"We don't shoot that deadly marijuana, we get drunk like God wants us to do"; Merle and Kris 3/9/11 Concert Review

Two country music legends, one I'd seen before, one I hadn't. I scooped up a pair of tickets when I read that Merle Haggard and Kris Kristofferson were coming to the Fox Theater in St. Louis, a couple months ago. I saw Kris last Winter, but the chance to see the two of them together on the same stage at the same time I probably wouldn't have too many more chances to do so...
Me and my mom braved the crappy rainy weather to get there. The house lights dimmed on cue at 8 o'clock, country artists don't fuck around. Kris came out by himself with guitar and harmonica and sang Shipwrecked in the Eighties, before introducing Merle and the Strangers, who tore into Silver Wings, then a couple of more numbers.
The two did shows similar last year and the set lists and reviews I read, said they alternated songs, Merle would do one then Kris would. But either Kris was ceded the stage to Merle or Kris was again suffering from a bad cold. He shouldn't do many winter shows or he's spent too many years in Hawaii... But the pattern of the night would be Kris would do one, then Merle would do two or three. Which actually worked fine for me, as I'd already seen Kris do most of his hits, and the more Merle the better.
Highlights for me were Are The Good Times Really Over For Good?, where Merle did his ad libs. He changed "When a man could still work and steal wood" instead of 'still would" and "When a girl could still cook and chop wood." He also stopped and changed, "where a joint was a bad place to be", to "where a joint was a nice place to be."
Merle's guitar solo on Kris' Loving Her Was Easier, added to one of my favorite songs as well. And Kris added "It's feels like I'm dying," after the lyric "...as I lay dying," in reference to his cold.
And the sheer fact he played Okie from Muskogee with very liberal Kristofferson standing two feet from him was a sight to see. Merle gave an introduction about how things have changed and how his life was a licensed medical marijuana grower(He neglected to mention the fact he started smoking after facing lung cancer a while back). And he stopped the song, because the audience didn't give enough reaction to the opening line. Then the line "We don't let our hair grow long and shaggy..." was a hoot, with Merle's fiddle player pointing towards Kris, and Merle pointing toward his longtime steel guitar player and bald headed Norman Hamlett. And the real treat was Kris sang a verse, of his version which you can hear on his live cd Live at the Philharmonic. "...We don't shoot that deadly marijuana, we get drunk like God wants us to do."
It was interesting watching Kris on stage was Merle was playing, he would sing some harmony and play harmonica and guitar. But even when he wasn't, you could see him singing along, I think that says a lot about his respect for Merle.
The only real bad part was it was too brief at 90 minutes. Sure, they did play 23 songs, but for two performers, a few more songs would have been nice to lengthen it out a little more. It was also interesting they didn't do an encore, after Merle announced the "last song of the evening," which it turned out to be. The only song I was really disappointed not to get to hear was Ramblin' Fever and maybe Rainbow Stew a little bit. The legendary Norman Hamlett didn't seem to do much, Merle mentioned once that they'd had trouble with his amp for his Dobro and they could never get the sound going right.
Overall it was a solid show. Merle was in good spirits joking with the audience a lot. "It's nice to see people my age coming out...Everyone else so why not us." And he also joked that " It's hard to write these songs, I wrote at it sea level in my Twenties, here in winter and in my Forties!" And during the band introductions, he had the band shake hands and "introduce" themselves to one another, before the band intro proper.
This was one of the better show's I've attended. I got most of my favorites and never knew for sure what was coming next from two living legends. A couple of more songs might have made this one of the very best shows I've seen, but still a very good and enjoyable night. Here's the Post Dispatch's review and the Riverfront Time's review.

