New Look…
September 11th, 2007It’s time for a new look….I’m playing with several….feel free to comment on the ones you like or don’t like over the next couple of weeks.
It’s time for a new look….I’m playing with several….feel free to comment on the ones you like or don’t like over the next couple of weeks.
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Last night, Kitty and I went with David and Anita to see THE POLICE. I went in not expecting too much, especially after some of the reviews from the first show. Seems the first date went south quick, missing ques, notes, etc…. Last night, a different band showed up…..Sting, Stuart and Andy kicked some serious butt! Granted, sound in a place as big as The Pepsi Center is not very forgiving on the sound for a stylized band like the Police. They have so much art going on in their music and it’s hard to translate all the drum, bass and guitar licks you hear on the recordings. Still, they did a great performance, the stage was superb, with video LCDs running above the band with live camera feeds on all three as well as old pics of the band and artwork in sync with the music.
I would highly recommend this show to anyone who has enjoyed listening to the Police over the years. It also made me feel much better as a musician seeing that these old guys still have it….gives me hope into my late 40s at least!
Darren, the drummer in our worship band, and I treked to Santa Cruz Friday night to see none other than Foreigner. Granted, all the original members aren’t with them anymore, but Mick Jones (founding guitar player) is still with them. He also has some real heavyweights playing with him. On bass was Jeff Pilson, formally of Dokken fame and on drums was none other than Jason Bonham (John Bonham’s son..of Led Zeppelin).
When I was young and went to rock shows, I was always thinking how much older the band was than me….it was no different this time. Darren and I were truely worried about Mick Jones….he looked like he was going to keel over from heat exhaustion…even though he was putting on a great show.
They did all the hits…..Cold as Ice, Feels Like the First Time, Blue Morning, Jukebox Hero, Urgent, Waiting for a Girl Like You, Say You Will, Double Vision, Head Games…and list goes on and on.
Great show….I enjoyed it…..now if I could just get that ringing in my ears to stop!
Sunday night I got to play with one of the best group of musicians I’ve ever played with. Mark Averil, from Westgate Church put together a worship band of all worship pastors from different churches. We lead the worship times for the Beautiful Day Celebration.
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I did lead one song, but the rest of the night I got to just be the lead guitar player. What a blast that was! I tried to get them all to quit their jobs and join my worship team, but they declined….
I found some thoughts and quotes from Stray-Cats front man, Brian Setzer. He’s one of the hottest guitar players I’ve every heard and now, I’m excited to find out that he’s on a spiritual journey that seems to be opening up to Jesus. I hope he and Bono meet at a show sometime! I wonder what worship music would sound like Stray-Cats style?
“This is the most personal album I’ve ever done,” Setzer has confessed. “Lyrically, I go into areas I’ve
never touched before—relationships, spirituality. I just wanted to let my whole life out, more than just the hot-rod rockabilly side.”
With the death of Strummer, as well as that of Joey Ramone, Setzer began thinking more about mortality and the brevity of life, figuring that hard-living rock ‘n’ rollers were only given about sixty years before they met their Maker.
In addition to the standard rockabilly formula of whiskey, hotrods, and stiletto-heeled women, Setzer daringly touches upon his spiritual underpinnings on the song “St. Jude”—a prayerful meditation to the patron saint of the impossible, lost causes, and the doomed. In the song, he describes spirituality as “scorned from the left/ And abused by the right/ It’s something so misunderstood/ And ignored in daily life.”
Setzer goes on to affirm his convictions: “If you proclaim the mystery of faith/ You’ll be absolved from daily strife/ Through Him, in Him, and within Him/ Springs our eternal life.”
On talking about respect for religious beliefs, he says,
“You’ve got MTV and Howard Stern and shock jocks who make fun of religion. It’s something to be derided almost, and nobody seems to say anything about it. I’m shocked by that. I’m shocked by the lack of respect for spirituality and religion.”
“I’m a religious person,” he states matter-of-factly. “I’m a Catholic. But I think any kind of spirituality is good. My chosen spirituality is Catholicism and I believe in Jesus.
“Now, if I was to say that in Rolling Stone, it would probably either get edited out or there would be some snide comment about that. And that’s what I was talking about in a song like (“St. Jude”): How spirituality or religion is almost something people deride. A lot of the reason is because of the caricatures of religion, people like Jimmy Swaggart, Jim Bakker. Young people see that and say, ‘This is a joke.’ A lot of it is the fault of these people and a lot of it is the fault of the whole left-wing journalism of Spin magazine or Rolling Stone. It’s not ‘cool.’
“I’m just saying I think it’s a wrong thing to be poking fun at. There should be some respect of people’s spirituality and/or religion.”
The heavily tattooed and hot-rod loving Setzer would certainly seem to be an unlikely crusader for Christian spirituality, traditional values, and prayer. Not surprisingly, however, his outspoken musings offer provocative food for thought. But no one should be surprised. After all, he has been blessed with a 20-year career of swimming upstream and making old things new again with fresh pizzazz and style.
GUITAR HERO is a game and guitar controller for PS2. I reluctantly let Carson spend the $70 he earned on it. After he got it home……I was hooked! You use an electric guitar to follow fingering on the screen (kinda like Dance Dance Revolution). All the songs are rock and roll classics. You can earn money from gigs to buy new guitars and stuff. Feels just like the good ol days!