#guildtheatermenlopark – The Boring Old Man

Concert Review: Thomas Dolby at the Guild Theater, Menlo Park, CA

Imagine if you will, a 15 year-old Boring Old Man, in the winter of 1983. My Sophomore year in high school, and I’d had my musical world turned upside down the previous year being introduced to a plethora of punk rock and early “new wave” bands like B-52s, Talking Heads and Wall of Voodoo.

The house I’d spent most of my life in ’til then didn’t have Cable TV, much less MTV, so aside from college radio my introduction to unusual music came from places like Friday Night Videos, or a weird American Bandstand-type show called MV3 that played on broadcast stations.

It was here on a gloomy winter afternoon that I first heard (and saw) Europa and the Pirate Twins by a Mr. Thomas Dolby.

I was completely floored. I had never in my life heard music like that. Not even close. And I couldn’t wrap my head around the idea of ONE GUY making all this music by himself. Now, of course by this time I knew what synthesizers were and I was aware that drum machines existed (though I hadn’t yet seen one, let alone put my hands on one!), but I had no Earthly idea of what could be done with them. I didn’t know anything about sequencers or any of the technical stuff behind the music. I had never seen a computer in real life and didn’t know they could be used to make music. It honestly just seemed like magic. It’s really difficult to get across just how ground breaking this stuff was unless you lived through it. Not only were there new styles of music popping up, seemingly every week, and new technologies at work, but there were new SOUNDS being invented and put on records that had never been heard before. I think it did something to my brain, hearing all these new sounds and musical textures. Once I had been exposed to it, I was never the same. And to this day I hold a certain reverence for this era and style.

All of which is taking the long way around to say, I’ve been a fan of Thomas Dolby literally since the very first time I heard him. I also consider him more than simply an innovator, he leans toward genius in my opinion. And honestly if all you’ve ever heard from the man is She Blinded Me With Science, you’d likely think this statement is simple hyperbole. You have to look at how and when he made his music as much as the music itself to recognize the genius.

I have no idea how often he toured back then, but I never once saw him billed to play anywhere near me. I’m sure he must have at some point, but we didn’t have the interwebs and e-mailing lists like we do today, so it was a lot easier and much more frequent to miss out on shows up until 10-15 years ago. But at long last, I saw the advertisement for the show, I didn’t have a scheduling conflict AND I had the money for tickets. The stars had aligned! And the cherry on top was his show was in Menlo Park at a great venue! Once again avoiding San Francisco, which is always a bonus in my book!

The opening band was Halou, whom I’d never heard of. The Mrs. looked them up and deemed their sound “music to cut yourself to”, which made me laugh but also piqued my interest. I looked them up myself and found a clip of them at the same venue from this past December… The Mrs was spot on. I got through a single minute and had to shut it off. I’m sure it appeals to someone, but not me. Not by a long shot. So I went to the show late and thankfully missed their entire set. Sadly, the Mrs wasn’t feeling well and at the last minute decided not to attend, saving her diminished energy to make it to work on Friday.

Mr. Dolby got started late due to technical difficulties, which was a bit of a drag. We were packed in like sardines in a can and it seemed as though the AC wasn’t working, and I started wondering if I hadn’t made a mistake coming to this show. But finally, after what seemed an eternity, the House lights dropped and the man himself came on stage and launched into…Blue Monday by New Order. “What the Ham Sandwich?!?”, says I. A very curious decision to say the least.

Next up was Europa, the one song above all others I’d hoped he’d play. At that point, I figured I was good and could leave at any time. But then a funny thing happened – I became, somehow, mesmerized.

I’ll admit, for the first 10 minutes or so of the show, I was a little disappointed. The energy was a bit low. Watching one guy on stage behind a bank of gear is not terribly exciting. It was somewhat akin to watching a DJ “perform”. But then I kinda dropped my hyper focus of what the man himself was doing and took in the big picture . He essentially was running a full on multimedia show. He was building songs on the fly, using loops and samplers and keyboards, while simultaneously synced video clips were running behind him with a full light show as the cherry on top. And this turned out to be a show whose sum was greater than its parts. When taken in whole, it was very creative and interesting.

He managed to pull together an on-the-spot “mash up”, layering Gary Numan’s Cars on top of One of our Submarines… and then added a melody from The Cure on the same song. It was pretty impressive.

