Jefferson Starship!

 After last night's excursion on the SS Yacht Rock, the current night brought back the memories with a concert from 70's icons, Jefferson Starship at the Astro Theater in LaVista. The front end of the concert featured 3 other 70's hit machines, Firefall, Atlanta Rhythm Section and Pure Prairie League. Great, more yacht rock.

Firefall is/was a kind of country rock band, borne from the ruins of the Flying Burrito Brothers, that had big ass hits like You are the Woman, Just Remember I Love You and a sort of hit in what is one of my favorite songs from that era, Cinderella. The 30-minute set was energetic and well received by the crowd. There's only one original member of Firefall, guitarist Jock Bartley, left in the band, but the veterans onstage were of age to be originals so good for Firefall. They were great.

Atlanta Rhythm Section was next. That band also had hits in the 1970's and none were really my jam. The only original left is singer Rodney Justo, and from what I hear pretty much the rest of the originals are no longer with us due to being shot by cops, falling over tree limbs and drugs. ARS had two huge hits with So Into You and Imaginary Lovers and they did them in their 30-minute set. It was fine but like I said, not my jam.

The last band out was Pure Prairie League, another kind of country rock act with a couple of 70's hits including Two Lane Highway and of course, the monster hit Amie. There are no originals in this band, Vince Gill, the original lead singer on Amie seems to have moved on to better things. But the members of the current band are certainly capable of continuing keeping the music alive, including what seemed to be the world's tallest bassist, Jared Camic. He towered over everyone onstage. Maybe the rest of them are short but wow, that dude is tall. Their 30-minute set contained all two hits including the showstopper, Amie, worthy of a handshake from Paul Hollywood (IYKYK). 

Now look, there are two Jefferson Starships out there. There's Starship, which is fronted by Mickey Thomas and there's Jefferson Starship, fronted by singer Cathy Richardson and original member, 88-year-old David Freiberg. So as far as I'm concerned there's only one. The one we saw tonite.

Jefferson Starship, borne out of the ruins of the Jefferson Airplane, was formed in 1974 by Marty Balin, Paul Kantner, Grace Slick and David Freiberg. The hits followed. It was acceptable rock to the masses as opposed to the long jams and weird songs from the Airplane. The hits were many. With Richardson playing the Grace Slick role and of all people, Freiberg played the Mickey Thomas role. Did I mention he's 88? He has to be the greatest 88-year-old singer on earth. His voice is spot on, hitting the high notes of Balin and Thomas. He is amazing. Richardson has the chops and the power of Slick's voice. If you were blind, you'd never know the difference.

All the hits were there. Find Your Way Back, Miracles, White Rabbit, We Built This City (no it's NOT the worst song ever written, hipsters) Jane, Count on Me and of course, Somebody To Love. The crowd couldn't stop cheering after going oh yeah, I know that one. The current band is also perfectly capable of keeping this music alive. Marty Balin is dead, Paul Kantner is dead and Grace Slick may as well be dead considering she's 87 and painting and "retired" from performing in the 80's because as she said then, " all rock n rollers over 50 look stupid and should retire". Ehhhh, maybe 70. 

It was another trip to the past for Max's Mom and me. Hearing the music of a group I last saw in 1978 with Kantner, Balin, Slick and Freiberg was gratifying. Let's hope they keep on going, Christ, Freiberg looks like he'll live to be 100, and Richardson has the sober vibe of Slick. The story she told of Freiberg going to Egypt with the Grateful Dead in 1974 for "some reason" (complete with a shrug from Freiberg) and declining to join the Dead because "I have a Starship to form" was THE most 70's story ever.

Nostalgia is wonderful if you are of a certain age. This foursome concert fit that bill. Wonderful.

Yacht Rock Revue!

