Gigs! June 9-10, Detroit

Those of you who know me well know that I dig live rock and roll. Perhaps you heard me crabbing on and on about how Taipei never hosted any good gigs. Or you heard me, after a trip home to the US, raving about some Peter Gabriel, Flaming Lips, or Barenaked Ladies show. So it ought to come as no surprise, then, that I've taken the opportunity back here in the the US to see some live music. Oh, and I planned ahead, scouring the Internet for news of summer rock concerts as far back as February or so...and then pouncing on the on-line ticket sales.

So earlier this week, Kitty and I headed up to the Detroit area for two big, long-anticipated gigs. First we saw the Dave Matthews Band at an outdoor venue near the Pine Knob ski resort in Detroit's leafy northern suburbs. It was a really good gig hampered only by a tumultuous thunderstorm--we were seated at the edge of the pavillion and were spared most of the downpour, but those in the cheaper "lawn" area were pretty soaked.

The next day, after a night in a suburban hotel, we essentially became tourists for the day, and we visited a place that, as a native of the Detroit area AND a musician, I really should have visited years ago: the Motown sudio, where all the great ones--The Supremes, The Temptations, Martha Reeves, Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, and others--recorded all their classic material from 1959 to 1972. (See photos of Kitty and I in front of Motown Records, originally just the old house where Barry Gordy lived.)

Then, it was gig time again, so we made our way to the Detroit riverfront to Joe Louis Arena, home of the 2007-08 Stanley Cup Champion Detroit Red Wings hockey team. (Don't know if that news has exactly spread like wildfire in Taiwan, but around here we're pretty chuffed to see the Wings as champions again after their dramatic victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins last week!) Had a bit of time to kill, so we wandered along the riverfront, which was surprisingly pleasant. One would hardly know, strolling along the river gazing across to Windsor, Ontario, that Detroit was still a city with more than it's fair share of problems. But it was a beautiful summer afternoon, and all was well enough...

Again, many of you who know me well know that one of my quirks (some might say a slightly embarrassing one) is a life-long devotion to the Canadian band Rush. Oh, how many good conversations I've killed by going on and on about the finer points of their late 70s and early 80s masterpieces... Laugh you may, but I'm not alone in my obsession, as the T-shirt clad Rush army that filled the red vinyl seats of Joe Louis Arena that night would attest to. In fact, sitting their an hour early for the show, it was fun (as Kitty napped, still tired from bopping to the Dave Matthews band show the night before) to watch my beer-gutted Rushfan brethren file into the arena with their prized Rush tour t-shirts--"Signals Tour '82-'83," "Tour of the Hemispheres 1978," "Grace Under Pressure Tour - 1984." I myself was wearing a Rush t-shirt I'd bought at the very same venue in early 1988--just over 20 years ago.

So when the lights went down and the crowd roared as our favorite hard rock trio took the stage, I was in heaven...and we were treated to 2 hours and 45 minutes of rocking favorites old and new. And as if we didn't have enough to cheer about, lead singer Geddy Lee at one point said, "Hey, I hear this is Hockeytown!" ROAR!!! Anyway, it was a thrill seeing this band again for the seventh time now--they were also my "first concert" 24 years ago. Now, a generation later, I was taking my wife to see them. Next to us were two guys my age, each bringing daughters about 8 years old. We've all grown up.

The summer of live music is far from over. We've got Robert Plant and Allison Krauss next week AND the Police and Elvis Costello in late July. Fired up...