$50 for three concerts? How did I ever afford my rock-and-roll lifestyle back in college…

No, not the real Radiohead – Phil Callen, Kevin Dutcher, Adena Brumer and Molly Sue McDonald covering Radiohead songs (and others) last night in Minneapolis. I posted videos of two songs on Facebook (here and here). And here are a few audio clips I recorded on my phone:

High and Dry

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Karma Police

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Creep

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The show was a lot of fun – Phil’s wife was in town and I got to chat with Jim Cunningham again, which is always entertaining. Talked a little with Adena after the show (who performs with Phil and Jim at the Saint Paul Hotel’s version of It’s A Wonderful Life) and met Kevin Dutcher for the first time (who is the music director for the Minnesota Twins).

Two specific highlights for me from the show: 1) the medley that went from Psycho Killer into Fade Out and Adena’s cover of Creep towards the end of the show (see link above).

Never been to the Bedlam before either – super easy access from the Cedar-Riverside light rail station and a nice vibe inside. Also picked up a rare “this is what you get when you mess with us” T-shirt…

My job has taken me to Loveland, Colorado, the past two weeks to work on a large education project. I’ve enjoyed working on this one a lot – the scope is large and interesting, the client employees are great and I’m working with a very knowledgeable co-worker for the first time. Loveland and Berthoud are very nice towns with the typical western U.S. look to them (and majestic mountains off in the distance).

Food and lodging have been pretty nice – the Best Western I’m at was recently remodeled and the locally-owned restaurants I’ve been to have been excellent (Bent Fork Grill and 4th Street Chophouse). I’ve been loving the Chick-fil-A across the street from the hotel too (maybe loving that a bit too much).

Last week I took an evening off and drove down to Morrison, Colorado, to catch the Joe Cocker/Tom Petty concert at Red Rocks. That venue was amazing and is by far the best place I’ve ever seen a live show. I took a walk around the Trading Post trail before the show and got a little winded on the 1.4 mile trek. Stunning scenery, though.

As for the concert, both acts were firing on all cylinders. I enjoyed Joe Cocker’s set more than I thought I would, with lots of great songs (You Can Keep Your Hat On, With a Little Help from My Friends, Shelter Me, You Are So Beautiful, etc.). The official Tom Petty site has a nice summary of the show with photos and here is the setlist:

• Kings Highway
• Listen to Her Heart
• Won’t Back Down
• Free Fallin’
• Oh Well
• Mary Jane’s Last Dance
• Driving Down to Georgia
• Breakdown
• Jefferson Jericho Blues
• Taking My Time
• First Flash of Freedom
• Running Man’s Bible
• I Should Have Known It
• Good Enough
• Learning to Fly
• Don’t Come Around Here
• Refugee
• (encore) Running Down a Dream
• You Wreck Me
• American Girl

Heading back to Minnesota tomorrow night. Up next: Tapemark on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, then off to Hurley, Wisconsin, for another week.

Last weekend was my favorite annual tradition – two days at the Great Minnesota Get-Together in Falcon Heights. This was the 40th year in a row for me and was the most crowded visit yet (although I guess it was not a record).

We had tickets to the Saturday night grandstand show, Lynyrd Skynyrd and Kid Rock, so we decided to get there in the early afternoon. Our usual secret route to the parking lot across from the coliseum was totally backed up, but we did get a spot. Lines at all of the food booths were 10-15 deep and the streets were jammed with people.

The concert itself was entertaining. “Fake Skynyrd” was OK, the people watching was great and Kid Rock was an awesome performer. After the show, we watched the nightly dance party at the corn booth, then said hi to our friend Art, who performs every day at the Cafe Caribe stage.

Sunday was the 25th annual Milk Run 5K, which kid one and I ran together in 34:34. We saw a few neighbors out running too and my mother-in-law stopped in at the finish. It always amazes me how many people we run into at the fair each year.

The kids used up their Kidway tickets in record time and we hit most of the buildings and food stands we planned on, then left around 3PM. I spent a lot of money and ate a lot of food, but didn’t seem to gain too much weight this time. The stomach did need a few days to recover from the grease onslaught, though.

Earlier this week, Colleen and I were invited to a free blogger night at the latest Cirque du Soleil touring show to visit the Twin Cities, Kooza. If you’ve visited here in the past, you may know that Cirque shows are one of my fetishes.

I actually had purchased four tickets to see this show when it was originally scheduled to make the U.S. premier in St. Paul a year ago. After they announced the re-scheduled dates, I purchased two tickets to take my mom next week as a mother’s day gift. These free tickets were a nice bonus surprise that gave me the chance to take Colleen as well.

The Grand Chapiteau makes its first appearance on my side of the river and fit in nicely off the corner of Kellogg and Broadway, overlooking the Mississippi River. Parking was easy and inexpensive at the St. Paul Farmer’s Market lot ($5) and traffic in and out of our midweek 8PM show was almost non-existent (even with a mostly full crowd).

Reviews of this show in both main newspapers were good (although I just read the headlines to avoid spoilers), so I had high expectations going in to this one. I won’t spoil anything here either, but will say that this is one of the best Cirque shows we’ve seen and is well worth attending.

