New York Dolls

Three Rivers Arts Festival, Downtown, Pittsburgh, PA.....


I had seen Syl Sylvain and Johnny Thunders once at the Continental in New York City (with a guest appearance from Cheetah Chrome; wish I remembered the actual date for that show, it was either in 1989 or 1990) but I've never seen the Dolls as a band.

My wife and I couldn't stay for too long, having the little one with us (only 7 months old then!). Plus, I had literally just gotten off a plane from Bonnaroo and was pretty exhausted myself. 

Frankly, though, I was a little disappointed with what I heard. It just didn't seem like the Dolls I knew. I heard from others, though, that the show got better later in the set.



setlist (as far as I heard):
Babylon
Puss 'n' Boots
We're All in Luv
Piece of My Heart
Plenty of Music
Private World
[here's about where I had to leave]

 

my brother-in-law Ned with the Dolls onstage behind him

 

me with my daughter, sleeping through the Dolls

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Del Amitri, Gin Blossoms

Image
Irving Plaza, New York, NY...... Although Gin Blossoms would go on to having four top 40 hits in the U.S. including one top 10 placement while Del Amitri would only have three top 40 hits (including one in the top 10), when this concert took place Del Amitri was the bigger band and thus the Scottish group was the headliner. Del Amitri released their brilliant debut album in 1985 but it came and went with little notice in the U.S. outside of some college radio stations (including my WICB, at Ithaca College). I loved that release but when no follow-up album came out for years, I figured sadly that they were a one-and-done band. But then, they had a new album in 1989 on a new record label and lo and behold--the band scored their first top 40 hit in "Kiss This Thing Goodbye." It took the label two tries to make it a hit, releasing the song as the album's first single without success but then re-releasing it in the summer of 1990 and taking it to the lower depths of the top 40...
Read more

Robyn Hitchcock, Brad Yoder

Image
Rex Theater, Pittsburgh, PA..... A momentary distraction at the start of Hitchock's set led him to begin his show with covers of Jimi Hendrix' "Are You Experienced?" and Scott McKenzie's "San Francisco" and to declare that the '60s were still going on, he was the same 16-year-old he was in 1969, and that the current year was actually "1960-44." His choice of old material was terrific: "Swirling," "She Doesn't Exist," and "Queen Elvis," particularly. And the songs from his latest album Spooked were fine additions to the Hitchcock canon. When he concluded the main set, he announced that he would be performing the encore in the lobby of the theater (a converted movie house). Naturally, we in the audience thought it was yet another whimsical Hitchcockian statement, but damned if he didn't play a four-song encore on an old baby-grand in the lobby with the entire audience crowded around. Following those four...
Read more

The Avett Brothers, Nicole Atkins

Image
Stage AE, Pittsburgh, PA.... Seth and Scott Avett had visited WYEP that afternoon for an interview and I did the stage announcements at the concert, so it was fun being backstage being treated like a VIP. The Avetts introduced me to their father Jim (who joined the band on "Salvation Song"), and I chatted with my old NJ friend Nicole Atkins (who was a friend of the Avetts during her brief time in NC). It was a great show, of course.   The Avett Brothers   Nicole Atkins   me with Seth & Scott Avett me introducing the Avetts on stage     Avett Brothers setlist: Go to Sleep Tin Man I Killed Sally's Lover Shame The Fall Will You Return? Laundry Room Paranoia in B-Flat Major Never Been Alive The Prettiest Thing Distraction #74 January Wedding Hard Worker Kick Drum Heart Colorshow The Once and Future Carpenter Head Full of Doubt/Road Full of Promise I and Love and You And It Spread encore break Magazines Salvation Song Talk on Indolence 
Read more