Concerts 1995-1998

1995-08-08 Ratdog / The Band

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Central Park Summerstage

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Rob Wasserman's Trios album showed how artists as diverse as Jerry Garcia, Edie Brickel, Brian and Carney Wilson and Yo-Yo Ma could play on a single album and make it work. On this night it was a treat to see not only the original iteration of Ratdog but also The Band. The Grateful Dead had been on tour earlier that summer and I had seen them at Giants Stadium. When I considered whether I wanted tickets for this Rat Dog show, it seemed like a no-brainer as I was then working in midtown manhattan and living on the upper east side - so going to Summerstage was literally on my way home from work and felt like my own backyard. As I recall it was a nice night and a great show.

Unfortunately, unbeknownst to most fans, in the days before this show, Jerry Garcia had been admitted to Serenity Knowles treatment center and had some severe health health problems in addition to his opiate addiction. Jerry passed away on this night. The next day the news reported it, and thus began the mourning of Jerry's passing. Bob Weir decided to go ahead and play the show that Ratdog was scheduled to perform the following night (Aug 9) in New Hampshire, and he briefly addressed Jerry's passing in an interview before the show. By the end of that show Weir's emotions got the better of him, and he threw his guitar down in frustration as Ratdog completed their performance. Overnight, I went from having a pleasant feeling seeing two of my favorite bands outdoors on a lovely summer night to mourning the death of one of my favorite musicians. What a difference a single day had made.

1995-08-12 Chick Corea

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The Blue Note

 

I saw Chick Corea at the Blue several times, this was the first time.

Dave Weckl played drums, who I saw play with Garcia in 1976.

In 1977 I met Chick Corea while traveling home from the University of Vermont where I attended summer music school that year. The Vermont Jazz Festival took place in Burlington around the end of the summer and Chick was flying home with his band on the same flight from Burlington as some of us music students. We spoke with the band, mentioning our summer as music students at UV. They were incredibly nice to us, even letting us listen to recordings on headphones from their tape machine of their performance at the festival. We even introduced Chick to our folks (who had come to pick us up at the airport) when we touched down in NYC. Below are some of my photos from that chance encounter.


1995-08-[18] Suzanne Vega

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The Stephen Talkhouse

 

I saw Suzanne Vega play solo at Stephen Talkhouse shortly after Garcia passed away in 1995. I thought it was the following weekend but may have been a subsequent weekend and couldn’t confirm the date.

I was aware of her since the mid-1980s and enjoyed a lot of the earlier material, including the great song “Left of Center” in which Joe Jackson plays lyrical piano runs behind Suzanne’s beautiful voice. And I knew she was one of only a few people who had actually played with the Grateful Dead, at the rainforest concert at MSG. Garcia’s recent passing was certainly in mind when she opened with “When Heroes Goes Down” to open the show. However, she mentioned nothing otherwise.

She mentioned her experience as a counselor at a sleep-away camp in the Adirondacks where she was the folk singing and disco dancing instructor.

Before the main room was enlarged, the Stephen Talkhouse was tiny - among the smallest venues at which you could see a show like this (and even after the first renovation it was still a very small room). We sat at a table probably about 20-25 feet from her, as she performed solo for the entire show, and I thought it was incredible - a really intimate and beautiful performance.

There have been some subsequent performances of noteriety by Suzanne there - a live recording of a 2003 show there has been released and is available, and she played there again a couple of years ago, when the Talkhouse added an extensive bio page about her background and reputation as a great songwriter.

1995-09-09 David Bromberg

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Town Hall

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This was David's 50th Birthday celebration, and he talked about how his wife allowed him to celebrate it by doing this show. Around this time Bromberg had decided to move to Delaware with his wife, settle down, and mostly retire from touring. It was always great to see Bromberg with his big band, although I enjoyed seeing him at The Bottom Line more than at this venue. Town Hall is a storied venue, now being sandwiched in among giant glass towers.

1995-10-06 R.E.M.

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Meadowlands Arena

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This was part of the Monster album tour, although the album had been out for awhile. Concerts given by R.E.M. in the mid 1990s were incredible and legendary. Friends of mine saw them more times than I did and I got the raves from them about some of the shows. At this show I remember Mike Mills wearing a "Nudie" suit (a rhinestone-studded bodysuit designed by Nudie Cohen, similar to those worn by Elvis Presley and which were also at times worn on stage by Jerry Garcia and by Keith Richards).

1996-09-21 Third World

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Tramps

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Third World was certainly a major force in reggae's international popularity during the 70s and 80s…. When Bob Marley passed away they were commonly listed along with Steel Pulse, Peter Tosh and Jimmy Cliff as a likely successor to the top reggae band in the world. As noted above, I was thoroughly impressed (to say the least) the previous time I saw Third World..... I believe that they had broken up for awhile and then re-formed in the 90s.

1997-10-25 Ratdog

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Hammerstein Ballroom

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The Hammerstein Ballroom had popped up around that time as a "new" live music venue in NYC. It was actually an old venue that had been known as the Manhattan Center. (On setlists.FM there is a gap from the late 70s through the 90s for any shows there.) Most Deadheads knew that some classic live tracks played by the Dead, particularly the ultra-classic versions of Not Fade Away - Going Down the Road Feeling that appear on the "Skull and Roses" live album - were recorded at the Manhattan Center in 1971. But until the Hammerstein Ballroom re-opened for shows in the 1990s, I had no idea where the "Manhattan Center" even was or whether it still existed.