Dream Concert Performances

Today, in my little world of the Pop Culture Time Machine, I'd like to propose a trip back to any time - and any place - in the past to see any musical artist perform live in concert. When the idea was born, thanks to an imaginative co-worker of mine, at first I thought it was a no-brainer. But even after I named my chosen one dream concert performance, another one popped into my head... and another. Sure, they were all must-see shows, as far as I was concerned, but could I rank them with one in particular as my single choice - if it came down to that?

When my friend posed the question, I immediately thought: Van Halen on their 1981 concert tour in support of their Fair Warning album. For whatever reason, I totally missed the boat on seeing Van Halen live back in the day. I guess their shows sold out so fast I had no chance at all. Anyway, some folks might scratch their head at my "dream concert" choice and ask "But why not their tour for their album 1984?" That was their final album with David Lee Roth, and it included some of their biggest hit songs ever, including the only Billboard charting #1 song they ever did - Jump.

Here's my reasoning: Fair Warning is my favourite Van Halen album. Yes, their debut album is just about as amazing (as are Van Halen II and third LP Women and Children First), but Eddie's sound and technique and songwriting had hit a new level on their fourth release, Fair Warning. It's hard to define and explain, but I just felt Ed's instrumental prowess was by this point rivalled by even wilder and more compelling compositions than ever before. As much as I like 1984, it's not quite the same Van Halen as we got on Fair Warning, which was a dark and gritty album, mean and nasty, and Eddie's sound was still heavy and metallic.

1984, on the other hand, while instantly likable, was a touch softer, a bit brighter in tone, lighter and smoothed over for instant radio airplay. And yes, that more pop-oriented hard rock approach worked wonders for the band's success. Big money. And big troubles. Van Halen was experiencing a lot of internal friction around that time. Musical differences, among other things, were plotting to spoil the fun.

So... also bypassing the even poppier 1982 album Diver Down, I'm going back a little further to that Fair Warning release. I examined the setlist from that tour and noted that it is packed with the songs that I love best, both from Fair Warning and all their previous albums. Fair Warning alone provided six tunes for the live show: Unchained, Mean Street, Sinners Swing, Hear About it Later, So This is Love?, and Sunday Afternoon in the Park. And of course, Van Halen's earlier material was durable hard rock heaven, with such faves as On Fire, Runnin' With the Devil, Everybody Wants Some, and You Really Got me.

There you have it, classic live Roth era Van Halen, and without the middling lightweight 60's pop covers from Diver Down. I can easily forego some 1984 songs to get this choice setlist and a band still hungry and climbing to the pinnacle. What a party that show would have been!

I invented this hand thingy... and everything else in the world

My second choice, or at least the second idea I came up with, was to see Kiss on their Destroyer tour back in '76. I would have been only 12 years old at the time, and there was no way my parents would have let me go to a rock concert at that age. Yet I was a big big fan of their hard rockin' style, not to mention their fire-breathing comic book image. For a kid that age, this was the ultimate! Some of my very first records as a kid were the early Kiss albums, and I grew up with the band's progressing sound, culminating in the explosive Destroyer... and the subsequent afterthoughts Rock and Roll Over and Love Gun, sort of ushering me out of my Kiss fandom. That was fine, for these LPs comprised the classic Kiss era.

As much as the debut Kiss album is a fond and nostalgic trip for me, it was - and still is - Destroyer that instantly sets my blood a'pumpin'. There are Kiss fans who poopoo Destroyer, saying it's a bloated, overproduced mess. But I'm of the other school, totally in thrall to its massive, slick, majestic wall of sound. The raw and ready first three Kiss recordings had their charm, but this, to me, was the dragon bursting from its chrysalis.

Looking back at the Destroyer tour setlist, I saw that nearly the entire album found its way into the live show. Yeah, that would make me very happy. All of my fave Kiss tunes are on Destroyer: Detroit Rock City, King of the Night Time World, Flaming Youth, and Shout it Out Loud. Not far behind are Sweet Pain and Do You Love Me. Then there were the earlier gems, like Strutter, Cold Gin, Deuce, and Black Diamond (all from their first album, incidentally). 

