Wednesday, April 27, 2022

Prog Contest 2022: Round 1 Match 10

For this last matchup of the first round, we have two somewhat dissimilar albums. The first features a British psychedelic prog band from 1972, while the second involves a 2009 avant progressive rock release by a band from Belgium.

Here are the descriptions:


Steel Mill - Green Eyed God

The main theme here is eclecticism: This has a lot of Blues and heavy psych in it for a prog album. But then lush, melodic and subtle winds as well as twists and turns contrast that. Earthy but airy, grounded but elegic and somewhat esoteric. Joining worlds that had been drifting apart by 1972 (the year this was created).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29G9WrqL3Qs&t=1s

Also to be found on spotify



vs.


Present - Barbaro

Dense ass avant-zeuhl chaos, and way better than a 2000s reunion prog album from an old act has ANY right to be. Band got started by the guitarist from the first two Univers Zero records, and this one closes with a cover/redo of Jack the Ripper off Heresie. Whole things a ride.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BAFqDYKKhIM

Only stream I could find is on YouTube. Sound quality there is predictably a bit shit, so if any progheads are savvy enough to use Google drive, I also uploaded my copy into a shared folder for your beautiful ears:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1IZRIrhQuCc0_NfWJ2Jfl6EKEaDlV76qZ


Once we have a winner here, Round 1 will be complete, and we'll know all of the survivors that will be moving on to our elimination round.

Fun fact: Of the first nine matches, only two of those I've voted for are moving on to the second round. Zoinks!

Prog Contest 2022: Round 1, Match 9 Results

OK, so this one was a nail biter. Here were my comments:

After one listen, I'm not totally sold on either album.

Are any of you guys familiar with the original film version of The Producers with Zero Mostel and Gene Wilder? I like the first song on the Maquina! LP, but it reminds me of a serious version of Dick Shawn's "Love Power" from that film - it has the same chord progression.

When it came time to actually vote, I added:

My vote goes to Polis.

This is a case of Maquina! had me, but then lost me when they hit the extended instrumental section, complete with those sour wah-wah's and the endless drum solo. (I know those were a thing at the time, but usually on live albums, not on studio albums.) I liked the first couple of numbers (the second being "Why?" before the instrumental), and "Earth's Daughter" was OK. The second bonus track also got a little sour for my taste at times.

I found Polis solid, if not necessarily exciting, throughout. They avoided losing me more going out of their way to win me. 

As I mentioned in my post yesterday, we found ourselves tied 9 votes to 9 four days after the voting was supposed to have ended.

The final result came in this morning. 

Final Result: Polis 9 votes, Maquina! 10 votes. So I cursed another one.

Oh well. On to the final match of Round 1.

Tuesday, April 26, 2022

Prog Contest 2022: Round 1, Match 9 Update

 For those of you who have been following along with this series, I promise I'm not slacking. We're still waiting for a winner. Right now, this contest is frozen at 9 votes a piece, and we're waiting for a tie-breaker. I'll let you know as soon as we have one.

Sunday, April 17, 2022

Prog Contest 2022: Round 1 Match 9

This time out, we have a modern (2020) German psychedelic prog rock album going up against an album by a Spanish proto-prog album from 1970.

Here are the details:


Polis - Weltklang

The album is full of elegant, laid back, yet energetic psychedelic, prog rock, from the beauty of the folk lullaby Abendlied to the jammy poetry of Eine Liebe, Taused Leben. Polis seem to love analogue instruments and the production values here are amazing. This is a total anachronism from the 70s. You can picture the band playing in front of you in an old village barn. It's psychedelic, it's prog rock, some people called it kraut rock, something I don't know shit about, and it jams so damn well.
The icing on the cake for me was hearing them sing in German. It's not often good bands decide to stick to their german mother tongue. I was moved in a way that didn't happen to me since I discovered The Hirsch Effekt.