Set List

1. Shipwrecked in the Eighties

2. Silver Wings

3. Going Where The Lonely Go

4. The Bottle Let Me Down

5. Me and Bobby McGee

6. The Other Side of Nowhere

7. Mama Tried

8. Back to Earth

9. Are the Good Times Really Over? (I Wish a Buck Was Still Silver)

10. The Pilgrim: Chapter 33

11. It's Been a Great Afternoon

12. Big City

13. Help Me Make it Through The Night

14. Workingman Blues

15. They're Tearing the Labor Camps Down

16. Loving Her Was Easier (Than Anything I'll Ever Do Again)

17. I'll Think I'll Just Stay Here and Drink

18. Mama's Prayer

19. Okie from Muskogee

20. Sunday Morning Coming Down

21. I Am What I Am

22. Why Me Lord?

23. Pancho and Lefty

This streak is over...

March 23, 2007- December 10, 2010 Not as long as my other previous streak, but a long time nonetheless. Still tired and sore and wondering if it was flu, bad food, or a bad mix of medicines. And wondering if other people go these long periods without puking?

The 20 Hottest Conservative Women In The New Media

From Right Wing News

I don't see how Ann Coulter is that high. She's alright looking, but there have got to be more attractive conservative women out there. At least Sarah Palin wasn't on there. I still say Christine O'Donnell is more attractive. She looks like she shouldn't be allowed in bars...

10/21 Bob Dylan Concert Review

Last night was my third time seeing Mr. Dylan in concert, this time at Chaifetz Arena on the St. Louis University campus. My dad is still working the fields and I couldn't find anyone else to go, so I wound up going with my mom(surprisingly she didn't mind the show, except the standing) . Chaifetz seems pretty cozy for a b-ball arena, though I guess it made for a better concert view, if you were stuck afar...
We got there really early and had to wait over an hour for scheduled start time, which ended up being about 8-10 mins after 8. I got floor seats in the eighth row the first two seats on the far side of Bob. They were pretty good seats and we thought better than the first row where you couldn't see anything sitting. The most entertaining pre-show activity was the drunken guy, singing Subterranean Homesick Blues at the top of his lungs from the other side of the arena.
I knew not to expect nothing out of the ordinary or radical, the best I was hoping for was an extra song in the encore or one of my faves in the rotating #2 surprise slot. I wound up getting neither...
Set List

Leopard-Skin Pillbox Hat
Senor (Tales of Yankee Power)
I'll Be Your Baby Tonight
Just Like a Woman
The Levee's Gonna Break
I Don't Believe You (She Acts Like We Never Have Met)
Honest With Me
A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall
Cold Irons Bound
Love Sick
Highway 61 Revisited
Nettie Moore
Thunder on the Mountain
Ballad of the Thin Man
-------
Jolene
Like a Rolling Stone

Leopard Skin Pillbox Hat and Senor were good, and I enjoyed seeing I'll Be Your Baby Tonight again, though it was very bluesy sounding rather than country-fied, when I saw it with Larry Campbell playing steel. The intro jamming to Just Like A Woman was a strong point of the night. The way Bob and the band layed out the sound and melody was beautiful. Bob even relented halfway though to allow the audience sing along. We did end up standing the whole night, at least all of us on the floor did, which was a little surprising. Bob seemed to be a in good mood, grinning and bopping around all night...
The first seven numbers and really everything except Hard Rain and Nettie Moore, were hard rocking in sound. I guess this is the influence of Charlie Sexton. This was my first time seeing him. The lanky Texan just seems to be ready unleash his guitar maelstrom at any moment. And most fans seem to love this version of Bob's band and sound. I'd have just preferred a little more subtly and intricate numbers throughout the night like the two I mentioned were. Donnie Herron's steel guitar was lost in the mix. Personally, I think Bob has one too many band members up there, at least with this hard rocking sound Charlie brings in addition to his organ sound...
One thing I liked was the sort of alternating backdrops on the curtain behind the band. They had some kind of overhead wide shot camera, which every few numbers was seen on the curtain. But I liked it more when the altered the lighting, and you could see their, mostly Bob and Charlie's silhouettes on the curtain as they were playing.
Cold Iron Bounds was another stronger number, Highway 61 was sort of blah, until they cranked it up speed wise during the jam and then it took off. This was followed by Nettie Moore, which was one of the clearer sounding songs to me.
Probably the best song of the night? The rocking Ballad of a Thin Man, go figure. I've seen it both other times I've seen Bob and knew it was coming. But the light settings and background on stage, seemed to fit with the mood of the lyrics perfectly and the hard rocking guitars, plus it was Bob's best harp playing of the night.
After the smoke break, I mean encore break, they come back out, George with a cigarette hanging from his mouth, and delivered Jolene, which was okay. There was a big rush over by us to the side of the stage. After that it was "Thank You Friends..." and band intros and then the obligatory Like A Rolling Stone, which made me and everyone else happy. The band did the line up and left, it stayed dark for a few minutes. I was thinking we might get one more, or if this was just to distract us while the guys were already heading down the interstate. But lots of people were already leaving and the crowd was pretty low-key to begin with, so there was not much to entice them to come back...
It was good show, a little over an hour and a half. A few minor complaints, only one song on guitar and he didn't play Tangled Up in Blue, which he's played at most every other show. But it was a Bob show unique in its own way and I got 8 songs I hadn't seen yet and a venue I'd never been to.

