I'm getting kind of spoiled with the seats I've been getting for concerts lately and a lot of it has to do with going to much smaller venues. Last night Mrs. Fan and I saw Cyndi Lauper from the 5th row at The Keswick Theater which is only a short 25 minute drive from my house.
This started out being all about Mrs. Fan as I gave her the tickets months ago for our anniversary. Lauper is one of the few musical acts Mrs. Fan would even go to see live. I know two others would be Madonna and Alanis Morisette but I'm not sure there are too many others. I know she used to wear out 12 Deadly Cyns on long drives when we would alternate CDs before the advent of iPods. I grew to like and appreciate more than a few of the songs on that disc.
Maybe a month ago or more Lauper was on Howard Stern with Johnny Lang promoting her new cd Memphis Blues which she reminded us has topped the Blues charts for the past 5 weeks. She said this tour was more of a Blues show than a greatest hits show. Hmmmm, now I'm really interested. I told Mrs. Fan who SWORE I knew that when I bought the tickets. I did not!
After being bored by David Rhodes who is breaking out on his own I guess after years of playing for Peter Gabriel, Lauper came out in her.....pajamas. Her hair was crazy and two different colors but she looked superb for 57. On the way home Mrs. Fan asked me how old she was and I guessed 47 or 48 so she had me fooled by a decade.
Although Lang is touring with her on some dates I did not get to see him. Still A Dog said I'm not missing much. To get back to guitarists, my comment about Rhodes isn't totally fair. He shouldn't be opening for Lauper though. He she be on an experimental ambient guitar tour or something. I once saw Roger Fripp open for a G3 show and this dude would fit right in with him. I did feel bad that the crowd talked right through his set mostly. Anyway, Michael Toles played guitar last night and he did a good enough job. He played a few solos and Lauper had to actually push him to the middle of the stage the one time to get the attention he deserved. It was towards the end of "Waiting For A Change of Heart".
She played the entire cd I believe as a separate set and then hit the greatest hits. The Blues set was good, but she kept going on and on about how people should look up the original artists and stuff and it appeared to me that because she is just finding all this music, she assumed nobody else had. Whatever, it should be listened to so I shouldn't complain. The GH set got the crowd up and they rushed the stage as much as you can rush the stage at the Keswick. It was me, Mrs. Fan, 7 other hetero couples and an assload of gay people, both sexes, there. We noticed that as we ate dinner and got drinks across the street. No harm, no foul. I'm for 95% of gay rights and that's not too shabby for a boy born and raised in western PA. Don't try to convince me of the other 5%, go get people who are only at 5%.
My favorite moments of the show were when Cyndi played the sitar to True Colors and Time After Time. I'll give her credit - both were really heartfelt. She also had no issues jumping into the crowd if the energy sagged a bit. Numerous times she went out 10-15 rows deep and stood on the back of a chair. There were also a ton of hard core fans there. I had no idea they existed. An entire group had t-shirts made up for their nite. The guy next to us at the bar has seen her 13 times and he was only 25-30. He was seeing her tonight in Myrtle beach and then again in Orlando the next day. Crazy.
Would I have went to this concert without Mrs. Fan? No. Was I looking forward to the concert? Maybe. I was more interested in sitting in the 5th row to see everything going on and to check out the Blues band (Archie Turner (aka Hubbie Mitchell) was also very good on organ). Was I glad I went? We weren't doing anything else and I was entertained. If you are a fan of hers, I'm sure it was stellar. Mrs. Fan would give it a 9. I'm giving it a 6.5 as a casual fan of hers.
Dog, why does Archie Turner have two names?
5 comments:
I should have noted that the other photo here is Michael Toles. From what little I could find on him he played wawa guitar on the theme from Shaft and has mostly been a utility infielder of sorts in bands.
Came in from cutting the grass today and heard Jonny Lang on Mrs. Dog's iPod -among a mix of other stuff including Sonny Rhodes, Kid Rock, and Muddy Waters. The Lang song was pretty good. But live, he is as phony as they come.
Man, I have no idea why Archie Turner has two names??? A lot of these guys have two names. You know, a real name and a stage name. It's very prevalent in the blues. I could do a whole post on blues names. Muddy Waters = McKinley Morganfield, Howlin' Wolf = Chester Burnett. Heck, there were two guys who called themselves Sonny Boy Williamson, John Lee Williamson (Sonny Boy I), and perhaps more famous, Rice Miller (Sonny Boy II). Sunnyland Slim = Albert Luandrew. Super Chikan = James Johnson, and on an on.
Back in the days before people went to Wikipedia seek the truth, one musician would often take the name of another famous musician to get work and make more money. Reminds me of the scene from the movie "Cadillac Records" -which I wholeheartedly endorse- where Little Walter shoots that guy in the head for claiming to be Little Walter.
Is the new Lauper blues CD worth picking up? I've seen it but took a pass so far until someone can verify the quality. I'll take a chance on some unknown guitar player from Texas, but I wait and see on Cyndi Lauper singing blues.
She's right, more people ought to listen to Blues. It's the quintessential American music. It's at the core of nearly every music style/genre we listen to. And if you don't believe Hip Hop and Rap music has roots in the blues, listen to Johnny Guitar Watson's records from the 70s sometime! John Belushi essentially did/said the same thing when he became smitten with the Blues during his Blues Brothers days. It is said he would go on cocaine binges and hit all kinds of record stores looking for old blues 78s of pretty obscure artists like "Cripple" Clarence Lofton and "Tampa" Red.
Too bad Captain Lou Albano isn't alive to share the stage with her. Lauper-Albano, now that was a tag-team!!
I have the new cd copied but i didnt rip it yet.
i get changing to sonny boy williamson, it just seems strange to go from archie turner to hubbie mitchell. you can barely tell which is stage name and which is real.
i agree people should listen too, but it seems weird coming from her. its like the guy that just quit smoking preaching to others to quit.
I saw her play Richfield Coliseum in 1988 or so, with Eddie Money opening. No blues, but plenty of hits. She was really good.
Near as I can determine, Archie Turner sometimes uses the alias Hubby Mitchell because Mitchell was his step-father's name.
Robert Johnson took a similar route. His mother's name was Julia Dodds. But his illegitmate father's name was Noah Johnson. He went to live with Jula Dodd's real husband who changed his name to Charles Spencer. In the 1920 Arkansas census he is listed as Robert Spencer. But when he started his life as a musician he called himself Robert Johnson.
In the early days of pro football Johnny "Blood" McNally played football for Notre Dame on Saturdays as John McNally and pro football on Sundays as Johnny Blood!
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