Anyone who has paid the slightest bit of attention to the history of Van Halen knows that relations between the various band members have been, charitably speaking, fraught over the past many years. Or, to put it another way, it has been something of a tag-team match: Eddie Van Halen on Sammy Hagar, Eddie on Michael Anthony, Alex Van Halen on Sammy, everybody on David Lee Roth, etc.
So it comes as a bit of a surprise to see that Roth and Alex Van Halen will be appearing on stage together this Thursday in North Dakota. Some sort of mid-summer rock fest? Not hardly. No, this historic reunion will be at TEDxFargo, a TED Talk event which will offer “thought-provoking talks, live performances, and opportunities to connect with a community of changemakers.”
Now if you can’t make it there for the event itself, rest easy. Organizers say that the Roth – Van Halen summit will be recorded and available on YouTube within a few weeks. But here’s a question. With what we know about Roth’s tendency toward verbosity, is there a limit in place regarding the maximum length / size of YouTube videos? Yes, mercifully, there is. Twelve hours or 256 GB, whichever comes first. That was a close one.
Ticket Alert
Bassist / producer / record company president Don Was has been creeping around the music industry since the late ‘70s, when he played in a series of bands in his native Detroit. By the ‘80s, Was had a hit record (“Walk the Dinosaur”) with his band Was (Not Was). Since then, he has produced a slew of artists (Bonnie Raitt, the Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Elton John), won a bunch of Grammy Awards, and served as president of the venerable Blue Note jazz label. Catch Was and his latest musical project, the Pan-Detroit Ensemble, on Thursday, October 1, at the Heights Theater.
Seattle’s Candlebox is one of those bands that had a huge hit with its first album (Candlebox, 1993) and has tried to match that level of success ever since. Having said that, Candlebox has experienced something of a career surge over the past several years, releasing five records since 2008. Tickets are on sale now for the band’s concert at the White Oak Music Hall on Thursday, October 8.
JD Simo is one Swiss army knife of a guitar player. Though primarily thought of as a blues artist, Simo has also distinguished himself in the realms of country – as a member of the house band at Robert’s Western World in Nashville – and psychedelia. Not only that, he played all of the guitar parts in Baz Luhrmann’s 2022 film Elvis. Simo will perform on Wednesday, November 4, at the Heights Theater, with Black Joe Lewis and the Honeybears opening. Per the bio posted on the Heights Theater website, “Black Joe Lewis is the realest motherfucker there is.” Color me intrigued!
Concerts This Week
You gotta give Bryan Adams credit. It’s been several years since he had anything resembling a whopping hit record, but here he is at Toyota Center tonight, part of his “Roll with the Punches” tour. There are some tickets still available, but considering the point made above, the show is selling pretty well. One reason may be that Adams has enlisted Pat Benatar and Neil Giraldo, who were also all over the charts during the ‘80s, as a solid opening act. It should also be noted that Adams is not getting too avaricious with the ticket prices, and that is laudable. As a mentor of mine in the radio business once told me, “My boy, never let greed overrule reason.”
When thinking about about The Fray’s career (one which involved a switch from Christian rock to secular music), I can’t help but recall a “Simpsons” episode in which a singer explains how to make such a transition: “It’s easy – just change the words in the songs from ‘Jesus ‘to ‘baby.’” Catch The Fray, with fellow noughties hitmakers Dashboard Confessional opening, on Friday at the 713 Music Hall.
On Saturday, it will be quite a night at the Mucky Duck for honky-tonk fans. Bill Kirchen, the Titan of the Telecaster, will kick things off with an early show at 6 p.m. If that name doesn’t ring a bell, maybe this will help: Kirchen is the guy who played all that great lead guitar with Commander Cody and the Lost Planet Airmen, most memorably on “Hot Rod Lincoln.” Houston homeboy (and Lamar High School graduate) George Ducas – whose songs have been recorded by George Jones, Garth Brooks, Trisha Yearwood and The Chicks – will follow Kirchen with a late (relatively speaking) show beginning at 8:30 p.m. Throughout his career, Ducas has carefully tended the Bakersfield flame first kindled by Buck Owens and Merle Haggard.
It will be an old-school celebration at the Smart Financial Centre on Saturday when Houston’s own Bun B commemorates the 30th anniversary of Ridin’ Dirty, an album he created with his late partner Pimp C. As Bun B told Gladys Fuentes in a Houston Press interview last week, the album’s anniversary “popped up on him,” but he felt compelled to honor the occasion and remember the mark that Ridin’ Dirty made on southern rap. But here’s my question: will Bun’s fans be able to hold out during the ride from Sugar Land to Trill Burgers on Shepherd for a post-concert snack, or will they be tempted by a rogue Whataburger along the way? Stay strong, Houston!
