At the Cat's Cradle.

Dave Rawlings and Gillian Welch put together a band for a little 'mini-tour' of the south, and they picked Chapel Hill as one of their eight stops. So, I went. When I bought the tickets, I didn't know David and Gillian would be playing with John Paul Jones (a.k.a. Led Zeppelin's bass player), Willie Watson (formerly of Old Crow Medicine Show) and Paul Kowert (Punch Brothers). I learned that yesterday.

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I guess other people knew, because the show was sold out. Or it could be that everyone knows that they're a fantastic band and they always put on a fantastic show - even when they're just Dave and Gillian. But the addition of the other three guys - especially Willie Watson (who sang lead on a bunch of tunes and played banjo, guitar & fiddle) really filled-out the sound.

A second fiddle/viola player came out for a few songs. I didn't catch her name, but she looked like she was having the time of her life.

As always, it was a mix of David's songs, Gillian's songs, standards and well-chosen covers. Because John Paul Jones was there, they did Zeppelin's "Going To California" as one of the encores. Also: Neil Young's "Cortez", The Band's "The Weight", Old Crow's "I Hear Them All" --> "This Land Is Your Land", Dylan's "Queen Jane", etc..

I saw John Paul Jones playing bluegrass in 2007, at Merlefest, but that was on a big stage, from very far away. This time, he was like ten feet away. I could hear his mandolin from the stage better than I could hear it in the PA (because he wouldn't always get close enough to the mic). After Rawlings did the introductions at the end of their show, and the place went nuts when Jones' name was announced, I noticed that the guy in front of me had his phone out, looking up who this John Paul Jones guy was. Way to make me feel old.

It's been a good year for me and Zep. Now if Jimmy Page would come around before the end of the year, I could complete my score card.

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If you're in Charlotte, Birmingham or Athens this week, definitely go see them.

We saw the legendary Willie Nelson, this past weekend.

His voice still sounds great - still has that smooth relaxed tone - but it looks like he doesn't have the breath he once had. A lot of his phrases were quick and clipped. And, he let the audience handle a lot of the singing. But, he's 80, so that's OK. His guitar playing was a bit off, though. At first, he sounded out of tune and off beat, and way too loud in the mix. Sounded like one of those "shreds" videos. Eventually, though, he synced up with the rest of the band and all was well.

As you would expect, he played a ton of his well-known songs, along with a bunch of well-known covers (including a set of Hank Williams songs).

The crowd was a much older crowd than we've seen in a while. And, thankfully, they were happy to sit down through most of the show!

Willie's son Lukas, and his band, "Promise Of The Real", opened. They do a blues/country/rock hybrid, very Texas, very rockin. He's got his dad's voice, but puts a ton of bluesy growl into it. And he's a good guitar player. He played in his dad's band, for that set.

Good show, all around. Plus, it was our 17th wedding anniversary that night.

As part of the big "Hopscotch" music festival the city puts on every year, The Breeders played their "Last Splash" album, downtown Raleigh, this past weekend! Sweeeet!

But I skipped it, because I'm old and lazy and the idea of standing in a plaza on a summer's day with a bunch of drunk kids makes me ill.

I'm not so old that I can't regret all of that, though.

Saw Maiden and Megadeth last night. Somehow I missed seeing them back in the 80s, so I couldn't say no this time.

It was at the local big music venue, outdoors, hot as fuck, filled with tens of thousands of men in black T-shirts and a handful of the women who love them.

I was worried that they'd do a set of all new stuff, as happened to a friend who saw them a couple of years back. But, they did a set list that was (according to Bruce Dickinson) mostly based on a set list from their "Seventh Son..." tour (1988). So, they did mostly oldies classics: at least three from Number Of The Beast, three from their first album, a lot from Seventh Son..>, etc.. Perfect! The band was in fine form: tight but happy to clown around from time to time. Dickinson was spry and charmingly hammy. 15' Eddie came out and waved his sword around. Giant background Eddie held his Eddie-as-mandala seal. Flags were waved, sacred chants were praised. Three guitar players played leads either solo, or in pairs, or all at once. Steve Harris galloped along while Nico thundered away in his cage.

It was the loudest outdoor show I've ever been to - laid awake hoping the ringing would subside (hasn't yet). And the crowd was even louder. Metalheads love them some Maiden. Shirts were $40, and everybody had one.

The sound was the basic big venue mud. But at least they turned the vocals up so we could all gape at how well Dickinson could still sing.

