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Saturday, June 11, 2005

MUSIC MIDTOWN - DAY ONE

We didn't get down to the show until after eight, but we caught Lou Reed, who actually seemed to be in a good mood. I think I even saw him smile, though it could have been construed as a smirk, but for Lou, a smirk is as good as a smile I guess. He played a smattering of tunes spanning his carreer including 'White Light White Heat', 'Sweet Jane', 'Blue Mask', and the recent 'Ecstacy' during which his amp blew up. So he starts ad libbing along with the song; "Lou Reed blew up his amp in Atlanta....", very funny moment. His roadie brought out some vintage amp to replace the blown one, I have no Idea what it was, except it was old and kinda looked like my Dad's Telefunken console. Then he says; "It's a good thing I'm a big rock star and have a spare amp, I'd be fucked if all I had was my Twin." I was dying, I was not expecting Lou to do standup. His band was good, fearuring Rob Wasserman on stand-up bass, a cello chick - Tony and I are convinced there's only one cello chick who makes the rounds between rock bands - a kicking drummer named Tony something, and a rhythm guitar player - Lou did all the solos.
After Lou, we headed over to see Keith Urban. I was with a group of people, and they sat through Lou with me, so I gave Mr. Urban a chance instead of the Counting Crows or the White Stripes. I was not disapointed. Make no mistake, Keith Urban rocks - yeah it's country, and new pop country to boot, but the dude is a ripping guitar player. The highlite, for me, was his cover of Tom Fucking Petty's 'Free Falling', mostly I guess because it was a song I knew. We also had a great time humming bottles and cans at the stupid 'climb on my boyfriend's back' bitches. Dirty sluts, they got no respect, so it's beer cans upside the head for them.
All in all, it was a great night. I only hope I get to see more than two acts tomorrow, and get to bean more bitches with beer cans.

Comments:
There IS only one cello chick, and she's Jane Scarpantoni. She's played on a ton of records, including a bunch of Luna's (I think we saw her at Bowery, and I've seen her live a few other times with Luna). She's played with REM, Beastie Boys, Bob Mould, Nirvana, 10000 Maniacs, Kristen Hersh, and... Lou Reed, amongst many others.

The drummer is Tony "Thunder" Smith, who has played with Lou since "Set The Twilight Reeling." Had you been closer you would have gotten to see his crazy ass facial expressions - check out the Rock And Roll Heart DVD. The rhythm player was almost definitely Mike Rathke, who's been with Lou since the Mistrial Tour. I believe he's an ex brother in law or something, and his amps look eerily like Lou's. I think if you play with Lou he tells you which amp to use.

It's good you got to see Lewis do some standup, as you know he's a very funny guy, "Take No Prisoners" is the closest thing to a comedy album he's got. Did he have his Tai Chi master on stage with him? He was doing that for the "Raven" tour, and there's nothing funny about that.
 
No Tai Chi, but we were definately close enough to see Tony's facial exprressions, some might call them tics, he must be real into it, he was exccellent! It looks as if the Tai Chi is working for Lewis, he's fit.
 
I thought Lou became all Jesus freak on us. Nothing about that?
 
Oh, that was me. -Ken
 
No mention of the J man from Lou, except maybe when cursing his roadie, as in 'jeez, it's not rocket science'...
 
The thought of Lou turning to Jesus is a bit frightening, although there are some similarities. Lou, after all, is King of the New York Jews.
 
INNYCRI
 
my friend Craig used to live next to Lou Reed. Lou is to blame for my digital music system in my house as he told Craig to get it and Craig told me.

My best Lou sighting was not live at a show. It was him, Laurie Andersen, and Peter Gabriel having dinner next to our table about 10 years ago.

I could barely eat I was so impressed.
 
I can't even imagine the dinner conversation at that table.
 
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