Ringo Starr and His All-Starr Band

Last night, a half dozen of us joined several others to watch a Beatle. This was a "I better see a Beatle before I, or most likely they, die" sort of concert. I'd given up on Macca live years ago, so Ringo comes to town every couple of summers and now that he's 70, I thought, yep, better see go him. It's kind of a jolt to see a sign at a rock show that reads, "Happy Birthday, 7/7/40". BTW, he looks fantastic for age 70.

The Venue: The "Sauna By the Sea", Nautica Pavilion. You know, the place where you have to sit in the bleachers, poised like a catcher, hoping you don't knee anyone in the back, hopefully avoiding the same treatment from the rear.

Stage Banter: Ringo actually got off a few good lines. About the weather: "They told me about some breeze that was supposed to come off the water". About the sales of his last album: "This is for the 9 of you who bought the CD. A couple over here, a couple over there, and the six of you over there who stole it".

The Tickets: S. used her Rock Hall Membership to grab Gale and I some General Admission tickets. We were on the left, maybe 10-12 rows up in the bleachers.

The Crowd: No chaperone hat this night. Distinctly older. Most people knew the words to most songs, including "Frankenstein". "Yellow Submarine" was a big sing-a-long, and, unfortunately, Rick Derringer sang the longest version ever of "Hang On Sloopy".

The Sound: The sound was actually really good. The only part I did not understand was when Edgar Winter spoke. I think it was in English.

There was no opening act.

The Stage: Fairly sparse setup. Left-to-right upfront were: Edgar Winter, Romantics Dude, Rick Derringer, Mr. Mister Mister and Gary Wright. In the back were Ringo and fellow drummer Gregg Bissonette.

The Music: Obviously, it was a lot of old tunes from the '70s and the '80s. The beauty of the format for the performers is they could rotate twice through the All-Starrs, so they could play their hits. One-hit wonders need not apply. Two-hit wonders, however, are welcomed with open arms. The beauty of the format for the paying customer is, if you had seen each of the performers at your local Ribfest, it would take two hours to hear each of them perform their two hits. So, this is a huge timesaver. Hey, I've seen Donnie Iris in that format. It's not pretty.

"Peace and Love...But Don't Send Me Shit...Peace and Love"






























Setlist:

"It Don’t Come Easy" (Ringo)
"Honey Don’t" (Ringo)
"Choose Love" (Ringo)
"Hang On Sloopy" (Rick Derringer)
"Free Ride" (Edgar Winter)
"Talking in Your Sleep" (Romantics Dude)
"I Wanna Be Your Man" (Ringo)
"Dream Weaver" (Gary Wright)
"Kyrie" (Mr. Mister Mister)
"The Other Side of Liverpool" (Ringo)
"Yellow Submarine" (Ringo)
"Frankenstein" (Edgar Winter)
"Peace Dream" (Ringo)
"Back Off Boogaloo" (Ringo)
"What I Like About You" (Romantics Dude)
"Rock and Roll, Hoochie Koo" (Rick Derringer)
"Boys" (Ringo)
"Love Is Alive" (Gary Wright)
"Broken Wings" (Mr. Mister Mister)
"Photograph" (Ringo)
"Act Naturally" (Ringo)
"With a Little Help from My Friends" (Ringo)
"Give Peace a Chance" (Ringo)

Encore:

None. That hasn't happened in a very long time.

Another view.

Meal of Links

Simon Cowell could be replaced by Chris Isaak. "Bullets ain't got no eyes."

Jenna Fischer got married a few weeks ago. The person who presided over that union? Why, it was Jeff Probst.

Speaking of Probst, Jimmy Johnson is on "Survivor: Guatemala". His hair cannot possibly survive.

Castro's niece has an interview. Cuban free speech prisoners are mercenaries paid by Washington. Huh?

There can be nice ditties about death. Here's a list.

Mitch Albom won this year's Red Smith Award. Dave Kindred addresses the elephant in the room.

Could you imagine this headline even 10 years ago? "Oakland allows industrial-scale marijuana farms".

More Palin. This time on Israel and the mosque.

Looks like a new "Seinfeld" movie. Not really, just a trailer.

"Serenity Now"



Exercise Yard

If you haven't watched the Tour de France this year, tomorrow is the day to change that. This Tour has been wild. We've seen injuries, we've seen suspensions, we've seen headbutts, we've seen tire fights, we've even seen the demise of Lance Armstrong.

The latest controversy involved the yellow jersey-wearing Andy Schleck and Alberto Contador, last year's winner. Schleck was attacking when his chain got loose. A previous unwritten Tour rule is you always wait and never take advantage of a mechanical failure of the yellow jersey. Contador said, "Fuck that!" and eventually gained 34 seconds on Schleck to get the yellow jersey and lead Schleck by 8 seconds, heading into the final 3 days.

All bets are off tomorrow in the mountains. I happen to like the Schleck Brothers (Frank went out on Day 3), so I hope Andy can pull it off. Big day tomorrow.

Visitor

22 Across: Sylvester Pussycat nemesis (14 letters) Answer: Speedy Gonzales

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