be anxious to see what he could do outside the studio sitting at a piano by himself writing and singing all stripped down and unpretentious. There is unfortunately nothing that is uncomplicated by about Yorke and his mates or this CD. You have to listen... and listen again and hope that you can get it...because all the cool kids do. And this album is probably worth the study time.

Concert Review Number 11: Bob Dylan, St. Louis October 22, 2007

Bob Dylan, Elvis Costello, Amos Lee
The Fox Theatre



Sooooo...my second $180.00 concert ticket in three days. Who is a millionaire genius? Not me...on either count. There was a chance my wife would eventual start to speak to me again after I paid this much for a concert ticket...several times... but that chance has been...frittered away. Heading out to the Fox on what seems like the first day of winter. I was looking forward to the Fox after having suffered the indignities of U.S. Cellular Coliseum in Bloomington. I was also looking forward to (in no particular order) seeing the hot Elvis Costello set and getting home and being in bed by 11. Such is the life of the sad pathetic 46 year old man.

I have made a strategic decision to Miss the Amos Lee set. As I stated he was deemed non-essential. This is the second harshest epithet I could dump on him but on more careful reflection he is entitled to the number one unkindest thing I could say about ANY live rock show. He was...pleasant. There is nothing more unforgivable in rock then being pleasant. Save it for the Holiday Inn Lounge my friend where people can talk over your set and enjoy a tequila sunrise. Of course that is just my opinion.

We arrive at the Fox and it has been a while since I have been there. I do not remember who I saw there last but every show is an experience just because it is such an impressive venue. It is gaudy and beautiful at the same time with over worked detail in every nook and cranny. there is no plain space in the building and from the moment you walk in... it is just wow. it is also nice because even though it is a pretty venue with nice padded theatre seats you can take e your cocktail to your seat.
We were in row E in the center in front of the stage. Unfortunately it is not the fifth row because the orchestra pit is full of folding chairs. The crowd is an older crowd but full of regular people. I see a few people I know as well as Steve Pick, music critic and Euclid Records clerk...very good guy. It was a fairly mellow vibe when we walked in on the end of Amos Lee’s set. We found our way to our seats and evicted some people who were supposed to be on the other side.

After seeing the show the other night I was really looking forward to Costello. From reading prior reviews I knew that the set, the jokes and the stage patter did not vary a great deal. It didn't. He started off with “Angels Want To Wear My Red Shoes” and other then mixing the order up (slightly) he stayed with the same set i had heard a few nights before. The strange thing was that he was still kind of hypnotic and compelling for me. Once again...I just like to hear the guy sing. He is a weak guitar player but plays well enough to accompany his voice.

He tried to lead a sing along again tonight just like he did in Bloomington on the song “Wake Me Up”. It was a little of a reach there and was a big reach at the Fox in St. Louis. I have seen a lot of bands do this more or less successfully but it is really best done in the intimacy of a bar with a lot of beer involved. It was hard in the Arena atmosphere in Bloomington and was really disconnected in the padded seat theatre of the Fox.

Nothing made his set stand out from the other night. He made references to T-Bone Burnette and Henry Coward (the same person) as writing partners, told the same Schwartzenegger joke and talked faux nervously about his American born kids needing to be in a war. With “Radio Sweetheart” he broke into the Jackie Wilson song “Let It All Hang Out” and attempted another failed sing along but it did not seem to bother him.

He closed once again with “Peace love and Understanding” and a new song I think that was called “Willow From The Rye” which was an anti war song from the point of view of a mother speaking to the country’s leaders since she had lost her son to the war. It was a quality sad, pretty song containing the poignant line “Admit you lied and bring the boys back home.”
Pretty good stuff... then after a short break Dylan came out, just as he had the night before. The thing is... I had just seen him a few days before and he was not that great then. The bad was dressed in leather suits and bowler hats. Dylan was dressed like Dylan still with the big hat and sadly...he still could not really sing. The good news/bad news was that he played a dramatically different set list. That is impressive on a number of different levels:

1. His band can play anything and they could wing almost anything he wanted to play.
2. Dylan has some respect for his craft and his audience and is not mailing it in.
3. He remembers the words to songs like “Visions of Johanna.” (no one else does)

So we got that going for us. Danny on guitar was awesome again and it was not quite the same Soulard Blues Band feel that we had in Bloomington. He also did not play my favorite song “Tangled Up In Blue” so I did not have to suffer through it. he opened with “Leopard Skin Pillbox Hat” which is a classic and went into “It Ain’t Me Babe” which... is a classic. Those classics are from almost 40 years ago. Then he hit some new classics. “Sick of Love” and the still timely “Levees Gonna Break: which he had also performed two nights before and really got the band and the crowd rocking. There was sweet pedal steel guitar through most of the show and it just swung and twanged a little better then the the night before.

