Category Archives: Music

Chris Isaak at The Joint at Hard Rock Casino

Thursday night for Sweetie and I ventured out to the Cherokee Tribe’s Hard Rock Casino in the Tulsa suburb of Catoosa to see Chris Isaak play at The Joint. The Casino’s very nice (and non smoking) music venue.

I’ve had a passing interest in Isaak’s music for years. There is nothing like seeing a performer live to making one a fan.

Isaak’s voice is strong and clear, his band is very tight (He said that they have been playing together for 27 years.) It wasn’t long before Isaak had the audience dancing in the aisles.

And up on the stage! He kept trying to shoo the ladies over to the bass player.

Some of the women who couldn’t dance were updating their status.

Sweetie and I were talking about what kind of music that Isaak plays. We decided that he has rockabilly influences.

I found him to be very funny. He was fully of self depracating droll one liners. Plus he took lots of shots at his band especially the bass player.

The music was great, the Joint’s acoustics were perfect. It was a perfect concert.

And it featured the world’s biggest blowup doll. I mean if you like that sort of thing.

He sang and played the guitar for over one and a half hours.

It seemed like ten minutes.

I strongly recomend seeing him live. I understand that PBS is televising one of his shows. I’m going to watch it. If Sweetie will let me have the remote one of these days.

Watch Chris Isaak Live! Beyond the Sun | Preview on PBS. See more from pbs.

(Fair warning, the following video is almost R rated)

Stevie Nicks and Rod Stewart at the BOK Center in Tulsa

Wednesday night Sweetie and headed downtown. The first stop was the penthouse bar at the Mayo Hotel for drinks.

And then on over to the BOK Center, my employer was nice enough to give us tickets to see Stevie Nicks and Rod Stewart together. I had had never thought of them belonging together but you know they both had their peak in the that brief time between rock and roll and disco (ughhhhhh).

Stevie Nicks opened up and sang eleven songs including several Fleetwood Mac Songs like “Dreams” and “Gold Dust Woman.”

Everybody was commenting on the drummers hair. Maybe he has been on the road too long. What do you think?

Ms. Nicks also sang a haunting “Soldier’s Angel” based on her visit to Walter Reed hospital several years ago.

I saw Fleetwood Mac in the early 1980’s when I lived in Houston. One thing I remembered was the onstage dressing room she had. Well she has a fancier version now.

I used to think that she had only one song, “Rhiannon” and not much range to her voice. Well I decided a long time ago that she is what she is.

She brought a shawl out and twirled about with it. She said it was from an early 80’s MTV music video.

I am not going to be rude and say how old she is. She still looks and sounds great.

Stevie Nicks Set List

Next up was Rod Stewart. Stevie Nicks was sultry and seducing. Rod was sassy and fully of energy.

He brought a large band with him and they did great, especially his violin player.

And his saxophonist. I guess that the guy who sings “Hot Legs” would want short dresses on his musicians.

Not that I noticed.

He opened up with “Love Train” and went right through his hits, “Tonight’s the Night (Gonna be Allright)”, and eneded with “Do Ya Think I’m Sexy”.

A surprising number of his songs are covers, don’t matter.

His backup singers were pretty good, and also had short dresses.

He brought the Tulsa Strings out to accompany on a few songs. A nice local touch.

This being Oklahoma and all somebody threw their hat on stage. Mr. Stewart wore it, cooties and all.

He is getting kind of old also but he kicked a bunch of soccer balls into the stands. He is good at it.

A great time was had by all!!

Rod Stewart Set List

Sting in Concert in Thackerville, Oklahoma with David Sancious

Sunday night Sweetie was a happy woman. It wasn’t anything I did, I’ll tell you that.

It was this guy’s fault. Sting, fomerly of The Police, now international music superstar. Sting started his latest tour at the Winstar World Casino in Thackerville, Oklahoma. Never heard of Thackerville? It is right over the border from Texas. Texans hungry to throw their hard earned money away come in droves to give it to the Sallisaw Tribe. The casino has a very nice events center and that is where Sting kicked off his Summer 2012 Tour. You want to know where he is going next?