Bandcamp: https://polisklang.bandcamp.com/album/weltklang

Youtube-Playlist: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_lnhemXfO2DI4svUvZRxQ1Xglp8VusAJKQ

Also available on Spotify


vs.


Maquina! - Why?

Why? is a Spanish proto-prog record very heavily steeped in the psychedelia of the era. One wouldn't be shocked to hear the likes of the title track in a 1969 Grateful Dead live performance (with better vocals) as it runs on its acid fueled energy for around 25 minutes. Apparently this album was quite the historical achievement as one of the first of its kind to come from Spain and helped develop the prog scene there. For those who aren't fans of jam rock, this might not be your cup of tea, but there are still plenty of other moments that might satisfy including pretty killer basslines throughout.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1yng581COUU


I've got high hopes for this round. Let's see how it works out.

Prog Contest 2022: Round 1, Match 8 Results

This was another pretty close round, at least until the very end. However, this time it didn't follow the pattern of come-from-behind victory that so many of the other rounds did. I had a few comments about the matchup throughout. Here they were:

Dagmar doesn't sound anything like I remember on the joint album with Henry Cow. 

After a brief discussion on the list about how this was more of a straight pop album as opposed to that one, I added:

Very much. There's even a "Girl From Ipanema"-type number.

After a discussion as to whether the Slapp Happy album should even be classified as progressive rock, I went on to add:

Well, as far as my scoring goes, I've told you guys before I don't worry about how progressive it is. I leave that up to the tournament host. And once an album has been accepted for the tournament, I score it solely on how much I like it.

Then I moved on to talk about the Jono El Grande album, saying:

The beginning of Jono El Grande almost sounds like Zappa to me.

When it came time to vote, I brought it all together:

I'm ready to vote. My curse...um, I mean vote...goes to Jono El Grande. (Sorry about that, zak.)

I like several of the tracks on the Slapp Happy album, especially the first one and most of the later ones. Some of the ones in the middle left me a little cold, though.

I liked the Jono El Grande album pretty much throughout. As several of us stated, it's in the vein of Zappa, but I found it to be a little more contained than a lot of Zappa. I liked a lot of the use of strings throughout the album.

For once, the majority of the group agreed with me. Although at one point, Slapp Happy led 5 votes to 3, in the end, the vote went the other way.

Final Result: Slapp Happy 7 votes, Jono El Grande 13 votes.

Only two matches left in the first round.

Sunday, April 10, 2022

Prog Contest 2022: Round 1 Match 8

We're starting to get down to the nitty-gritty in this first round here. This is the 8th of 10 matchups. Here are our next contestants:


Slapp Happy - Slapp Happy

This is Avant-garde Proggy Pop or Rock In Opposition band from England and Germany. When I listen to this album, I picture myself sipping absinthe and smoking a cigarette through a jade holder, on the balcony of an apartment on the Champs-Élysées.

The first 11 tracks on this link. 

https://open.spotify.com/album/5XTA3Hd1nmV2spLX2q5sU7?si=dCRIgOA_QKCOmO5n2bliSw

Or youtube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XN6UYcG-DMU&list=PLVZbPSE4nfitHPj4zpmqZqgVKaYVcmUhA


vs.


Jono El Grande - Melody of a Muddled Mason

Norwegian nutter throws everything into an album that is mad, off the wall (and at times up it) comical, melodic, dark and playful all the while following a proggish forays into melody and rock.
Available in Bandcamp and other streamings.

https://jonoelgrande.bandcamp.com/album/melody-of-a-muddled-mason


So this round is going to be totally off the wall. We had a joint LP by Slapp Happy and Henry Cow a few years ago - does anyone remember the weird German lady singing about her hat? (I do, because the rat bastards eliminated my rec that year, the eponymous Flash album.) And it sounds like Jono El Grande is going to be as far out there. So we'll see how this round goes, and if my (somewhat tenuous) sanity can stand it.

