On Saturday, September 28, 2019, Jimmy Herring played Brooklyn Bowl NYC with his new band The 5 of 7. The band consists of bassist Kevin Scott, drummer Darren Stanley, guitarist and singer Rick Lollar, and Matt Slocum on keyboards.
Herring is best known for being the lead guitarist for the band Widespread Panic. He is also the founding member of Aquarium Rescue Unit and Jazz is Dead. Jimmy is a guitar legend and has played with other legendary bands like The Allman Brothers, Phil Lesh and Friends, and The Dead.
The two hour set started with a Miles Davis cover of “Black Satin” and continued with songs from Jimmy Herring during his solo career like “The Big Galoot,” “Matt’s Funk” and “1911.” The show was also streamed live on The Relix Channel, seen below. The show was amazing and an absolute must for fans of jazz infused rock and roll with heavy guitar solos.
Setlist: Black Satin, The Big Galoot, Matt’s Funk, Sketch Ballad, Soulful Hang, Miss Maybelle, One Strut, 1911, Check the Hand, Former Lives, Buddy, Kaleidoscope Carousel, Two Good People (Zone 28 Grams, Baby Gas & King Cydal cover), Scapegoat Blues
On September 22, 2018, at Flushing Meadows Corona Park in Queens, Paul Simon said goodbye.
Paul was introduced by Queens Borough President Melinda Katz and NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio. He started the 2 and 1/2 hour show with Simon & Garfunkel classic “America.” His setlist pretty much remained the same as it was the rest of the tour.
“This is like, two miles from where I used to play high school baseball,” he said after the first song. He then took out a baseball and glove and started playing catch with the massive audience. You can hear the sound of passing planes from above. “I was worried about that” he said. “Well, Welcome to New York” he joked as the plane can be seen landing in nearby LaGuardia Airport.
The show continued with more classics like “50 Ways To Leave Your Lover” “Boy in the Bubble” and “Mother and Child Reunion.” During the Goodbye Rosie part in “Me and Julio,” the crowd went crazy when he said “Queen of Corona” Paul’s wife Edie Brickell joined him on stage for the whistling solo. After the song, he said to the crowd “How much fun is it to sing a song about Corona, in Corona?!” Looking back, that was pretty cool moment.
Even though this was his farewell concert, Paul still sprinkled in some songs from his new album “In the Blue Light.” Although this is his fourteenth solo studio album, the album consists of re-recordings of lesser known Simon songs like “Can’t Run But” And “Rene and Georgette Magritte with Their Dog after the War,” which were both performed.
Paul then started talking about a song he had an “interesting relationship” with. He talked about writing this song and “giving it away” to someone, but being able to reclaim it for his final tour. The song he was referring to was “Bridge Over Troubled Water.” After performing it with a slightly different arrangement with YMusic, who Paul worked with on his new album, he thanked Aretha Franklin who covered the song in 1971.
The show ended with two encores. The first encore started with “Late in the Evening” but the highlight was “Still Crazy After All These Years.” The second encore started with “Homeward Bound” followed by “Kodachrome,” “The Boxer” and “American Tune.” The show ended with Simon & Garfunkel’s “The Sounds of Silence” performed by Paul with just an acoustic guitar. He then thanked the crowd and walked off stage and just like that, the last show of the final tour ended, and Paul Simon said goodbye.
Out of the 26 song set, only five were Simon & Garfunkel songs. Not one mention of Garfunkel was made during the entire show other than a picture of the duo that flashed briefly during a video montage during “Homeward Bound.”
Although this was his final “tour,” Paul has stated that he may still do an occasional performance.
