Cloaca Melodia

Tradewinds, Sea Bright, NJ.... The WHTG Snowball.     FM 106.3 staff onstage at the Snowball. L to R, Jennifer Saunders, "Sportsguy" Glenn Vistica, me, Maryelizabeth.

Convention Hall, Asbury Park, NJ sorry, Mike has not yet written about this show... add your own comments if you were also there!

State Theater, New Brunswick, NJ..... sorry, Mike has not yet written about this show... add your own comments if you were also there!   setlist: The Boy Racer Alma Matters London Billy Budd Spring-Heeled Jim Now My Heart Is Full Speedway Reader Meet Author Why Don't You Find Out for Yourself Roy's Keen The Teachers Are Afraid of the Pupils The More You Ignore Me, the Closer I Get Paint a Vulgar Picture   encore break   Shoplifters of the World Unite 

Stone Pony, Asbury Park, NJ sorry, Mike has not yet written about this show... add your own comments if you were also there!

State Theater, New Brunswick, NJ...... sorry, Mike has not yet written about this show... add your own comments if you were also there!    

Irving Plaza, New York, NY My WHTG colleague Glenn Vistica urged me to come along to this show. I knew the New York alt-country band The Hangdogs (especially their song "Fools Rush In"), but neither of the other bands on the bill. But I figured, ok, why not? The Hangdogs were good, so my night was made. Then Whiskeytown came out on stage, with their sprawling richness of sound and entrancing melodies. The lineup of the band was then Ryan Adams and Ed Crawford on guitars, Caitlin Cary on fiddle, Jenni Snyder on bass, Skillet Gilmore on drums, and Mike Daly as the multi-instrumentalist. I didn't know it then, but the band's lineup was in a state of flux. Apart from Adams and Cary, the band members on their latest album Stranger's Almanac were no longer in the group; Adams and Cary had just done a few shows as an acoustic duo amidst rumors that the band was breaking up, and this concert was one of the first with the newly recruited players (I also didn't realize...

Giants Stadium, E. Rutherford, NJ sorry, Mike has not yet written about this show... add your own comments if you were also there!

Hammerstein Ballroom, New York, NY..... Oasis setlist: Be Here Now Stay Young Stand By Me Supersonic Some Might Say Roll With It D'You Know What I Mean Magic Pie Don't Look Back In Anger Don't Go Away Wonderwall Live Forever It's Gettin' Better (Man!!) Champagne Supernova Fade In-Out All Around The World Encore: Acquiesce external review: review by Peter Vamos for Jam! Showbiz >> In the intimate confines of the beautiful and ornate Hammerstein Ballroom in New York's Chelsea district, Oasis, the self-proclaimed "world's greatest band" arrived Tuesday night with only one goal in mind. To crank out their biggest and best tunes at such a volume that they crack the molded plaster lining the place. Playing the first of two nights in what will be their only headlining gigs in North America this year, the band thundered through most of their popular numbers, including Supersonic, Roll With It, Live Forever, Champagne Supernova and Wonderwall. Guitari...

Stone Pony, Asbury Park, NJ sorry, Mike has not yet written about this show... add your own comments if you were also there!

Tradewinds, Sea Bright, NJ..... Catherine Wheel exploded onto the music world in 1992 with a 7-minute rock opus called "Black Metallic." This song synthesized the dance-rock of the Stone Roses, the moody riffing of Sisters of Mercy, and the simplified indie coarseness of the Jesus & Mary Chain into one epic expression of loosely-opaque lyrics. Its effect was anthemic on the alt-rock crowd, still reeling in the months after "Smells Like Teen Spirit" has dashed previous anthems to splinters. The band recognized the power of returning to full volume after its 90-second breakdown section, which stripped everything down to drums plus a little lead guitar and vocal noodling. The crashing conclusion of this breakdown was the song's secret weapon, the stunning amendment to the dance-rock Constitution put forth by the Stone Roses and ultimately the missing ingredient to "Fools Gold." I never had a chance to see the band live during the years immediately fol...

Tradewinds, Sea Bright, NJ..... sorry, Mike has not yet written about this show... add your own comments if you were also there!    

