So the more you read this blog, the more you will see that I have this thing about going to see aging rockers. My belief is, if someone is coming to your town, and you have any interest in seeing them you should drop everything and go. This is because one day, doubtlessly unexpectedly, that same person is going to up and die on you.
I came to this epiphany around the time my friend Alex and I had planned to go see Roy Orbison. The time was the late 80's and Orbison was riding high on a tide of post-Blue Velvet resurgent interest in his music. Appropriately, we were ready to see the man with the 3rd largest pair of sunglasses in rock and roll croon "In Dreams" and subsequently get all Frank with ourselves about it. So after much planning and scheming, the day came when Orbison was in our town and what did we do? We lost enthusiasm. "Oh, we'll go see him next time" we naively said. We were young and stupid then. There was no next time. A month later Orbison was dead.
Oops.
A year or so later, a similar thing happened with Screamin' Jay Hawkins. Oops x 2. That sealed the deal for me. So now I have seen Tom Jones twice (he doesn't seem to be going anywhere but I'd still go see him again), and Morphine at their last gig in the US before singer Mark Sandman died (a gig during which I thought "Gee, these guys are great, I have to go see them more"). So believe me, when someone of interest comes to play in your town, don't count on them coming back. Go see them now. Planes crash, people die, bands split, drummers explode,... Take the next morning off from work. As a good friend of mine once said to me - you will never look back and think, "Wow, I am so glad I went to work that day". Too true.
