Wild At Heart - Monday June 23rd 2008
George Carlin. I was fortunate to see Carlin perform live back in mid-80’s when still in High School. It was one of two comedy shows my parents took me to back then (the other was Rodney Dangerfield) and it is still the best comedy show I have ever seen.
His comedy was always invocative and cerebral whether it was his Seven Dirty Words or his comparison of the sports of Baseball and Football (my personal favorite). He was the first host of Saturday Night Live and I remember him in Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure. This morning I played “Ice Box Man” on my show and even something as mundane as what’s in your fridge turns into a verbal masterpiece of cerebral satire. He will be missed.
We are in full swing now into the festival season with the coming of River Days. I was down there Friday and Saturday taking in some of the bands. Rick Springfield and the Verve Pipe put on fun shows and show that irrelevance can be fun whether it is Rick walking through the audience getting American Idol rejects to sing “Don’t Talk to Strangers” or the Verve Pipe singing Supertramp songs.
Rock is supposed to be fun and they make it so. Michelle Branch and Taproot also put on good sets. I’m looking forward to Dave Mason tonight who is a great solo musician and ex-member of the supergroup Traffic. Also, if you like the Stray Cats style of music, check out local favs Twistin’ Tarantulas at 6:30 at the Compuware stage.
If you get a chance to get down to the Riverfront today, make sure to give yourself enough time and get there early. I also recommend taking in a tour of the Highlander Sea, esp if you have never been on a tall ship before. I always love the feel of the older boats and recommend it. This ship built in 1924 is stationed out of Port Huron and served for almost 50 years as a Boston Harbor pilot ship.
Don’t forget the fireworks are tonight so get downtown early if you want a nice spot.
Also, when the big storm came through, I took cover in the RenCen waiting for it to clear. While there, I decided to take in a the Incredible Hulk movie which I must recommend (Kung Fu Panda had sold out). This film basically fixes a lot of the mistakes of the first film such as bringing a better villain (Tim Roth rules), a better dynamic with Thunderbolt and Betty Ross and some really cool Banner moments in South America as a fugitive (notice music cues taken from the original TV series). Also, it is nice seeing Lou Ferigno in a cameo (he also does the Hulk voice).
Speaking of Marvel superheroes, I talked to John Nelson this morning on my show and we talked about the Iron Man movie. John won an Oscar for The Gladiator and the U of M graduate also worked on Terminator 2, the Matrix sequels and I, Robot. He will be giving a talk after a special 7PM screening at the DIA of the Iron Man film so if you love the magic of movies, you might want to look into getting tickets (just go to www.dia.org/).
Being a music man I was not surprised but concerned by this news headline "High fuel prices put brakes on indie band tours". This means that unless the prices of gas goes down, a lot fewer bands will be touring the smaller venues and festival scenes which are some of my favorite shows. However, I can understand when a lot of these bands basically play for gas money and count on merch sales to even try to turn a profit. So when a small band comes to town, get out there and support them by buying merch.
To help out, you can win tickets for the Maria Taylor/Johnathan Rice show at the Magic Stick from Wild Bill between 8-10AM this Thursday 26th on http://www.wxou.org/).
I will also be giving away tickets for Less Than Jake/Goldfinger on Mon, June 30th between 8-10AM. That is my little part of helping you guys and gals save money out there.
Well, I a getting ready to head downtown. Next week, I will talk about video games and who know what else.
I also hope to see some people at the Buick Open. Take care and see you next week.
-Wild Bill Hetelkut