I am excited about the Police reunion tour.  I am hoping that is is not just a "lets try and make half-a-billion" scheme, and that they are really interested in making more music together.  Alright, the operative word was "hoping", not "hopeful". 

I say this because I went to their fan club site.  As is the rage, the fan site would allow me access to pre-sale tickets for the two Madison Square Garden shows.  The Police are planning on ending their reunion tour in August with two shows at MSG.  Cool, that's practically in my back yard, so I was thinking of joining the fan club. 

Hold the phone!  To join thier fan club costs $100?  Interesting.  I belong to other band fan clubs (Dave Matthews... duh!, The Red Hot Chili Peppers), and these fan clubs only cost 1/3rd of this price.  And these bands have been around and touring for some time now.  OK, I see if I join the Police fan club, I get a "Commemorative Lithograph with band replica signatures".  For those of you who may be wondering, that means you get a copy of a Police picture that they signed once... not an actual signed picture.

If you are a true Police fan, then this may seem like a good deal.  I may take my chances with ticket master and/or ticket brokers.

I recently saw the Red Hot Chili Peppers at the Meadowlands.  This was my first time ever seeing the "Peppers", and the shows were amazing.  Yeah, I saw both nights!  The first night I was in the 10th row, and the 2nd night I was in the back, and off to the side.  The band had an amazing lighting set-up, and for the 2nd night I really got the full effect.

And speaking of full effect, would it really hurt if more concert-goers would take a frickin shower?!  Man!  On night two, we were sandwiched between a group of people that smelled really bad!  Ewww!

I really like "Snow", off the new Chili Peppers album.  They played it both nights, but on the first night, they handed out little pen-lites, and had everyone wave them around while white confetti was blown all around the areana!  It was very cool.  Flea said that they were filming this for the new video for "Snow", so I'm excited that I might actually be a part of this video!

I was inspired after leaving the shows, so I figured out how to play "Snow", as well as some other Chili Peppers songs.

Sometimes it's just nice to go hang with some friends...

Last night, I went to meet friends at the Brunswick Grove.  We had a few drinks, and a lot of laughs!  We also had the pleasure of listening to my talented friend Tony Psiholes, who doing his solo acoustic act that evening.  Tony is one of the most talented singers/songwriters/musicians I have ever had the pleasure to know.  I have to admit that I am often jealous of his raw talent, but then I also have to remember that I am very fortunate to be able to not only see him perform almost any time I want, but I also get to play with him and learn from him.  So, it's all good!

And then Tony had me play a couple songs to open the 3rd set.  I wanted to try out a couple of new songs I learned that day: ZZ Top's "Cheap Sunglasses" and The Red Hot Chili Peppers "Californication".  I think I played two DMB songs... Grey Street and Jimi Thing... but I can't really remember.  Yeah, it was a  good night!

I'm not sure how much I drank, but the shot of JD didn't help.  I'm lucky NOT to have a hangover this morning.

WOW!  Last night I was fortunate enough to be "up close and personal" with one of my favorite hard rock bands.... TOOL!  The show was at Continental Airlines Arena, in East Rutherford NJ (The Medowlands to you NJ natives), and was the sixth show in Tool's 2006-2007 World Tour.

The concert started at 8, with an opening act called ISIS.  I had never heard of this band before, and I did enjoy the last part of their set.  Their sound has elements of TOOL, Pink Floyd, and Satan.  LOL!  Justin Chancellor,  the bass player for TOOL, joined ISIS on stage for their last number.  It was the perfect way to end their set, and get the crowd ready!

Tool took the stage around 9:18, and rocked the house until after11.  Maynard grabed the mic and shouted: "New Jeresy... how YOU doin'?" The sound for the show wasn't quite as good as when I saw then at the City Center in NYC for their mini-tour.  Maynard's vocals were muddy, and difficult to hear.  However, the music was awesome!  Me and my friends had seats in sections 120 and 122, and first row, sow we had unubstructed views of everything: video projections, then light show, and lasers. 

The band has a HUGE stage, and they don't really move around that much.  It's almost as if Adam and Justin are are complete opisite ends of the arena.  A smaller stage would let the members interact more.

Today, Tool is off to Long Island to play at the Nassau Coliseum, and then they are off to Spain 

So, I finally made my way back to American Root's open mic night.  It's now held on Wednesday nights at Crossroads, in Garwood, NJ.  They also do a Thursday night in Easton, PA, but my band rehearses on Thursday nights, and that's a bit of a hike.

Anywho, my usual Wednesday open mic at The Brunswick Grove was canceled due to the Yankee's game, so I needed to find another haunt for the evening.  Low and behold, Crossroads beckoned!  I had been meaning to get back to Nasty Ned's open mic nights:  it's one of the best run open mic nights in NJ.  Don't belive me: go check it out sometime.