Prog Contest 2022: Round 1, Match 7 Results

Geez, it happened again! The album I voted for got off to a big lead and then crumbled down the stretch. My fellow Users are now all referring to it as the Diva curse.

Here was my vote, and my comments about it:

I'm gonna be honest here. With apologies to my friend Friday, I just don't like The Mercury Tree. I didn't like their last album, and I don't like this one. Their music is so deliberately sour that it doesn't matter to me how complex and well thought out it is, I just don't enjoy listening to it.

While All Traps on Earth isn't a total win for me, I like it more than not. I don't hear it as dark as much as very sci-fi. There are parts that sound a bit like Chick Corea, and those are the parts that don't totally work for me. But overall, I think this is a pretty strong LP, and one I look forward to re-listening to.

This vote was an easy one for me. I vote for All Traps On Earth.

At the time I voted, my vote made it 6 to 2 in favor of All Traps on Earth. The vote then closed up to 6 votes to 5, then opened up again to 9 votes to 5. Unfortunately for me, however, the last five votes all went to Mercury Tree, giving it the come-from-behind victory.

Final Result: Mercury Tree 11 votes, All Traps on Earth 10 votes. (Vote tally has been updated from my original post.)

As I said: "Geez."

Friday, April 8, 2022

About Song of the Day Again

Well, I kind of had a feeling this was coming. I got back involved with the Sputnik Song of the Day contest last month, and immediately noticed that participation was down from where it had been when I left last November. 

I somewhat reluctantly joined again for April, but it turned out to be a bad idea. The theme was songs that you hate that you believe all of the other users would love. I picked "Let's Go Crazy" by Prince, as you all know how I feel about Prince. (Not good.) I would have preferred to used his "Batdance" ("Ooooo! Vicky Vale!). But I had to imagine that my fellow Users would hate that as much as I do. (For the record, I find most of "Let's Go Crazy" more boring and predictable than hateful, except for that stupid intro. But the intro was enough for me.)

One of the other Users picked Pink Floyd's "Welcome to the Machine", which I figured would be an easy winner. Unfortunately, I was wrong. Several of the Users gave it mediocre scores, which sucked, but I could live with. However, one of them ventured the opinion that he thought the song was only a 2.5 out of 5, but he was going to give it a 1 out of 5 because he thought it ruined an otherwise excellent album.

At that point, I knew I was done with Song of the Day. I've never had the ability to suffer fools gladly, and I feel like if people aren't going to take their scores seriously, there's not much point in it.

So if you enjoyed my monthly reports on Song of the Day, sorry about that.

Sunday, April 3, 2022

March 2022 Song of the Day

So I returned to the Sputnik Music Song of the Day thingy this month. (You'll recall I dropped out last November when some particularly strange takes drove me insane.) It wasn't any big plan or anything. I just happened to glance at it, liked this month's theme, and wound up entering it. I don't know what will happen going forward. I (somewhat reluctantly) joined for April as well, but I make no promises beyond that.

I was almost sorry that I did get back involved this month. When I made a rec for the month, I didn't really plan on listening to all the songs. In fact, I was still on the 80's Cruise at the time. When I got home, I decided to start listening to and rating all the other recs, and discovered (to my horror) that most of the picks were ridiculously long. I think this was due to the theme of the month (see #1 below), but it made the whole thing kind of painful at times.

For new readers, this blog entry refers to the monthly Song of the Day list on the Sputnik Music website. Each month, one User hosts the list and names a theme. Everyone then recommends songs in line with this theme, and people rate the various song recommendations. The (partial) list of March songs can be found at Sputnik Music Song of the Day - March 2022.

If you go to that link, you'll notice a few days weren't filled in by the host at the end of the month. Sorry about that. We had a full month, he just didn't include those last few songs. They were "Walking" by Denzel Curry on March 28, "Suicide" by The Raveonettes on March 29, and "Romeo and the Lonely Girl" by Thin Lizzy on March 30. There was also a bonus pick of "Buenos Tardes Amigos" by Ween.

