Saturday we went down to the Village for dinner and drinks and afterwards we hopped on the M20 bus to get back home via 8th Avenue. When we got off we turned onto West 53rd Street and were a bit startled to see a couple of rows of Harleys all parked neatly right on the sidewalk with only inches between them, almost nested like spoons. As we headed toward 7th Avenue we kept seeing more and more motorcycles parked and unattended. There were hundreds of them taking up the whole intersection. Sunday morning I Googled to find out what was going on. It turned out that that what we saw was just a small part of a huge group consisting of 1,000 cyclists riding to raise money for the families of the first responders to the 9/11 attacks. This is something that our Congress could not manage to do recently. Somehow setting aside money for this cause is not beyond politics. They start the ride in Pennsylvania then on to Washington DC and finally to Ground Zero in New York for a total of 455 miles stopping at each crash site. This is the tenth annual ride growing from 200 riders the first year. The group is called America’s 9/11 Foundation and you can go to their site if you want to help.
On Sunday they all gathered up for the final leg to the World Trade Center site. Unfortunately a group of 500 protesters chose to take advantage of the bikers’ schedule to gather at the same time to steal the spotlight away from a non-partisan positive cause to get attention for their cause of hate and bigotry. Yes, they were there to protest the building of the Muslim community center two blocks away disregarding the fact that Muslims also died in the World Trade Center and that there is already a long established mosque just four blocks away. To me this is not much different than the protests of the Westboro Baptist Church and disrespects the many Americans who have laid down their lives in the hopes of making things better in Muslim countries. I will never understand all this divisiveness.
It is funny to think of how the image of the biker has changed over the years from the violent gang thug Hell's Angels to the benevolent protector and doer of good deeds.
I was able to snap off a few pictures from our window in the morning before they quietly rumbled away in the rain.
A couple of weeks ago we went to Ray Wylie Hubbard at Joe’s Pub in the East Village. Ray is far from a household name but he is one of my favorite artists. He is Oklahoma born and Texas raised and has the drawl to prove it which would lead most casual listeners to throw him in the Country Music category. But he is much more than that. His music is more rock, blues, and gospel than country. In fact his special blend of genres is nearly unique. He had put out a few releases in the 1970s garnering a small cult following mostly around Austin. Then his recorded output all but dried up until 1992 when he put out an album on his own. Since then he has been relatively prolific issuing ten CDs since and each album has been great. He doesn’t tour much outside of Texas, I only saw him once in Kansas City. So when we saw his date come up here we jumped on it even though the start time was 9:30 on a Tuesday night and going would involve a round trip cab ride as there is not a good bus option to get to this venue. Fortunately, his wife, Judy, put us on the guest list and that made up for the cost of the ride. We have been dealing directly with Ray and Judy off and on since the mid 1990’s stocking his self releases. The line up was Ray on acoustic guitar, and his 17 year old son, Lucas, on electric lead guitar, and a drummer whose name I missed, playing a small kit mostly with brushes and a variety of other small hand held rattles and odds and ends. Ray not only entertains with his music but his between song patter is just one hilarious laugh out loud anecdote after the other, most of it self deprecating and sometimes quite fantastic. He told of one encounter after a show when he was approached by a thirty-something fan who wanted to know how Ray managed to stay so committed to his music for so many years. Ray is in his early sixties. Ray proceeded to tell him how simple it was. All you have do is to ignore your momma when she encourages you to stay in school so in case the music thing doesn’t work out you will have something to fall back on. He also told of growing up and living at his grandma’s house. She was a psychic palm reader for extra money and had a creepy large red hand with weird zodiac symbols painted on the side of the house facing the nearby highway. They would stand outside when cars would approach and as his grandma watched them continue past without slowing down she would say, “I KNEW they weren’t going to stop”. If you ever get a chance to see Ray Wylie Hubbard you should go. You will have a great time even if you are not familiar with his music.
This was our second time at Joe’s Pub and I have decided this is my favorite venue. I haven’t been to all that many places here but this would be hard to beat. It is as intimate as a house concert with seating for only 160 and it has a couple of levels so there is no bad line of sight. We sat at the bar in the back on very comfortable barstools. Other seating on this second level was cushy barrel chairs and sofas. The lower level is all tables of different sizes which at worst puts you at the equivalent of the fourth or fifth row so no one is too far from the stage. This place also has the best sound I have ever encountered. You can truly enjoy the music clearly without your ears ringing the next day. It is part of The Public Theater complex which in addition to this venue includes five theaters for eclectic and avant garde stage presentations. This is where the musical Hair was debuted. The organization also operates the theater in Central Park where Shakespeare In The Park is performed. Definitely one of New York’s many assets.
As you might expect the choices for music entertainment in New York are endless. There is simply not enough time or money to get to all the acts we would like to see. Here are some things we have seen recently and some that we are going to down the road and some that we missed out on.
