Live Music

I have an eclectic taste... Some reggaeton is pretty good... Dua lipa is good... But most of time I'm listening to older stuff.

locally where I live in Arizona are two rock stations. One plays the harder rock and the other the soft rock. If I'm not listening to classical I am back and forth between those two rock stations.

rarely ever experience live music.

As a youngster I was in DeMolay, essentially a Masonic youth group. One of the advisors was a neighbor of my cousin, also in DeMolay, and did us right by always getting us concert tickets, before they went on sale. This was pre cellphone/internet so if you wanted to see Pink Floyd, you slept on the sidewalk in front of the record store for 3-4 days, or were befriended by the Vice President of Ticketron. Between 1974-1984 we saw everybody still active except for the rolling stones, using tickets handed to us at a chapter meeting, or later at softball or a bar downtown. Partial List: Pink Floyd, The Who, Jethro Tull, Grateful Dead, Doobie Brothers, Chicago, Kiss, Black Sabbath, BTO, John Fogarty, Bob Dylan, The Eagles, Fleetwood Mac, Bruce Springsteen, Elvis Costello, Patti Smith, The Kinks, 3 Dog Night; Mott the Hoople, The Cars; Meatloaf, Ramones, Aerosmith, J Geils, Alice Cooper.......

Sometime in the '70s I did see Fleetwood Mac for free at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff Arizona. think it was just after 'rumors' was first released.

Skibum, you started the thread by saying “despite all the technological advances”. I think in some ways live music has deteriorated specifically because of those advances. I love going to small blues/rock clubs to hear mid-level performers that are more interested in making and enjoying great music than in making it big. The Rhythm Room in Phoenix is a great venue for both local and traveling blues bands, many who return regularly.

Back in the day, there was a dance club / bar called Community Gardens located at 215th St and Jamaica Ave in Queens Village, NY They regularly featured live music such as Jay and the Americans, the Drifters and the Coasters. They put on great shows. I recall one member of the Coasters, wearing a suit and tie, would do a 180 degree split and then slowly pull himself up to a standing position by tugging on the back collar of his jacket while the rest of the group continued singing. Those guys were smooth. Didn't know how to dance, but didn't have to. Just waited for a slow song (like every third) and the girls were more than willing to dance (aka a hug fest), never rejected. The club is long gone, but not the memories.

Hey azdd, make sure you listen to 91.5 kjzz on your fm dial when you’re in Phoenix on Sunday evenings. Not sure if yiu get it down there in Tucson. Bob Corritore, the owner of the rhythm room hosts the blues show every Sunday night and generally plays those low down dirty blues especially those originating from Chicago.. if it wasn’t for him the blues may have died out in this town, but actually thrives with his venue. The locals donated enough $$ to maintain their parking lot in less than two days in order to keep parking ample for them to continue. The acoustics in that building is worth any fan of live music at least one trip to experience how things should be set up, and you get people from all types of backgrounds showing up. I spoke with a black artist named sugar Ray(not the white one) and he gave me the best tip on where to visit for wine when I was vacationing in France, Boudreaux and Dordogne region. Turned out to be a wonderful time!

Azdd - What I meant is simply one would think that the amazing improvements in audio would have made live music better, not worse. I understand looking back how spoiled I was when the music scene around here was incredible. Saw the cars in a bar with 45 cent drafts; Elvis Costello I saw in the same cafeteria I ate breakfast in that morning; every Ramones show was in a bar; we were in a bar in Cambridge one night listening to a band when lo and behold 2 audience members, drunk as skunks, got up and joined in and so we got to see Peter Wolf (J.Geils Band) and Van Morrison impromptu. Saw Tommy James last year in a bar near Rhode Island Dolls. It was amazing he was a better act than current acts, when you think that Crimson and Clover was the first song I ever slow danced to in Junior High.