Surf Club, Ortley Beach, NJ sorry, Mike has not yet written about this show... add your own comments if you were also there!

Tradewinds, Sea Bright, NJ.... Songs performed included "Devil Inside," "Disappear," "Heaven Sent," "Don't Change," "What You Need," and then-new song "Searching" and "Girl on Fire." According to one reviewer, "Singer Michael Hutchence also shows he can still work a crowd, whether he dances under flashing white lights or lays atop speakers singing to the audience."     me with Michael Hutchence backstage at Tradewinds

Stone Pony, Asbury Park, NJ sorry, Mike has not yet written about this show... add your own comments if you were also there!

Hammerstein Ballroom, New York, NY A broadcast for MTV's Live at the 10 Spot . setlist: Karma Police The Bends Exit Music Subterranean Homesick Alien My Iron Lung No Surprises Bones Paranoid Android Fake Plastic Trees Street Spirit

Birch Hill, Old Bridge, NJ sorry, Mike has not yet written about this show... add your own comments if you were also there!

PNC Bank Arts Center, Holmdel, NJ..... H.O.R.D.E. Festival '97. Neil Young's setlist: Hey Hey, My My Crime in the City Hippie Dream Jam Big Time From Hank to Hendrix The Needle and the Damage Done Ohio Throw Your Hatred Down Rockin' in the Free World Sedan Delivery encore break Mansion On The Hill

Surf Club/Planet Surf, Ortley Beach, NJ sorry, I haven't yet written about this show... add your own comments if you were also there!

PNC Bank Arts Center, Holmdel, NJ.... sorry, I haven't yet written about this show... add your own comments if you were also there!     me with Chad Taylor of Live my ticket stub from the show my meet and greet pass from the show

Tradewinds, Sea Bright, NJ.... sorry, I haven't yet written about this show... add your own comments if you were also there!    

Birch Hill, Old Bridge, NJ sorry, Mike has not yet written about this show... add your own comments if you were also there!

Mighty Mighty Bosstones/Social Distortion/Pennywise/Blink 182/Reel Big Fish/Less Than Jake Bradley Park, Asbury Park, NJ sorry, Mike has not yet written about this show -- coming soon!

PNC Bank Arts Center, Holmdel, NJ..... Lilith Fair   sorry, I haven't yet written about this show... add your own comments if you were also there!

State Theater, New Brunswick, NJ Sheik performed with a second guitarist, a bass player, and a percussionist. The sound mix was terrific. Very mellow, yet you could hear every note... As a sidebar, here's a 1996 interview I did with Sheik on his birthday (11/18): Mike: One of the things I love about your album is it's not just great music--songs, I mean--but also it's such a great sonic environment. Was that the kind of thing you heard in your head when you were composing the songs, or was this something that evolved in the studio? Duncan: Well, definitely my aesthetic comes from people like Brian Eno or David Sylvian or the later Talk Talk records. Whether they're electronically produced or they're acoustic-instrument produced, I still like these things that sound really organic and moody and have their own kind of darkness. That's always been a really important part of creating recordings for me. Mike: So when you have something like in "Reasons For Livin...

Coney Island High, New York, NY This show was apparently part of the Intel New York Music Festival.

Tradewinds, Sea Bright, NJ In the afternoon, Better Than Ezra popped by WHTG and did an acoustic version of "Desperately Wanting" on the air. That evening I was the M.C. for the show. Before their performances, I chatted backstage with Ednaswap and was given a CD by Knockout Drops.  Although their performance was good, BTE had a touch of the rock star attitude. When I went backstage and told them I was supposed to introduce them, they merely waved me to their tour manager to set up the details. After the show, I tried to chat with them a little and they just seemed kind of bored. It was a weeknight, which was always tricky since I was on the air at 6am the next morning. I ended up only getting 3 hours of sleep before my hated alarm clock went off the next morning...    

