Courtney Barnett

I’m not sure who else recalls the sad condition of 1970s and 80s concerts when the headlining band would deliberately sabotage the opening group in various ways to ensure they would not be upstaged, but it seems those days have not entirely gone away. Truth be told, many elements of this concert pairing befuddled me. Diminutive yet charismatic Australian rocker Courtney Barnett has been surfing a wave of popularity, topping the CMJ charts, and appearing on major late night television programs. Yet, she was opening for boring old fart Scottish band Belle And Sebastian?

Todd Rundgren - The Highline Ballroom, NYC, 5.6.15

As he has been for well over forty years, Todd Rundgren is again out on tour promoting his new recording “Global.” Rundgren usually changes up his shows and it’s usually a mixed bag. This was certainly the case here.

Rundgren was actually the only musician on stage. There was a DJ and two dancing girls dressed in futuristic space age disco jumpsuits. Rundgren came out dancing as well, and did some aerobics for good measure. This was all with psychedelic, trippy background strobe lighting. It was a very weird show

The Blues Magoos - The Bowery Electric, NYC, 5.23.15

The Blues Magoos is a band from the psychedelic past, and they’ve reemerged to put on great live shows as they always have. I just saw them in a small club in the East Village just like the old days. Having the two original main guys - guitarist/vocalist Peppy Castro and keyboardist Ralph Scala/lead vocalist made for a great night of mind blowing music.

They started heir set with “Rush Hour,” a song from their classic record Electric Comic Book. They followed with more songs from that album. One was a B-Side called “Pipe Dream,” which was quite amazing.The band did a killer version of “Gloria,”  which had the whole crowd stomping. Peppy then introduced a new song, saying that he and Ralph it wrote while having food in Chinatown. It’s called “Crapo De Stinko,” and was quite amusing. They then performed another great tune from their ‘Psychedelic Lollipop” album called “Gotta Get Away,” which lead right into a rip roaring take on The Seeds’ “Pushing Too Hard.”

The Sonics - Irving Plaza, NYC - 4.7.15

The Sonics, a band formed in ‘60 in Tacoma Washington by then teen-aged guitarist Larry Parypa are still performing, which is quite amazing. The audience was a mix of young hipsters and older people that are the band’s contemporaries.

This group were the original frat party band along with The Kingsman and The Wailers. With the Garage Rock Revival going strong they reformed in ‘07, (after a few other brief reformations), to play two sold out shows at Warsaw, a small club in Brooklyn, NYC.

Randy Bachman & The Heavy Blues Band - The Concert Hall, NYC, 4.25.15

Randy Bachman, a founding member of both The Guess Who and Bachman -Turner Overdrive was out with his great new band that contains two talented and attractive young women. Anna Ruddick, bass, was dressed in psychedelic striped bell bottoms and a fringe vest. Dale Anne Brendon, drums, rocked away behind the skins in a black tank top. The drums obscured the rest of her attire.

Bachman, a very talented guitarist, took care of that. He mainly played a classic sunburst Gibson Les Paul.

Bachman’s new record, titled “Heavy Blues”, is the impetus behind the touring, and there was plenty of blues played. It sounded great acoustically at The Concert Hall, a church on the Upper West Side of Manhattan that’s a wonderful venue to hear and see performances.