 Let's put this out front. I was in radio for years and played what is called "Yacht Rock" constantly to the point I hated every second of Cool Change or Still The One or Afternoon Delight or The Pina Colada song. I still hate them if they come on the radio (who listens to radio anymore?) but as done by the traveling band called Yacht Rock Revue it's even tolerable at worst (Brandy or Danger Zone) and downright enjoyable at best (Africa or Takin It To The Streets).

The two hours that this cover band is onstage passes like that. Led by lead singer and shameless 70's lookin guy, Nick Niespodziani, this band is tight. Nick sings like whoever he's covering. For instance, He sounded exactly like Michael McDonald on Takin it to the Streets and then hit the high notes during Africa. What a voice (tho his voice did get a bit tired at the end). He runs the show like a true conductor. Leaving some songs to people with more appropriate voices as he plays guitar or keyboards. Kourtney Jackson sings the Olivia Newton John song Magic and the Fleetwood Mac song Everywhere while when not singing lead is a great backup singer (as are all of them). Keyboard player Mark Bencuya handled the Steely Dan covers sounding just like Donald Fagen. Peter Olsen handled the vocals on other songs like Lido Shuffle and Baker Street. Now let's talk about sax player David Freeman. Man, he's a pro. He handles the sax solo in Baker Street, Ride with The Wind and other songs. He captivates while onstage. A truly great saxophonist.

The crowd of nerds and dorks dressed in Captains hats, sailor outfits and one guy in a shark costume was sparse. Not exactly a full house at the Steelhouse which may be because the similar Yachtly Crew was in Lincoln last weekend but the crowd that was there was very into it. Max's Mom was really into it and Max's Dad, the aforementioned deejay in the 70's and 80's, tried very hard to hate it and failed. It was good stuff.

This is truly the music old rockers like me love to hate. It's wimpy, soft rock that appealed to haters of disco and haters of hard rock. It served a purpose at the time.

Hey, and it serves a purpose now. It's fun. Though Afternoon Delight still sucks and is unlistenable even by them. Go get a beer during it.

Come From Away!

 

Some of my favorite moments were spent with my parents convincing me to go see theater. On the occasions I did go with them I eventually fell in love with live theater. And the Omaha Community Playhouse was the spark. Hell once, I was in the front row of the balcony watching a weird modern version of Julius Caesar when a guy with a rifle came down the stairs, crouched down beside me as I wondered what the fuck was happening, and shot Julius Caesar dead. Then he ran away. I was mortified yet realized the genius that even community theater actors and directors have in them, Yeah it's like watching AA baseball but ya know what, it's still baseball and it's great.

Come From Away is playing at the Omaha Playhouse thru October 11th. Not familiar with Come From Away? Well, you should be.

Come From Away is a musical about when airplanes from all over the world were rerouted to Gander, Newfoundland on 9/11. 38 planes full of 7000 passengers overtook this small town in Canada and the residents jumped into action to make them as comfortable as possible. The story is of the heavily accented Canadians being saints and the passengers being pissed, until they aren't. We have the two gay dudes named Kevin, the female pilot who overcame the sexism of the industry, the woman whose son is a firefighter in NYC, the Englishman and the divorcee, the Mayor, the townsfolk, the Muslim man singled out as a threat, Beulah the sweet lady who makes everyone feel better, the Africans and a cast of real characters. The story is fascinating, the songs are catchy and the local actors are fantastic singers and thespians.

The set is a bunch of chairs that get rearranged by the actors as the story goes on. A plane, a bar, a bus, customs, libraries. That's about it. And it's handled expertly. It is probably 50% dialogue and 50% songs. This is a one act play that is nothing but fun, until the end when we find things out about the people. Spoiler alert, the woman loses her son in the Towers. That's kind of depressing but man the rest of it is pure joy.

Go see it. You'll laugh a lot. You may even cry. But you will leave the theater saying man those Canadians are fine people. When asked why they were so accommodating, the Canadians say well you'd have done the same for us, to which many Americans on the stage say, would we?

We love you Canada!