If I had been able to see Kiss at that time, I might have slapped some Gene Simmons "demon" make-up on my face for the near-full effect. Probably no costume, but whatever. Sigh.

Then, after dreaming about time travel back to that 70's Kiss show, it occurred to me that I would also definitely have to see one of my current (for several years, actually) favourite bands, Megadeth, back in their prime. That would have been on the European leg of their Rust in Peace tour, specifically at London's Hammersmith Odeon Theatre on September 30, 1992. I can be so precise because I have watched the concert film on Youtube many times. What a blast! The thrash metal masters were at the peak of their powers, especially with gifted musicians Marty Friedman on guitar (who left the band in 2000) and Nick Menza on drums (until 1998... RIP, dude).

The Rust in Peace album marked a high point not only in Megadeth's career but also as a landmark in metal history. Such a masterpiece it was that musicans and fans alike, to this day, cite this as one of the greatest metal albums in history. And it is! It is very high on my list of favourite albums, metal or otherwise. 

I have never had the opportunity to see Megadeth as a headliner. The best I ever got was catching them as warm-up act for Heaven and Hell (the Dio-fronted Black Sabbath) back in 2007. A much too brief set, though it was jammed with epic Mega-tunes. Mustaine and Company, that opening gig aside, have never graced a stage here in my fair city. Come on, Dave!

This Hammermith Odeon show, on the other hand, looks to be the perfect thrash metal event, with plaid shirts and every head a-banging. From opening song Holy Wars... The Punishment Due to near-closer Peace Sells, it's a killer show. The final tune, their cover of Anarchy in the UK, was obviously thrown in for the English crowd, though I think it's a weak song to wrap up the night. Still, overall, a solid set with Mega-classics Wake Up Dead, Lucretia, Hangar 18, and Tornado of Souls. The boys deliver a sweaty, blistering performance that charges the hall packed with enthusiastic fans.

Now... time to rev up the old time machine and set it to... ?

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Feel free to post your own Dream Concerts below - I'd love to hear them!

The Show Must Go On... TV and Streaming

I hate to say it, but my movie viewing has dropped substantially over the past couple of months. I've been up against a barrage of shows, mostly streaming online, that have commanded my attention. Some are good, some are great, and some are only so-so. Yet I still plow through them, episode after episode, sometimes motoring through one complete series only to move on to another... and sometimes juggling two or three shows at one time.

Mrs Maisel is saucy and funny in this period piece comedy

I have often complained that there's so little to watch, even with my selection of programming on Netflix, Amazon, and my Roku. Yet lately there has been a healthy number of shows to keep me busy. Most are worthwhile, but now and then, after a few episodes of a less than satisfying show, I'll stop watching and delete it from my Watch List. Yes, I do have at least some discipline with my viewing habits.

What stands head and shoulders above all else is The Mandalorian. Yep, just like everyone else, I was hooked, line and sinker... I loved it from episode one onward. For my money, it's the best Star Wars story I've seen since the original Skywalker trilogy. Between the ultra-cool Mandalorian bounty hunter character and the wee cute baby Yoda, the show is a winner.

On Amazon Prime, I located a show that ruled the TV airwaves during the 2000s, Lost. I never went near Lost back then, in the belief that it was a reality show of some kind. But once I gave it a chance recently, I discovered I was completely wrong. I'm in the early seasons of Lost at the moment, and find it quite entertaining and intriguing, if a bit repetitive and drawn-out. And it sort of made sense when I noticed that this was created by none other than J.J. Abrams, who has since directed  blockbuster movies in the Star Wars franchise (not to mention his Star Trek and Cloverfield films).

I was pleased to see continuing high quality production on the new season (or series, as they say in the UK) of The Crown. This historical drama is far more compelling than I ever expected, and even with the older, new cast this time around, it's still great entertainment... and I even learn a little something along the way.