Setlist: America, 50 Ways To Leave Your Lover, The Boy in the Bubble, Dazzling Blue, That Was Your Mother, Rewrite, Mother and Child Reunion, Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard, Rene and Georgette Magritte With Their Dog After the War, Can’t Run But, Bridge Over Troubled Water, Wristband, Spirit Voices, The Obvious Child, Questions for the Angels, The Cool, Cool River, Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes, You Can Call Me Al
Encore: Late in the Evening, Still Crazy After All These Years, Graceland
Encore 2: Homeward Bound, Kodachrome, The Boxer, American Tune, The Sound of Silence
Brooklyn based Mixtape DJ J.Period recorded another installment of his live mixtape at Sony Hall in Manhattan on September 13, 2018. This installment was a Top 5 MCs edition, featuring Rakim, Black Thought, Pharoahe Monch, Dres from Blacksheep and Smif-N-Wessun.
After two DJ sets by The Whooligan and DJ Evil Dee, Pharoahe Monch started the mixtape and got the crowd amped up with a set including “My Life” and “Simon Says.”
Dres from Blacksheep blessed the stage with a few classics including “Flavor of the Month” and “The Choice Is Yours,” with a guest appearance by Native Tongue’s Chi Ali who appeared on Blacksheep’s debut album A Wolf In Sheep’s Clothing.
Next up was a set by another legendary hip hop duo, Smif-N-Wessun, consisting of members Tek and Steele. Smif-N-Wessun comprise one quarter of the Brownsville (Brooklyn) supergroup Boot Camp Clik. One of the highlights of the night was watching them perform their 1994 classic “Bucktown.”
Legendary MC Black Thought of the legendary Roots crew started his set with “Act Too (Love of my Life),” and also brought out Grammy nominated female rapper Mumu Fresh AKA Maimouna Youssef, and Pharoahe Monch for a three-way cypher. Thought also did a cover of Slick Rick’s “Children’s Story” and dropped some of the bars we heard on his now famous 15 minute Funk Flex Freestyle.
The show culminated with yet another legendary hip hop duo Eric B and Rakim. It was a nice surprise to see Eric B as he was not listed on the original lineup. This year marked the 30th anniversary of the classic album Paid In Full which led to the highlight of seeing Rakim perform “I Ain’t No Joke” and “I Know You Got Soul.” Rakim also brought out some very talented break dancers from the KBL (Kids Breaking League) to show off their talents as he performed “Juice (Know The Ledge).”
This was another legendary night for hip-hop fans, especially above the age of 30, like myself. All of the artists were on point and sounded great, making for another very successful installment of J.Period and his Live Mixtape.
On Sept. 8, 2018, Ozzy Osbourne played to a soaking wet crowd at Jones Beach Theater, but once The Prince of Darkness hit the stage, nobody seemed to mind. Ozzy himself came out first before the rest of band and told the crowd, “The crazier you get, the longer I’ll remain on stage.” That’s all it took to get the sold out crowd of 15,000 plus going f—–g crazy!
At this point it was freezing cold and had been pouring for the last few hours, especially during opening act Stone Sour’s set, and the floor was a foot deep with water seeping in from Zach’s Bay where the venue stands. Regardless, Ozzy sounded just as good as I have ever heard as he kicked off the show with “Bark at the Moon.”
Zakk Wylde was back in the lineup on guitar along with Blasko on bass, keyboardist Adam Wakeman and drummer Tommy Clufetos. The stage backdrop was highlighted by a giant cross made up of screens projecting extraordinary imagery and at times looking like a medieval sculpture.
Ozzy’s solo hits made up most of the setlist including “Mr Crowley,” “Suicide Solution” and “No More Tears,” but he also slipped in a little Sabbath like “Fairies Wear Boots” and the epic “War Pigs.”
Black Label Society frontman Wylde was giving his own 20 minute showcase during the show at which time he made his way into the audience playing a medley of songs. He was tearing it up as he played with the guitar behind his neck and even with his teeth at times. He is one of the best metal guitarists the genre has ever known so it was good to see him play alongside Ozzy again. He was even wearing a custom Ozzy denim vest.
Ozzy Osbourne closed the main part of the set with, in my opinion one of the greatest metal songs ever written, “Crazy Train”. The show concluded with an encore of “Mama I’m Coming Home” and Black Sabbath’s “Paranoid.”
