Big Leather Couch

THE COUCH NOTE: Dad Vince sent an email this morning informing us that LeeLee will not be seeing Bruce tonight as Danny Federici, the longtime keyboard player for Bruce Springsteen whose stylish work helped define the E Street Band's sound on hits from "Hungry Heart" through "The Rising," died Thursday. He was 58.

Federici, who had battled melanoma for three years, died at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York. News of his death was posted late Thursday on Springsteen's official Web site.

In some aspects, I have thought I would get more satisfaction from sitting at home with my eyes closed and an album blasting from the speakers. Of course that is not a totally serious comment...but there is a thread of truth to it.

Arena rock began in the late 60's, early 70's when bands realized they could do one show for 25,000 people, instead of 5 nights in a small theater for 5,000 each night. Does it make sense? Well hell yeah, from a financial and time standpoint. Does it impact your fan-base? Nah...if someone wants to see you live, it does not matter if they are in the first row of the Beacon Theater in NYC, or a half a mile away at Woodstock or Ozfest.

Part of the concert experience is the crowd and the energy that runs through a building (or outdoor arena) no matter how large the place. Over the last few years, I have not done too many live shows due to fiscal restraints, but as most of you know, I did get to two days of the Beale Street Blues Festival last year and was not surprised that on Friday, I made sure I got there early enough and moved as close to the stage as possible.

No seating...I knew it was going to be about 5-6 hours of standing and that slowly the 'personal space' I currently had would disappear entirely. Did not matter. 20 feet from The Allman Brothers and Govt. Mule and Jerry Lee Lewis and Derek Trucks was worth every elbow in the kidney or toe stepped on.

If you have not been around long, we posted this on our story about the weekend HERE :


Also last year we went to Birmingham, AL and met up with a whole group of crazy muthaf**kers wonderful people for Taylor Hicks' concert in his hometown. It was at the Alabama Theater, a wonderfully built, acoustically orgasmic building. My seat was in the 4th or 5th row of the loge. So it equated to being in the 15-20th row of the Orchestra, without all the heads in front of you.

COUCH NOTE: If ya have not guessed, we are not the tallest tree in the forest.

It was a fantastic show - the man is a showman and until you see him live, you can not really judge. Did it help that it was in a theater like that? Absolutely and, without a doubt this is the way I would prefer to see a show.

I do miss the Palladium in NYC. What a great venue that was. They would sometimes hold two shows a night there (as they did with the Fillmore East and West). Going to the second show, which would start at about 1:00 am, and walking out as the sun comes up after 5 hours of a Dead show is something that has to be experienced. Not sure they would even attempt that in today's world.

We have been to outdoor fests (Allman Brothers, The Band & The Dead), football arenas (Bruce, The Rolling Stones, The Dead to name a few), indoor arenas (Led Zeppelin, The Dead, Pink Floyd, Elton John - with a surprise visit from John Lennon, Allman Brothers, Jethro Tull, Springsteen, Jeff Beck, Genesis...you get the idea...) but nothing beats the intimate theater or club (Hot Tuna, Jeff Beck, Jerry Garcia, Stevie Wonder, Linda Ronstadt). Seeing B.B. King in a 500 person club on Long Island in the 80's is something I will never forget.

We keep adding names above and are leaving out many others.

And - OF COURSE - let's not forget the ticket prices...LOL...$200.00 tickets today. We put together some show here...sure look at the artists, but look at the prices!

So...let's start a little discussion...

What was THE BEST concert you have ever seen, what was the venue and why was it the best?

What was THE WORST concert you have ever seen, what was the venue and why was it the worst?

I was asked the other day if I would consider putting together a CD of music that has been featured here on The Couch. This person even offered to pay for it! LOL...Not sure we will do that, but how about if we do a CD for the BEST and the WORST story? You will have the choice of a random sampling or you can ask for specific songs. If you are the winner and could not be bothered with the CD, well we can make that our little secret, just let me know. LOL

Let's play fair here and no making stuff up...you are on the honor system on this.


So, of course we go all live...a selection from my collection of bootleg concerts to share with all ya'll

Here we go again...it is midnight...blogger will not let me publish...lifelogger has slowed to a crawl...If the post happens to publish but there are no audio players, come back after 7:00 am Central Friday morning and they should be there...

Three uploaded...two to go 12:08 am

FINALLY....12:20 am...night...

Have a Great Weekend...ENJOY...

TIME TO DONATE SOME RICE TODAY!
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Build your vocabulary, feed the hungry...
16,034,896,090 grains donated at this point...16 BILLION TOPPED!



Now, to start off the week leading up to the sporting event that gets hyped the most of any, we present you with a video we received from Dad Vince:






Our best was to Level 6 - 181,252 points - 5 tries...



This post has, all of a sudden, turned into a 'theme' post... the theme in this case is our brother...

As some of you know, Richard is assistant features editor for the San Antonio Express-News... well upon our arrival home this evening, we were thrilled to see two emails in our in box. The first is an article published on Saturday on the SA E-N website (maybe a birthday present to Richard to give him some 'inches' on the site... just kidding brother...)...

Anyway, we present it to you with this link to the story...hope you enjoy it!

Another long travel day comes to an end...

The flight from Chicago and Atlanta was not without an incident, and I would like to congratulate the two flight attendants for Trans Air for their total professionalism.

But back to the beginning. We boarded and plugged in the earphones to listen to the free XM Radio they have on board. We read the latest Rolling Stone for a while and then closed our eyes. At one point we felt a presence in the aisle and opened our eyes.

In the aisle, two of the seat occupants from across from us are standing and the third, a male is bent over and obviously in pain. One of the flight attendants and one of the two passengers are wearing latex gloves and we then see that the ill passenger has obviously gotten sick.

We hear them talking and the sick passenger mentions kidney stones. Well we know all about them. They find a nurse on board and a gastroenteroligist who come to help. The man says he does not have his pain meds and we curse under my breath. We do have my pain meds with us, but for like the first time in years, we have checked our bags and the meds are below in stowage.

The two flight attendants then talk to the captain and they are speaking to the ground, whether to divert and land. The doctor informs them it is not life threatening, so we continue on to Atlanta. The two flight attendants were patient, kind, attentive while they needed to toss the seat cushions from the row, and try and clean up the mess. As we deplaned, we told them both exactly that.

When the flight lands, of course they ask everyone to remain seated when we get to the gate. OF COURSE four or five people stand immediately upon hearing the ding and have to be told to sit - what the frick is wrong with people? The doctor, nurse and sick passenger all move quickly off the plane.

We finally deplane and we go to one of the smoking lounges in the Atlanta airport...one of the few that still have them (they also still have lockers, which - if you fly frequently - you know that most airports no longer have lockers for you to store your luggage...)

While sitting there we notice a young soldier in fatigues standing against the wall. We watch his face. It is pained, no doubt about it. As I leave,we walk around toward him and ask, "On your way home?" (We needed to ask that way).

He replies, our eyes locked, "No Sir, on my way back, second tour." His eyes are so sad and there is a fear in them also. We put our hand on his shoulder and grabbed his hand in a firm shake "Sir, you be safe, God bless you and thank you for your bravery." He took a breathe and replied "Thank you Sir, second tour." Like he was disbelieving he had to return again.

We can see this young man's face in our mind right now, and do not know if we will ever forget it.

Thankfully, Atlanta to Memphis was a short, uneventful flight.

We pray for every single one of our young men and women each night...