In the more fanciful department, there's the new season of sci-fi adventure reboot Lost in Space. I saw a bit of the old 60's TV show, and while this revamped version is very loosely based on the original, it takes it in directions I never dreamed of. Imaginative and fun, it's a nice time-killer that doesn't make you feel too stupid.

On the other side of the coin, the new season of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel continues with the sharp and witty writing that made Season One so utterly... um, marvelous. The talented and funny cast make this a stand-out series that totally deserves the accolades it's getting. Can't wait for more!

The latest season of highly-regarded UK crime drama Line of Duty maintains its consistently gripping storytelling, with its solid cast delivering the goods as they fight corruption within the police force.

Watchmen, the HBO show that's all the talk of the town, is a strange yet very cool show that I've taken a liking to. I have no real background with the original comic series, and only a tiny recollection of the 2009 movie The Watchmen, but still... this newly-minted continuation of the old story is fascinating. And weird. Watchmen's cast includes some big names and the show boasts impressive production values. Whether you like "superhero" stuff or not, this might appeal to you. It's that different.

While season one of Netflix series You was a surprisingly good mystery-thriller, the latest round is rather clunky. I find this season quite unwatchable, with unlikable characters, contrived story, and a general feeling that this thing should have just stopped after its first season. It's a shame when something so enjoyable goes sour. Partway through season two, I gave it the axe. No thanks.

The BBC-Netflix take on the classic Dracula tale is - to put it mildly - an abomination. I took a look simply out of curiosity, being a fan of most things horrific in the entertainment world. The casting seemed okay, but the sometimes scenery-chewing acting, godawful dialogue, and the clumsily dismantled original story - re-assembled as a near-complete mess, is more horrific than the vampire subject matter. This rivals the off-the-rails treatment in the movie Van Helsing, which made me feel ill, it was such a trashy distortion of my beloved classic movie monsters. Again, I dropped this before too long. 

Those are the highlights... and low points... of my viewing schedule over the last while. I think there were some other shows in there, but I won't even try to rack my brains to recall them all. Anyway, maybe from my recommendations and warnings, you'll find something that suits your own tastes. Enjoy!

The Passing of a Musical Great - Neil Peart

It was clear to me yesterday what this week's post would be about, after hearing the news of Neil Peart's death at age 67. After first feeling numb from the news, I think it is now sinking in. Here is a musician who I have long considered the best drummer of all time. The music he created with Canadian progressive rock band Rush remains as influential and vital today as it ever was. Peart joined Rush after their 1974 debut album, and quickly settled into his role as both forward-thinking drummer and as writer of their song lyrics.

Peart, after his early lyrical flights of fancy with Rush - his sci-fi and fantasy period, matured into a talented song word-smith. It's a rare thing for a band's time-keeper to participate in this capacity, and Peart is one of the very few who wrote just about every single lyric for the band's songs.

As a teenager, I loved not only Peart's intricate and textured percussion style on Rush songs, but I also really dug his drum solos on the band's live albums. My first taste of Neil's concert shenanigans was on Rush's first live recording from 1976, All the World's a Stage. I haven't listened to the album in many years, but as I write this paragraph, I am listening to the drum solo section of its Working Man/Finding My Way medley. Even in those early days, Peart - dubbed The Professor by his bandmates - established himself as a world-class drummer.

It didn't take long for Peart to cement his rock drummer god status in the minds of fans and musicians the world over. He repeatedly placed first in music magazine polls. I had no argument with those opinions. His talent was otherworldly. I guess it goes without saying that I was a major Rush fan for most of my life, ever since my mid-teens.

It was on the 1981 live album Exit... Stage Left that Peart took his concert drum solo to another sphere. I played that tape endlessly back in the day. It was the following year that I finally got to see the man perform in person. This was in Toronto on the concert tour supporting Rush's Signals album. I air-drummed along with Neil through most of that show. Since then I've seen Peart in action with Rush nearly a dozen times, always mind-boggling in his precision and creativity.

