Lady Gaga's Sax Player?

I've seen Bruce Springsteen twice: once during a solo acoustic performance @ an Obama rally & once w/ the E-Street Band @ the Palace when selling books for Nicola's about a year & a half ago. (Here's the old Visions of Ypsi post about that night to refresh your memory... & mine.) That night, the book on hand was Big Man by the big man, Clarence Clemons. I never got to meet him but his people were really nice... & the show was fantastic (if a little canned). Along w/ playing w/ Springsteen & appearing in Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure & on an episode of Diff'rent Strokes, he plays on a couple songs on Gaga's newest album, apparently. However, I'm not certain that that's enough to have the MTV article about his stroke (he suffered a stroke yesterday) mention Gaga before Springsteen. That's ridiculous. Do their fans/readers really know so little about music that they need to open w/ Lady Gaga? Give me a break. Now, I've never been a huge E Street Band fan, but let's give respect where it's due.

Speaking of music (although this band hasn't suffered any strokes recently, knock on wood) Deep Space is playing @ the Crossroads Bar & Grill again this weekend. It would behoove y'all to come out & see them. My first Deep Space Six show was in March of 1996. Maybe yours should be in June of 2011... better late than never. We'll keep the Slayrides flowing for you. Oh, & in other non-stroke related music news, Dylan is playing Meadowbrook on August 7th... he only sounds like he had a stroke. Who's in?

Deep Space Six on Kentucky Derby Day

After a pulled muscle kept me from playing anything resembling the beautiful game on Saturday afternoon, I watched Verlander's no-no & the Kentucky Derby w/ Aiden & my dad. I really don't have any feelings one way of the other in regards to horse-racing... other than the simple conviction that the horses are getting pushed harder than they should be & that it's kind of a silly sport. I do have a strong belief in the ridiculousness of the 2 hours of fluff pieces about the jockey's childhoods & so forth... not to mention stupid hats the women wear. Of course, I've been known to wear a stupid hat on occasion too & here's the album to prove it, so who am I to judge?

Afterwards, I went to see Deep Space @ The Crosstown Bar & Grill. I seem to have forgotten that I'm not 23 anymore, & drank the place dry. The Mexican Slayrides* were flowing... after a 25 oz Oberon, I had 3 Slayrides, a shot of Cuervo & PBR. For some reason about which I was too wasted to enquire, my bill only came to 16 bucks. In hind sight, I think I got a deal. Knowing full well that I had to work @ 8:30 on Sunday morning, I then saw fit to go to an after-party & drink more Oberon... (To quote my team-mate's father after he broke two cheek bones in two games in one week, "stupid is stupid & there's no pill for it.") Anyway, a good time was had by all... but like w/ my previous Deep Space post, I must admit that I can't remember the set-lists as well as I used to, so you'll have to forgive me when you realize that it's not ony incomplete but also not quite in the right order. I feel like the first set is pretty accurate, but the second set must be missing stuff.

Set I:
Feelin' Alright
Althea
Evangeline
Blow Away
Box of Rain
Speedway >
Truckin' >
Terrapin

Set II:
Bertha
Same Thing
Help >
Slipknot >
Cumberland Blues

Encore:
The Race is On >
Dead Flowers

* Put a shot of Captain Morgan's in a pint glass and then fill w/ one bottle of Negra Modelo... named after the pilot episode of The A-Team in the summer of 2007. It's a variant on the less-than-popular cocktail, the Boilermaker. Enjoy!

Gettin' Older... Everybody's Gonna Wanna Doze

Stephanie & I first saw Deep Space Six in the spring of 1996. They were playing @ some bar in Novi that was called The Library Pub or some such thing. If I remember correctly, they had a lot of books around. Not good books, necessarily, not the kind of books one would actually want to read, I'm sure they were garage sale rejects & romance novels from library sales. None-the-less, it's a good thing we went because, as you know, we went on to see them a couple more times over the last 15 years.