1. The theme of the month was Songs That Have a Narrative - those songs that have a specific story.

2. Participation was down this month - I gather that the last few months have been a little lean. (And the fact that so many of the songs in March were 15 minutes or longer probably didn't help to draw in any newbies.) Consequently, by the time the month was done, I (and several others) had three picks apiece. I went with three native Long Island artists, rec'ing "I Loved Annie First" by Tony Hightower, "What Made America Famous" by Harry Chapin and "Reason to Kill" by The Good Rats. Much to my surprise, the Harry Chapin song went over the best of the three. (I thought my fellow Users might find it a little hokey.)  Tony Hightower - I Loved Annie FirstHarry Chapin - What Made America FamousThe Good Rats - Reason to Kill.

3. My average score for the month wasn't that bad - 2.99 - although it was artificially inflated by a couple of songs that I rated highly. My highest rated song for the month was a classic by The Kinks - "Lola". The Kinks - Lola.

4. Unsurprisingly, "Lola" was also the song that was rated highest by the group at large. It's a classic for a reason. The Kinks - Lola.

5. I forgot until just this minute that I used to make a playlist for the entire month, so sorry about that. If you want to hear them all, you'll have to follow the individual links on the list in paragraph 3 above (and look the songs up for the 28th, 29th and 30th on YouTube. It's easy enough to do).

As I said, I'm in for SOTD for April, so I'll tell you about that next month. In the meantime, the blog is pretty up to date right now, at least until the results of this week's Prog Contest matchup come in next Saturday. So have a great week everybody, and I'll see you all soon.


Prog Contest 2022: Round 1 Match 7

Our friend Jethro describes this next match as one pitting "technical spacey prog" against "complex, classic symphonic prog". Here's what it looks like:


The Mercury Tree - Spidermilk

The Mercury Tree’s latest is a continuation of their last: heavy avant-prog with experimental and math rock tendancies. But Spidermilk is the fruition of their microtonal/xenharmonic experiments, being their first album composed entirely on 17-EDO tuned and fretted guitars. Just as Harry Partch predicted in his manifesto on modern microtonal music, “Genesis of a Music,” what begins as impenatrable cacophany on first listen gradually morphs into a surreal escape into otherworldly songs upon repeated listens. Look no further than “Vestments” for the album’s prog accumen, reappropriating King Crimson’s Discipline era for a brave new world of microtonality. I saw them live and they deftly replicated this microtone for microtone. Certainly the most innovative prog rock band in the United States today.

https://themercurytree.bandcamp.com/album/spidermilk

vs.


All Traps on Earth - A Drop of Life

All Traps On Earth is a another Swedish amazing prog band and A Drop Of Light represents another great traditional prog album written in a modern way. It's a project close to Anglagard. Three members of Anglagard, Johan Brand, Thomas Johnson and Erik Hammarstrom are present on it. Their music is obviously influeced by Anglagard with some jazz and classical tones that in sometimes reminds us Magma and Zeuhl in general due to the vocals of Johan's daughter, Miranda. Their music is rich and complex with great compositions and outstanding arrangements with some influences of King Crimson . Sometimes it also reminds me of their compatriots Anekdoten.

https://open.spotify.com/artist/1kYMMmUG2W0MRJ0nBHBno9?autoplay=true

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TfGmEb_JHiE


I confess, I might have a slight prejudice in one direction going into this one, but we'll see how it works out.


Prog Contest 2022: Round 1, Match 6 Results

After a series of close matches in this year's prog contest, this is the second one in a row that was a bit of a slaughter. The consensus seems to be that it wasn't so much due to any defects in the losing album - it just ran into a buzzsaw. 

I'm afraid that my comments when I voted kind of give the results away:

Well the heck with it. I was going to go for at least another listen apiece, but the score being what it is, I'm going with Flaming Row. Excellent as Il Giardino Onirico is, Flaming Row deserved a better fate.