In another artistic intersection, he had a perfectly synced Jason Mraz doing a vocal track on video to My Brain is Like a Sieve, which was performed flawlessly.

After that Mr. Dolby put forth a bit of a tribute to David Bowie, covering Heroes instrumentally, with spliced in video of Mr. Bowie at the Live Aid concert from 1985.

He ended his set with a double- whammy of Hyperactive and She Blinded Me With Science. The former was a little lackluster if I’m being totally honest – without the female vocal parts and the horns, it didn’t have the same impact as the recorded version of the song. But the latter fused in a bunch of cameos and clips pulled from TV and the News with a bunch of famous faces and voices adding “Science!” at the appropriate spots. Again, unexpected and very creative.

And before I knew what hit me, the show was over…

He came out for an encore and pulled out one more song for the crowd, a very down tempo number, Airwaves. Again, a curious choice. But it was done very sincerely and well.

All in all, I can say wholeheartedly that it was a good show. Great? No, not really. But very creative and unique. I can honestly say I’ve never seen anything quite like it, and I’m glad I went.

Mr. Dolby sounded great – all his years of work have turned his once quirky and kinda weird voice into something of a crooner’s voice, and while the edges may have been softened, he still sounded fantastic. And I must add, he looked great too. I hope to hold up as well when I’m in my late 60s!

It’s not every day you get to see a living legend in the flesh and I’m grateful that I finally got the opportunity to see Mr. Dolby do his thing in front of an audience.

He stated that this was the first night of a “mini tour” (hence the technical problems that delayed the start of the show), and I don’t know how many more opportunities there will be to see him on stage, but if he’s coming to your town I’d say his show is definitely worth the price of admission.

Thanks to the Guild staff and Mr. Dolby for the fun and unique night of sights and sounds!

Thank you reader, for stopping by!

Concert Review: Better Than Ezra at the Guild Theater, Menlo Park, CA

Sorry, I’m a few days late with this one, but better late than never I suppose…

Last Thursday, December 5th, the Mrs. and I attended a LONG awaited show with Better Than Ezra. If you don’t know this band, you should.

We last saw Better Than Ezra sometime in the mid-00’s, I apologize my memory is a little fuzzy, let’s just say 2005. They absolutely KNOCKED OUR SOCKS OFF! So needless to say, as soon as I heard they were coming to town, I snatched up some tickets.

This is maybe the 5th or so visit to the Guild Theater, and as I’ve mentioned in other Concert Review posts, it’s a great place for music and I was happy to be going back again.

The opening band was Cool Water Canyon, whom we’d never heard of. 5 piece band – drums, bass, keys and 2 guitars, and several of the guys sang. The sound was a bit of Americana meets Jam-band, with a little dash of funkiness tossed in for some seasoning. It was a mixed bag if I’m being honest. They were clearly talented musicians, but it just didn’t do it for me. There were some great parts, but then they’d throw in a gruelingly long solo and just kill the flow… They had really nice, top of the line gear but nobody had a particularly great tone. Honestly sometimes that’s enough for me – “the songs were OK, but man that guitar sounded awesome!” is the kind of thing that can win me over. Not so with these guys unfortunately. Overall, I’d give them an A on musical skill, but a C- on the show as a whole. I’ll give props to the bassist though, he was absolutely the bright spot of the set for me. Not flashy or over the top, but solid as a rock from start to finish.

Better Than Ezra then took the stage and…it went down hill from there.

For some reason, who knows why, they ALL played acoustic instruments. Yes, electrified acoustics, but the sound, the tone, was of acoustic guitars and bass. There was NONE of the power that made this band so great.

I tried, I really tried to just get over it and enjoy it for what it was but I just felt it was missing something. Then they started playing “I Wanna Be Sedated”, the Ramones scorcher, on FREAKIN’ acoustics and I started thinking “this is bad…”. Thank goodness they didn’t play the whole song, just a verse and a chorus and then they transitioned into one of their songs. But it left a bad aftertaste in my ears, I’ll tell.you that.

A few songs later they did ANOTHER cover this time of Harvey Danger’s “Flagpole Sitta”, again on acoustics and that’s when the Mrs. and I looked at each other and said “let’s go”.

Better Than Ezra, we still love your records and look back fondly and the last last time we saw you, but the show at the Guild was not the business. Very, sadly, disappointing.

