HD Video Review of 2019 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Ceremony - March 29, 2019

Let's do a quick walk through of The 2019 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame that took place this past Friday night, March 29, 2019 in Brooklyn, NY at the Barclays Center

I shot about 15 HD vids that will walk us through some of the highlights of the night.  In addition there are some bonus videos I shot on Facebook Live that you can access by clicking the link and joining that page below.

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The night started with a performance by Stevie Nicks opening with "Stand Back"

Next up she said she would have a special guest coming out and she started to play "Leather and Lace" and Don Henley of the Eagles walked out to perform his part of the duet.

Stevie finished her set and was inducted by Harry Styles.  Following this David Byrne was announced and he inducted Radiohead.  Here's his full induction speech:

Only Ed O'Brien and Philip Selway of Radiohead attended and here is there full acceptance speech.  There was no performance.

Simon LeBon and John Taylor of Duran Duran came out next to induct Roxy Music.  Here is their full induction speech.

Roxy Music performed and here is Love Is The Drug, More Than This, Avalon, and Editions of You from their set

Little Steven Van Zandt was next up to induct the 6 songs of the year.  No video of this.

Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails was next up to induct The Cure.  Here's the full induction speech.

And here is The Cure performing the opening song of their set, "Shake Dog Shake"

Janelle Monae came out next to induct Janet Jackson.  Janet did not perform.  I have two snippets of Janet's acceptance speech.  The first is about a minute long towards the beginning of the speech.

And here's the last 2 minutes of Janet's acceptance speech

Susanna Hoffs of the Bangles then inducted The Zombies.  Here's video of the Zombies performing "Tell Her No" from their set

Brian May of Queen then came out to induct Def Leppard.  Here is his full induction speech

After their acceptance speech, Def Leppard started their set with Hysteria

After Def Leppard's 4 song set, some more microphones were set up and Def Leppard returned to the stage with Brian May, members of Roxy Music and The Zombies, Susanna Hoffs, Little Steven and Ian Hunter of Mott The Hoople to end the night with "All The You Dudes"

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Voodoo 2013 - Pearl Jam, NIN, Paramore, Billy Squier, Gaslight Anthem, New Found Glory, etc

A few quick thoughts on 2013 Voodoo Experience which took place in New Orleans at City Park from November 1 to 3.

First stop is usually the Toyota tent to once again fill in a fake name and email address in order to score the current year's free silk screen poster. You can get a bandana too, but I passed on that.

The Food.  The seafood bread bowl is something I always love, but I have to say, something was lacking this year, but I did find another vendor who was selling crabcakes covered with crawfish sauce which was friggin delicious.  Don't worry seafood bowl...I'll give you another shot next year...and crawfish sauce crabcake...baby you know I'll be back for a taste...

Pearl Jam - Headlining Friday Night

Steve Gleason of the New Orleans Saints came out with Pearl Jam guitarist Mike McCready and introduced the band.  Gleason is diagnosed with ALS.  Many in attendance (including McCready) were wearing the Team Gleason shirts on sale all weekend (There was also a raffle for an amazing 1965 Mustang to support the charity).  Steve evidently has great taste in music as I spotted him the next day at the Carnival stage to catch the Reignwolf set.  I won't cover the Reignwolf set in this post - that absolute highlight of the weekend will get it's own post shortly.  Check out the Team Gleason website here.

 

This was about my 25th time seeing Pearl Jam since 1992.  I've never seen a bad Pearl Jam show and I've been to some of the legendary ones.  This one for me was not one of the greats, but an average Pearl Jam show is still a damn good show and Eddie was in fine voice.

The band was a tight well oiled machine and the aforementioned McCready lived up to his Guitar Godness...it was just that the setlist seemed very fractured and did not have the natural connective flow of the great shows I've seen.

Perhaps it was the festival setting that led to a very early album hits filled set which most of the crowd loved. All the singles from "Ten" (Alive, Jeremy, Even Flow and Black) plus Animal, Go, Daughter (With Pink Floyd's "Another Brick In The Wall" tag) and Rearviewmirror from "Vs." 