I actually got to go up early for my set.  I was able to perform the following four songs:

Welcome to the Machine
Grey Street
What Would You Say?
Where are you going?

As always, I had a blast!  I was alos able to bring my new friend Edlynn to the American Roots show, and introduce her to the whole "experience"!

So far, I am loving the new job and working in NYC again!  My office is on Park Avenue, near Madison Square Park.  There is a nice dog park there, so it's nice to go sit in the park, and watch the doggies play!

They were filming a movie in Madison Square Park the other day.  It was the new Will Smith movie, "I am Legend".  Very cool!

Saturday night, I went out to this amazing "End of Summaer" party in North Brunswick.  It was a private party, and this was the 8th year that they have thrown this bash.  Two stages, three bands, great food (the ribs were off the hook!), and good times.  The crowd was large, but mellow, and the organizers really had their act together: taking care of parking, rest-room facilities, and keeping the fires going. 

I mentioned three bands: "Blue Highways", "Tommy & Friends" and a Reggae Band.  I'm sorry I don't remember the name of the Reggae band, because they were really good!  I was fortunate enought to sit in with "Tommy and Friends" for their third set, where we played "Time/Breathe" and "Comfortably Numb" by Pink Floyd, "Grey Street" by Dave Matthews, and "Cinnamon Girl" by Neil Young.  Thanks Tommy!  The crowd was really into this set, and I had a blast!

From what I understand, the party went well into the wee hours of the morning.  While we left at around 3:00 AM, I was told that "Tommy and Friends" played until about 5:45, beating the previous record of a band playing until 5 AM.  Awesome!

People were camping out at this party, and I"m sure this is something I'll consider doing next year, if invited back!  I'd even love to see if I could get my band to play there next year.

So, last night I went to see Roger Waters at the PNC Arts Center.  What an amazing show!  Now, the tickets said the show was to start at 8:00 PM "sharp", but that didn't happen.  It was probably just a ploy to try and get everyone into the venue early.

Well, it sort-of worked, because the lines to get into the Arts Center were long!  Two huge lines extended well out into the great lawn (the great, soggy lawn).  It was cool watching the bats fly around in the night sky.  They basically checked everyone who came into the venue: nothing like a good pat-down before a show! Had we more time, I would have gone through the security check more than once!

And we had the coolest bus driver EVER!  She was funny, and made the short ride from the parking lot to the venue enjoyable.  We even got to yell out to the people who didn't feel like standing in line for the bus, as we passed them walking to the Venue.  I guess they forgot about the steep incline on the way up to the Arts Center.  Suckers!

So the show started at around 8:15/8:20, and went until just after 11:00.  The first set was a nice collection of Pink Floyd classics, such as "Happiest Days of our Lives" (The show opener), "Wish You Were Here", "Mother", "Sheep", "Shine on you Crazy Diamond", "The Final Cut", and more.  There was a floating spaceman during one of the songs, and a giant inflatable pig that the roadies ran out into the audience during another.  Friends reported that the "big pig" was actually set free outside, and could be seen floating away into the night, shilloetted by the nearly-full moon.

The band took a 15 minute break, and then came out and performed "Dark Side of the Moon" in its entirety.  It was practically note-for-note off the album.  Amazing doesn't even begin to cover it.  For many of us, it was almost religious.

The show also had many other significant undertones.  It was Roger Water's birthday, and many fans had "Happy Birthday Roger" signs, banners, and even a spinning L.E.D. sign.  Speaking of signs, a fan had brought a "Floyd St" street sign, complete with sign post, and was running around the parking lot with it.  I wonder if they let him bring it in?  The show was also shortly after the passing of former Pink Floyd front man Syd Barret.  Many of the visuals used on the giant projection screen contained images of Syd.  Syd, we all miss you: Rest In Peace.

Roger got a bit political on us, with his song "Beirut".  Roger recants his adventure hitch-hiking after his car broke down, and how a stranger took him in, and extended his hospitality.  Pictures of the Berlin Wall, along with dictators, murders, and President Bush (hmmmmm) were displayed on the screen.

Amazing lights, pyro, surround sound, and even bubbles (yes bubbles) helped to make the show.  Roger had 11 ("yes, this one goes to 'levin") musicians on stage, and they helped to authentically reproduce the classic Pink Floyd sound.

What an awesome night.  I count myself very lucky to have seen not only Roger Waters last night, but David Gilmour earlier this year.  Between the two shows, I got to see Pink Floyd.

It was very interesting that BOTH Roger and David encoured with "Comfortably Numb".