2008

Do you remember that fad/game in the eighties, ‘Six Degrees Of Kevin Bacon’? It was based on the supposition that anyone in the world could be connected to any other human (presumably the queen of England) being by six steps or degrees. The game was to connect any other entertainer to Kevin Bacon in six steps. Mark Mothersbough, from Devo, was in a Neil Young movie called Lost Highway. Kevin Bacon and his brother performed as the Bacon Brothers at a benefit concert with Neil Young. See, it’s easy.

The challenge for me tonight was to connect Mickey Mouse with The Grateful Dead. It was a lot easier than I thought. All I had to do was get to the Aladdin Theater in time for the opening act and it was game over. Allow me to explain.

Tonight’s double bill at the Aladdin started with one Matt Morris. Morris hit the stage with a wide smile, an acoustic guitar and a great attitude. He announced that this was his first time ever in Portland and had put a lot of thought into his first song, placing a certain importance on the first note of first song he played in our fair town.

That song was Chief, a story song involving enjoying the street all day. The audience took notice right away, his voice getting our attention and his words keeping it. I have read of comparisons to Rufus Wainwright and Jeff Buckley, but I got more of a Kenny Loggins vibe from his performance. Maybe it was the beard, but he connected right away with a Portland crowd that wanted to be entertained. After the first two songs someone shouted out “Sing about pain, Brother”. With perfect timing, he shot back “You guys don’t know my music yet, (his only release to date, an ep Backstage From Bonnaroo and Other Acoustic Performances is five songs deep) so you shout out ‘themes’.” He called this the first ‘Interactive” concert he had ever done. Changing the set list to match our whims, he played about pain (Bloodline) and then greed (Money).

READ ON for more of AJ’s Joan Osborne/Matt Morris review…

After spending most of his illustrious career as a sideman, drummer/ singer / songwriter / producer Rich Pagano spent the last two years writing and recording his first solo project. Pagano, who’s best known as the drummer and voice of John Lennon for the Fab Faux, has just made a three-song EP featuring tracks from his soon-to-be-released full-length album available to fans for free at Faux’s shows and by mail at RichPagano.com.

We spoke to Rich about his new album just after the Fab Faux delivered an awe-inspiring performance of their Psychedelia! show at Radio City Music Hall in the band’s hometown of New York City to celebrate their 10th anniversary.

Scott Bernstein: Are you recovered from Saturday’s show [The Fab Faux @ Radio City Music Hall]?

Rich Pagano: It’s funny. The whole thing started sinking in yesterday. I was so deep in, I never really saw the videos that were projected behind us. To see the YouTubes now, it looked like a great show.

SB: It sure was.

RP: You were there?

SB: I was, I went with a buncha people. Some of them were Beatles diehards the rest just knew the hits, but everyone had a great time. On my end, I was happy to see that there were some rarities thrown in. It’s not everyday you get to see a spot-on rendition of Flying.

RP: It’s All Too Much is my favorite tune, and I don’t know why we don’t call it more often.

READ ON for the scoop on Rich’s solo album and playing in the Faux…

As I write this piece, I’m on a bus returning back home from what has been a completely eye-opening experience. I had the opportunity to chaperone a trip for ten students over my university’s fall break. No, we didn’t go to the binge-drinking capital of the South — Panama City, but instead travelled to a little community called Cranks, Kentucky. Cranks, along with the rural communities of eastern Kentucky and western Virginia make up one of the poorest, most underdeveloped areas in our country. At the beautiful foothills of Appalachia we were on a mission to help along the construction of a home for someone who we had never met.

The group of students traveling on this trip represents, to my best guess, the patchwork quilt of America. They all come from very different walks of life. Pakistani, African American, small-town white kids, a young mother, and Christian. I could go on and try to pigeon hole these kids but there is simply no need as they all came together to do something constructive (quite literally) with their long weekend away from the hustle and bustle of their studies. This past weekend has single-handedly restored my faith in the youth of America, and I’m VERY proud to have been a small part of something this special. READ ON for more…

Since we’ve covered the Pigpen days, the Keith days and the Vince days during our week long look at videos from the Grateful Dead, we thought we’d give some love

Last night at the Roseland Ballroom in New York City, Trey Anastasio and Classic TAB kicked off the Northern Exposure tour. We live blogged about the show, but this morning we’ve got a tremendous group of photos Jeremy Gordon took of Big Red and his merry band of brothers.