When I think of Peart's mastery of his craft, I first recall the lengthy instrumental song La Villa Strangiato for his master class in drumming... then there's his high-poetry-to-music The Trees.

Neil Peart took drumming to another level. His drumkit was perhaps the most elaborate in the world, constantly growing and changing. Peart's fascination with percussion instruments from other cultures brought additional exotic sounds to his playing. 

In the early 80's, he added an electronic drumkit to his setup, with a rotating stage riser for a dramatic spin of his gear... Neil would stand, seat himself at his second kit, and go at it. Get a load of his kit circa 1984:

Then, never one to become complacent, Peart went back to school... in the early 1990's he studied under jazz musician and instructor Freddie Gruber, and went on to incorporate some jazz and swing elements into his playing style. The master as student.

When Rush called it quits as a band about five years ago, much to the shock of their fans,  Peart was suffering from serious physical strains caused by years of strenuous drumming. Totally understandable. 

Rush's progressive music has been influential on generations of musicians, and will no doubt continue to do so. In my mind, early albums 2112 and A Farewell to Kings are high points in a career spanning five decades, and, along with 1980's Permanent Waves and 1981's Moving Pictures, are most often cited as milestones in both Rush's growth and in rock music, period.

My condolences to Neil Peart's family, friends, and of course, his bandmates Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson. Rest in peace, Neil.

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Here is Friday's CBC breaking story: https://www.cbc.ca/news/entertainment/neil-peart-obit-1.5422806

My Top 10 Movies of 2019

This has been quite the week for blog posts and for all the deliberating needed to compile these Top Ten lists. My output wouldn't normally be so "prodigious", but I've had time on my hands and the itch to wrap up this year and this decade with a bang. Or a whimper, if you're not impressed.

Bad wigs aside, the Motley Crüe biopic The Dirt rocked hard

So... my Top 10 Movies of 2019. I mentioned in my Top 10 for the 2010s that I felt 2019 was a sort of weak year for films. As I went through my initial scratchings of a list for the past year, I would have to say I was dead right in that assessment. I mean, yes, there have been a number of good, even very good, movies in 2019 - but nothing really amazing. At least from my standpoint. I haven't seen every film released last year, and of the twenty-nine that I did see, almost nothing really knocked my socks off. And since there were so many at about the same level of quality, that made it really tough to rank them. I took pains to place the titles according to how much I liked them, and at the moment I'm happy with the result, though tomorrow I could change my mind about some of them. But for now... enjoy!


My Top 10 Movies of 2019

1. The Dirt - hey, I watched this raunchy and hilarious Crüe biopic twice in its opening weekend... that must mean something.

2. Dolemite is My Name - terrific fun, Eddie's apparent "comeback" as a comic actor

3. Marriage Story - not fun, but an engrossing study of a marriage falling apart. Primo acting.

4. Brittany Runs a Marathon - I hate the word "dramedy", but this is a great one... lace 'em up!

5. John Wick 3 - a jackhammer of an action killfest that somehow ups the ante on the first two Wick movies

6. Yesterday - light, funny and wonderfully nostalgic in its Beatle-ness

7. The Highwaymen - excellent casting and an effective twist on the hunt for Bonnie and Clyde

8. Long Shot - Theron gets playful with Rogen in this funny romance that rises above today's tired rom-com formula

9. In the Shadow of the Moon - a cool sci-fi spin on the murder mystery theme

10. I Am Mother - a unique sci-fi thriller that satisfies... though I felt it ended a bit weak


A few honorable mentions are:

Crawl - tidy little horror set mostly in a swamped Florida basement with gators on the prowl Midsommar - subdued and unsettling folk-horror tale that rewards more fully upon reflection
Iron Fists and Kung Fu Kicks - a rollicking documentary about kung fu in cinema
The Wandering Earth - an imaginative Chinese sci-fi epic that needs a lot more attention
Beneath the Leaves - I'm one of few who like this, but this crime thriller works nicely for me