Setlist: Bark at the Moon, Mr. Crowley, I Don’t Know, Fairies Wear Boots (Sabbath Cover), Suicide Solution, No More Tears, Road to Nowhere, War Pigs (Sabbath Cover), Guitar Medley: Miracle Man/Crazy Babies/Desire/Perry Mason, Drum Solo, I Don’t Want to Change the World, Shot in the Dark, Crazy Train
On August 29, 2019, MC5 founding guitarist Wayne Kramer brought his supergroup MC50 to Le Poisson Rouge in New York City to celebrate 50 years of punk rock greatness. The group consisted of guitarist Kim Thayil (Soundgarden), drummer Brendan Canty (Fugazi), bassist Billy Gould (Faith No More) and singer Marcus Durant (Zen Gorilla).
MC5 is considered one of the most important American hard rock groups of their era. The band performed as part of the protests of the Vietnam War at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago that were broken up by a police riot. According to Kramer in an interview featured in the documentary “Get up, Stand Up,” the band played for over eight hours straight when the other bands scheduled to perform didn’t show because of the chaos.
“Kick Out the Jams” was released as a single in March 1969 by Elektra Records. It has been covered by numerous bands including Bad Brains and Rage Against the Machine. The band’s debut album of the same name was released a month earlier and was recorded at Detroit’s Grande Ballroom over two nights, Devil’s Night and Halloween, 1968.
The band played the entire “Kick Out the Jams” debut album. They also played songs from MC5’s other two albums including “Tonight,” “Everything” and “Let Me Try.” They sounded great as they ripped through their 80 minute set at the very intimate but temporarily closed Greenwich Village venue LPR. The show was one of the only three shows the band played in the United States in 2019 before going to the United Kingdom to open for Alice Cooper for another seven shows.
Ringo Starr and his All Starr Band played The Long Island Community Hospital Amphitheater in Farmingville, Long Island, to a sold out crowd on Saturday, August 17, 2019. Although the members have changed throughout the years, 2019 marks the 30th Anniversary of The All Starr Band. The current band consists of Steve Lukather (founding member of Toto), Gregg Rolie (Santana, Journey), Colin Hay (Men At Work), Hamish Stuart (AWB), Gregg Bissonette (David Lee Roth Band) and Warren Ham.
The setlist was a combination of hits from the band members including Men At Work’s “Down Under” and Toto’s “Africa” plus some Beatle songs that Ringo Starr sang lead on including “I Wanna Be Your Man” and “With A Little Help From My Friends.”
Setlist: Matchbox, It Don’t Come Easy, What Goes On, Evil Ways, Rosanna, Pick Up the Pieces, Down Under Boys, Don’t Pass Me By, Yellow Submarine, Cut the Cake, Black Magic Woman / Gypsy Queen, You’re Sixteen, Anthem, Overkill, Africa, Work to Do, Oye como va, I Wanna Be Your Man, Who Can It Be Now?, Hold the Line, Photograph, Act Naturally, With a Little Help From My Friends
On August 4, 2015, Billy Joel played the final show at the original Nassau Coliseum. Billy played for over 3 hours at the 43 year old arena with a setlist that touched on every decade of his career. The thing that made this show special was the way he built the show specifically for a Long Island Crowd. He had many Long Island anecdotes including his first gig at Holy Family Church in Hicksville, and fights he had in a Northport restaurant.
The place went crazy when Billy said “I’d like to bring out a fellow Long Islander and one of the great songwriters of our time” and out walked Paul Simon. It got even louder when he played the first few notes to “Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard.” They also did a duet of “Homeward Bound” and then a horn section came to the stage and they played “Late in the Evening” for the last song with Simon. Later on, another Long Island native, Kevin James came out and did the intro to “Miami 2017” before Joel took over the song.
It was Joel’s 32nd concert at the Coliseum and the last before the $130 million renovation and featured Michael DelGuidice to open the show. It was a sad event for fans like myself who grew up going to Islander games and concerts at the Coliseum our entire lives. They couldn’t have picked a better person to end that chapter of the Coliseum’s history. That’s probably why Billy also reopened the arena on April 5, 2017.