Back in college though, when we were seeing them along w/ all sorts of other bands all the time, we could get totally wasted, go to the show & I would be able to recite the entire set-list in order the next morning. Perhaps I was just more concerned w/ that kind of thing then, but that's just something I could never do these days. I'm afraid it's an age thing. Maybe it's a concentration thing, but it scares me a bit. I remember coming home from Phish shows, Blues Traveler shows, even whole festivals & reconstructing the entire show from song to song.

Deep Space Six played a new bar on Cross Street last night (more about the bar in a minute), but my ability to remember the songs, not to mention the order, just isn't here anymore. Here's my take on the setlist:
Set I
Queen Jane
Catfish John
We Can Run
Black Peter
It Hurts Me Too
??????????
Set II
China>
Rider
Uncle John's
Eyes of the World

There was a Mighty Quinn in there somewhere & they must have played other stuff too. It's not that it was unimpressive or anything like that. In fact, over the last 15 years, they've gotten a lot better. They were really tight last night, but some of the songs are just gone from my memory. perhaps they didn't play as many because they had an opening act (Jim's other band, F.U.B.A.R, who was really fun & played 60's pop covers), but there had to be more than 4 in the second set. Maybe someday things will start coming back to me again, but I guess this can help me to live in the moment. I suppose I should pick up a Thich Nhat Han book tomorrow while I'm @ Nicola's so I can start honing my "in-the-moment spirit. Nah. I can't see that happening.

As far as the bar goes. It's nice to have another place for live music, but it was a little odd. It's really compact & there isn't much on tap. It seems like they're going to have to decide if they want to be a live-music bar or a frat bar because trying both @ the same time doesn't seem to be working. It's new though, & I'm sure they'll settle into a more consistent atmosphere. I just hope that when it happens, I'll be able to remember it.

Some Local Music (Deep Space & Whitey Morgan)

The other night @ The Elbow Room, I treated myself to a couple scotches & a few PBRs. I think the only other PBR I'd ever had was @ a Whitey Morgan show a few years ago when Jean talked me into a "race." It didn't get any better over the last few years, but it was cheap. I got there just in time to see Mr. Shiz finish their cover of Allen Toussaint's "Get Out of My Life." It's an alright song, but there's something about Toussaint that I just don't get. I know there are people out there (Phish, The band & Jerry Gacia included) who really dig (or dug as the case may be) his stuff... maybe I just need to hear more of it. I don't know.

I do know that a fun Dylan cover is always a good time, & as Deep Space took the stage, it was w/ 1 of those that they started. From there they went into "Jump for Joy," an unfortunately lesser known tune by Kingfish. It rocks. After a few more 1st set standards, Sean played 1 of his originals, "Somewhere." It's a cool song, & it shows they should be writing more originals. "Sugar Mags" morphedd into a cool, spacey jam as the sax player from Mr. Shiz joined for a little impromptu jamming that flowed into a fantastic "Other One." Unfortunately, I've never gotten a proper "Other One" though... @ some point it always seems to end. A proper 1 should go all night & maybe into the next day... just like a proper "Dark Star." I'm afraid the bands always feel they need to play other songs too to make people happy, when we all know 1 long, weird 1 is really all we need. A boy can dream. I couldn't remember if they ever actually played the end of "Sugar Mags" until they came around to it out of a fun "Cumberland Blues." They finaly finishedd around 2:30 which is the latest I've ever seen a band go @ a local bar. That was fun, but it seemed that by that point they should have just kept going... a 20 minute "Slipknot" or a happy little "Eleven" would have been fine. Here's the entire set-list:

Set 1: Masterpiece, Jump For Joy, Watching The Wheels > Big R.R. Blues, Ramble On Rose, Tennessee Jed, Just A Little Light, Somewhere >Sugar Magnolia > The Other One > Goin' Down The Road.
Set 2: Not Fade Away > Touch Of Grey, Standing On The Moon > Bertha > Cumberland Blues, Sunshine Daydream >The Last Time

This coming weekend (Friday @ that roadhouse in Chelsea & Saturday @ The Savoy) whitey Morgan & the 78's will be marking their return to the area w/ a couple smoking gigs. I don't think we'll make it out on Friday (babysitting issues), but Saturday in Ypsi for sure. Join us for some good old country tunes, some whiskey & maybe a few more PBRs.