That was because at the time I voted, Flaming Row was down 10 votes to none. Both of the actual contestants declined to vote on this one, so here's how it ended.

Final Result: Flaming Row 2 votes, Il Giardino Onirico 14 votes.

It's a pity. As much as I like the Il Giardino Onirico LP (and I like it a lot - I think it's fair to say that it's probably become the one to beat), the Flaming Row album was certainly one my favorite - possibly my very favorite - LP in the whole tournament. Oh well.


Saturday, April 2, 2022

Cassandra House (sort of) and Colin Hay

OK, I'm back. Maybe. A little.

Outside of the 80's Cruise, which was really my post-COVID (I hope) coming out party, this was my first live concert since March of 2020. Ironically enough (in Alanis Morissette fashion, which is to say it's not really ironic at all), it was at the same venue, The Patchogue Theatre, where I saw my last show. (It's not really ironic because it's like 5 minutes from my house, so it's kind of the most likely place for me to go.) The last one featured Cherish The Ladies, on the Saturday before Cuomo shut down Broadway and I realized that this whole COVID thing wasn't going to be business as usual. This time out, it was Colin Hay, the former lead singer of Men at Work, who has since developed a nice little solo career for himself.

Now I was thinking about getting tickets for this show for awhile. I was also thinking about getting tickets to see Danu (an Irish band that actually has an accent over their "u", but I have no idea what I have to do to create a letter with an accent over it and no motivation to learn). That one was also at the Patchogue Theatre this past February.

Ultimately, I decided not to go to that show, only because it was close enough to the cruise that I didn't want to chance getting COVID at the show and screwing up the 80's Cruise for Denise. In the end, I decided to hold off on getting tickets for Colin Hay until after the cruise, because I wasn't 100% sure how the shows on the cruise would impact my desire to get back into seeing live concerts. But as you can see, in spite of the difficulties I described in this blog, the cruise ultimately whet my appetite to get back out there for some more live music, at least occasionally.

When we got back from the cruise, I asked Denise if she was interested in seeing this show. She was, but unfortunately, because her back was such a mess for awhile there, she decided she'd better not try it. (The back situation also caused her to cancel out on seeing the Psychedelic Furs, who she was supposed to see the week we got back. I'm happy to report, though, that she's getting back into action and going to see APB at wherever the hell Eppy is holding My Father's Place shows now, this coming Sunday.)

So the day after our return, I went up online to see if there were any Colin Hay tickets still available. (I had looked during the cruise, and I knew the show was selling well.) There were still tickets, either in the last few rows of the main area of the theater or the last few rows of the balcony. I opted for the balcony, for both sightline and price reasons. I think I paid $37, not at all a bad price.

A few days before the show, I got an email from the Patchogue Theatre, describing their current COVID protocols. (There pretty much are none - you no longer have to show proof of vaccination or a COVID test to get in, and while masks were recommended, they weren't required. This was fine with me, since at this point, I think it's pretty much been shown that regular masks are nothing but colorful decorations that don't do a damned thing to prevent COVID anyway.) The email also stated that local Long Island artist Casandra House would be playing a set in the lobby before the show.

This was really good news to me. I had reviewed her debut album, The Roam, in 2018, and I really liked it. I had tried to see her live doing one of The Patchogue Theatre's "Live in the Lobby" shows either that year or in 2019. Unfortunately, I'd waited too long to get a ticket, and by the time I tried, the show was sold out. Consequently, I'd never seen her live show. So for me, this only added value to a concert I already felt was well worth the price of admission.

A couple of words about Colin Hay. I'd obviously enjoyed his work with Men at Work in the '80s. He used to play The Boulton Center fairly frequently, and I don't know why I never tried to see him there. Last year, Denise mentioned that her sister had been following his solo career, and she really liked what he'd been doing.