Setlist: Movin’ Out (Anthony’s Song), Zanzibar, Summer, Highland Falls, Everybody Loves You Now, No Man’s Land (first since 1995), Just the Way You Are, The Entertainer, The Longest Time (with Doo wop tribute intro), The Downeaster Alexa, Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard*, Homeward Bound*, Late in the Evening*, The Ballad of Billy the Kid, New York State of Mind, Miami 2017 (Seen the Lights Go Out on Broadway)^, Until the Night, Allentown, Goodnight Saigon@, Keeping the Faith, She’s Always a Woman, My Life, Captain Jack, I’ve Loved These Days, The River of Dreams, Scenes From an Italian Restaurant
On Friday night, America played a sold out show at The Tilles Center on the LIU Post campus in Brookville, Long Island, the first show of the band’s 50th anniversary tour, celebrating the release of their 1971 self titled album. “A Horse With No Name,” originally titled “Desert Song,” was released in the US a few weeks before the album came out and sold over a million copies, being awarded a gold disc by the RIAA. The album went platinum shortly after. The band was opening for acts like The Who, Elton John, Pink Floyd and worked with Beatles producer George Martin from 1974-1979.
Friday night’s show was filled with hit after hit, spanning their 50 year long and counting career. Gerry and Dewey sounded just as good today as they did when they started harmonizing 50 years ago. Songs from the setlist included “Tin Man,” “Ventura Highway,” “Sister Golden Hair” as well as a covers of The Beatles’ “Eleanor Rigby” and The Mamas & Papas’ “California Dreamin’.” The 18-song set concluded with “A Horse With No Name.” You can see the full setlist below.
The band’s current lineup includes original founding members Gerry Beckley and Dewey Bunnell, as well as Ryland Steen on drums, Steve Fekete on guitar and Richard Campbell on bass. The tour continues across United States and Canada until July when they head to Europe for shows in France, the U.K. and Germany. You can see all the tour dates here at https://www.venturahighway.com/. There is also a biography about the band written by Jude Warne, titled America The Band: An Authorized Biography that is available for pre-order now and will be released on May 15, 2020.
Setlist: Tin Man, You Can Do Magic, Don’t Cross The River. Daisy Chain, Riverside. I Need You Here, Ventura Highway, Eleanor Rigby, Cornwall Blank, Hollywood, The Border, Woman Tonight, Only In Your Heart, California Dreamin’, Lonely People, Sandman, Sister Golden Hair, A Horse With No Name
On a January Wednesday, Fred Norris played a sold out show with his band at Arlene’s Grocery in the lower east side of Manhattan. Fred is best known for his role on The Howard Stern Show where he has been a writer, producer and sound effects genius for over 30 years. The new line up of his band includes Fred on lead vocals and guitar, Steve Goulding on drums, Graham Parker on guitar and Mekons on bass. Opening for The Fred Norris Band was Steve Addabbo and Megan Reilly.
Fred and his band sounded great and they didn’t even get to do a proper sound check before their set. They played for over an hour and performed 12 original bluesy rock songs including “Get In Line,” “Sense of Pretending” and “Lost in the Ether.” Fred then welcomed singer/songwriter Erica Smith to join the band for the melodious “How Long.” What was also very much enjoyable was Fred talking about each song and what inspired him to write them. Some of the songs were about his daughter Tess, while others were about current social issues such as greed, corruption and the threat of war. You can see the full setlist below.
Arlene’s Grocery used to be a bodega/grocery store which was turned into a bar in 1995. It is mostly a venue for local punk and hard rock bands. Other notable performances include Arcadia Fire, Jeff Buckley and Lady Gaga.
