Hidden Track

For the past two years Rob Salzer of U-Melt has been our go-to Mets fan. On the occasion of Shea Stadium’s closing and tonight’s U-Melt show at the Highline Ballroom, we asked the guitarist to share his thoughts on the Metropolitans home from 1964-2008. Take it away, Rob…

Many people say Shea is a dump, and needs to go. That may be true for current stadium standards, but also seems to be a superficial idea seeing as how the money needed to build Citi Field could actually feed an entire third world country.

That said (and I really think it needed to be said), I think more Mets fans loved Shea than otherwise. The very first baseball game I ever attended was in Spring of 1982, when I was all of three years old. Clearly, I can’t remember much about the experience – but I do know the Mets we’re playing the Cardinals and took the game to the tenth inning. Fittingly, they lost one to nothing against the then superior Cardinals.

READ ON for more from Rob about the closing of Shea Stadium…

It’s been quite the week around these parts. We all knew Hidden Track would have plenty of coverage of the Phish Reunion, but we didn’t realize how many major news

Back in 2007, auctioneers Bonhams and Butterfields sold more than $1.1 million worth of former Grateful Dead manager Rock Scully’s memorabilia from his days with the band. On Sunday, Bonhams will auction off More Skeletons From The Closet from not only Scully, but also from the collections of Dead keyboardists Vince Welnick and Ron “Pig Pen” McKernan.

There are some incredible gems among the 174 lots that B&B plans to auction, and if we had won the lottery we’d have a big list of stuff we’d want. So, let’s play pretend. For this week’s B List we look at the ten items we’d most want from Sunday’s auction if we had an unlimited budget.

1.1956 Chevrolet Bel-Air

This gorgeous old beauty was used by the band to transport none other than Captain Trips, Jerry Garcia.

2. Rock Scully’s Attache Case

Here’s a chance to own the case that transported Jerry Garcia’s drugs! Okay, we’ve got no proof whatsoever, but we’d just assume this badass attache housed the good stuff.

READ ON for seven more artifacts we’d buy if we had a million dollars…

Just before Hampton came alive again, Phish keyboardist Page McConnell hit the road for a four-night jaunt with Porter, Batiste and Stoltz. On Friday night, the quartet brought the MOODOO to NYC’s B.B. King’s. Andrew DeRosa kindly contributed a full report which we’ve teamed up with Jeremy Gordon’s typically stunning photographs. Let’s take a look…

“Good funk, real funk, is not played by four white guys from Vermont.” However, good real funk comes out the pores of George Porter Jr. and Russell Batiste. George Porter is a living legend. He’s up there with Larry Graham– except George Porter never got cheesy. He left that to Art Neville. With Art Neville out of the line up, the other members of the Funky Meters are unhinged. With the addition of cow-funker Page McConnell we’ve got some shit yo.

The first few tunes the band was warming up and I could barely hear Page in the mix. I wondered if this would be the case all night– a shy Page playing some back-up all night. As Brent Mydland once described his roll in the Grateful Dead, Page was “adding color”. He played a nice version of Jealous Guy, which sounded closer to the Donny Hathaway version with such a solid rhythm section behind him. It was weird hearing Page play clean piano from a Yamaha rather than the Baby Grand. After Jealous Guy, the rest of the set saw the band warmed up, locked in and inspired. Brian Stoltz can really take off on guitar and has the ability to dial in his tone. However, sometimes he just sounds like a talented New Orleans bar band guitarist– good, not great. I can’t say enough good things about Porter and Batiste. They are motherfuckers. The real deal.

READ ON for more from Page McConnell and PBS at B.B. King’s…

The big question before delving into the August release from former HT Blip artist The Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band, The Whole Fam Damnily, is if the big sound from

While TMZ.com may be the source for news regarding Britney, Lindsay or Angelina, you wouldn’t expect to see a story about the Grateful Dead’s Bob Weir. Yet yesterday, TMZ dropped

A few months back we reported on a story which a UK tabloid was circulating that the late Kurt Cobain’s ashes had been stolen from Courtney Love’s Hollywood home. Well,

When I heard Phish was breaking up I was on a condo bed in Falmouth, MA listening to Tortoise’s opus It’s All Around You. The windows and doors were open to let the sea air in. The sky was foreboding grey, a hue that would loom over Cape Cod for the duration of that day. I will never forget how I felt that moment. And like today, October 1 2008, I will never forget the barrage of texts I got at 8:01 am when I turned my phone on. The air was crisp and really starting to feel like the fall. The White Sox clinched a playoff birth the night before with a very dramatic finish at The Cell. The election was in full swing with a focus on our ever diminishing economy. Our community was ready for some good news which is exactly what we got.

And this news took me way back. Back to my living room window in the fall of ’96. My sister saw a Fed Ex truck park in front of my house and took off running out the front door to basically tackle the driver for our Fall ’96 tour tickets. She hits a spot of wet leaves at full speed and takes a mean digger. The driver knew this sort of behavior to be the norm at the Wilby house when tickets were arriving but hit the ground laughing all the same. There is just a feeling of anticipation you can’t describe.

That is the innocence of “The Presale”. Not one note has been played. Hotel rooms start getting booked. Travel plans start their evolution towards full blown ragers. Old friends are telephoned to rehash war stories and lay plans for the wars on the horizon. For all we know and truly believe in our hearts…these are the best shows they will ever play. The boys are getting back together and that, for this interval of innocence, is the ONLY thing that matters. You can’t get this moment of time back. Once those first notes are hit, the inevitable hate train will go back on course, ready to chastise the band at every wrong note or blown transition. But now….now is the golden age of anticipation. All is good. All is forgiven.

READ ON for more of Wade’s thoughts on the comeback of Phish…

It’s clear that for improvisational artists certain rooms inspire them more than others. Take the case of prog-jammers U-Melt and New York City’s Highline Ballroom: The quartet first visited the

After a long hiatus and some considerable urging of Scotty, thought it was time to revive a column we seem to reference a lot, but have not seen a new entry from since mid-March – Better Than Noodling. So with that out of the way, let’s dig in with probably the best music act to come out of the great state of Idaho since Paul Revere & The Raiders (yup I just referenced a band that wore tri-corner hats and dressed in 1770s colonial garb, deal with it) some 40+ years ago – folk singer Josh Ritter.

Besides being a native of the 43rd state, Ritter probably holds the distinction as the only singer/songwriter out there who studied neuroscience, before switching to a self-created major of American History Through Narrative Folk Music. A move I’m sure that probably didn’t sit too well with his parents at first – who both happen be neuroscientists themselves, but has paid dividends in Ritter’s song craft as his work is loaded with literary and historical references. READ ON for more on Ritter’s folk-rock…