Megadeth's sound was pretty bad. And I only recognized one song: Peace Sells... (Mrs recognized two). I should've studied. Thankfully, Mustaine kept his politics to himself.

No pix. iPhones aren't great in the dark.

Mrs and I saw this gentleman, this past weekend.

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Mr Long-locked Rock God himself, Robert Plant. This time, backed by a band he's calling the "Sensational Space Shifters".

Twas a fine show. The last time we saw him, he was in the middle of his bluegrass kick, so he gave all of the songs a strong country vibe. This time, he seems to be in an African mood, and many of the songs were given an African or middle eastern flavor - but not all of them; a few of the Zeppelin tunes were done perfectly straight (and most excellently). Either way, it worked. The band was good, and inluded the Gambian multi-instrumentalist, Juldeh Camara. Plant himself is a good entertainer, very charming and engaging, and his voice is still surprisingly nice. When he's not trying for the high screamy stuff, his voice is nearly as good as ever. And he can still get to most of the really high notes - he just can't hold them for very long. I'll allow it.

The opening band was Bombino, (mostly) from Niger. Three of them wore long brightly-colored silk robes, two of them wearing scarfs which started below the neck line and wrapped all the way to a turban the top of their head, leaving just a small space for a face to peek out from. They barely spoke English, and all the lyrics were in Tamasheq (which might as well have been Arabic, to Western ears). So that was something we don't get much of, in NC. Frankly, I was surprised I didn't hear anything rude from the crowd.

But, they rocked it, and the crowd was appreciative. They play a quick, loud, guitar-based music. It's not as funky as the 1970's Nigerian stuff, or as raw as the proto-blues Malian stuff, both of which I've taken a liking to. Instead, it's very driving and repetitive (nearly trance-inducing), with a strong Arabic / middle eastern vibe. The star of the band, Mr "Bombino", was mixed far too low, so it was tough to hear his leads, which was unfortunate because he's a really good guitarist.

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It was an outdoor show - another disgustingly humid mid-summer eve. By the end of Bombino's set, the three guys in silk had completely drenched their silk robes with sweat - the fabric clung to them and sweat was literally pouring out of their sleeves. Africa hot? Bah. NC Hot!

And we're continuing our Summer Of Oldies in September with Iron Fucking Maiden and Willie Fucking Nelson.

Saw Dylan last night. We had front row tickets, on the right side of the stage. But when we got to our seats, someone was occupying them and offered to switch... their seats were also front row and were pretty much dead-center. Err... ok, deal!

I knew about 1/3 of the songs, which is more than I expected to know. He did a few of the better tunes from his latest record, Tempest. He did Visions Of Johanna, he did All Along The Watchtower, he did Tangled Up In Blue and he did Ballad Of A Thin Man. Which was far more of his classics than I dared hope for. And all the rest of the stuff I didn't recognize sounded fine - except for not being able to understand the lyrics.

Bowie said Dylan's voice sounded like sand and glue, in 1971. These days, it's more like Louis Armstrong with a bad case of laryngitis after getting punched in the throat. He's nearly unintelligible, if you don't already know the song. But, I don't think he's ever been one to worry too much about how his voice is perceived. So, he's still at it.

He didn't play guitar. But, he did play piano for most songs, standing up. And he played harmonica on a few.

Honestly, I was worried about the show. I had heard a lot of bad things about his live shows, and am not crazy about his latest record. But, it turned out to be a really good time. And it didn't hurt that I was 25 feet from him the whole time.

Couldn't get any good pictures, though. With nobody between me and the guards standing in front of the stage, there was no way to hide while taking a pic. Had to settle for sneaking a couple at the very end.

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The lights never got brighter than that. It was a dim yellow, the whole time.

AV-Club Favorite, Dawes, opened. We didn't rush to get there, so we only caught their last few songs. But they sounded good. They ended up standing next to us, at the end of Dylan's set. And we photobombed some pix they took with fans.

Went to see Buddy Guy last night. He was entertaining, but the sound was atrocious. The overall volume was way too high for the room and Guy's guitar was so loud in the mix, and its high end so pronounced, that when he played a lead the sound became a sheet of painful screeching agony. Mrs went out to the lobby after two songs, I stuck it out for another two before giving up.

I've kindof stopped going to live shows, after wrecking my ears at the Feelies show last year. But I thought this would be fine, since it was at the Raleigh Memorial Auditorium, where they tend to keep the volume reasonable and the sound is usually pretty good (it's where the NC Symphony and Carolina Ballet perform). But nope. Not this time.

