Hartamophone

Trey sat in for all of set two. I’ve listened to bits and pieces and can’t say it all sounds great, but it’s always fun to see any combination of these three guys making music together. God bless ‘em.

3 minutes ago, Hartamophone said:

You probably know this, but when he asked them to play his first show back after his heart attack they left Australia in the middle of a tour (and cancelled their remaining dates) to fly to New York and play the show. 

Yeah. So apparently he told that story in a clip that’s already in this thread. Also apparently it was South America, not Australia. Swing and a miss.

18 hours ago, Booche said:

Letterman loves the Foo, perhaps more than I do

You probably know this, but when he asked them to play his first show back after his heart attack they left Australia in the middle of a tour (and cancelled their remaining dates) to fly to New York and play the show. 

Fax machines still blow my mind.

I say DMB is worth it, even if you’re not a fan. Like c-towns said, Carter is an absolute monster behind the kit. Their sax player is Jeff Coffin, formerly of The Flecktones, who is super good and adds quite a bit.

Having said that, I think the band is too big (too many members, not too popular). Having a full time trumpet player in addition to the sax is unnecessary, imo. And while Tim Reynolds is a killer player, I don’t think his electric noodling on every song is the best fit. It can all end up sounding a little cluttered.

That said, they’re all solid musicians and even though I haven’t seen them in a decade, I never found myself bored or disappointed at a show.

Just announced their very own Camp Greensky festival for May 31st - June 2nd in Michigan. Hell of a lineup:

• Greensky Bluegrass x3
• Jeff Tweedy
• Mike Gordon
• Trampled By Turtles
• Billy Strings
• Fruition
• Rayland Baxter
• Joshua Davis
• Chris Jacobs Band

Pretty cool that they’re headlining Red Rocks. 

It was out of nowhere. The band had played once in the last year, and then a day or two before their first gig back he quit, saying he needed to take time off the road, be with his family, etc. It was pretty weird how it played out, and there are plenty of nefarious rumours floating around.

He was never my favourite part of the band, but I certainly hope it’s nothing too serious.

Such a strong songwriter. Poetic and sparse. Just brilliant. Walking the dog the other night I had Wildflowers in my headphones and loved the way it sounded as the snow crunched under my feet. 

Also he was 37 when the Wilburys debuted. Wow. 

Psyched to see the Foo Fighters finally coming; that should be a fun rock and roll show. And I'll enjoy the nostalgia trip of DMB - hopefully they have a replacement fiddle player by then after Boyd Tinsley's sudden exit a couple weeks ago. 

On 2018-02-11 at 12:06 PM, edger said:

Caught Greensky last night in Detroit. This was my first time seeing them do their own show (non festival) and at night. I went in expecting nothing short of a great show and a good time but they far exceeded that. Tasteful tight as feck psychedelic venture grass. I know it's been said before but man....that dobro...

I had multiple cheers to Hart moments whenever they drove things into the ether. 

Been loving their studio albums for some time but their live show is a whole other level. They have certainly jumped up my priority list.

Right on! So glad that you enjoyed it, and it warms me right up to know that I was a small part of it. I saw them in Albany and two nights in NYC last month and they were all great. Albany was a soft seat venue (The Egg, which is worth a trip if you've never been) so they played more of a lyrical, song-focused show, without many long jams. Gotta say, it was a nice change of pace. The NYC shows were both a lot of fun. This band still seems to be getting better, and their fan base is most definitely growing. It's an exciting time to be on the bus. 

Pretty sure Tedeschi Trucks will be on July 11th (same night as DMB).

Foo Fighters have a bit of a gap in their schedule before a July 12th Toronto date. 

Macca would be great but personally I don’t see that happening (he said based on nothing in particular), nor do I think them posting a pic of The Beatles was any kind of a hint.

Lineup will drop Tuesday, apparently. Looking forward to it!

Looks pretty likely that TTB will be at Bluesfest in Ottawa in July 11th, the same night as DMB. 

*tucks in t-shirt*

13 hours ago, Davey Boy 2.0 said:

I suspect a lot of you guys know this story but I think it was after this Dave Matthews show in 2001 when, on public transport back to Ottawa... well I hadn't really enjoyed the show and may have been venting a bit. I spotted a lanky fellow freak in a Phish t-shirt... and announced to everyone in the immediate vicinity "Now there's someone that knows good music". I told him about how nero was playing afterward, downtown and told him he should go see the show.

