Tuesday, September 20, 2005

Memorial Hall

We didn't make it over to the gala UNC Memorial Hall re-opening a couple of weeks ago, despite the draw of Tony Bennett and Perlman/Zukerman. Okay, Bennett's not really that much of a draw but I would certainly have liked to see Perlman and Zukerman. There are some other great shows coming up, like Ralph Stanley with the Red Clay Ramblers and a number of shows featuring the NC Jazz Rep Orchestra and I'm anxious to go and see what they've done to the place (the main new feature that I'm looking forward to is air conditioning!).

All the news about Memorial got JennySlash and I discussing some of the shows we'd seen there and unsurprisingly we saw many of the same shows before we got together (our pre-relationship is remarkable for the number of near-misses). I knew we'd both been at the Chuck Mangione show (she remembered seeing some guy sitting on the edge of the stage afterwards talking to Grant Geissner while everyone else was lined up for Chuck's autograph - that was of course me). I also knew we'd both been at a benefit MCed by Mike Cross with Touchstone and Si Kahn. I didn't realize that we'd also both been at the Arlo Guthrie/Shenandoah concert and were quite likely both at the Dixie Dregs show (we both saw them there - just not sure it was the same show). For all that, I think the only time we've seen a show there together was the Violent Femmes with the Indigo Girls (one of the oddest pairings I can remember).

I'm pretty sure she was NOT at the two best shows I saw there - the English Beat with the Murmur-era R.E.M. opening for them and Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes, who put on one of the rocking-est shows I've ever seen. But I could be wrong...

2 Comments:

At 10:02 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I was there for the Beat/R.E.M. show, too. Were you guys there to see the Pressure Boys open for Missing Persons?

Oh, and P.D.Q. Bach--I knew there was another great one there.

BTW, did you know that Grant Geissman was the editor and introduction writer for the recent reprints of the early MAD Magazine collections? We bought The MAD Reader, MAD Strikes Back, and Utterly MAD for the Things, and when I looked inside, I said to myself--"Wait a minute--isn't that Chuck Mangione's guitar player?"

 
At 11:00 AM, Blogger Tony Plutonium said...

Whoops! Thanks, PC - Geissman, not Geissner. And no, I had no idea what else he is into - pretty cool!

I missed the Missing Persons show and honestly don't even remember there being a PDQ Bach show, which sucks as I was a huge fan.

 

Post a Comment

<< Home