Some of these I love and a bunch I wish I would never have to hear again at a PJ show, so maybe it was a bit of the curse of seeing them so many times that didn't have me enjoying this haphazard jukebox feel of a set.

 

We did get a great "Chloe Dancer / Crown of Thorns" to open the admittedly very strong encore set.  If only the main set flowed as well as the encore set, then this would have been an epic show instead of just a good one.

After the show we hightailed it to The Parish at House of Blues to see the Reignwolf aftershow of which we could use the word epic freely.  Read about that here.

Let's talk a little about the new setup of the festival. In two words "It sucks."

In the past when entering the festival grounds behind the Art Museum at City Park, you would pass through the gates into the beautiful oval path framed by trees with hanging moss.  The up to seven stages would be at intervals off the path and in general you could sit in front of one stage without hearing much of any other.

This year, that oval path was blocked off and we were lead into a big open field with only four stages.  There are sinkholes all over the place and at night very few lights.  Layout wise, the unique and special feel of the festival is gone.

There has always been an EDM (Electronic Dance Music) presence at Voodoo, but this year they upped the ante, or more accurately, I should say volume.  If you love EDM, don't worry if you go to one of the other three stages to check out anohter act, It was so loud, you can clearly hear it at every other stage, often even when the bands are playing.  Numerous acts brought this up while on stage.

I think one of the biggest changes for the worse was the removal of the Preservation Hall stage.  That was so unique to Voodoo and while they did have a few bands that normally would play have played on that stage appear this year on other stages, it was always good to know if you came to Voodoo, that you could, at any time, hear some real Jazz and Blues.

I tend to wonder if next year Voodoo will just become an EDM fest.  Time will tell.

I will say one positive change about Voodoo this year - the addition of two small craft beer pavillions.  It was always disappointing to have such wonderful choice of food, but only about three beer choices.  This small local beer presence was definitely appreciated.

Now back to the music...

While pondering the above and and relaxing after Reignwolf's set I enjoyed some funnel cake with with apple deliciousness on top while watching New Found Glory.  I took me back in time to some of the mid to late 90's Warped Tours I'd been too.

Didn't do any rides this year, but I have to admit I kinda dig the little carnival section and the atmosphere it brings.  I should have done the Ferris Wheel again during Nine Inch Nails.  Always fun to get that overview of the crowd during the headline sets - but it was DAMN CHILLY...reminder for next year - no matter how warm/hot it is when you head to the park during the day - bring hoodie!

Lots o' wacky costumes but not as many as in the Past as Halloween fell on the Thursday prior to the fest..  Next year the opening night is Halloween so just about everyone will be doing up the costumes.  Halloween in New Orleans always a hoot!  I recommend it to all at least once.

Gaslight Anthem.  Oddly like Pearl Jam in that they've been much better the past times I've seen them, but still a solid set and a great rock band.

Walked around a bit and then went back to the main stage to check out Paramore who put on an engergetic set.  Some catchy tunes, but overall not really my cup of tea, but enjoyable and people (especially the younger gals) dug 'em immensely.  I do like Hayley Williams' cross between Leeloo from Fifth Element meets Pris from Blade Runner look.

Billy Squier was on the stage next to the main one and I was excited to see him as part of the lineup announcement.  There's not a lot of straight up classic rock at Voodoo and I haven't seen him since his surprise opening set for Bon Jovi's end of tour show at Giant's Stadium in NJ in 1989.

He was scheduled to start 15 min before Nine Inch Nails and play an hour set. I do have to say Voodoo had the bands on a very punctual schedule.  So we headed over about 8:30 to catch 15 min of Billy when he came on at 8:45 before jumping over to the Main Stage right next to it to catch Nine Inch Nails (scheduled to start at 9:00) and then maybe jump back and forth.  Billy was 12 min late which was a bummer and we decided to start walking over to the main stage.

Then Billy walks out with electric guitar, but it was the first time I noticed there was no backing band set up on stage...Billy was gonna stroke us solo??  What the fuck?  His rockin tunes need a full band backing...this was not looking good...but let's see what he's got.

