2008

Holy fucking shit. That’s about as clear as I can put it. Last night’s star-studded concert at BB King’s was easily one of the cooler experiences I’ve ever had in all my years of seeing live music. BEST $12.50 TICKET EVER! In all caps!

Photos by Adam Kaufman

Pretty much everyone that ever played with Jimmy Vivino came out to help celebrate his birthday, as well as promoter Bill Graham’s birthday. Everyone who was on the rumored lineup turned up, plus even more legendary musicians. This was one of the many nights that I’m so happy to live in New York City.

I had a hard time keeping track of who sat in on what, but John Sebastian came out for the first two songs. The Prisoners of 2nd Ave played the next few songs, and were joined by Elaine Caswell for the Jefferson Airplane shiz. Warren Haynes then came out for blistering versions of both Had to Cry Today and Why Does Love Have To Be So Sad. At this point Levon Helm came out, and the drawlin’ drummer stayed at the kit the whole night. An old white dude named Robert Gordon also came out to sing a couple of Elvis tunes with the ensemble.

I’d never heard of Willie Nile, but he blew me away. That dude is like a mix of early John Cougar and late Bruce Springsteen, and he sang his tune Hard Times in America to much applause. After Willie left the stage, Vivino called upon his Fab Faux band mates for intense driving versions of I Want You (She’s So Heavy) and While My Guitar Gently Weeps. Warren came out for While My Guitar, giving us the monumental lineup of the Fab Faux, Warren, Levon and Paul Shaffer. I couldn’t believe my eyes. READ ON FOR MUCH MORE, PLUS VIDEOS AND PHOTOS…

Rolling Stone’s David Fricke sat down with John Paul Jones for an exclusive interview about Led Zeppelin’s reunion show. The big news out of the article is that the members

It’s difficult to imagine of a more inaccessible band for small children than Medeski Martin & Wood. In all my years of being the creepy guy in just a trenchcoat and knee high socks at the local playground, I’ve never heard a parent say, “You know what my kid loves? Acid jazz! And he adores five-minutes percussion solos!”

All photos by our main man Danfun

But there I was at 6 pm last night, draped in my weekday business casual in the Time Warner Center’s Borders book store, watching the always-entertaining trio play a bunch of tracks from their new kids album, Let’s Go Everywhere.

A crowd of children sat in front of the band, most of them seemingly digging the music about cats, pirates and choo-choos, while a throng of equal parts hippie and hipster watched behind them, trying their best not to rock out in such a public place. And of all the venues I’ve done the head-bob, right knee-bend and foot tap to live music, Borders may now be a top contender for the strangest of places.

Read on for more of Danfun’s photos from the book store…

We thought the gift-giving season was over, but FestivaLink proved us wrong by releasing a free MP3 compilation of their best recordings from 2007. You can now download eight amazing