Trey Anastasio and Classic TAB
October 16, 2008
Roseland Ballroom
New York, NY

I: [8:27PM] Sand, Cayman Review, Let Me Lie, Gotta Jibboo, Dragonfly, First Tube [9:27PM]

II: [9:54PM] Alaska, Last Tube, Sweet Dreams Melinda, Valentine, Drifting, Brian and Robert*, Chalkdust Torture*, The Way I Feel, Spin [11:13PM]

E: [11:17PM] Heavy Things, Burlap Sack and Pumps [11:34PM]

* Solo acoustic

READ ON for more of Jeremy’s amazing photos from last night’s show…

While I was away on my trip last weekend, I received a text message from a friend and fellow HeadCount volunteer letting me know that Andy Bernstein and Marc Brownstein were featured in a story about HeadCount on ABC’s 20/20. Instead of doing normal publicity for a non-profit, John Stossel decided to do a piece questioning the validity of HeadCount’s work over the past four years and also questioned if the youth of our country should have the ability to vote because they seem uninformed or uneducated.

Well, John Stossel — welcome to America! There are TONS of uneducated people that will be going to the polls on November 4th. They are uneducated not because of their age, but perhaps because of the education they received, the places they get their news, their ability to keep up with issues, or maybe even their ability to actually care about what is going on in our country and our world.

READ ON for the rest of Jen’s Editorial Rant…

Trey Anastasio returns to the road tonight to kick off his first real tour since 2006. We’ll be on the scene with live updates from the Roseland Ballroom in New York City, so keep checking back early and often.

While we wait for the setlist/photos/commentary to start coming in, perhaps you’d like to click around on these old setlists.

Prior Trey/Phish appearances: 3-14-1992 (Phish), 2-5-1993 (Phish), 2-6-1993 (Phish), 5-23-2000 (Phish), 2-23-2001 (The Sextet), 11-13-2001 (Oysterhead), 11-14-2001 (Oysterhead), 2-10-2005 (Tsunami Benefit w/moe.), 11-8-2005 (70 Volt Parade)

READ ON for Hidden Track’s Trey @ Roseland live setlist and blog…

Well, I’ve got a big problem. It’s my turn to write an introduction to my favorite piece and to say thank you, but if I wanted to thank all of the people who helped make Hidden Track the 1,892 most read blog in New York City it would take up the whole front page of the site. I guess I could try to limit it and just say thanks to some. Yet, I’d feel awful not thanking each person who has written a post, gave us a tip, offered encouragement, shot photos, commented on a post, added HT’s feed to their RSS reader, gave us advice or made us better in some way, shape or form.

Yet I need to thank you – the reader. We’ve come so far in the last 24 months, and I still get a huge smile each time someone leaves a comment and responds to what we’re putting out there. Ace taught me so much and I’ll be eternally grateful to him for starting this site, bringing me aboard and putting together an amazing team. Most of all, he set an incredibly high standard as an editor and writer and made me realize that each post counts. Ace made sure to teach me about journalistic standards, because the reputation of this blog – and us as writers – depended on it. While I still struggle with grammar, I’ll never stop trying to keep this rag’s reputation as good as it was the day he left.

So, I wound up thanking quite a few people after all. Let me also thank Dave, Rupert and Some Dude – a guy who I seriously couldn’t do this without – for helping to establish HT’s current tone and contributing incredible posts each week. Thanks to the Glide guys for all of their unwavering help, support and of course deciding to start this blog. Thanks to the folks on PT, The Bort and Team HLA for linking, reading and lending a hand. I literally have a list of about 75 other people to thank, but I think I’ll just send them a note to spare y’all for any more self-serving ridiculousness.

So without further ado, it’s time for my favorite piece. This anniversary has made me extremely nostalgic and I can’t stop thinking about the beginning. The first good piece I ever wrote, and the day I knew I had a shot at this thing was a post about a band made up of 16 year old Umphrey’s fans, Tribute to Whigg.

READ ON to take a look at The Royal Tennenbrah’s Saga Continues…