Top 10 Movies of the 2010s

I've never done a Top 10 Movies list for a decade before. I've written up some Top 10 of the Year lists, which were quite do-able, but for the decade... well, this took much more effort and time. When I became a member of the Letterboxd (social media site for movie fans) community in 2014, I compiled my yearly Top 10 Movie lists (though for whatever reason, I missed 2017, so I had to dig back and research that one). At least I had something to refer to as I made preliminary lists for each year of the decade. Prior to 2014, it was a little tricky, because I had to wade through online lists (Wikipedia was helpful but not exhaustive) of releases for each year to determine what I saw and liked enough to rank in a Top 10. I may have missed something important, but I did my best. If anything comes to mind later on, I'll revise this 2010s list.

Black Swan is, I believe, my very favourite film of the 2010s

A short analysis of my favourites list of the 2010s (below) reveals that this was the decade of modern science fiction gems. And there were even more great ones that missed making my list; for example, there were futuristic marvels like Interstellar, Oblivion, Gravity, Edge of Tomorrow, Blade Runner 2049, Source Code, Cloud Atlas, and many others.

According to my preliminary "best of" lists for each year, I also noted that the first half of the decade was most heavily loaded with hit (my favourite) films. 2010 and 2013 in particular boasted the most, with at least a dozen favourites each, while 2015 contributed the most films to my final Top 10. These numbers made it extra hard for me to pare down those yearly lists to achieve an initial cut for the decade. Believe me, this was not an easy task. As I knocked entries out of the Top 10 into my Honorable Mentions, it became clearer what the best of the best were. But then ranking my Top 10 was the most difficult of all. 

I suppose my top three were the easiest to pick, but after that, the order could change any day, depending on my mood. For example, I keep thinking The Witch 'ought to place higher, yet how could I knock Ex Machina or Inside Llewyn Davis down lower? I had to develop some criteria to help me decide on the order: should one genre take precedence over another, like sci-fi over drama... do I prefer one over the other? Then I thought about how re-watchable these films are - like how many times have I watched and remained a fan of Turbo Kid versus The Witch? Turbo Kid is a fun and breezy flick, easy to digest, whereas The Witch demands close attention and patience for its slow-burn pacing. Some people might choose the slow-burn. I also considered how each film makes me feel when I watch it - just how powerful is the experience? And what are those feelings, and how often do I want to feel them? You know?

So here is my final list, which does contain my absolute faves, yet the order may not be entirely carved in stone. But close enough for now. Enjoy!


My Top 10 Movies of the 2010s:

1. Black Swan - slow, creepy psychological thriller with great acting and compelling story
2. Prometheus - a much maligned, perhaps flawed, yet captivating Alien-esque sci-fi 
3. Frances Ha - indie darling of the decade that introduced me to Gerwig & director Baumbach
4. Ip Man - exciting biographical tale of Wing Chun Grandmaster, teacher to Bruce Lee!
5. Turbo Kid - a modern youthful sci-fi blast from the past... fun, violent and magical

6. Ex Machina - thoughtful sci-fi look at AI and our fascination with what could be

7. Inside Llewyn Davis - introspective drama-comedy with a great cast and even better music

8. Mad Max: Fury Road - an exhausting thrillride of insanity and violence... it's glorious!
9. The Witch - this subdued, atmospheric period piece ranks among the best horror ever
10. Kick-Ass - forget Iron Man & Spidey... this gritty "real life" superhero captured my heart

Honorable Mentions (in no particular order):

Under the Skin
Sicario
Silver Linings Playbook
Sing Street
Her
Marriage Story
Arrival
Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets
Skyfall
Super 8
Spectre
Drive
Baby Driver
Heavy Trip
Yesterday
The Dirt
The Ghost Writer
Nightcrawler
Birdman
Blue Ruin
Hugo
The Master
Prisoners
Hell or High Water
Lady Bird
Roma
Annihilation
Mid90s
Dolemite is My Name
Midsommar
The Lighthouse

And as always, I have a little catching up to do on late-2019 releases. I'll see these once they are available as online rentals or on streaming services like Netflix.