I went out and bought his first solo LP, 1987's Looking for Jack. It was OK, but nothing great. However, he's released a dozen other albums since then, and I notice that most of those that actually have ratings on the Sputnik Music site are rated higher than that first one. I did pick up his 2021 LP, I Just Don't Know What to Do With Myself, an album of cover songs that I enjoyed. So as that was his most recent album (I thought), I figured that between those songs and his Men at Work songs, I'd be familiar with enough of his material to make the show enjoyable. (I checked out the setlists he's been playing for the last week or two on setlist.fm, which confirmed this notion.)

When the day of the show rolled around, both of my children were amused at the thought that I was going out and Denise was staying home. ("Where are you going?" my daughter asked me incredulously. Does anyone out there want to buy a couple of gently-used young adults?)

The email had stated that the doors would open about 45 minutes before showtime. So I figured that since Cassandra's set was starting at 7PM, the doors would open at 6:15. I'd been to a couple of the Theater's "Live in the Lobby" shows (I distinctly remember seeing Miles to Dayton there), but not for a few years. Nevertheless, I thought I knew what to expect. I completely forgot that I'm a moron.

I got to the theater around 6:30. I wasn't sure what to expect of the parking situation in Patchogue Village these days. The last couple of times I'd gone to a show there, I'd wound up parking in my opthamologist's parking list across the street from the theater's parking lot. This time, though, I was lucky enough to get a parking space at the very back of the theater's lot itself (but only because I have a handicapped parking sticker). I listened to a song or two on my CD player in the car and headed in at about 6:40.

Unfortunately, when I got to the theater, the box office area was open, but the lobby itself was still locked. And when I looked in through the glass doors of the lobby, I didn't see what I expected to see.

The way the "Live in the Lobby" shows used to be set up (and I suspect they still are), the artist is set up in the middle of the lobby, with their back to the auditorium doors, and several rows of metal chairs are set up for patrons to sit in and enjoy their music. Unfortunately, what I saw was no chairs at all, and Cassandra's guitar set up in a corner in the very front of the lobby, right near where people walk in.

Now if I'd have thought about it at all, this made sense. In retrospect, there was no way they were going to block off the lobby with a bunch of metal chairs in between where people enter the theater and the auditorium area where Hay would be playing. ("Then they shouldn't have called it 'Live in the Lobby!' They tricked us!," I raged silently to myself. And of course, when I got home later and looked at the actual email, they hadn't said that at all. They just said that Cassandra would be playing a live set in the lobby before the show, and my mind had filled in the rest. So I was the dummy, not the Theatre.)

This was going to be a problem for me, though. There was no way I could stand through Cassandra's entire set. My standing days at concerts have long since passed. I could do a song or two, at most.

As I looked inside, the only seating I saw was a small bench against the wall near the Men's Room on the other side of the refreshment counter. So my only chance of hearing more than a song or two of Cassandra's set was to get inside right away and grab a spot on that bench. This would probably mean I'd have to sacrifice buying myself a bottle of water - unfortunate, but necessary.

As I looked inside, I saw the theater's volunteers busily at work stuffing the upcoming music schedule inside of the theater's programs. I also saw Michelle Rizzo (or Michelle Rizzo-Berg, as she's now apparently called), the theater's Executive Director, buzzing around, checking on last minute details, and John Blenn (who apparently either works at or volunteers at the theater now) walking with some other worker/volunters. John and I nodded to each other (although unfortunately, I never got a chance to say hello to him once the theater opened). Michelle didn't nod, mostly because she has no idea who I am. (I used to be somebody, I tell you!) And I saw a nicely dressed mother and daughter moving back and forth inside, who might have been associated with Cassandra, or even with Michelle, as they didn't seem to actually be working there. Then I saw them grab my bench. Damn it!

