All the Music! in Ponderings of the Universe

Ahhh I’m behind on stuff.

Since I last wrote, I’ve been to 3 concerts, one of which I traveled for. They were all wonderful!

The first was Michael Nesmith’s First National Band Redux tour in Royal Oaks, Michigan at the Royal Oak Music Theatre September 14.

There was a lot of stressful travel stuff to navigate for this one but it was so worth it. This summer, Nesmith underwent a quadruple bypass. I’m honestly amazed he was able to tour so closely after that surgery! He is probably my favorite musical artist so whenever he tours, either with his the Monkees or music from his career beyond, I have to go see him. Even if it’s in another state.

Whenever I’ve seen Nez in concert, he seems like a sweet man, both grateful and surprised that anyone came out to see him perform. His post-Monkees career has largely been overlooked, but he has produced a lot of beautiful music since then. The can’t find the set list from the concert I attended, but this one from the following night’s concert should be fairly similar.

1. Nevada Fighter
2. Calico Girlfriend
3. Nine Times Blue
4. The Crippled Lion
5. Little Red Rider
6. Joanne
7. Lady of the Valley
8. Grand Ennui
9. Propinquity (I’ve Just Begun to Care)
10. Different Drum
11. Papa Gene’s Blues
12. René
13. Silver Moon
14. Marie’s Theme
15. Some of Shelly’s Blues
16. Dedicated Friend
17. Rio
18. Thanx for the Ride

His commentary between songs was also adorable. He’s a good storyteller and often chuckles at himself.

I don’t know what song I enjoyed hearing most. Grand Ennui is SO good live and his son Christian plays the blues-esque guitar solos so well. The Crippled Lion is one of my all time favorite songs. Most touching, though, was when he was playing Propinquity. He was on stage all by himself and he got choked up while performing it. It was a beautifully human moment.

I hope he decides to go back on the road in the near future and hopefully a little closer to home :)

September 23, Aaron and I went with my parents to see Ringo Starr and His All Starr Band at the Ordway in St. Paul. Seeing Ringo in concert has been a bucket list item. It was so much fun! I didn’t do any research before going so didn’t quite know how the All Starr Band worked. It was awesome seeing Coin Hay (Men at Work), Steve Lukather (Toto) and Gregg Rolie (Santana. I was the most thrilled about him. So good!) in addition to Ringo.

Had seats in the back of the theatre, so no great photos. But, man! Ringo looks at least 20 years younger than he is!

Set list:
1. Matchbox (Carl Perkins cover) (Ringo Starr lead vocals)2.
It Don’t Come Easy (Ringo Starr song) (Ringo Starr lead vocals)
3. What Goes On (The Beatles cover) (Ringo Starr lead vocals)
4. Dreadlock Holiday (10cc cover) (Graham Gouldman lead vocals)
5. Evil Ways (Willie Bobo cover) (Gregg Rolie lead vocals)
6. Rosanna (Toto cover) (Steve Lukather lead vocals)
7. Down Under (Men at Work cover) (Colin Hay lead vocals)
8. Boys (The Shirelles cover) (Ringo Starr lead vocals)
9. Don’t Pass Me By (The Beatles cover) (Ringo Starr lead vocals)
10. Yellow Submarine (The Beatles cover) (Ringo Starr lead vocals)
11. I’m Not in Love (10cc cover) (Graham Gouldman lead vocals)
12. Black Magic Woman / Gypsy Queen (Santana cover) (Gregg Rolie lead vocals)
13. You’re Sixteen (Johnny Burnette cover) (Ringo Starr lead vocals)
14. Anthem (Ringo Starr song) (Ringo Starr lead vocals)
15. Overkill (Men at Work cover) (Colin Hay lead vocals)
16. Africa (Toto cover) (Steve Lukather lead vocals)
17. Oye como va (Tito Puente cover) (Gregg Rolie lead vocals)
18. I Wanna Be Your Man (The Beatles cover) (Ringo Starr lead vocals)
19. The Things We Do for Love (10cc cover) (Graham Gouldman lead vocals)
20. Who Can It Be Now? (Men at Work cover) (Colin Hay lead vocals)
21. Hold the Line (Toto cover) (Steve Lukather lead vocals)
22. Photograph (Ringo Starr song) (Ringo Starr lead vocals)
23. Act Naturally (Buck Owens cover) (Ringo Starr lead vocals)
24. With a Little Help From My Friends (The Beatles cover) (with ‘Give Peace a Chance’)

So much fun and a really impressive set list!

Finally, Saturday (9/29), Aaron and I brought the parents along again to see Shakey Graves at the Palace Theatre in St. Paul.

Shakey Graves is so good live. When he performs completely alone on stage he has charisma that just draws you in.

When the rest of the band is on stage they are the perfect amount of perfection and chaos. You feel like you’re at a really good garage band session-they’re all perfectly in sync with each other yet it almost seems like everything could fall apart at a moment’s notice.

They also performed my favorite Shakey Graves song, The Perfect Parts and it was so excellent.

They tour a lot so here’s to hoping for a return to MN soon!!