Sting is going to a few places here in the States and then heading over to Europe. But it is starting in Thackerville. Cool for Sweetie and I. Anyways, I digress.

Sting was awesome. Sweetie is a huge fan, I liked him until I heard this concert, now I’m a fan. Not like Sweetie though.

He is a very gifted and accomplished performer. His band and backup singers are great also.

The violinist, Peter Tickell, blew us away. You show up in Oklahoma you better know how to play, and he does. He looks so young.

The music just flowed from the stage, no hickups or bad notes (like I would know, right.)

The keyboard player, see him? He is a very nice guy David Sancious. We chatted with him for a little while in the bar before the show. Very soft spoken and unassuming, very nice to a couple Okies. He told us that he played the keyboards and told us a little about Sting, and the band. He has been with Sting off and on for twenty years. He made it sound like it wasn’t any big deal. We google him afterward and find out he is a very sought out musician. He toured Bruce Springsteen in the early years of the E Street Band, he also played with and toured with Peter Gabriel, Santana, Seal, Jeff Beck and so on. Plus he has several albums of his own. So we are now fans of Mr. Sancious.You just never know who you are going to run into do you?

Anwyways, Sweetie was happy and I was happy that Sweetie was happy. I give the concert of five stars out of five.

Anyways, a youtube clip of Sting singing.

SET LIST

All This Time
Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic
Englishman In New York
Demolition Man
I Hung My Head
Driven To Tears
Fields Of Gold
Sacred Love
Shape Of My Heart
Love Is Stronger Than Justice (The Munificent Seven)
The Hounds Of Winter
Never Coming Home
Desert Rose
King Of Pain
Every Breath You Take
Next To You

Have you been to a good concert lately?

Van Halen in Tulsa at the BOK Center

Monday night Sweetie and I went to see Van Halen in downtown Tulsa at the BOK Center.

Van Halen is now, left to right, Wolfgang Van Halen, David Lee Roth, Eddie and Alex Van Halen. Eddie is Wolfgang’s dad. I love that name Wolfgang.

It was great to see David Lee Roth. I know he is a pain in the butt, but without him, I lost interest in Van Halen. Kind of like when Michael Jordan quit basketball you know.

The rocked and rolled, they have been at it for 40 years now.

Everybody seemed to be playing along nicely.

I bet it is great for Eddie to be on stage with his son.

Wolfgang is going to be great. Right now he is in the background.

But he looks like a rock star doesn’t he.

The stage was very simple. New gewgaws or anything but they had the biggest screen I’ve ever seen, outside of the Dallas Cowboys Stadium screen.

(from setlist.fm)

They played all their hits. Ain’t Talking About Love is the most thrilling rock anthem I’ve ever heard live. Here is the music from it. Sorry, even though it is Youtube it is just a static picture while you are listening to the music.

Van Halen gets five out of five stars for their performance. Go see them when they come to your town.

The Black Keys El Camino Tour at BOK Arena Tulsa

Saturday night Sweetie and I loaded up, dropped SuperPizzaBoy off at Nana’s and headed off downtown to the BOK Center to see the Black Keys.

The Black Keys are two guys from Ohio, Dan Auerbach who sings and plays the guitar and Patrick Carney who plays the drums. They have other guys out on the stage for many of the songs but they also do a bunch with just Carney and Auerbach.

The stage is set up a little differently than most rock bands. The drums are right up front and Carney faces Auerbach. You can tell they are really in synch.

Auerbach sings with a very strong clear voice and is a great guitar player. I had never thought of them as being a rock band, I was wrong. I need to turn the V up.

They started and just sang, no little riffs about and inside jokes, just playing.

They didn’t have an elaborate set but I did enjoy the laser light show.

