Blog of Parag

Elvis Costello

It was Elvis Costello and the Imposters with Allen Toussaint last night at the Ann Arbor Summer Festival. We received free tickets from work, hence decided to go for it. I am not a big fan of Costello; didn't even know many songs of him other than "Monkey Man". It turned out to be a very enjoyable concert. It was good music eventhough it was all new and we were not familiar with it. Rock'n'roll with a jazz twist. Allen Toussaint is from New Orleans and played great jazz piano.

Before the concert, we went to eat dinner at Ann Arbor's newest Japanese restaurant, "Cherry Blossoms". They still don't have their liquor license. The food was very good and didn't need any sake to wash it down. But, still we'll have to try it again when they get their license. On the next table sat an old couple celebrating their 40th wedding anniversary. The man was in the Air Force stationed in Vietnam where he met his wife in the 60's.

Concerts '06 - II

Tomorrow: Elvis Costello
9/18: Roger Waters
9/23: Eric Clapton

Concerts '06

Roger Waters: "The Dark Side of The Moon"
at The Palace at Auburn Hills, MI
on Sep 18th, 7:30pm.

Baby, we were born to run.

'Born to Run' is my most favorite Bruce Springsteen album. It was first released 30 years ago. To celebrate the 30th anniversary, a digitally remastered CD along with 2 DVDs was released last month as a 3-disc set. One of the DVDs is a live recording from a 1975 'Born to Run' concert in London. I must order it soon.

Rockstar for toddlers

Laurie Berkner is often called the rockstar for toddlers. She used to be a teacher and makes great kids' music. We saw her on 'Noggin' TV a few months ago and Ashwini just loves her music. It is very hummable for parents too. Victor Vito is one of her albums that we own. It is highly recommended for kids 2 and above.

R.D. Burman music: rehashed

This is a must-listen for the fans of Asha Bhosle and R.D. Burman. I think this is the first ever interview with Asha Bhosle on NPR.

NPR : Kronos Quartet's 'Stolen Heart' with Asha Bhosle

I liked what I heard in this clip. The whole album, You've Stolen My Heart: Songs from R.D. Burman's Bollywood should be good, too.

U2 - part II

Bono proved his greatness as a singer. He recorded "Miss Sarajevo" with Luciano Pavoratti a few years ago. Yesterday, he sang the whole song, including Luciano's part of the song and did an excellent job of it. I love the energy at U2 concerts. They don't spend any time between the songs. Mostly, one song fades out and second begins. There is a few seconds delay when they have to change guitars for Edge and Adam.

We liked this concert better than the 'Popmart' cocert we saw at Giants Stadium in NJ in 1997. Our seats were better this time and also the music was better. Also, last time, a drunk sitting behind us spilled his whole glass of beer and it was uncomfortable to stand in a pool of beer (YUK!). This time, we had a drunk behind us too, but, he was almost passed out.

Anyway, here is the setlist from yesterday's concert:

City Of Blinding Lights
Vertigo
Elevation
I Will Follow
Gloria
The Ocean
I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For / In A Little While (snippet)
Beautiful Day / Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (snippet) / Blackbird (snippet)
Miracle Drug
Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own / No Regrets (snippet)
Love And Peace Or Else
Sunday Bloody Sunday / Get Up Stand Up (snippet)
Bullet The Blue Sky
Miss Sarajevo
Pride (In The Name Of Love)
Where The Streets Have No Name
One / MLK (snippet)

encore(s):
The First Time
Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses
With Or Without You
Crumbs From Your Table
Bad / People Have The Power (snippet)

More details on the concert along with reviews and photos can be found here.

A DVD of this Vertigo tour 2005 is coming out next month. The concert yesterday was so good that I am going to buy it.

U2

It was an awesome show. The music was great and they performed very well. Show started with 'City of Blinding Lights' from their latest album, How to dismantle an atomic bomb. It was followed by Vertigo from the same album and the whole place just exploded with lights and sound. It is probably the most popular song from the album. Then, they went on to play a good mix of old and new songs. A lot of old songs from 'Joshua tree' and 'Achtung baby'. They even played my favorite U2 song, "I'll follow" from their album, "Boy". I was just amazed by the lead guitarist, Edge.

The show went on for more than 2 hours without a break. Can't imagine how they, especially Bono, get the energy to do it 3-4 nights a week. They are not young anymore. Getting close to 50 or already there.

Overall, it was an excellent show. If they are coming to your neighbourhood, don't miss a chance to see them live.

Anticipation....

Will leave early from work today to go to see U2. The concert is supposed to start at 7:30pm. But, with opening bands and all, U2 should come out on stage by 9. Have been looking forward to this since March when I bought the tickets.