“Visions of Johanna”....”Things Have Changed”...”Nadine”...on and on. A little numbing. When I say he cannot sing I do actually mean it. Some people love his voice from when used to be able to sing (me) and some-people think he never could. Now however he really has no lung capacity so every delivery is breathy and forced, jamming words into too small a places and ruining the flow and timing. Still...he is Dylan and on this night Costello came out to join him for a few encores and well...you just do not get to see two members of the holy (little h) trinity sharing a mike for the night.

Anyway... I think I am done seeing that nice Bob Dylan. I am happy I got to see him several times... once with my oldest son and I needed to see him a few times before he croaked. Unlike some of my music snob friends I will miss Dylan...it has been nice to have him croaking around for the last 45 years or so. That is a long ass time. So we got that going for us. Danny on guitar was awesome again and it was not quite the same Soulard Blues Band feel that we had in Bloomington. He also did not play my favorite song “Tangled Up In Blue” so I did not have to suffer through it. he opened with “Leopard Skin Pillbox Hat” which is a classic and went into “It Ain’t Me Babe” which... is a classic. Those classics are from almost 40 years ago. Then he hit some new classics. “Sick of Love” and the still timely “Levees Gonna Break: which he had also performed two nights before and really got the band and the crowd rocking. There was sweet pedal steel guitar through most of the show and it just swung and twanged a little better then the the night before.

“Visions of Johanna”....”Things Have Changed”...”Nadine”...on and on. A little numbing. When I say he cannot sing I do actually mean it. Some people love his voice from when used to be able to sing (me) and some-people think he never could. Now however he really has no lung capacity so every delivery is breathy and forced, jamming words into too small a places and ruining the flow and timing. Still...he is Dylan and on this night Costello came out to join him for a few encores and well...you just do not get to see two members of the holy (little h) trinity sharing a mike for the night.

Anyway... I think I am done seeing that nice Bob Dylan. I am happy I got to see him several times... once with my oldest son and I needed to see him a few times before he croaked. Unlike some of my music snob friends I will miss Dylan...it has been nice to have him croaking around for the last 45 years or so. That is a long ass time.

Concert Review Number 10: Bob Dylan, Bloomington Illinois October 20, 2007

Bob Dylan, Elvis Costello, Amos Lee
U.S. Cellular Coliseum
Bloomington Illinois
October 20th, 2007

As you read yesterday and I have explained several times... I am an idiot. Do to my genius I was in possession of two tickets to see this show in Bloomington. There were only three problems with that:

1. The tickets cost 180 bucks each;
2. Bloomington is 160 Miles from downtown St. Louis
3. I also have expensive tickets to see the same show at the Fox on october 22.

Those are three fairly large problems. I have the tickets, I did not get my act together to sell them on line (because i do not know how and because I no longer have an associate working for me (JD Luhning) to whom I can assign the task. The cost of the tickets is of course a sunk cost. I need to decide whether I want to drive 2 1/2 hours and sit through a show I will see 48 hours later. Not being too bright I decided to do so.

The drive north to Bloomington (Illinois, not Indiana) is a painful one up 55 a little over 1/2 way to Chicago. It is flat and windy and has high spots like Benld (look it up) and Funks Grove (not China Grove). I left town at 4 and was comfortably in my 10th row seat to see Amos Lee. Amos Lee had a competent bad and was unremarkable. He will not be having a major recording career despite this show case. Do not worry about him. he came on at 7 and was off at 7:35. A little about the venue. U.S. Cellular Coliseum is about like the Family Arena in St. Charles. Wikipida says:

“U.S. Cellular Coliseum is an arena in downtown Bloomington, Illinois that opened to the public on April 1, 2006. It is on the southwest corner of Madison Street (US-51) and Front Street. It hosts the Bloomington Extreme indoor football team of United Indoor Football and the Bloomington Prairie Thunder of the International Hockey League. The arena's seating capacity is approximately 7,000 for hockey and indoor football games.

