Another Flight to Mars with Mike McCready & Friends
06 May 2009 3 Comments
in Charity, Crohn's Disease, Duff McKagan, Duff McKagan's Loaded, Flight to Mars, Kim Virant, Mike McCready, Music, Pearl Jam, Seattle, Shadow '86, Stone Gossard Tags: Crocodile, Guns N' Roses, Showbox, Ticketmaster, Velvet Revolver
I can’t get enough of Mike McCready’s guitar playing, as I continue being spoiled living in Seattle and getting to hear Mike and his rock star friends at ridiculously low prices in intimate nightclub settings for charity. Spoiled, except for the fact his main band never plays Seattle these days. No, the Gorge isn’t Seattle, at least for those of us without cars. Shouldn’t those of us who leave a small carbon footprint be rewarded? ; ) OK, so really I don’t have a car because I’m too broke to have one and would have to live in it if I did, but still. . .
On to the show! After missing out on a reprise of Tom Morello playing the newly reopened Crocodile for $15 because a friend was in crisis, I jumped at the chance for tickets for Mike’s latest fundraiser at the Showbox (at the Market) for the Crohn’s and Colitis Foundation, even though I was in Boston for Amnesty International’s Annual General Meeting (AGM) at the time (yeah, I still need to blog about that one). Tickets only $20, except Ticketmaster tacked on almost $15 in “convenience” charges (still a bargain, but come on, a 75% profit on charity tickets?!!).
You really got to appreciate the guys in Pearl Jam for their attempt to fight Ticketmaster on fan rip offs, even though it cost them at the time. Mike’s my personal hero for being willing to go so public with his ordeal with Crohn’s disease, most recently pushing for public restroom access in Washington state for those who suffer from Crohn’s and similar diseases. Whatever I have is milder than Crohn’s, but on a bad day – you got to go, when you got to go!
It was a dark and stormy night. . . No, really, it was rainy and very windy as we waited in line Saturday at the Showbox (at the Market), the original Showbox, across the street from Pike Place Market. It doesn’t get more Seattle than that!
What can you say with a show that opens with Shadow ‘86, Mike’s Hendrix tribute band? Mike’s guitar playing is absolutely amazing, especially when he’s playing some Jimi! Purple Haze, All Along the Watchtower, and of course, Voodoo Child (Slight Return) and many others. Mike was having a great time with his band mates, Chris Friel and Rick Friel, who were also great, as always. Kim Virant did come out again for this show, this time to sing the lead on Angel.
Here’s the full, official Pearl Jam video of Shadow ‘86 playing Voodoo Child (Slight Return) at the November 3 (night before the election) concert I went to at the Showbox (at the Market) last year. I’ve previously posted a fan clip showing Mike playing the guitar behind his back. That man is incredible!
Oh, yeah – Stone Gossard came out and joined Mike with Shadow ‘86 to sing David Lee Roth’s Just Like Living in Paradise, a song choice that got a bit of flack from some of the fans and one of the guys in Duff McKagan’s band, but Stone was having so much fun with it!
Duff McKagan’s Loaded was up next. McKagan (better known from Guns N’ Roses and Velvet Revolver) lives in Seattle these days, even writing for the Seattle Weekly’s blog, Reverb, not to mention a hilarious column on dating tips for men for the paper, just in time for Valentine’s Day this year. Now who would have thought a rocker like Duff would be a romantic? Of course, the last part, for future daters of his daughter is especially funny. You thought the DeNiro character was scary. . .
It was great having an all rock and roll lineup this year, or at least what I call rock and roll. I wasn’t that into the Feral Children that the younger crowd was into last year. What the heck, I’m pushing 50 (only one year from my AARP card as of tomorrow), so I don’t have to pretend I understand young people’s music these days.
Duff and the boys in the Loaded band have the in-your-face rock star attitude. I’m sure this was the kind of rock show my father was always worried I was going to. . .
Mike McCready came out with Flight to Mars, his UFO tribute band, rocking us past 1 in the morning. Great band and lead singer, Paul Passereli, they were all over the place and having the time of their lives. All the bands were just having a blast. I love club shows!
Rock Bottom was just the ultimate. Their version Saturday night was epic (the clip from a gig two years ago above isn’t epic, but will give you an idea). They went into the lengthy solos. Kelly Van Camp did a terrific and epic solo on the drums. Then, just imagine this one, Mike McCready in another jaw dropping incredible guitar solo, with his shirt off and tattoos showing, bathed in blue spotlight, just a few feet away.
On the one hand, I wish I had brought my camera, because it would have been an incredible shot (then again, I’m not the greatest photographer). On the other hand my thought for the evening, that I wanted to enjoy the evening and focusing on taking pictures does take some of the focus off the taking in the show, and maybe I wouldn’t have been as mesmerized by his playing, if I was trying to get the perfect shot.
Here’s one I found on Flickr, from Bridget Christian’s photo set of Flight to Mars playing at El Corazon back in August:
Both Duff McKagan’s Loaded and Flight to Mars did their versions of Iggy Pop’s I Wanna Be Your Dog, which the guys in the crowd (and it was mostly guys in the thick of it up front where I was) were really into. There’s a lot about guys I still don’t understand. . .
Loaded’s version from Osaka, Japan in2001:
The winner of the auction to play with Mike and Flight to Mars, Jeremy (no kidding), came up and was trading riffs with Mike and the band on their version of I Wanna Be Your Dog. That’s got to be a Guitar Hero fantasy moment! Jeremy was pretty good, and no, I don’t think Jeremy was wicked ; ) . Although, I did see the band was treating him with a lot of respect. I think that had to do with the size of his bid, though.