Setlist: Get in Line, Uptown One, Cool Surface, Sense of Pretending, How Long, Lost in the Ether, The End, There Goes The Show, The War Within, Paradise
Gov’t Mule wrapped up 2019 with two shows at the Beacon Theatre in New York City, with a fair amount of Beatles covers in the process. The band teased the possibility of some Beatles songs on their social media ahead of the run, with pictures of mules walking across Abbey Road as well as playing on the rooftop of Apple headquarters.Â
Night one included covers of “She Said She Said,” “Tomorrow Never Knows,” “And Your Bird Can Sing,” and “Revolution.” Night two’s crowd was treated to an entire eleven-song post-midnight Beatles set with songs including “Get Back,” “Come Together,” “Oh Darling” and “Something.”
Prior to the December 30th show, The Madison Square Garden Company (owners of the Beacon) presented the band with a commemorative plaque honoring their 40 shows at the venue (as of New Year’s Eve). The plaque will be on display backstage at The Beacon.
Gov’t Mule next performs in Jamaica on January 17 for their Island Exodus shows. Warren Haynes will also be part of The Allman Brothers’ 50th Anniversary show at Madison Square Garden on March 10.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ot5XpIcRBWk
Setlist: December 30, 2019
Set 1: Railroad Boy, Larger Than Life, Fool’s Moon, Painted Silver Light, Effigy > Folsom Prison Blues Jam, Effigy, Which Way Do We Run, She Said, She Said, Tomorrow Never Knows, And Your Bird Can Sing#, Revolution*^ Revolution Come, Revolution Go
Set 2: Dark Was The Night, Cold Was The Ground, So Weak, So Strong, Doing It To Death, Fallen Down, The Other One Jam@, Play With Fire#@, Birth Of The Mule&
Encore: Live With Me*+
# with The Better Half Singers @ with Aaron Heick * Debut ^ with Connor Kennedy & with Oz Noy Mule + with Carmine Appice & Jimmy Vivino
Setlist: December 31, 2019
Set 1: Mr. Man, Lola, Leave Your Light On, Unring The Bell, Endless Parade, Whisper In Your Soul, Thorns Of Life, Game Face > Mountain Jam > Game Face, Don’t Step On The Grass, Sam, Eternity’s Breath Jam, Tastes Like Wine
Set 2: (full set with Connor Kennedy) Get Back*, Don’t Let Me Down, I’ve Got A Feeling*, One After 909*, Dig A Pony*, Dig A Pony (Reprise)* > Auld Lang Syne, Come Together*, Oh! Darling*, Something*, I Want You (She’s So Heavy), The End
Encore: Brighter Days, Silent Scream Pt. 2 > Scenes From A Troubled Mind > Starship Trooper Jam > The Gates of Delirium Jam > Starship Trooper Jam > Scenes From A Troubled Mind > Silent Scream Pt. 2, Sco-Mule^, Lay Your Burden Down >, Smokestack Lightning^ > Lay Your Burden Down, Catfish Blues^, Bad Little Doggie
* debut ^ with Jimmy Vivino
Opening for Gov’t Mule on Monday, December 30 was The Record Company. The Los Angeles-based band consists of Chris Vos (guitar, lead vocals), Alex Stiff (bass, backing vocals), and Marc Cazorla (drums, backing vocal). The trio was influenced by blues singers as well as early punk and rock bands like The Stooges and The Rolling Stones.
The Record Company began their set with the second single “Make it Happen” from their most recent album All of This Life. As soon as they started playing, the crowd was immediately engaged. They followed that with two cuts from the first album, “On the Move” and “Rita Mae,” plus their 2017 single “Baby I’m Broken.” Only a few songs in and the Beacon was nearly filled to capacity as people finished filing in. Many people were dancing in the aisles and singing along as the band did a few more songs from the first album Give it Back to You. The set ended with a tremendous version of “I’m Getting Better” that left the crowd wanting more.
The band will be playing The Summer Camp Music Festival in Chillicothe,IL, as well as The Riverbend Festival in Chattanooga, TN this summer.
Setlist: Make it Happen, On The Move, Rita Mae Young, Baby I’m Broken, Turn Me Loose, Off The Ground, Life to Fix, I’m Getting Better