Yeah, there are too many kids on my lawn, but maybe bands should hire sound guys who aren't stone deaf.

Jonny Lang opened, and played about 45 minutes too long. He had the same sound issues, but I was hoping that was just because all opening bands get shitty sound.

Had a good burger at Chuck's, before, though. We split a five dollar milk shake, so we got to talk about Pulp Fiction for a while.

Good movie.

S & C at the Cat's Cradle, last night.

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They had a replacement bassist, not sure why. But he did a fine job. I thought, "wow, Eric Claridge sure looks older in person. But he still zips around on the bass!" It wasn't him.

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Very light turnout, sadly. There were 13 people when the opener started, and maybe 100 when it was all done. Gave me lots of room to roam around - first Cat's Cradle show where I could leave my front-center spot and return to it, whenever I wanted to.

I actually did hurt my hearing at that Feelies show last month (light, non-stop ringing). So, I had to wear earplugs the whole time last night. That sucked. I may be reaching the end of my small-club show career.

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Song selection was mostly from their later five albums, with just a small handful from their first five. In my ideal world, this would be reversed. But, I must say: after hearing it live, I do appreciate the newer stuff more.

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Singer Sam Prekop writes all his words on big pieces of heavy paper. I never really thought of it, but yes, he does pack a lot of words into his songs.

Good show. I got to meet a couple of the guys afterwards. Got to tell them how awesome they are, etc.. Dork.

Opener was Matthew Friedberger. He is the songwriting half of Fiery Furnaces.

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It was him, a sequencer, a couple of keyboards and, sometimes, a bass. It's hard to say if he did one song or a few songs that ran together; I know nothing about his solo stuff. Mostly, the electronics played their pre-recorded dense, constantly-changing, song parts; and over that he sang/spoke a surreal and disjointed narrative about ... something. Sometimes he'd play a few chords on the keyboard, or a few bars of bass noodling. But mostly he just did his narration. So: just like the Fiery Furnaces, but without his sister singing.

I do not like the Fiery Furnaces. I wish I did. I just don't.

His set made me think of Captain Beefheart (Zappa, too) - that kind of free-spirited, rules-out-the-window, do it exactly like I want approach. But Beefheart had to work in the days before sequencers and samplers could play back every little idea that popped into your head, exactly, without complaint. So he had to find a band that could keep up with his imagination, and I'm sure that limited him in some ways. There are only so many rock musicians out there good enough and daring enough to put themselves in the hands of someone like that. These days, though, anyone can be their own Beefheart: just buy a laptop and get down to it. Still, I was most impressed that he was willing to get up there and essentially narrate his sequencer's performance. Takes something I ain't got.

See also, the interesting, and often very Beefhearty, U Can Unlearn Guitar.

Saw Heart last night. This is the third time we've seen them in the past few years, and it was just as good as the other times. They can all still do it; Ann Wilson's voice doesn't seemed to have diminished even a bit (though she's 62 this year), and Nancy Wilson's voice and guitar playing are still great. The rest of the band is good, too.

The set was a mix of all their old popular songs, with a half-dozen newer things that few people knew. The new stuff isn't bad, though it doesn't really grab me. And everyone knows that everyone's there to hear "Barracuda" anyway.

Tailgated in the parking lot with beers and fried chicken. It was an outdoor show, and it got a little chilly towards the end of the night. Refreshing. Ah, fall...

Highlight: They closed with "Magic Man". When Ann sang "Try, Try, Try to understand...", three identical little puffs of breath - one for each "Try" - appeared next to her, drifted to the side, then disappeared. I actually saw the words, a little surreal.

She started off with a rant about people who say she looks too skinny and hasn't aged well. Apparently saying that would make me sexist.

Then, they did a bunch of her older songs. Then a break to rant about stupid people who keep making "Criminal" jokes about her recent run-in with the law. Then some more songs.

Her on-stage vibe - as you can imagine, given her songs - is wound-up, taught, caged, angry, intense. Her band keeps their heads down, she storms around her half of the stage. But the band was great. And she was great. The song selection was great (even if she did leave-out "Criminal"). Sadly, as with Blondie on the same stage, the sound was far too bass-heavy. Must be a problem with the venue. The overly-loud bass left her vocals frequently inaudible, since she does a lot of singing in a slight whisper. When she got louder, she sounded great, though.

A good show.

The crowd was full of people who could not tolerate silence. When the song got quiet, they started shrieking. When the band tried to do breaks in songs, they started shrieking. When she was talking, they started shrieking.