Mayor Judy Markowitz, who had championed the project, cast the deciding vote when the City Council was deadlocked at 4-4 on a resolution to initiate its construction.[1] Following the Council vote, a non-binding referendum asking if public funds should be used to build the arena failed by 2/3 of the vote.[2] Even so, the arena was still built.
Currently, the City of Bloomington is searching for ways to fill the budget deficit it faces, due to the facility's operating losses projected to top $1.6 million for this calendar year. Proposals include scaling back public infrastructure repair projects and eliminating staff in order to avoid a tax raise.” Well put.

The Place is a dump. But I am in the 10th row wand am seated in a reasonably padded folding chair. At 7:55 the lights dim and Elvis Costello walks out with an acoustic guitar. He is nattily dressed in a suit and looks a little chunky. He also is kind of charming in his ineffable British way and he kicks off with “Angels Wanna Wear My Red Shoes”, “Radio Sweetheart” and “Alison” and... well... he just sounds great. No band and only an average guitarist (that might be generous) he just relies on that voice that no one gives him enough credit for. he rattles off Alison and leads some sing alongs. Announces it is his dad’s birthday but there is no place he would rather be and then goes into a several song anti war rant. It was some good stuff and capped with “Whats So Funny About Peace love and Understanding?” Indeed.Since he is not a great guitar player he had a large effects array peddled before him and sometimes the volume of the guitar slightly overwhelmed his always strong voice.

We have another break and I try...ineffectively to go to the bathroom. There are approximately twice as many girls rooms as boys rooms. I am treated to the rare sight of no lines in the ladies rooms and thirty men lines up outside the door of the mens room. Did I mention that the place was a dump. I went back to my seat with a full beer and a full bladder. Seeing Dylan is problematic and not always pleasing. he is not a young man and he is at best an eclectic artist. he has toured relentlessly over the last ten years and put out 7 albums during that time and two of them were pretty good. But the shows are not problematic because of the material but just because of his voice. But still... it is Bob freaking Dylan. he came out dressed in his typical cowboy hat which is circa Rolling Thunder Review” from 72 or so. He started with his guitar and ripped through a couple including “Tangled Up In Blue” which were just...to my ears. Awful. he was raspy and seemed to be belching the words out in a machine gun pace to keep up with the song and it is one of my favorites and I just thought... maybe he should not sing pretty songs anymore.

But...as an idiot I am often wrong and this was one of those case. He left center stage and went behind his organ for Tangled and never cam back out and as it went on...he got better and better and stronger and stronger. Really good stuff. Ripping through older songs as well as newer stuff. The set list was very diverse and from looking at earlier reviews he is not holding onto a solid set list. His band was incredibly tight. My only complaint was that they really went to the bar blues of “Modern Times” as much as anything and although it swung nicely... if I never heard a blues riff again my life would be none the poorer. Still....”Highway 61 as a blues rant with a real hot blues guitarist is a treat and Dylan’s voice hit every note hard. The band was tight and his lead guitar Denny Freeman is just awesome to watch and hear. For more on him take a look at Brad Bucholz blog:

http://bobdylantour2007.blogspot.com/2007_09_21_archive.html

Dylan’s ability to find great guitarists to take out on the road with him whether it was the singer songwriter Robbie Robertson and the band or the brilliant T-Bone Burnette he has a knack. Dylan’s two hour set coincided nicely with Costello’s anti war rant and he finished predictably with a nice version of “Masters of War” The Bloomington crowd was able to find their way out of the place... and tired and a little sleepy.... I took a long drive home and anticipated Monday night at the Fox.

http://stldinerreview.blogspot.com/

TicketMONSTER

OK....soooooo.... as we have discussed in the past I am... of course... an idiot. They announced that Bob Dylan was coming to town the 22nd of October WITH Elvis Costello. I do not know from day to day who I like better but along with Neil Young those three make up the Mike Becker Rock and Roll Trinity. So my birthday is on the tenth and I am at work on Saturday and I think “daddy is going to splurge for some expensive tickets.” Why do I need expensive tickets?