By the time they opened the doors at 7, I had positioned myself near the front of the line, and the mother and daughter were now standing to the side of the bench. As soon as the door opened, I made a beeline for that bench, trampling the little girl in the process. (Eat flowery carpet, kid, ha, ha, ha!) JK. At this point in my life, even at top speed, if I had been heading towards the child, she could have avoided me without breaking a sweat. Nevertheless, I did manage to secure myself a corner of that bench. Success!

It got better from there. As Cassandra began playing, I noticed that there was a small bar stand directly in front of me that was also selling water. I left my jacket on the bench, the universal symbol for "This spot is taken, sucka!" and was able to buy a water. I was even able to run in and use the Men's Room. I'm a tactical genius!

Then I settled in to try to listen to Cassandra's set (as I couldn't actually see her - the snacks counter was between me and the corner she was playing in).

I had listened to Cassandra's album during that afternoon, to try to refresh myself on her material. (Of course, the album is from 2018, so I had no idea how many of those songs she was still playing.)

Sadly, it was something of a wasted effort. In the beginning, I could hear her some. She sounded good, but I didn't really hear anything familiar. At one point, she played something bluesy that might or might not have been "Goodnight, Marionette," the last song off of her LP. A song or so later, she played something that vaguely sounded like (but wasn't) Joni Mitchell's "Night in the City". (I just bought digital copies of Joni's two-part Archives albums, each of which features five CDs' worth of material, and I've been listening to them like crazy over the last two weeks. So right now, everything sounds a little like Joni to me. When I go to bed, Joni plays her way through my dreams all night.)

As I tried my best to hear the music, I texted back and forth with my wife and daughter at home. I tried my best to convince my daughter that the concert scene was wild, with limbo dances and cocaine and random tattoo's happening everywhere. Your pappy is a wild man, sweetie! I don't think she bought it, though.

By 7:25 or so, the lobby was so noisy and full that I could only hear the barest trace of Cassandra. It was a shame. I was waiting to hear if she played my favorite song off of her albums, "Little Flower". But as best I could tell, she never did. (She does have a band, so maybe that's one of those songs she only plays with them. She was going it solo here.) If I'd heard it, I would have given up my spot on the bench, worked my way over to her and listened for a song or two. Then I'd have made my way upstairs to my seat. But I never did hear it, so at 7:50 or so, I gave up the ghost. Sadly, seeing Cassandra House in concert is still an incomplete for me. I'm going to need to catch her in a friendlier setting.

I took one last shot at the Men's Room, then headed up those stairs. (I think they added about twenty or more steps since the last time I sat up there. At least that's what it felt like. I'm actually at the lowest weight I've been at in years, but except for the cruise, I've been pretty inactive for most of the pandemic, something I'm going to need to remedy pretty soon.)

When I got upstairs and found my seat, I found something else I hadn't taken into account. I was in the very last row of the balcony, in the very last seat on the right-hand side. When I'd picked this seat on the seating chart, it looked like it was on the aisle. (I always like, when possible, to sit on the right-side aisle so my right leg is free.) Unfortunately, my aisle turned out to be ... well, basically a wall. Fuck!

Luckily for me, although the show was just about a sellout, the two seats next to me were empty, so I was comfortable all night. Note to self, though - remember that they don't always draw in the walls on seating charts!

Anyway, the sightlines down to the stage were great (even though I'd forgotten to bring my distance glasses. I haven't worn distance glasses for the last twenty years or so, since I had my cataracts removed. This pair only arrived after I got back from the cruise, and I still wasn't used to taking them around with me. I'm really not back in full concert mindset yet.)

The last time I was up there, for the Jon Anderson concert in 2019, I mentioned that there was an entire strange population of bat people that seemed to be living in the Patchogue Theater balcony, much like the people who live in the subterranean caves under Las Vegas. Sadly (or maybe fortunately), the pandemic seems to have cleared them all out, because last night's crowd was very well behaved.

But yeah, I could see the stage pretty clearly. It was set up simply -  a few colored lights in the back, facing the crowd (one of which was unfortunately trained right in my eye all night), and four electric acoustic guitars set up next to one another, within Colin's easy reach.