Old Age Isn't War, It's A Massacre! Phillip Roth

 

Being old isn't what it used to be. It used to be you got sick, doctors did their best with what they had at the time, and then you died of things that are curable today. It was not ideal and I realize 50 years or less from now the same story will be true. Cancer will be curable, heart problems will be fixable earlier, and once this regime is gone, diseases will once again be eradicated. Everyone is fortunate to be living today with all the fancy equipment. That is if you are on Medicare. If not good luck. Even though this country, thanks to LBJ, looks after its old (think that would pass now?) with Medicare and ignores the rest of the nation claiming Medicare for all is too expensive. Yeah, tell that to 31 of 32 so called civilized nations that have national health care. But then again, we need a trillion-and-a-half-dollar military to protect us like its fucking 1945 (shhhh but it's because congress critters have defense industries in their district building shit the military doesn't even want it)..

Being old catches up with you. If you've avoided doctors forever and then you finally have some sort of emergency and have to go to the ER or the clinic, you realized that probably wasn't smart. I spent a great deal of my life without health insurance and only because of a broken hand did I go and get hit with a bill I couldn't pay without financing. Then I got health insurance but was so used to going oh well, that'll go away, I never used it. Not smart.

When the heat began to become unbearable, and my daily walks with Malibu became a bit harder, and I had to mow the lawn in shifts because my energy was like a video game and ran out quickly, I knew something wasn't kosher. But after fainting at a football game in the heat, throwing up at a baseball game in the heat, and then being unable to walk 3/4of a mile in the 115-degree heat in Vegas, I was taken to the ER where I was diagnosed with Atrial fibrillation. Simply put that means when you take your pulse, it goes beat beat beat......................beat.....beat beat beat. That long pause between beats gets to the point where you say ok, please beat again. Yeah, people live with it as will I.

But this time I needed my heart shocked back into rhythm. They electrocute you basically and your heart beats normally.  Well in my case, it was about 3 days until a fib kicked back in. Then it was a stress test. Somehow, my resting heartbeat was higher than when stressed so that's abnormal. So the next step was a left heart catheterization. Oh great. I spent a lot of years in the insurance industry and read LOT of operative reports of heart caths. They never seemed normal. They usually led to open heart surgery or stents or bypasses and even some heart transplants. Not good.

All of this tortured me for 3 weeks between the stress test and this. I wanted it over. I just knew this wasn't going to be good. What the hell is wrong with me? I'm indestructible, right? RIGHT? Not at all. I knew I was doomed. Sticking a wire into your heart and checking to see for blockages or worse didn't seem normal.

As Tom Petty said, the Waiting is the Hardest Part, and dammit he was right. I stressed for weeks because I'm not used to being sick. I just knew it was gonna be bad, I knew it. 

Let me describe the procedure. They EKG you, they shave you, they put X's in ink on your feet (???), they make you wait. The nurses are saints reassuring you. You do not know if they will put the wire thru your wrist or your groin. Please be the wrist. The doctor came in and said 90% of the time the wrist works. Ok let's see if my bad luck holds.

In the OR, they put you on a table about the same width as your body so don't move. The nurses joked for me to not look down. Oh did I tell you, you are naked except for one of those damn gowns? The doctor came in, made a joke that he'd done at least a dozen of these, some even successfully before he said I am kidding and went in thru my wrist. Could I feel it under twilight sedation? No. And THEN, the dye came out of the wire and honestly, it felt like it set my heart on fire for about 5 seconds. Even under sedation, that was scary. 

After about 10 minutes of this hour-long procedure, the doc said everything looks good, no blockages and the leaky valve wasn't serious. They will just try and shock my heart back into rhythm in a couple of weeks. Good news? Well hell to the yeah, it was. The shocking I've been through so it's all cake now.

Anyway, this whole rant is about getting old isn't fun. Your lifestyle will eventually catch up with you. Even if you have not abused yourself for decades, it will catch up. Nobody is indestructible.

Go to the doctor.