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers

Continuing our Summer of concerts, we went to see Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, last night. It was at the DTE energy music theater, north of Detroit. It is an open-air theater and was great for a Rock&Roll concert on a Summer evening. Due to horrible road construction and traffic jams, by the time we reached the venue, we missed almost an hour of performance by the opening band, "The Black Crowes". It seems that Tom Petty's plane got delayed and he reached the venue with his band about half an hour after us. So, they started playing at 8:45 pm, right after getting out of their limo.

Tom Petty didn't release any new music recently and so, was not promoting anything new. Within first hour and 15 minutes, we got to hear all the songs that we knew... breakdown, free fallin', won't back down, mary jane's last dance, etc. It was a lot of fun to hear them all live. While in graduate school, we used to call "won't back down", the PhD song.

Hey, baby. There ain't no easy way out.
Hey yeah, I will stand my ground.
And I won't back down.

Well I know what's right
I got just one life
In a world that keeps on pushin' me around
But I'll stand my ground
And I won't back down.

At 10pm, we decided to leave the concert and head home to relieve our babysitter. Overall, it was a great concert. Looking forward to U2 in October.

Don't expect me to cry...

Have been listening to "Nirvana: MTV unplugged in New York".

This song "Jesus don't want me for a sunbeam" is just stuck in my head. Must have listened to it at least 10 times.

Click below to see the lyrics...

Jesus, don't want me for a sunbeam
Sunbeams are never made like me

Don't expect me to cry,
For all the reasons you had to die
Don't ever ask your love of me

Don't expect me to cry
Don't expect me to lie
Don't expect me to die for me

Jesus, don't want me for a sunbeam
Sunbeams are never made like me

Don't expect me to cry,
For all the reasons you had to die
Don't ever ask your love of me

(x2)
Don't expect me to cry
Don't expect me to lie
Don't expect me to die for me

Jesus, don't want me for a sunbeam
Sunbeams are never made like me
Don't expect me to cry,
For all the reasons you had to die
Don't ever ask your love of me

Don't expect me to cry
Don't expect me to lie
Don't expect me to die
Don't expect me to cry
Don't expect me to lie
Don't expect me to die for me

This song was inspired from a Mormon song: Jesus wants me for a sunbeam.

Pink Floyd with Waters

Pink Floyd to reform for London Live 8 concert - Yahoo! News

I hope that this will start off plans for a worldwide concert tour including U.S.

Bruce, the Boss

Just came back from the opening show of Bruce Springsteen's concert tour. It was amazing. The name of the tour describes the performance: "solo acoustic". He was the one man music making machine on the stage with acoustic guitar, harmonica and a piano. He played for 2 and half hours straight without intermission. The show opened with Bruce singing a spooky version of 'reason to believe' form Nebraska. He was tapping his foot for rhythm and singing through harmonica mike which made it sound very interesting. That was followed by the title song of the new album, 'Devils & Dust'. He was promoting this new album that will be released tomorrow and he talked about most of the songs that he played from this new album. That personal conversation made it a better experience overall. If he is performing in your area, don't miss it if you like Bruce Springsteen. It was one of the best concerts we have ever been to.

Bob Dylan concert

Just came back from the Bob Dylan Show as they called it. It was OK. Less than what I had expected. I wasn't disappointed but, I wasn't wowed either. I had a hard time recognising many of the songs. Some of them were new and the old ones were totally revamped rock and roll style. Here is tonight's playset.

On another note...... some people are just insane and I feel like smacking some sense into them. They are not fit to be parents and should be neutered. Yesterday, there was a couple at the concert, who had brought their children along. The older one was 5-6 years old and the younger was not even an year old. The music was so loud and the drum beats were sending these vibrations through our bodies. How the hell did they decide that it was OK for a small child like that. It is not just bad physically for the developing ear, but, loud noise is probably bad for the mental health of the child too. And this was not just a few seconds of noise, they were there for 3 hours.

Now, if (s)he grows up with some hearing loss, what are these parents going to do? Of course, sue the concert organisers for creating dangerous environment for their child. Supid morons...

More music this year...

Just bought tickets on ebay for Bruce Springsteen's tour-opening show in Detroit on April, 25th. Yaay!!! It is so exciting. First time to see Bruce live. This show was officially sold out in 1 minute after the sale of tickets opened. I am sure every ticket was bought by a scalper.

Also, bought tickets for Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers in Detroit on July 20th.

We go to see Bob Dylan tomorrow night.

Oh yeah, and U2 in October.

This year is shaping up pretty well in terms of music concerts.