Listening to music on an ipod or in your car is nice, but there is nothing like seeing it live.

Try this video out. Turn it up, all they way. Remember, if its too loud then you are to old. I’m giving the Black Keys five stars out of five for a concert. It was wonderful.

The Arctic Monkeys opened for the Black Keys. I think they are opening for all the Black Keys concerts on this El Camino Tour.

They are from England and I would have to say their music is a little punkish along the lines of Green Day but with a lot more reverb. The lead singer, Alex Turner, had a very powerful voice. I was also very impressed with the drummer, Matt Helders. He could really play the drums. Not that I know a thing about it.

They made heavy use of the strobe lights during the first part of their set. I was glad we were in our seats when the music started. Between the roar of the band and the strobe lights it was very overwhelming. I guess that I am borderline too old.

I give Arctic Monkeys also a five stars out of five.

Go see them if they come to town, or go get their cd’s or download something.

Mainly I recommend listening to any sort of music you want,except disco of course. Go see a local band.

Ruby Tuesday – The “Football”

The Tulsa Historical Society has an exhibit on Jim Halsey, a legendary music industry insider who manages such acts as the Oak Ridge Boys, Clint Black, the Judds, and tons of others. Check the link. I had never heard of him before the exhibit.

Anyway, long before cell phones he traveled with the portable phone above. Supposedly it was the same phone, called the football, as what US Presidents were supposed to have available in case the Russians wanted to talk about something that was bothering them. The Presidents phone was called the football. Now I imagine its all done with cell phones.

Hey ever wondered what a triple platinum record looks like.

There you go.

Ruby Tuesday

Ruby Tuesday

Cheap Sunglasses

When you get up in the morning and the light is hurt your head

The first thing you do when you get up out of bed

Is hit that streets a-runnin’ and try to beat the masses

And go get yourself some cheap sunglasses

Oh yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah

Spied a little thing and I followed her all night

In a funky fine Levis and her sweater’s kind of tight

She had a west coast strut that was as sweet as molasses

But what really knocked me out was her cheap sunglasses

Oh yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah

Now go out and get yourself some big black frames

With the glass so dark they won’t even know your name

And the choice is up to you ’cause they come in two classes

Rhinestone shades or cheap sunglasses

Oh yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah

Cheap Sunglasses

Summertime Blues

We got the Summertime Blues but we are pretty happy right now.

Have you ever had the Summertime Blues?

I like the Alan Jackson version

Alan Jackson – Summertime Blues (Official Music Video). Watch more top selected videos about: Alan Jackson

But I LOVE Blue Cheer’s version from the mid 1960’s. I couldn’t get enough of it. One of the early heavy metal songs. Love the drumming action, love the hair. It was all so shocking back then, now its funny. It is still a great song.

The Kings of Leon at the BOK Center

Last week Sweetie and I dropped the kid off at Nana’s (the world’s best baby sitter) and headed downtown to the BOK Center to see the Kings of Leon in concert.

I didn’t know much about them and I was very surprised. These guys can rock. They are three brothers and a cousin who formed the band in Tennessee in 1999. Check out the Kings of Leon Wikipedia site for my information.

The arena was packed with a very appreciative audience. We were on our feet for most of the concert. What I love in a concert is when the band and the audience are really tied emotionally together. Not too many performers command that. Garth Brooks, Michael Buble, Taylor Swift, Rascal Flatts get that, so does the Kings of Leon.

There wasn’t a whole lot of chit chat, they just played, and played hard.

(sorry for the fuzzy photo).

I didn’t find out until the next day that the Kings of Leon have an Oklahoma connection. They were awarded a Rising Star Award at the Oklahoma Music Hall of Fame just prior to the concert. A couple of them were born in Oklahoma and they said they consider themselves “Sooners at heart” and are talking about buying homes here.

I rate these guys five stars out of five. I don’t think Sweetie liked them near as much as I did. If they come to your neck of the woods and you like great rock music check them out.