OK, so now that you've hung in with me and been reading for about an hour, here's the part where I reward you with a couple of paragraphs about the actual concert. I can't believe you guys still read my reviews - I'd be pretty pissed with me by now.

What can I say to you about Colin Hay? Well, for starters, he played the show solo - no backing band whatsoever, not the easiest thing to do in a theater of this size.

According to Wikipedia, the Patchogue Theatre holds 1,200 people. (And I'm probably lucky if I didn't catch COVID after sitting in that crowded lobby for an hour, what with the Omicron numbers ticking back up. The only good thing is if I did, I still have a month to recover before my next cruise.) Although it's old (which Colin commented on), and it has chairs with wooden arms, it's still pretty comfortable. (Much more comfortable than the Royal Theater on the cruise ship. Fuck you, Royal Theater!). But a venue of this size isn't necessarily easy for a solo acoustic artist to command.

Nevertheless, command it Mr. Hay did. In all, he played for more than two-and-a-half hours, a set of fairly quiet songs played at a mostly slow pace (which Hay himself made fun of). This was because in between songs, he told a series of very entertaining (and occasionally poignant) stories about his life. He talked about his parents, his first girlfriend (when he was 8), Ringo Starr, Paul McCartney doing his dishes, his problems with alcoholism, his history of doing mushrooms and other drugs, and what it's like to be Colin Hay at age 68 and be able to walk around NYC mostly anonymously.

Overall, he played a setlist of 17 songs (or really 16, if you count the instrumental "Goodnight Romeo" and "I Just Don't Think I'll Ever Get Over You" as a one-song medley, since he went from one right into the other.) Three of them (all fairly near or at the end of the set) were three of his Men at Work classics, "Who Can It Be Now?" (I share Hay's sense of paranoia), "Overkill" and the closer, "Down Under", while two were from his covers album, Dusty Springfield's "I Just Don't Know What to Do With Myself" and The Kinks' "Waterloo Sunset".

Five of the others were from a brand new LP he only released two weeks ago, Now and the Evermore. The rest were an assortment of numbers from throughout his solo career. My favorite of those was called "Maggie", about his aforementioned first girlfriend when he was just a lad of eight. It was humorous, and ultimately tragic, as I guess things didn't work out so great for Maggie. (It was kind of like Deerheart's story about Skinny Julie in his rock opera The Cordon Bleu Years. Although at least that one worked out better in real life.)

Hay still has that sweet, sweet voice, and although he wasn't trying to get extra fancy except for once or twice, the man can still play guitar.

Overall, I really enjoyed the show, and it was nice to be out again at The Patchogue Theatre. So a thousand kudos to Colin Hay.

Denise and I will be back at the Patchogue Theatre in July to see Midge Ure and Howard Jones, which should be a great show as well.

So I'm back, a little bit, anyway. I don't plan to be going out to a whole bunch of shows anytime soon. In fact, the Howard Jones/Midge Ure show is the only other one I have tickets for right now. (Although I've got my eye on the possibility of seeing Aimee Mann open up for Steely Dan this summer at Jones Beach.) And I don't plan on doing anything anytime soon that requires much in the way of night driving right now (as I think I've gotten to be something of a menace doing any kind of extensive driving after dark). But at least I'm venturing out just a little, to bring you guys a little more content than I have been for the last two years. So let's see how that works out.

The final wrap-up: Colin Hay, Yay! Patchogue Theatre, Yay! Cassandra House, incomplete, through no fault of her own. (It was probably a Yay, but I'll have find out for sure some other time.)

For Colin Hay's setlist for this show, go to Colin Hay's setlist. For Cassandra House's website (which has a list of her upcoming live shows), go to Cassandra House's webpage. For the Patchogue Theatre's website, which has a list of their upcoming events, go to Patchogue Theatre's website. Bye for now, y'all!