A week ago we saw Raul Malo, not a household name, he better known as the lead singer in the Mavericks. We have not seen him since the mid-nineties with the Mavericks at a bar in Westport and we have never seen Malo as a solo artist. We had tickets for a show a couple of years ago but the show was cancelled at the last minute. His next stop in KC came the week after we moved away. When we got to NYC he was playing but it was when we were still at the hotel and we just had too much going on at that time. So, when we saw he had yet another date here we jumped on it, especially since he would be performing on one of the Circle Line cruise boats and a two hour evening tour of the Lower Manhattan Harbor was part of the “Rockin’ The River” package.
In my head I had an image of Malo serenading us under the starlit sky and the New York skyline behind him. However, when we boarded I could see that something totally different was going to play out. First there was no stage, just an area roped off with those ribbon and pole setups like you see in a bank queue. Within the roped off area were all the trappings of a full electric band. The band area was about midship and facing one side of the boat. Four or five feet in front of the band were three rows of twelve or so chairs and we were lucky enough to snag a pair. The rest of the chairs were lined up on either side of the band and practically none of them had any kind of line of sight. This was also a covered part of the boat with a seven foot ceiling.
The Circle Line oversold this as all the seats were filled and there was hardly room for the others to stand. We had a great view for about three songs or so and then a few people started dancing in front of us and then more and more until we couldn’t see past them any longer. I can’t blame them as they paid the same as we did and deserved to get to see it rather than just hear it. As that part of the boat became more and more compressed we wound our way out and down to the lower deck where we could still enjoy the music and get the cool breeze and take in the panoramic views of the Statue of Liberty on one side and Manhattan and bridges on the other.
Although the evening was not exactly like my vision we really did have a really good time. We managed to get in a good mix of concert and sight seeing. After the show ended Malo and the rest of the band came to the lower deck and took time to meet with everyone and sign autographs.
The next day we went to a free show at an outdoor venue at Lincoln Center as part of their “Out Of Doors” summer series. This was at the Damrosch Park Band Shell just west of Central Park. The venue was set up with 1,000 or so chairs fanning out from the stage. We opted to sit back beyond the seats in a treed plaza area away from the crowd. The weather was just perfect especially as the sun retreated behind the buildings. The evening’s program was the second part of “The Detroit Breakdown”, a day long program featuring music originating in Detroit from different eras and genres. We had never heard of the first two acts, Death, a punk band from the 70s sounding a bit like Iggy Pop, and the Gories, a pop band from the eighties that were a little like White Stripes. Next up was Question Mark and the Mysterians, known for the song and garage band classic, “96 Tears”. They actually managed a nice set despite the fact that they only had the one major hit a couple of minor hits to work with…they still had the great one left. The highlight was when they finally got to perform their hit and Ronnie Spector joined the band on stage unannounced. Closing out the show was Mitch Ryder & the Detroit Wheels who had many hits to work with. He started off strong with many of his hits, Jenny Take A Ride, Sock It To Me Baby, and Little Latin Lupe Lu. However, he left the stage to the band for a planned break to rest his voice and the band carried on with some lackluster generic rock and even a drum solo. He still had yet to play Too Many Fish In The Sea and Devil With A Blue Dress/Good Golly Miss Molly but he was dragging the show out too long for us and we quietly slipped away back home.
96 Tears with Ronnie Spector's surprise appearance.
The upper plaza area at Lincoln Center
? and the Mysterians
Recently there have been a couple of shows we seriously considered going to but we didn’t for various reasons. One was Alejandro Escovedo at City Winery. He played just the day before Malo and it was a weeknight. I found out after the fact that Ian Hunter joined him on stage for the final song of his encore, a Mott The Hoople track, “I Wish I Was Your Mother”. Another was a few weeks ago at Radio City Music Hall where Ringo Starr was performing as well as celebrating his 70th birthday. And for his encore he was joined on stage by Paul McCartney. Of course that seems totally predictable in hindsight. Today there is a free concert on Governors Island and one of the acts is Steve Earle’s son, Justin Townes Earle. Steve lives in NYC now and it is hard for me to think he won’t be joining his son on stage for a song or two. We won’t be making it to this one either so we will wait to find out tomorrow if I am right.
So, looking to the future we are going to see Ray Wylie Hubbard on Tuesday at Joe’s Pub. In early September we plan to see Dave Alvin with Eilen Jewell opening at City Winery. Then we have tickets for September 25th to see The Fab Faux at Radio City Music Hall. Now this requires a little bit of explaining. They are, as the name may suggest, a Beatles tribute band. But they are not like others out there. They make no attempt to do impersonations or even dress like the Beatles. They are just about the music and replicating it perfectly. The only musician most would be familiar with is Will Lee who is part of the band on Late Show with David Letterman. Check the video and see/hear for yourself as they run through most of side two of Abbey Road without a break… essentially in one take. For the show we are attending they are performing a tribute to John Lennon for what would have been his seventieth birthday and will be playing his songs as a solo artist and with the Beatles. Normally I would not go in for a tribute band but this is different especially being in the city that Lennon loved so much. I have to think there will be a surprise guest or two. It is New York so we should be ready for anything.
There is something for every taste and budget here…from free buskers at Washington Square Park to the big names at Madison Square Garden.