Well if you have not been in another time zone this week and you can read and or listen to the news then you now know (because prior to this event I did not know) about the Hannah Montana craze. Evidently she is Billy Ray Cyrus daughter (in what universe can this be considered a good thing? I have never seen the girl but assume she must have back hair.) and is a Disney TV star and is evidently the next big thing. So it is generally not a big deal that in reserved seat concerts (most of the bands I see and venues I go to are general admission) you simply cannot get good seats. I used to blame ticket master (and certainly that is an evil empire that must be destroyed) but they were just a pre-cursor of where we are now. You see formerly with Ticketmaster and now in all reserved seat shows you can get on line or get on the phone, have your credit card ready and at the moment the tickets go on same buy “best available” and find that 1 minute after tickets went on sale you are in the 45th row on the far right. Lining up at the venues ticket window is even more stupider (I love more stupider). The venues are hooked up to the same computers as the ticketmaster people. But where did the tickets go? When you went to the show they were always filled. often with very well dressed middle aged guys and their younger girlfriends. They were “pre-sold” to special clients...for a premium. So, I could never get good tickets.

And neither could anyone else. But really...who cares? There cannot be more then like a 1000 live music junkies in any given has been dying downtown (no matter what anyone sells to you) midwestern city and 80% of those guys don’t vote... or have girlfriends...or jobs and their voices, even if unified cannot be heard that loudly from the muffled, well insulated subterranean bastion of their parents’ basements. So we were ripe for abuse and abuse we received and no one cared when they were just abusing us. But the Ticketmaster model worked too well. Venues and artists took notice and in the name of the true fan they took action...to get those profits themselves. And they have done really well mastering the model. The venue has “special” friends of the venue who pay a premium for the shot at these tics and the artists have their fan club web sites where...they just want to help.

So no one really cared until Hannah Montana. This teen superstar had a base of pre adolescent young ladies who NEEDED those tickets and every lousy suburban mother and father, trying to buy their children everything their little blond heads might desire NEEDED these tickets. “What if the neighbor girl got to go and our Brittany didn’t?” Disaster! I can see boob jobbed housewives telling their husbands with their words, eyes and body language that daddy better score some tickets. What can a man do under that kind of pressure? Stand in line? Call ticketmaster? Go on line with ticketmaster? No, no and once again...no. None of those places had tickets. No normal vendor had tickets because the ticket-brokers had learned how to game the system with their computers and their shills so that whenever the tickets went on sale...none really went on sale. They flooded the computer with a Million ticket requests for 15,000 seats against the requests of 45,000 people who want the tickets what happens? you do the math. And these tickets turn up quickly on Stub Hub. Right now for this show: Hanna Montana / Miley Cyrus - Best of Both Worlds Tickets 11/7, you can buy tickets for $9,630.00. Each. Nice.

They have tried all kinds of things including allotting tickets for real fans and putting them on sale where the buyer has to come pick them up but not much has worked. Real fans do not matter. Cash matters. So in this unhappy circumstance I decided I was going to acquire some expensive tickets and got on the Dylan web site and popping and clicking and pressing and reading through all the BS I thought I had purchased two tickets for the Fox on October 22nd for 180 bucks each. Pricey indeed. I immediately got a notice saying my card was being dinged for $760.00. When tried to rescind the transaction I was told ALL sales were final. I figured I had somehow clicked for 4 tickets and perhaps I could find some clients to take and have the firm pick up part of the cost.

But... 10 days before the show I received a little box containing two tickets, two pocket watches and some beautiful lanyards with hard plastic passes which made very clear they were not backstage passes and provided no special access or anything. The pocket watches looked like they might bring 5 bucks each in a pawn shop. I think these special tchotkes are the rationalization for the high price. They just make me feel like more of a prostitutes “john”. My wife solved the riddle about why I only had two when she said “these tickets are for October 20th”, which caused me to ask “are they even for St. Louis” and she said...”no...they are for Bloomington Illinois.” I still do not know how I did it but it has permanently soured me on expensive tickets. Some people like myself are not meant to live well. The good news.... two Dylan Concert reviews.