Better luck next time.

And to think, I grabbed these tickets instead of John 5, who was playing the very next night. D’oh!!

Thanks for stopping by!

Concert Review: Missing Persons & Bow Wow Wow at the Guild Theater, Menlo Park, CA.

Welcome to my first concert review of 2024!

This was a last-minute decision…the Mrs. and our daughter are on a girl’s overnighter so I had to decide if I wanted to go bad enough to go alone, and since the venue is right up the road from my workplace and I was going to be alone anyway, I decided to pull the trigger on a single ticket.

Now, I am a longtime, HUGE fan of Missing Persons and have been since the first time I heard “Mental Hopscotch” on KFJC back in middle school. The next year as a freshman in high school I got a copy of their “Spring Session M” album and DEVOURED it. I seriously could not get enough. I loved all of it, but it was drummer Terry Bozzio that got me obsessed with the band and he would become my #1 influence as a drummer for the next… well, he’s STILL my #1 influence some 40 years later!

Even though I let go of MOST of my vinyl records (READ: sold them ‘cuz I was damn poor and needed to make ends meet!), I never let go of my Missing Persons collection – all 3 studio albums, their first EP ( which took nearly a decade to source!) and 12″ singles are still proudly in my collection.

I LOVE all the MP albums, but this one in my favorite! Criminally underrated!!

As I was only 12 when they first broke out and the band only lasted (in it’s original lineup) until 1986, I never got a chance to see them live. Until about 2001 that is, when they (mostly) reunited and played a club show in LA. That was the first and only time in my life that I actually took a flight to go to a show!

I had “friends in high places” back then and actually got to go backstage before the gig and met Terry, his (by then ex-) wife, vocalist Dale Bozzio, and guitarist Warren Cuccarillo, who were all very nice and gracious to the blithering idiot that was I, telling them all how much they’d shaped my musical life for the last (at the time) 20 years. Then they went out and played one of the most phenomenal sets I’ve ever experienced!

I only tell you all this to get around to saying that I was iffy on this show because for the last 20 years or so, Missing Persons is really just Dale Bozzio with a bunch of hired hands, not the band I was obsessive about. Now, Dale is a GREAT performer and was undoubtedly a big part of why the band got the attention it did back in the day, but she was always the least interesting part of the band to me. They had the best drummer I’d ever heard in my life, an unbelievable bassist and an absolutely amazing guitarist, so the weird squeaky vocals to me were just sprinkles on the icing of the world’s greatest cake!

However, when I saw the opening act was Bow Wow Wow?!?! Ok, I was sold.

I was also a fan of BWW back in the day, though not nearly to the level of Missing Persons. I was actually a massive Adam and the Ants fan BEFORE I ever heard of Missing Persons, and Bow Wow Wow was an offshoot of the Ants, so naturally I was interested when I first heard about them. I still have their “Last of the Mohicans” album in my collection too, but this band was so short lived and I was so young when they hit that I never got the opportunity to see them in their heyday. So when I saw it was them playing with Dale and MP, I just couldn’t say no! Of course, similar to Missing Persons, Bow Wow Wow is now working under the name “Annabaella’s Bow Wow Wow”, after the singer, so I can only assume it’s the same sort of deal – the original vocalist with a bunch of hired hands. Nonetheless, both bands have great songs so I figured if nothing else it will be some fun nostalgia.

Well first things first, Bow Wow Wow exceeded all expectations, by a mile! Annabella sounded great after all these years and still had that spunky energy she had back in the early days. Her band though, holy smokes! These guys were OUTSTANDING! Their guitarist nailed not only the original parts, but his tone was spot on too. His musicianship was excellent and he was fun to watch as well, just exceptional. The bassist was rock solid, groovy as hell and didn’t miss a thing the entire set. The drummer was on fire all night and just tore it up. The man got a serious workout up there with all those tribal-type of drum beats, just a pulsating rhythm, driving song after song, it was a very impressive.

They played all their hits, some deep cuts, some newer tunes and even a Bob Marley cover. It was great fun, highly entertaining and well worth the wait!

