On Valentine’s Day
Written by: Matt Wardlaw
This is my first V-Day post, so it's not quite a tradition yet...but just wait until next year! I've got a suspiciously timed dinner with my parents tonight, arranged with an early morning phone call.
Coincidence?
Perhaps.
Perhaps my parents have me on suicide watch on this hallowed chocolate covered day of luv.
Or perhaps they just wanted to see their son.
From my perception, I've won. A year has passed, and I've managed to stay free from the clutches of an evil soul-sucking relationship with any member of the female kind.
Perhaps it's the company that I keep.
But don't worry folks, I was hanging out just last night with a member of the female species, having friendly conversation while watching live rock and roll. We had late night eats at My Friends (that's for you, Brian,) and we spent a good portion of the evening laughing at others. Not with them, at them. I realize that that part of the evening wasn't very nice behavior. But must I be nice all of the time?
I think not.
Today has been a productive Valentine's Day. I've acquired thanks to @WritingHannah, a list of girls worldwide that if I should ever get back into that "relationship" kind of thing, I now have a list of women that I will not wrong/offend/mistreat/etc. See it for yourself in the video below, and exercise your own personal caution.
Here's some more V-Day stuff for you:
My good friend Louie shares a bunch of Valentine's Day stuff with you. He's got a bunch of covers of Love Song by the Cure, including my favorite, by 311.
He's also got the #1 song about having a broken heart.
And finally, here are Louie's top 5 worst songs to dedicate to someone on the radio. How come Kyrie by Mr. Mister didn't make the list?
Robert Cass at Popdose shares a great Pearl Jam show. That's not saying much, because I've YET to meet a PJ show that I didn't like. Sadly for you V-Day lovers, there's no "Love Boat Captain," but there is an electrifying banjo-enhanced rendition of "Once" in the encores. Okay, you're right - I'm lying about the banjo part.
For me personally on this Valentine's Day, I'm loving the HELL out of the new Damnwells album. Which is *ahem* a FREE download. If we are friends, and you've missed my Twitter updates, Facebook postings, and posts right here on this blog....well, what kind of friend are you?
"Bastard of Midnight" is bliss delivered via headphones....
Trouble keeps the bar lights on for your heartache…
The Damnwells - Bastard of Midnight
PS - Please tell me that you've heard the demo via Fuel/Friends? Go listen.
The Damnwells tune was going to be my one musical share for this post, but then I thought of Eric Ambel's sweet, sweet Yayhoos number that is a must for this particular holiday.
Be good to each other. Hold me.
xoxoxo M
CommentsMore laserdiscs – Bon Jovi – Keep The Faith: An Evening with Bon Jovi
Written by: Matt Wardlaw
Still 'lovin this holiday weekend! On today's agenda, I'm meeting up with a friend of mine who will be driving me to an eye exam where I'll finally get new glasses. Getting new glasses has been on my agenda for about a year now, and I decided to have her come along to be my style consultant on the purchase.
About a year ago, she was at my house, and noticed a pair of glasses on one of my stereo speakers.
"Whose glasses are those?"
"They're mine."
"Oh no."
Read: those glasses suck.
There's a bit of a humorous story connected to this pair of glasses. I got them a few years back while visiting my parents, who were at the time, living in Florida. Okay, make that five years ago, because I was in Florida for the holidays, unemployed, and feeling crummy about it all. My parents offered to take me for an eye exam to get glasses, knowing that I was sick of wearing contacts. Somewhere in the whole process, I managed to forget that they dilate your eyes before an eye exam. I hadn't picked out frames prior to this, and had to squint like hell afterwards to pick glasses. It was pretty horrible.
I don't blame the incident for the apparent lack of cool attached to these glasses. I liked them at the time, and was okay with them until they got pretty scratched up over the past couple of years. At that point, they just became annoying to me, and that's been the status for the past year.
I've always thought that Yayhoo/Del-Lord rock and roller Eric Ambel had cool specs. Speaking of that, wouldn't you know it, "Roscoe" has his own signature guitar now. Hopefully he can bring that guitar back to Cleveland soon for a show at the Beachland!
Of course none of this has anything to do with the subject line, as you're probably thinking. But here's the connection: I'm thinking I'll be able to see these laserdiscs on my HDTV that much better, with the new glasses.
How about that for a connecting point? Please, don't throw things at me for such a shaky transition - ya'll should be used to that by now!
I'm continuing to make my way through some lasers in my collection that I either haven't watched, or haven't watched in a long time. In fact, I just picked up the laserdisc of the famous 1985 Hall and Oates "Liberty" concert off Ebay the other day. Those of you that heard the MP3s will understand how much I'm looking forward to receiving the LD when it shows up at some point next week.
The other day, I was watching Bon Jovi's Keep The Faith: An Evening with Bon Jovi. This was one of my favorite MTV broadcasts from "back in the day," with one of the other ones being Springsteen's Plugged. We could mention Eagles Hell Freezes Over, the Don Henley Unplugged, and the list goes on and on.
I was pretty stoked when I got my hands on the Jovi laserdisc a few years back. I think I paid about 40 or 50 bucks for it, which was well worth it in my mind for the set. The Keep The Faith broadcast is probably the last live show from Bon Jovi that I REALLY enjoyed. The setlist is eclectic - an acoustic/electric mix of hits and covers performed in the round. They really were at the top of their game, and they really shine in this stripped down broadcast which is impeccably mixed.
Bon Jovi - Fever/We've Got To Get Out Of This Place/It's My Life
That last song in the medley was in the setlist at a time before Jon had completely ripped off the entire Bruce playbook. By the time I saw the band on the Crush tour several years ago, the transformation was nearly complete.
I forgot about the Ross Perot shout-out prior to the mellow version of "Living On A Prayer."
Bon Jovi - Living On A Prayer
Bon Jovi - With A Little Help From My Friends
Love some of the Youtube comments on the above video:
biglebowskir: thats a cover of a cover, thats a double cover
BloodOfObsession: It's kinda amusing..because you have the gall to say that Bon Jovi made this better because HE slowed it down and made it rock'n'rollish....well, do your research. It was originally done by the Beatles but this version is more like Joe Crocker who started the whole "slowed down/ soulful rock" version. So, Bon Jovi rocks. The Beatles rule. And Joe? Crocker owns. I think they're all amazing and this is a classic, wonderful song. Long live rock'n'roll.
SexualTourettes: I would call this an "attempt" One of the worst singers in the world ringo starr did the original - and its better than this. Sgt Pepper was named the greatest rock album ever, so basically beat bon jovi as his own game, even the beatles are more rock than he is.
Keep The Faith: An Evening with Bon Jovi is yet another laser title that remains unavailable on DVD. I've got a list of lasers building up that I'll hopefully be able to ship off to a friend to have them transferred to DVD.
As long as we're talking about Bon Jovi, my buddy Chris was THRILLED to find out that I have a DVD copy of the Japanese import LD Tokyo Road '85. We all have those killer musical moments locked in our memory banks, even if it's been years since we've seen/heard them. For Chris, he had a photographic musical snapshot in his brain, of Sambora's guitar solo leading into "In and Out of Love."
Richie Sambora guitar solo
Bon Jovi - In and Out of Love (Tokyo '85)
What are some of your favorite live performances - officially released, bootleg, etc?
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