Here's the Post's Review of the show and the Riverfront Times Review

A Dream and Proverbs

A week or two ago during one of my dreams, I had someone telling me to pay attention or something about a verse from Proverbs. I couldn't remember if it was Proverbs 8:5 or Proverbs 5:8. A lot of my dreams are partially surreal. Things are never exactly like they are in real life, there is always some details which are different. And I tend to jump from one setting to another out of nowhere.
But I did end up remembering that dream the other day. I think the person telling me, was a guy I work with, who hadn't started on my line yet. But I went and looked up the verses, first 8:5, "You who are simple, gain prudence; you who are foolish, gain understanding." I like to think I've got a pretty good handle on that...
For 5:8, "Keep to a path far from her, do not go near the door of her house," which after reading the heading at the start is about adultery. And the metaphor is pretty clear. And I think I have an even better handle on this one....or at least I hope so....

Hey, Let's Lower the Voting Age to 8!

Obama wants to expand the school year for kids? Holy hell, is he trying to screw the youth vote against Democrats for the next ten years? I know his intentions and meanings are in the right spot, but in this case I'm glad I'm not young anymore. Not to mention, it would piss off teachers who'd lose their three consecutive(in theory) months off, who tend to be liberal too...

Pearl Jam is Okay and God Bless Bob Dylan

I went on Pearl Jam's fan site and was wanting to buy a cd of the St. Louis concert I went to this May. I tried buying it from their store, but it said I had to register. No Problem, I did. But then when I tried it again, it came up "Access Denied." After some looking I figured I have to pay $20 to join "Ten Club" so I can buy their stuff. You do get some stuff with the membership, a newsletter or something, and first access to tickets(which is kind of pointless since they probably won't tour in the next year or be anywhere near me...)
But I'm confused, who they're really screwing over. It's pretty stupid to me. Someone like me who just drops by and wants to buy something from them, I have to pay $20 just for that right? So, they're milking their true fans for everything? And by not selling directly I'm going to go to eBay and buy it from someone who buys multiple copies and jacks up the price?
I guess my choices are to pay $37 (plus shipping I'd imagine) to buy from Pearl Jam or buy on eBay from someone who bought multiple copies for about ten dollars less. As a conservative I think I'll take the cheaper route.
If I'm wrong about this and fouled something up, I'll gladly buy a ten club membership.
But God bless Bob Dylan. Many of his fans complain about his doing anything for money and having high price deluxe editions. But you know what he charges for his fan club ticket pre-sales? Nothing.


ADDENDUM: Well, I did some checking on message boards and was told that site frequently has "hiccups." So, I tried again and was at least able to get an order through to get processed. So, Pearl Jam is alright, apparently it's just technology that is bad.