The St. Paul run has been extended through August 9 and discounted tickets can be purchased for selected shows via this link.

As I recently wrote about Robert Cray, watching masters perform their craft is one of the most rewarding experiences for me. Kooza is full of masters – catch them if you can…

Last night Colleen and I got to see something you don’t normally get to do – watch a masterful musician perform in a very small club. The Robert Cray Band was performing at the Cabooze in Minneapolis and we were up close and personal.

It only took me 40 years of living in the Twin Cities, but I finally made it to the Cabooze. It was smaller than I expected and the layout was sort of goofy for live music, but the sound was good. I thought parking was going to be a problem, but we read the sign about free parking at AIOIC and all was good.

We’ve now seen this band play at the Minnesota Zoo, the Minnesota State Fair, the Fitzgerald and maybe one or two other places. Last night’s concert included a few new songs from an album Mr. Cray said is coming in August. Two songs in particular, Chicken in the Kitchen and Love 2009, were great and fun to hear. Other highlights for me included Right Next Door (Because of Me), Back Door Slam, Time Makes Two and The One in the Middle. I don’t think he played anything from Twenty this time – sort of hoped to hear Poor Johnny.

Overall, though, it was a great show and this continues to be a group I’ll see whenever they come to town. One final note: Jim Pugh on the Hammond organ is a sight to behold. Go Jim, Go!

Last night Colleen and I went to see Morrissey at the State Theater in Minneapolis. This was our first time seeing him perform live, although we had seen him in person once before:

A few years ago, he was doing a show at the Las Vegas House of Blues that we almost attended. The next day as we were leaving town, he was in line in front of us at the airport Cinnabon! No one else was in there but us, Morrissey and his band. We sat at the table next to them and listened in until they left. We still stop at the “Morrissey Cinnabon” every time we go back to Vegas…

The show openers were the Manchester band The Courteeners, who played an entertaining, enjoyable set. I had to ask the guys behind us to please stop yelling back and forth and take their conversation out to the lobby – why does this happen at every show now? Shut the hell up, already, and listen to the music.

Damn I hate that.

As the roadies broke down the Courteeners gear, they played older videos of the New York Dolls and Shocking Blue, among others. Once the curtain was torn down, the stage opened up to a cool WWII-era photo of a sailor showing his guns and smoking a cigar. Here’s a crappy iPhone picture:

I don’t have a set list yet, but I think it was very similar to the Chicago show two nights ago:

• This Charming Man
• Something is Squeezing My Skull
• Billy Budd
• Black Cloud
• How Soon is Now
• Irish Blood, English Heart
• How Could Anybody Possibly Know How I Feel?
• Ask
• I’m Throwing My Arms Around Paris
• The World is Full of Crashing Bores
• Death of a Disco Dancer
• The Loop
• I Keep Mine Hidden
• One Day Goodbye Will be Farewell
• Seasick, Yet Still Docked
• Best Friend on the Payroll
• Let Me Kiss You
• Sorry Doesn’t Help
• When Last I Spoke to Carol
• I’m OK by Myself
• – Encore –
• First of the Gang to Die

I’m not an ultra-Morrissey fan, so I don’t know all of the song titles by heart. I’ll revise this list when I see something posted elsewhere. I do know that he dedicated a song towards the end to “our friend Jill Smith who passed away in London today” and proceeded to play Life Is A Pigsty.

A few songs I was hoping to hear (but didn’t): Glamourous Glue, Redondo Beach and I Have Forgiven Jesus (which, if you ever used to watch the old Late Late Show with Craig Kilborn, holds special meaning). I knew those were all long-shots, but otherwise really loved the show. The version of How Soon is Now? was amazing and I was glad he played my favorite song from the new album – When Last I Spoke to Carol (despite the lack of a trumpet and old western sound effects).

The 49-year-old Englishman took off his shirt twice during the show and a near riot broke out during the encore as people tried to jump up on the stage. The tall, young Lurch of a security man stage left seemed to enjoy his job a little too much, violently throwing people back into the crowd. You know it’s bad when the huge bald security guy has to restrain the tall, young security guy.

Perhaps the most entertaining part of the evening, however, was the woman in the row in front of us. She really liked Morrissey and had more energy and dance moves than I’ve seen anywhere in a long time. And I’m about 95% sure she had multiple orgasms during the course of the evening.

Not a bad deal for $40, eh?

UPDATE: Here is the Minneapolis set list, according to the Star Tribune:

• This Charming Man
• Billy Budd
• Black Cloud
• How Soon Is Now?
• Irish Blood, English Heart
• When I Last Spoke to Carol
• How Can Anybody Possibly Know How I Feel?
• I Keep Mine Hidden
• Let Me Kiss You
• Seasick, Yet Still Docked
• That’s How People Grow Up
• Death Of A Disco Dancer
• The Loop
• Something Is Squeezing My Skull
• The World Is Full Of Crashing Bores
• I’m Throwing My Arms Around Paris
• Sorry Doesn’t Help
• Ask
• Life Is A Pigsty
• I’m OK By Myself
• – Encore –
• First Of The Gang To Die