As part of my dad’s 60th birthday extravaganza, he took my brothers and I to see Huey Lewis & the News perform on Friday night at Harrah’s in Lake Tahoe. They performed in the South Shore Room, which seats 750 and was sold out.

It was a great show, and my entire family liked it. I can honestly say I wish they’d kept playing (partially because they only played about 1.5 hours). I liked the mix of obvious hits, covers and other surprises. They sounded great. Most of the crowd was on it’s feet from “I Want a New Drug” on.

Huey explained that this was sort of a hometown crowd and they had many family and friends in the audience that night (including the parents of Johnny Colla). So they debuted a new song, “Hurry Back Baby”, which he said wasn’t quite ready for prime time but they wanted to give their regulars a little something special.

Here’s the set list

We’re not here for a long time (we’re here for a good time)
So Little Kindness
Thank You #19
I Want a New Drug
Small World
If This is It
Heart & Soul
Sixty Minute Man [Persuasions cover, done a capella]
Uh Huh [some cover, done mostly a capella plus horns and guitar]
Hurry Back Baby [new song]
Power of Love
But It’s Alright
Workin’ for a Livin’
—-encore—-
Do You Believe In Love
Stuck With You
Back in Time

I did a lot of reminiscing during and after the show. It’s hard to describe the feeling of seeing this band play now, when 25 years ago I used to tape their songs off the radio. I remember listening to the radio endlessly just so I could record copies of their Back to the Future songs, both of which they played Friday night. “Back in Time” was arguably my favorite song for awhile. When I started buying tapes, Fore! Sports and Picture This were among the first.

And my dad and younger brothers knew the songs, too. In fact, going to the show wasn’t even my idea, it was Shawn’s, and he was as excited as I was.

My dad and one of my brothers pointed out that Queensryche is playing the same room later this month. We pondered the meaning of this, that these two bands who have been my favorite bands at different times, who themselves are so different, are playing here so close together. In high school and college, Queensryche eclipsed everything else, and yet I don’t really follow them anymore.

I want to put a plug in for my friend’s jazz big band The Tommy Money Orche$tra. They are a 17 piece jazz big band in the 1940’s style. Check their website out for pix, audio and video.

The next show is on Saturday night, March 10 at Cookies Jazz & More in Webster Groves, from 8:30 until midnight.

I saw their first ever show, their holiday show, in December. They really swung! I’m very excited to see them again and hopefully begin to see them gain some local traction. And those of you who are aware of my waning interest in live music know I don’t say that lightly.

Tom Money (yes that’s his real name) is a trumpet player and founder of this big band. He is currently a Staff Sergeant in the U.S. Air Force, stationed at Scott Air Force base, where he is a member of the USAF Band of Mid America. A lot of the other members of the TMO are also in this Air Force band – if you follow the above link you can read some information about each of them.

One particularly exciting thing for me personally about this big band is that my former drum teacher Kevin Gianino is the drummer. I’m sure I don’t have to remind my regular readers (both of you) what high regards I hold Kevin in, but I will mention that Tom is equally blown away by Kevin both musically and as a person.

Tom and I know each other from church. We are friends and so are our wives and kids (he has three young boys, the oldest is in kindergarten). Tom and I have had some long talks over the years about jazz and about being a musician. As I’ve explained to him, I am always impressed by anyone who makes their living as a musician, and Tom is no exception. Over the years I’ve dabbled in music enough to know that there’s a world of difference between such dabbling and making the commitment to be a pro. In fact, taking drum lessons from Kevin in ‘01 and ‘02 is what finally drove that home for me – I realized I could only take the craft of playing an instrument so far in my spare time, and after awhile realized it was not nearly far enough to satisfy even my own minimal standards. I am now happily resigned to being a fan of music, not a musician.

If any of you guys, my friends and regular readers, are interested in seeing the show let me know and we can arrange a group outing. Live jazz on a Saturday night in March, shouldn’t be disappointing. Think of it as a way to whet your appetite for SxSW.

This one is primarily for Alex and Nick. It’s a recording of Medeski, Martin and Wood, with Trey Anastasio on guitar, performing “Crosstown Traffic“. I’m almost positive this came from a show at Emo’s in Austin, TX, on 10/14/95. Alex had given me a copy of the rest of this show (minus this song) some time ago; years before I had found a copy of this song on Napster or Kazaa. Only recently did I put the two together.

One of Nick’s posts got me thinking about power ballads, and I came up with the following list from memory in about five minutes. Almost all of these songs are from around 1988-1989, the heydey of hair metal. I probably made a mix tape at some point with most of these songs – I made a tape for Jana V at one point that had the Scorpions song on it. Many of these songs I have on cassette single or “cassingle”. The list is roughly in order of decreasing meaningfulness to me – the last four or five are super obscure.

Don’t Know What You Got Till it’s Gone – Cinderella
Timeless Love – Saraya
Anytime – McCauley Schenker Group
Love Song – Tesla
Angel Song – Great White
Angel – Aerosmith
Love Bites – Def Leppard
Alone Again – Dokken
Still Loving You – Scorpions
Is This Love? – Whitesnake
When It’s Love – Van Halen
Patience – GN’R
Headed for a Heartbreak – Winger
Every Rose Has its Thorn – Poison
Hold on to the Night – Richard Marx
Without You – Motley Crue
Fly to the Angels – Slaughter
I Saw Red – Warrant
Heaven – Warrant
Close My Eyes Forever – Ozzy Osbourne and Lita Ford
Don’t Close Your Eyes – Kix
Love Don’t Lie – House of Lords
Ballad of Jayne – L.A. Guns
House of Pain – Faster Pussycat
Forever – Kiss

Never Say Goodbye – Bon Jovi
I’ll Be There For You – Bon Jovi

I’ve got to put a plug in for this music video by the Devin Townsend Band for the song “Vampira”.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L6fdS2ny1J8 

The video is a masterpiece of rock cheese.  As Kyle pointed out, it is the ultimate example of maximizing the obvious limited budget and resources at their disposal – the things that look cheesy are supposed to, and the overall effect is quite cool and very funny.  The software effects, costumes and acting all just gel perfectly.
Don’t miss the little dances that Devin does at 1:51, 2:16, etc.

For any fans of Mike Patton: At long last, his “pop” album Peeping Tom is being released on May 30th.

I’ve listened to the album thanks to Kyle, who obtained a copy via unknown means that I’m sure are Perfectly Legal.  Overall I like it.  It is an album of actual songs with actual singing, as opposed to some of the experimental noise albums he puts out.  Most of the songs are quite catchy in a typically twisted way.  There is a distinct hip-hop vibe to much of the album.  There are a lot of guest collaborators including Norah Jones, Massive Attack, Rahzel and Dan the Automator.

Peeping Tom will be performing live on the Conan O’Brien show on Friday, May 26.