Brad's origin story. So good. Three years after that date he told the story in a thread of his own. I've bumped it up to the main page. 

Much love, Brad. We'll miss you.

This is so, so sad. I know nothing other than what his brother just posted on Brad's Facebook page, which I'll paste below. Hug your loved ones, friends, and go listen to some of Brad's tapes. He will be so missed.

Aloha,

Hart

-----

This is going to be a hard post to write. I'm not Brad, I'm his brother Steve and I'm posting on his account.

I changed his profile picture to the two of us at the Nagoya airport when he came to visit me when I was living in Japan in 2001 and I'm putting it up now to mark his passing late last week. It's one of the few good ones of the two of us.

He loved a good red wine (“I wanna be a Communist!” was a favourite of his), a good coffee (“Computer programmers are biological entities that convert coffee into software”), a good beer (“Beer is proof God loves us and wants us to be happy”, attributed to Ben Franklin although not actually by him but Brad was fond of that one) and a good single malt (“Bartender, do you have a good single malt whisky?” “Yes, sir.” “Good. Put that in a glass. Do you have water and ice?” “Of course, sir.” “Good. Put that in another glass.”).

We shared a love of science fiction that we inherited from our father and a sense of service to others that came from our mother. Our shared love of the absurd came from the local PBS station on Friday nights at 10:30 in the 1970's when they showed Monty Python for many years. He played a pretty good game of backgammon as well.

He moved to Ottawa after finishing university with an engineering degree in Applied Math and Computer Science and worked for a number of tech firms in the area before retiring at a young age to pursue travel and he became well-known in the local music scene as a go-to guy for bands looking for someone to record their shows, with a collection amounting to hundreds that he recorded and gave to the musicians and uploaded for fans with the bands' permission. I live in Toronto and don't know any of his Ottawa friends but I suspect many of them are friends with him here.

I'll finish this with one of my favourite moments from his trip to Japan. While changing trains at Hamamatsu, we found a place in the station that served draft sake or so we thought. They had three taps set up like beer taps so we thought it would be fun to order some. The clerk then went down the counter to a refrigerated cabinet and took out two bottles. Drat, we thought. Bottled, not draft. But we were wrong. She came back and stuck empty bottles under the taps, filled them and put a screw cap on them. It wasn’t exactly draft but it was close. We took them up to the platform and waited for our train. If you've never been to Hamamatsu station, there are 4 tracks. The outer two have platforms for trains that stop there but the inner two are for trains that do not stop. As we were standing there, a Nozomi train came through. They are the fastest variety of shinkansen (bullet train) and make non-stop Tokyo-Nagoya runs. There was no warning, just a sudden whhoooooooooooossssh as it went through at 250 km/h and then silence. As the taillights faded into the distance, Brad looked at me and said, “I’m not much of a train buff but I have to admit - that was pretty cool.” It was.

I'll close here but I will keep his page going if anybody wants to leave a note or share a memory.

This was a great show at a super cool venue. I'm hoping to see more there (from their Facebook page it looks like they host live music and other events semi-regularly). Thanks for getting it on tape, Brad.

It's in here:

https://www.dweezilzappa.com/posts/1982286-response-to-my-brother-s-open-letter

What a gong show. Hard not to side with Dweezil on this one. Seems like the rest of them are hell bent on getting their fingers in his pie, and have been for years. I remember seeing one statement from Ahmet where he said something to the effect of "Hey, we're not picking on Dweezil. These rules apply to any of us who want to tour the world playing our father's music." Which would make total sense if Dweezil wasn't the only established professional musician in he bunch. 

Would have loved to hit this up. Have a blast, and as usual I recommend Greensky Bluegrass. Saw them a couple of times last week and damn, still just getting better and better.

One of my favourite things to do during a quiet moment in a crowd after a few beverages is yell out the first line. Takes off immediately almost every time (post-wedding shuttle buses work best).

...which makes sense, because Twiddle is what Phil Lesh's voice would sound like if it was a band.