Missing Persons opened their set with Mental Hopscotch which was exciting for me as it was the first song I ever heard from them. But here’s where things go weird… You’ll recall a couple paragraphs back how impressed I was with the Bow Wow Wow drummer? Well, Missing Persons used the SAME drummer and it was (in my incredibly biased opinion) a disaster. His drum parts were just the beats with none of the amazing drum parts that made Missing Persons music so unique and special in the world of “New Wave”.

They followed up with Noticeable One, another one of my faves. I will give credit to the guitarist- he did an excellent job recreating Warren’s spacey guitar tone and his playing was really excellent. And Dale sounded as good as ever. But it all just sounded wrong because of the drums. I just couldn’t get past it. The songs are so ingrained in my head that I “hear” the music that is missing and it was like an itch I couldn’t scratch. Up next was Words, one of their biggest hits, and despite the outstanding guitar work it just sounded all wrong.

Imagine, say Jack White – an amazing guitarist in his own right – filling in for Eddie Van Halen… No matter the talent, it just wouldn’t sound right in that context.

I’m not gonna lie, I was getting bummed out.

I’m not trying to sound like an arrogant jerk here, I’m not he saying he wasn’t a good drummer, he just wasn’t playing the songs as written and to me it seriously diminished the music.

After Words, Dale went into a really long rambling talk that didn’t really go anywhere and I was getting a little perplexed…and then they started up “Simon”, from a late 80’s solo album and that was my cue to leave…

I have such strong memories of Missing Persons and their reunion show is still in the Top 10 of the hundreds of shows I’ve been to. I didn’t want to stay any longer and have my love of the band’s music tainted in any way, so it was best that I left early.

When all is said and done, I’m glad I went because Bow Wow Wow was great and I really enjoyed their set. And both of the bands had extraordinary guitarists which was a real treat. But unless all the stars align and there is another Missing Persons reunion with the original cast, I believe that will be my last MP show.

Are they still one of my all-time favorites? Yes. But it simply wasn’t the same…

I will say, if you’re not a hard core MP fan and you just remember them from MTV or the radio and you want some nostalgia, you’d probably be OK with their new sound. But if you’re like me and their entire catalog is committed to memory and ingrained into your soul I cannot recommend. To each their own, as they say…

Thanks for stopping by!

Concert Review: Dogstar at the Guild Theater, Menlo Park, CA

Wednesday night found us back at the Guild Theater for another Dogstar show, our 3rd time seeing them in the last year.

We were excited to get back to the Guild, and it was the first time for the Mrs. to see a show there. The Guild Theater is quickly becoming our favorite Bay Area venue! Great staff, great sound, great vibe…just an outstanding place for live music.

The opening band was a 4-piece outfit by the name of Archer Oh.

First time seeing them (or hearing of them for that matter!) and they knocked it out of the park! Their sound was sort of a mash-up of the Smiths and the Strokes, with a touch of surf and a hint of psychedelia thrown in the mix. Altogether unique. The performance was excellent- fresh, exciting and wholly unexpected. By the time the set was over, we were fans. So much so we stopped by the merch table and bought both their CDs. I will ABSOLUTELY go see them again, given the chance!

Dogstar hit the stage and was immediately beset with equipment troubles from the guitar rig, so they got off to a bit of a rocky start. The tech was able to get things running quickly however and they were off and running, playing essentially their new album in its entirety, with an old tune and a new song thrown in for good measure.

As per usual, most if the attention was focused on the bassist Keanu (who did a great job, to his credit!) but it was guitarist/vocalist Bret Domrose that really carried the show. In spite of the initial gear wonkiness, he had an extremely strong performance. His guitar playing has only gotten stronger since the “record release” party back in December. I can only imagine his playing will be off the hook by the end of this tour with another 30 or so shows under his belt.

Aside from his mother, I’m probably Bret’s biggest fan, and it was really exciting to see him coming back to life on stage and doing his thing at such a high level. That is was at a “hometown” show made it all the more special.

Overall the band seems to have settled in and are getting comfortable with each other again after such a long hiatus. I would have LOVED to hear some of the songs from “Our Little Visionary” – a criminally underrated album – but I’m finding I really like the new songs. They show a lot of growth in the songwriting and the overall performance. I’ve got my order in for the new record when it comes out on October 6th, can’t wait to really dig in to it!

Overall it was a fantastic night. Great music, great, fun vibe in the hall, just an exceptional experience all around.

