Category: Music

My wife, Donnell, and I had the pleasure of seeing Dave Matthews Band for the second time together last night at the Verizon Wireless Amphitheater. The band put on an incredible show, and of all of the times I’ve seen them, I can say I have never heard them play so tightly together.

I have a few thoughts I’d like to share about the concert.

• Having met Donnell at a concert, I can say for certain that there is nothing I like more than standing next to my lovely wife listening to a great band.
• Jeff Coffin and Rashawn Ross proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that every rock band needs a horn section. Trumpet playing backup singers are pretty cool. 🙂
• Rashawn used a lot of bucket mute during the show. I’m a big fan of bucket mute, and it mellowed out the sound of the horn to really fit with the songs.
• I thought Jeff’s choice of a Preservation Hall t-shirt was excellent and fitting.
• We had seats just left of center in the pavilion which were actually quite good. It was the closest I had been to Dave since I flew on the same plane with him to Jo’burg.
• Why anyone thought it would be a good idea to build a music theater next to a landfill is beyond me, but at least the wafting of the sweet and salty smell of kettle corn disguised some of the stink from the landfill.

The band played one of my favorite songs, You & Me. Every time I hear it, I cannot help but think about Donnell and the kids so it’s great in my book.

Unfortunately, they did not play Donnell’s favorite song, Tripping Billies. Donnell and Kyah spent a lot of quality time together listening to this song when Kyah was very young so it would have been great to hear it last night.

And to close things out, here is one of the best quotations from the evening from Donnell, “He’s so Phillip Phillips, it’s hilarious!”

I have been listening to the new Van Halen album while working and exercising to slowly get my head around the fact that there is a new Van Halen album with the old (or should I say old-ing) Van Halen.

I have to admit that I really enjoy the album. It is without question a Van Halen album.  Eddie Van Halen is still the undisputed champion of hard rock guitar. There is no one on the planet that even comes close.  There are many times while listening to the album that I find myself shaking my head in disbelief hearing Eddie rip yet another shocking run.  Alex and the young Wolfgang round out a really great rock band.

Now, that brings us to David Lee Roth.  There are moments on the album where DLR is his old self belting out lyrics just like back in the day.  Then there are the moments when he sounds like me trying to sound like the 70’s version of DLR or Robert Plant (insert funny comment from the wife here).  If my ears are working correctly (and at high volumes, I think they are), it is possible to hear the order in which the songs where recorded.  I have a feeling DLR’s voice is just a little rusty on the songs where he sounds a bit off.  It is clear to me that with practice, he can regain complete control of that insanely fun and powerful voice.

If you’re a Van Halen fan, I’m sure you’ve already heard the album, but if you haven’t, you can find it on iTunes and Spotify.

I learned today that my trumpet teacher, Steve Schmidt, recently received the Mr. Holland’s Opus Foundation Award. Having studied with Mr. Schmidt for more than six years, I can say with certainty that this award is going to a great musician and teacher. Congratulations Mr. Schmidt!

For those of you that follow me on Twitter or Facebook, I have been calling my son the Pinball Wizard in honor of his mad skills on Mappy, Galaga, Pole Position, and Pac Man. For a four year old, I am constantly amazed how quickly he picks up new (old) games. He has even taken over the high scores on some of the games, but I’m practicing!

So, in honor of my Pinball Wizard son, Noah . . . The Who!