Richie Havens died last week at the age of 72. I first became aware of him, as did many others, from his legendary performance from the WOODSTOCK '69 music festival. I remember being very young watching the WOODSTOCK movie numerous times on PBS and his performance stood out more than any of the other bands. As the story goes, Richie was scheduled to be the second performer of the festival but was moved to first because scheduled openers, Sweetwater, were stuck in traffic. Originally planning to play a 4 song set, those in attendance got more than they bargained for as the event organizers urged him to play on due to more performers being stuck in festival traffic. His set is rumored to have lasted over 2 1/2 hours and after returning for several encores he basically ran out of songs to play. Returning to the stage one last time, Richie improvised the spiritual "Motherless Child" into "Freedom", the legendary jam that would set the tone for the rest of the festival and a generations to come.
Thanks to youtube, we can watch some his legendary performances(s)
FREEDOM
HERE COMES THE SUN
TUPELO HONEY---JUST LIKE A WOMAN
Thursday, May 2, 2013
Tuesday, April 30, 2013
ROCKET FROM THE CRYPT-4/4/13-Le Trabendo, Paris France
Oh my, this is juicy. My wife and I decided to go to Paris to celebrate her birthday. Much to my excitement (and maybe hers), it just so happened that the first part of Rocket From The Crypt's reunion tour was scheduled to roll thru Paris at the same time. Hands down, RFTC are one of my favorite bands of all time. Their live shows are legendary with a blaring horn section and in your face rock 'n roll led by their always charismatic lead singer John Reis AKA 'Speedo'. RFTC called it quits to their storied career in 2005, ending with a sold out show on Halloween night in their hometown of San Diego so the six members could concentrate on the many other projects they were involved in. Rumors started to swirl of a potential reunion in late 2011 after the band got together to record a song and appear on Yo Gabba Gabba, a show in which Speedo has a recurring role as 'Swami', which is also happens to be the name of his record label. Much to everybody's excitement the news of their reunion was confirmed in late 2012 and a short european tour was announced for the spring of this year.
Which brings us to Paris, Thursday, April 4th when RFTC brought their matching fancy outfits to Le Trebendo in northeast Paris. This was my first show outside of the USA so I was anxious of what to expect. We arrived to a mix of languages being spoken and after a few conversations we discovered that people, many sporting 'rocket tattoo's', had traveled from Germany, Belgium and England for this much anticipated show. Our Parisian friend that joined us, told me that the only way you would be from Paris and be at this show is if you spoke english well enough to understand the band. He had the feeling that not many people at the show were from Paris. Regardless, the 700 capacity venue was full of excitement by the time the band his the stage.
Its was no surprise what we would hear tonight. With 7 studio albums and handful worth of EP's to choose from, any real Rocket fan could easily pick 20 songs that would make up the bulk of the set list. The real anticipation would be how they would sound after 8 years off? In one word, awesome. The band hit the stage with Speedo immediately let us know he was in the mood telling us that he was "horny" before tearing into an almost 25 song career spanning set that included Born in 69, Young Livers, On A Rope, Don't Darlene, Made For You, Dick On A Dog, I'm Not Invisible, Middle, Bring Us Bullets and more. As always Speedo led the charge constantly chatting up the crowd, discussing coyote's, the power of rock n roll, having fun with hecklers, reminiscing about their first gig in Paris in front of less than 25 people and even dumping a beer out on a large man in the front row. The band has not lost a step in their years apart. The horn section (Apollo 9 & JC 2000) blared their horns constantly encouraging the crowd with background vocals while guitar & bass players (ND & Petey X) led the charge behind Speedo. Ruby Mars, one of rock's best kept secrets, pounded the drums in his always energetic and entertaining fashion
In the end, the return of Rocket From the Crypt has begun and it seems as if they have left off where they ended eight years ago. Kicking ass! Here is some video i found on Youtube:
Some photos I took:
Which brings us to Paris, Thursday, April 4th when RFTC brought their matching fancy outfits to Le Trebendo in northeast Paris. This was my first show outside of the USA so I was anxious of what to expect. We arrived to a mix of languages being spoken and after a few conversations we discovered that people, many sporting 'rocket tattoo's', had traveled from Germany, Belgium and England for this much anticipated show. Our Parisian friend that joined us, told me that the only way you would be from Paris and be at this show is if you spoke english well enough to understand the band. He had the feeling that not many people at the show were from Paris. Regardless, the 700 capacity venue was full of excitement by the time the band his the stage.
Its was no surprise what we would hear tonight. With 7 studio albums and handful worth of EP's to choose from, any real Rocket fan could easily pick 20 songs that would make up the bulk of the set list. The real anticipation would be how they would sound after 8 years off? In one word, awesome. The band hit the stage with Speedo immediately let us know he was in the mood telling us that he was "horny" before tearing into an almost 25 song career spanning set that included Born in 69, Young Livers, On A Rope, Don't Darlene, Made For You, Dick On A Dog, I'm Not Invisible, Middle, Bring Us Bullets and more. As always Speedo led the charge constantly chatting up the crowd, discussing coyote's, the power of rock n roll, having fun with hecklers, reminiscing about their first gig in Paris in front of less than 25 people and even dumping a beer out on a large man in the front row. The band has not lost a step in their years apart. The horn section (Apollo 9 & JC 2000) blared their horns constantly encouraging the crowd with background vocals while guitar & bass players (ND & Petey X) led the charge behind Speedo. Ruby Mars, one of rock's best kept secrets, pounded the drums in his always energetic and entertaining fashion
In the end, the return of Rocket From the Crypt has begun and it seems as if they have left off where they ended eight years ago. Kicking ass! Here is some video i found on Youtube:
Some photos I took:
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