Then Billy starts strumming the "Lonely Is The Night" riff and it sounds good...okay cool...and then proceeds to basically use it as a live sound check stopping after every line just as the audience was ready to rock asking his sound guy to set the levels.

It's a fucking guitar and vocals...how hard is it to get the levels right?  Especially when you're about 15 min late and there was at least 30 minutes before that with no one playing on that stage.

Then when he gets to the point where the whole band should kick in and the song really rocks.  He ends it...yes, like basically 1 minute into the song.

At this point Nine Inch Nails was about to start...I was bummed.  We left and returned later to hopefully hear a hit or two and instead walked up hearing Billy talk about how in the late 90's he became disillusioned with the music biz and was going to play some song he wrote then.

Look, I get it...he has more than the early hits, but this was a one hour gig headlining a festival stage.  This is not your hardcore audience who wants to hear deep cuts and how do you not get a backing band? You're in New Orleans for crissakes - I'm sure he could have gotten an ace backing band for free.  When you're doing your two hour club gig for your hardcore fans then take the time to mix it up with your late 90's stuff.  This should have been a fun rockin kickass set, instead Billy Squier was the biggest disappointment of Voodoo when I think he could have been one of those surprise sets everyone would have talked about.

I will say he looked and sounded good and if he gets two or three guys behind him I'd go see him in a second, but I guess that's not what he's into these days.

Nine Inch Nails.  Hometown Heroes at this point.  I've seen them about 10 times since 1991 and while always good, this was a revived rock n roll animal (RIP Lou Reed) on this night. "March of the Pigs" was the highlight for me.  Video I shot of it is here and below are some photos I took.

Great way to end the night and there you go with some memories of 2013 Voodoo.

"What Up 1991?!" - Jane's Addiction (and some NIN) Holmdel, NJ June 6, 2009 concert review

In a recent email to my pal Melissa telling her I was attending the NIN/JA 2009 tour featuring Jane's Addiction and Nine Inch Nails (with openers Street Sweeper Social Club) she responded with the humorous and very accurate "Wow! What Up 1991?!"

Accurate because 1991 was not only "The Year That Punk Broke" (according to the Sonic Youth / featuring Nirvana documentary of the same name), it was also the year Mr. Perry Farrell created Lollapalooza which would feature his band Jane's Addiction's final tour and also feature up and comers Nine Inch Nails in a hot and sunny early day slot (I've always heard NIN sold more T-Shirts on that tour than either anyone else or all the other bands combined...it would be three more years before they took over the world with their mud covered set at Woodstock '94 bringing them to the attention of the masses - happy to say I was there for that one...but did miss Green Day's mud set).

I caught Lollapalooza at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center that year and enjoyed Nine Inch Nails (in what would be the first of about a half dozen times I would see them over the years including just this past October headlining Saturday night at The Voodoo Festival in New Orleans) and LOVED Jane's Addiction.

Eighteen years later I finally got to see them again. I somehow missed them on the various reunion tours they've done (although I remember really trying to get tickets to the Halloween show in NYC for the first reunion, but it sold out too quick). I saw Porno for Pyros numerous times (including that '94 Woodstock as well) and Perry fronting various super groups at benefit shows, but there's nothing like the real thing as Pepsi might say (or is it Coke?)

So Welcome back 1991 indeed!

It had been on and off rain since Wednesday and by the time Saturday morning, June 6, arrived, it was looking overcast and rainy...not usually a problem for shows, but we had lawn seats for this one. Luckily by noon the sun was out and it was in the 70's, an absolutely perfect day for a lawn seat show!

We paid for a VIP parking pass which allows you to park right outside the entrance to the PNC Bank Arts Center in Holmdel, NJ. If you don't buy one of these reserved lots passes you have to walk about a mile or further up hill to the venue...no thanks. It also allows you to hear when the bands hit the stage although this information is posted for all the shows on Jane's website. It would be Tom Morello's Street Sweeper Social Club at 7:30, Nine Inch Nails at 8:15 and Jane's Addiction at 10:00pm. While this is called a co-headlining tour, Jane's has been the headliner on every show so far. Perhaps on the second half of the tour they'll trade slots.