Thanks Archer Oh and Dogstar for an excellent night of music and some inspiration as well! We’ll see you again in December!

Thanks for stopping by!

Concert Review: The Dip at the Guild Theater: Menlo Park, CA.

We’ve been waiting soooo long to see these guys! We had tickets for a tour a couple years ago that was canceled due to the Plague, then we were supposed to go see them last week in San Francisco. Unfortunately, life was busy kicking us all in the nuts last week, so we pulled the plug in the 11th hour in hopes that we’d make the Menlo Park show the following Tuesday.

Sadly, more misfortune followed…The Mrs. tested positive for the Plague Monday morning, and the poor lady was knocked flat. But, our daughter had already purchased the tix so the Mrs. insisted that we make a father/daughter night out of it.

We felt bad to leave her all by herself, with nothing but NyQuil and the cat for comfort, but it turned out to be a great night.

This was our first time at the Guild Theater and had no idea what to expect. Well, it was GREAT. Super easy to find, parking was maybe a block and a half away and FREE, the staff was friendly, the bartender prompt and the place was simply beautiful, with a great sound system and acoustics. A+ with a cherry on top for the Guild! And one final note, that I didn’t notice until we were leaving the venue, they’ve got the swankiest AND cleanest restrooms I’ve ever seen in a nightclub. Kudos!

Of course the fact that it WASN’T in San Francisco adds fifty-bazillion bonus points!

The night started out with a tidy half-hour set by semi-local singer-songwriter Jennah Bell, who hails from Oakland, CA – just a hop, skip and a jump up the road from Menlo Park. Neither my daughter nor I had ever heard of her and she wasn’t listed on the bill, so we didn’t even know if there was going to be an opening act.

I’ll be honest, singer-songwriters are NOT my thing, especially in a live setting. Don’t get me wrong, I admire the hell out of them for having the fortitude to get up in front of a room of strangers, just a single instrument and a voice, and let it all out. That takes a lot of guts. I just don’t want to listen to it, generally speaking. This being my frame of mind, when she walked out on stage my initial (internal) response was “Oh no…”

Well, let me say, I’m an IDIOT for jumping to conclusions. We really enjoyed her set, and she was just delightful as a person. I can’t put my finger on what it was that made her different from the standard singer-songwriter, but she is. In the best possible way. Her style is unique. She doesn’t sound like anyone else I can think of, a truly authentic, original sound. Her set included two cover songs, and she took a HUGE risk covering legendary songs, but she made them completely her own. (I won’t give any spoilers on the songs, but they’re both massive (vintage) hits that EVERYBODY that knows 60’s music knows) It’s nearly impossible to make a cover of a tune better than the original (not that it hasn’t been done) and I’m not saying hers were “better” exactly, but when you completely turn a song inside out to where it sounds nothing like the original and it STILL sounds amazing?!? Yeah, that’s some talent right there.

Ms. Bell’s set was a really unexpected, pleasant surprise and I look forward to hearing more from her.

Next up, it was The Dip’s time to shine and boy, did they!

Honestly, I don’t really know anything about The Dip, where they are from, how long they’ve been around…but from the first time I heard them, I was hooked. Their sound is hard to categorize- take a little Motown, a chunk of jazz, some crooner-type lounge music and throw it in a blender, with a fine dusting of funk thrown on top and you get close to a description, but only close.

Basically speaking, since that’s really all I know, they are a 7-piece operation. Drums, bass, guitar, guitar/lead vocals, baritone sax, tenor sax and trumpet. Each and every one of these guys were on their game, and as a group they were TIGHT! It wasn’t a high-energy show, but it isn’t exactly high energy music either, more of a slow burn groove, with lots of twists and turns along the way.

Hollowbody tone + Bigsby tremolo = Heaven!

The band played a good hour-plus set, then came out and did another 3 tunes for the encore. My only beef, and this is strictly personal, is that in a couple of my absolute favorite songs, they played them completely different than the recorded versions, like an entirely new arrangement. This can be cool, and they actually did great job with they way they did it, I was just looking forward to hearing them at least somewhat like I knew them… But honestly that is just me being nit-picky, it really didn’t detract from the show in any way. Overall, it was a stellar showing from The Dip, and I will ABSOLUTELY go see them again should the opportunity arise. We’ll done gentlemen!

Thanks for stopping by!