Surf Club, Ortley Beach, NJ.... Surfstock 4. Below is a contemporaneous review of this show I wrote for injersey.com. Surfstock 4, the July 4th concert at the Surf Club in Ortley Beach, was a worthy successor to the fine previous shows on the beach. This year, sponsoring radio station FM 106.3 selected bands to give the show a well-rounded diversity of styles, and the approach seemed to work well for most audience members. The whole of Surfstock was greater than the sum of its parts, and each performer contributed a great deal to the fun and energy of the event. Not only was the music terrific, but the atmosphere was appropriately party-like. The weather was ideal, the crowd was eager and receptive, and the bands and artists themselves were largely accessible to fans--most of the performers strolled around the beach when they weren't on stage, gladly signing autographs or simply chatting with admirers. The headliner, former Dramarama frontman John Easdale was clearly the crowd favo...

Paramount Theater, Asbury Park, NJ   setlist for Sinead O'Connor :   The Emperor's New Clothes  Your Spirit Sings  I Am Stretched on Your Grave  Only one way to be free  Englishman John  I love you  This is to mother you  Sign to you ??  Thank you for loving me + Last day of our acquaintance  In this heart (my love)  She's changing ??  I am something ?  He moved through the fair  ( source )     

Iggy Pop/Tonic/Sponge/Rev. Horton Heat/Bloodhound Gang/Puzzle Gut Stone Pony, Asbury Park, NJ Photo : Emerson Hart of Tonic performs on the Stone Pony stage.

Downing Stadium, Randall's Island, New York, NY..... The Tibetan Freedom Concert was obviously a pretty massive show, not just in the number of artists performing but in the largeness of most of the acts. The day I went (out of the two days of the festival) had a great lineup and was absolutely jam-packed with people. I tried not to go to the bathrooms or to get food (though I ended up doing both) because the area one had to walk to get to those facilities seemed like a dangerously overcrowded choke point. But it was a great day of music.  Add your own comments if you were also there!   my ticket stub from the show  

Tradewinds, Sea Bright, NJ Goddamn, I wanted to hate Third Eye Blind live. At WHTG, we were playing "Semi Charmed Life" quite a bit and listeners really dug it. Hell, I dug it. Before this show, we had set up a meet & greet with some contest winners. The opening act, Long Island rockers Coward, were terrific guys--very friendly and personable to us station people and our listeners. One of our contest winners was in a wheelchair, and the Coward boys took an extra minute to give this listener some attention. By contrast, the members of Third Eye Blind looked and acted as if they just woke up and wanted to be elsewhere. Which may well have been true, but hey, guys: suck it up. Your duly-appointed representatives made a commitment for you to greet some listeners, so do your duty, if not with a smile, at least without a grimace. They also ignored the listener in the wheelchair. Jackasses. So I was all set to hate their performance. But, I had to admit, they put on a good show....

Birch Hill, Old Bridge, NJ.... Sweet's setlist : "Come to California," "Get Older," "Divine Intervention," "Walk Out," "Winona," "Into Your Drug," "Girlfriend," "Back to You," "Someone to Pull the Trigger," "Over It," "Time Capsule," "Until You Break," "I've Been Waiting," "Hollow," "Where You Get Love," "Sick of Myself," "Evangeline," "We're the Same," "Do Ya," "I Almost Forgot," "Thought I Knew You," "Does She Talk?," "Moonage Daydream," "Holy War" ( source )     me with Matthew 

E-Center, Camden, NJ.... Officially called the "Y100 Feztival," it was a concert put together by the radio station WPLY. sorry, Mike has not yet written about this show... add your own comments if you were also there!

Stone Pony, Asbury Park, NJ Here's an interview I did right before this Stone Pony concert, originally for injersey.com: Reel Big Fish is not just a band--it's an addiction. Their songs are quite catchy, and their style is hugely entertaining--it sounds like a bunch of guys having a great party, and you can't help wanting to crash it. It's hard not to get involved in the loopy sense of fun. The band plays a ska-punk blend, similar to labelmates Goldfinger. Unlike their friends in Goldfinger, though, Reel Big Fish includes not only the traditional rock instruments of guitar (Aaron Barrett, who's also the lead singer), bass (Matt Wong), and drums (Andrew Gonzales), but also two trumpet players (Scott Klopfenstein and Tavis Werts) and two trombonists (Grant Barry and Dan Regan). In 1995, Reel Big Fish put out a local record, Everything Sucks, in their native Southern California, and were quickly signed to Mojo Records soon after. Their latest effort is Turn the Radio O...