Monetarily this tour is a great idea for both bands as while there is obvious alt rock crossover, many fans seem to be die hard fans of either one or the other. I know I would have passed on Nine Inch Nails this summer without Jane's and I heard many with the opposite sentiment while waiting on the will call line which I'll get to in a minute.

I had seen SSSC do a short set at the Road Recovery benefit recently (see my past blog for review) and really truly was planning on seeing them here, but when you're with family and friends and doing the parking lot party...time just goes by and how can you leave those last three beers sitting in the cooler?

So needless to say, I missed their set which word has been for every show that they killed. They've been doing a standard seven song half hour with six originals and a great cover of M.I.A.'s "Paper Planes".

I know it's a great cover because there is an open taping policy on this tour! Not just audio, but video as well. Almost every show has been showing up immediately on the various bit torrent sites and YouTube. Actually this show I'm reviewing right now, less than 24 hours later is already on my hard drive...ah technology!

So Suddenly we're finishing our last beers and hear NIN hit the stage and decide along with the rest of the parking lot partiers (of which there were MANY!) that we should go to Will Call, pick up the tix and head inside.

Well I learned a lesson on this night, if you're at the show early, hit will call early to get your tix. There was one Will Call window open and HUNDREDS of people on line to get in. It was slow and kind of annoying listening to some of my fave Nine Inch Nails songs while waiting to get in (Damn...why did "March of the Pigs" have to be so early in the set!). It was while waiting that I heard many complaints from people who came just to see NIN whining about missing them, again I already saw them on this tour and was really there for JA, so it wasn't so bad.

As we get about four people away from the front, they of course open another will call window...so got my tix and then go walk over to the gates to go in.

This was where we noticed the weird security vibe at this show. As I stated it was open taping, so you could bring in audio, video, still cameras, but there was a major pat down on everyone. There was also a heavy police presence with one group of about eight cops standing around waiting for trouble. Someone was worried about trouble from this crowd for no apparent reason. First of all there was a good amount of "older" fans - I mean Jane's has been around 22 or 23 years...hell, Perry just turned 50...I don't think anyone was going to be forming a moshpit. All the cops were cool and I didn't see them hassle anyone drinking from glass bottles or anything...maybe there was a riot at a Nine Inch Nails show here in the past or something? The security issues continued somewhat inside when it came to lawn seating.

Here at Holmdel and most other ampitheatres with lawn sections I go to, they usually have an option to rent a chair for 5 bucks for those who don't want to sit on the grass or didn't bring a blanket. Every time I've gone to a show here in the past, I did this and we all planned on doing this tonight, but when we went inside, we saw the chair rental booths were there full of chairs, but no one renting. A security guard was stationed there and had to get sick of people (like myself) going up and asking him if we could rent a chair to which he would reply, "No, there are no chair rentals at this show." Very odd indeed considering they always rent out a few thousand chairs, so that's potentially tens of thousands of dollars the venue was giving up because why? Were people beaten with chairs in the past? Did they get destroyed? They just did not trust this crowd with anything. Oh well...I was REALLY glad at this point it hadn't rained so I didn't have to suffer muddy ass on the grass.

Although later in the night Perry would say this was a sold out show, it wasn't...but a real nice turn out. We were still able to get a nice spot on the right side of the lawn where we could view the stage and there were also screens on both sides to view as well. Sound was excellent as it always is when I've seen a concert at PNC.

So with the beer drinking, will call line waiting, patting down and rental chair searching, we missed about half of Nine Inch Nails set. They were rocking and excellent as always, with "Mr. Self Destruct" from "The Downward Spiral" being the first song we heard once settled.

They followed that up with a double shot from their 2008 free downloadable album "The Slip" playing "1,000,000" followed by "Echoplex".

The double shots continued with the third and fourth tracks from 2007's "Year Zero" in the way of "Survivalism" and "The Good Soldier".

Their set completed with a pair of singles, "The Hand that Feeds" from "With Teeth" and that 1991 Lollapalooza anthem "Head Like A Hole" from "Pretty Hate Machine" which had the audience screaming for more as the band left the stage.

