The Haunt, Ithaca, NY This was a birthday show for John Webber , organized by his girlfriend at the time. As I recall it was supposed to be a private soiree but there was a danger of not having enough attendees to sell enough beverages to appease the bar owner, so it was opened to public admission in a flurry of last-minute promotion. The Haunt was aptly named for those of us DJs at Ithaca College's WICB. The venue was like a second home to many ICB'ers. Not only because of the many great shows there , but the bar and the station partnered for a number of activities: a weekly dance night, station DJs to act as MC for some shows , a couple of live-on-tape broadcasts , and other joint ventures of various stripes. The New York Breaks were a local band; they eventually relocated to Boston and changed their name to Circle Sky. Later, the band's Matt Keating had a solo career of note. We used to play a song by The Breaks called "The Main Thing" (from a cart!). John W...
Benedum Center, Pittsburgh, PA..... With a Morrissey concert, one always wonders whether it will take place at all--given Morrissey's well-documented history of shows cancelled at the last minute. So it was concerning when several recent of his concerts had to be scrapped due to credible death threats on the former Smiths frontman. But, it turned out not to be a concern and the show went on as scheduled. Morrissey was in fine voice but I had some issues with the setlist. Towards the end of the main set, I thought it's got to be bangers all the way down, but I was disappointed. Some deeper cuts, but more problematically, midtempo songs that didn't get the energy up except for the hardest-core of Moz-heads. There were a lot of people heading to the exits early, and my daughter (first time seeing him live) said to me at one point, "The music for each song sounds good but once he starts singing, they all sound the same." The last time I saw Morrissey , while a showcas...
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