Another great evening. I love living in Seattle! Still, I may have to move to Boston or Chicago to hear Mike’s other band. . . It really sucks when one of your favorite bands doesn’t play in your city, especially when they live in your city. It’d be like Springsteen not playing Jersey (and he even still plays Asbury Park, where he started out). Come on, Seattle audiences aren’t that bad! We were really rocking Saturday night!
I always feel silly asking a band to play your city, but then again, this is silly.
Please, Pearl Jam, play Seattle!
Mike McCready – One More Time, for the Kids
14 Dec 2008 Leave a Comment
in Charity, Kim Virant, Kristen Ward, Mike McCready, Music, Pearl Jam, Seattle, Star Anna Tags: Shadow '86, Tractor Tavern, Treehouse
So, one night before my marathon Human Rights Day/Week marathon, when I should be resting, what did I do? Yes, I went to see Mike McCready’s Hendrix tribute band Shadow ‘86 again, this time at the Tractor Tavern as a fundraiser for Treehouse for Kids (a charity for foster children).
I actually did try to catch up on all some of my Amnesty International work and was a little late getting there. They took my toy and gave me a drink voucher for it at the door and checked my name off the list. I walk into the smallest venue yet to see a major rock star in, and there’s Mike McCready singing the Rolling Stones’ Dead Flowers for a warm up set.
Star Anna was on next, the only one of his opening acts I hadn’t seen before. She was good, and her music tended toward country. Here’s a clip from a past show at the Tractor:
Continuing the country trend, Kristen Ward was next. She’s definitely been working on her stage presence, adding to her songwriting and sultry voice. Mike McCready came out to play on With You Again (as he does on her album). I liked how she just casually mentions hanging out at Nancy Wilson’s (of Heart) to write her new song.
Sometime in the middle of Kristen’s set I first heard the ongoing weirdness of the evening, a guy drunkenly shouting out “green sweatpants!” She couldn’t quite figure out what that was all about, either.
Kim Virant came out next, continuing the sultry, and heading the music to rock (see clip below from finale). Mike came out on here set as well. I moved in closer, and was actually close to the “green sweatpants” guy during the stage change.
Mike McCready and Shadow ‘86 tore into the Hendrix songs once again, and it was really intense in such a small club. Mike playing Voodoo Child behind his back again. An intense Machine Gun, All Along the Watchtower. . . Kim Virant came out for Little Wing and Mike ended the main set with the Star Spangled Banner. Encore included Run Run Rudolph (below) and then the guy who was mc’ing, Larry Steiner, according to the Pearl Jam message board, did a wild lead vocal and stage show for The Stooges’ I Wanna Be Your Dog, tearing off his shirt to show his tattoos on his back and leaping all over the place. Mike closed it out with a Yellow Ledbetter sing-a-long (the song that everybody loves, but no one, except Ed, maybe, knows the lyrics and Mike wrote the music to).
I had hoped the “green sweatpants” guy would be drowned out once Mike started playing, but alas, we could hear him during Mike’s solos. Reminds me of the old guy on the bus from Greenwood who wouldn’t stop smoking or drinking and was finally put off the bus who periodically shouted “Norway!” Years from now I’ll be riding Metro and hearing “green sweatpants!”
Run Run Rudolph:
I know I’m lucky to be living in a city where I can hear Mike McCready play his Hendrix tribute four times in the past year (mostly at incredibly low prices for charity). Yet. . . in recent years, Pearl Jam never plays Seattle. I’m only half joking that I should move to Boston or Chicago to see them. The Gorge is not Seattle, especially not if you don’t have a car.
I notice Eddie didn’t play Seattle for his solo tour, either. Oh, well, maybe when his solo ukulele album comes out. Just kidding (though not about the album, which Ernest Jasmin mentioned in a Tacoma News Tribune article). . .
Mike did mention “his other band” is working on a new album near the end of the show. : )
Paul Newman – through the Hole in the Wall
28 Sep 2008 2 Comments
in Cancer, Charity, Hole in the Wall Camps, Newman's Own, Paul Newman Tags: Joanne Woodward
Paul Newman died yesterday of cancer in Westport, Connecticut at 83, leaving behind his wife, his daughters, and to all of us a legacy of a wonderful career on film and in charitable work that will live on.
I’ve been a fan ever since I was a kid, watching movies like Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Cool Hand Luke, Hud and The Sting, no doubt mangled, err, edited, for television, on my families’ old black & white console. Paul has,er had, blue eyes?! OK, I have seen most of these movies plenty of times in color since, as well as his most recent ones. Still, blue eyes run in my dad’s family (wait a second, that doesn’t sound right. . .), so they wouldn’t be what impressed me.
Actually one of the things that most impressed me about him (and probably precisely why he was such a good actor) was that Mr. Newman wasn’t full of himself, and wanted to stay as far away from the Hollywood madness as possible, living in Westport, Connecticut, racing cars, and staying married to Joanne Woodward, his wife of 50 years, who’s also academy award winning career he supported. About his faithfulness to Joanne, Paul once said (in a Playboy interview, not less): “I have steak at home; why go out for hamburger?”.
That’s not all though. There was Paul’s generosity and the charities he set up. The Newman’s Own packages always made me smile. Here’s a major movie star going around being photographed with a much younger woman, young enough to be his daughter; and she really is his daughter! Pa and Nell Newman. My favorites are the Fig Newmans.
All the profits go to charity, so I always feel good about it. I never really looked into what charities they went to, until yesterday, and I was really impressed.
I was especially impressed by his Hole in the Wall Camps to let children with serious illnesses get outdoors to play and laugh and be children again.
What a legacy to leave behind!
So, now Paul, too, has gone through that “hole in the wall,” as one boy described it to his mother. Raising some more hell (though hopefully not enough to get in any real trouble)!
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