They returned giving the crowd what they wanted, their biggest hit and another visit to "The Downward Spiral" with "Hurt." From what I saw a great career spanning set which made with the die hards and more casual fans happy.

What I truly came to see would hit the stage in about fifteen minutes, the return of the original line-up of Jane's Addiction!

So for fifteen minutes we wated the mad dash of thousand of attendees running for the beer line and/or bathroom line and then the lights dimmed and the stage lit up with a curtain in front of showing classic images of the band as we heard that acoustic opening with Perry telling us "Right Now you should be here with us..." as the band opened with their epic "Three Days" from "Ritual De Lo Habitual!".

This is such a monster of a song on album and live it reaches new heights. I had been following the setlists of this tour and when I first heard they were opening their set with this song I thought it was a bad idea. "Three Days" takes you on a musical journey of over 10 minutes and while it is a must have in the set list, I didn't know if it would work as the bring in. Well it works with the slow build into the psychedelic / tribal breakdown (with the amazing Stephen Perkins on drums) peaking two thirds of the way through as Perry screams of "Erotic Jesus...plays with his Marys..." and then the final Dave Navarro shredding road trip to the end... amazing and tight - sounding like these guys have been playing together for the last 18 years instead of the last month of this tour.

If you forgot that bassist Eric Avery is back in the mix, you're reminded immediately with his bassline intro to "Whores" from their self titled live debut album. It becomes apparent over and over through out the night what an important roll Avery's bass played in Jane's music. While Navarro gets the real notice as guitar hero, so many of the songs in tonight's set are based on the base line including "Ain't No Right" which comes next. As Perry sings the opening line "I Am Skin and Bones..." you realize he certainly is, but in excellent shape physically and vocally. The muscle tear he suffered early in the tour is no wear to be seen as he prowls and dances around the stage all night.

"Nothing's Shocking" album closer (and also featured on the debut) "Pigs in Zen" rocks out next and then another "Ritual..." epic with the second longest track after "Three Days" the very personal "Then She Did." Another song which shows the expertise Jane's has in slowing bring the audience into a song and building to an emotional peak.

While the boys do the epics well, they also do the balls out riff rock as good as anyone else. "Up The Beach" starts playing, but instead of going into "Ocean Size", it leads into their first real MTV exposure with "Mountain Song." This one brought everyone in the audience back on board and could only be topped with their biggest hit "Been Caught Stealing".

It was about 11:00pm at this point and a decent amount of the audience, having felt they heard most of what they came to hear, departed after "Stealing" as the boys took another dip into the "Ritual" pool with the one suprise song of the night - "Obvious."

The setlist has been standard for this tour with one open slot where they are switching things up. "Obvious" first appeared in the set only a week ago right after Stephen Perkins announced on the website that they were practicing this as well as "No One's Leaving" to work into the setlist. Considering the other choices of songs which have come in this mystery slot, I'm glad we got "Obvious" (the only song I know they've played on this tour that I would have rather heard would have been their great cover of The Grateful Dead's "Ripple" which I think they've only played twice live. At most of the shows they've been doing "Had A Dad" with "1%" as a close second and a really occasional "Standing in the Shower Thinking" - I do love that song too...I think I gotta go check out one of the few Jane's theatre gigs their doing where they probably get more time and play all of these!). Again I was amazed at how tight the band sounded on a song which was just added to the set.

While "Mountain Song" didn't get any hate, I'm sure there were plenty of people who wanted the massive guitar onslaught of "Ocean Size" and after "Obvious" they got it. Only one more song for the main set and it was another from "Nothing's Shocking", it's depraved epic "Ted Just Admit It..." with it's similar structure to "Three Days" with slow beginning to tribal middle and "Sex Is Violent" chant to guitar madness at the end...then the boys left the stage to return a couple of minutes later.

The next song was very fitting considering the beautiful weather as the encore set started with "Summertime Rolls." They had some rocking left to do so "Stop" the first track on "Ritual came next and then the night could only end with what has truly become the bands biggest song, the acoustic guitar and steel drum driven "Jane Says" which had everyone singing along and smiling wide as they left to find their cars for the ride home.

Amazing show and I hope to see them again at least one more time on this tour.