I went and saw some rock and roll - 2016

I love the ends of years. The week between Christmas and New Year's is my favorite. A new year is about to start, I usually have a little bread in my pocket (Christmas money), and we focus on the year that was. With the year 2016 coming to a close, you're going to see a lot of year-end lists.

This is the live shows I saw in 2016. I've been thinking about how I'd rank them, but they were all pretty great (Lucius and Ween tie for number one, and the rest tie for third), so they're listed chronologically.

Bully 1.18.16 Fine Line
I bought a ticket to this show, but didn't get to attend. I was cast in Picasso at the Lapin Agile, and we were in rehearsals. This date was actually Martin Luther King Day, and there was no rehearsal; however Nerd Dad's wife is a nurse, and her schedule requires her to be on call some nights. She was on call this night, and was called into work. I stayed home and was Nerd Dad to Ozzie.

I missed Bully in January, but would catch them later in the year.

Babes In Toyland 1.30.16 First Avenue

I love women who rock. I grew up in the 90's hearing of Minneapolis' own Babes in Toyland, but never listening to them, or seeing them live. They recently got back together for some reunion shows, and I had to get out and see who Carrie Brownstein lists as an influence in Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl: A Memoir.

I arrived in time to see Kitten Forever, who I'd seen open for Girlpool in 2015. When Babes in Toyland took the stage, they were LOUD from the first note. Guitarist/lead singer Kat Bjelland high-kicked while playing her axe, and shouted her lyrics into the mic. A great start to the year. It was the loudest show I've ever been to. Loud in a good way.

Lucius 3.23.16 First Avenue

The two front-women, Jess Wolfe and Holly Laessig, with their matching red hair and futuristic clothes, started the first song of the night facing each other singing into one old-time microphone. Two voices make one. It's rare that one sings a line that the other isn't matching. It's a treat to hear, and something else to see. I got chills several times throughout the night seeing Lucius perform.

Iggy Pop 4.4.16 Northrop Auditorium 
I had the chance to see Iggy Pop when I was at Edgefest in 1997, but blew him off. He headlined the night, and I didn't really know anything about him. Plus, I had already seen The Rollins Band and Beck (I repeat, Beck), and was ready to call it a night by the time Pop took the stage.
So you'll understand that I didn't match the anticipation my dad had when he called me to tell me that Iggy Pop was coming to town. I basically told him I'd tag along if he wanted to go.

Quite a show by Pop, 69, and his band; including Josh Homme of Queens of the Stone Age. Iggy shed his jacket by the second song, and performed topless, as per usual. We were sitting in the third deck, and the sound was a little thin up there, but it was still a night of great rock and roll by a veteran performer who left his guts on the stage.

Courtney Barnett 4.26.16 First Avenue

We lost Prince on 4.21. I arrived to First Avenue and saw that the purple memorial was still up outside the club. The street was actually blocked off in front of it. It was neat to see in person, but made me melancholy for the show.

Bully opened, and this was when I got to make up for missing them in January. They're good 90s rock in 2016. Their lead singer, Alicia Bognanno, bothered me when she felt the need to address the loss of Prince between songs with "I'm sorry about Prince. It wasn't my fault."
Possibly the dumbest sentence I heard anyone speak all year.

Courtney Barnett put on a good show. I actually enjoyed the songs I hadn't heard before more than the radio hits. She'd often get down on her knees and lose herself in guitar solos during songs. She just might be an artist that I can take Ozzie to later in life when she's 69. She'll be around for a while.

Barnett also made reference to our collective loss with class, saying "I know you guys have had a shit-week, but it's nice that we're all in here together singing songs."

Florence + The Machine 6.2.16 Xcel Energy Center
We arrived during the last half of opener Grimes's last song, which worked out really well, because that's exactly how much of Grimes I wanted to see.

Florence has the voice of an angel, and moves gracefully across the stage; even sprinting to the back of the arena floor to finish a song back there. A little disappointing as the floor was only half full. She asked the crowd to put away their cell phones just for one song, and it was the darkest I've seen an audience in years. Great show by a great band. Too bad it didn't sell out. You missed it.

'Weird' Al Yankovic 8.19.16 State Theater
I was a fan of 'Weird' Al when I was just a boy. This was my first time seeing him live, now a Nerd Dad. The show was two hours of fun. Al wore a different costume for each song to match the character. He donned the fat suit for Fat. Dressed as Kurt Cobain for Smells Like Nirvana, etc. Between songs, while he was offstage dressing, videos showed dozens of references to 'Weird' Al in pop culture over the years, and clips from Al TV. The first part of this "interview" with Eminem was a treat.


Ween 9.15.16 Roy Wilkens Auditorium

I got to see Ween at First Avenue in the late 90s. I remember that show was over two hours. I stood on the main floor for the whole show, and when it was over, it felt like they only played about 30 minutes. Two-plus hours is a long time for anything, but the show was that good. 

I'd often think about that show as a barometer for other shows I'd go to. Was it as good as that Ween show? When I saw they were coming to St. Paul, I couldn't miss what might be their last trip through town. I got two tickets in the balcony of the auditorium (to have a seat), and took Nerd Dad's wife to experience Ween live. 

They played for 2.5 hours (check out this setlist), and, again, we wanted more when the house lights finally came up. It says something about a band who plays 30 great songs, and I can easily think of 15 more that I'd like to hear. If they make it back to Minnesota, do yourself a favor and see them live. 

Have a safe and happy New Year!

Year End List - The books I read in 2016

I read a few books this year. Listed in mostly chronological order:

The Girl on the Train – Paula Hawkins
Attempting Normal – Marc Maron

Ready Player One – Earnest Cline

Reel to Reel: The Video Store Murders – Joyce Nance

Almost Interesting – David Spade

Paperwork: A Novel Set in Hell – T.S. Jansen

Pretty Girls: A Novel – Karin Slaughter

Digging Up Mother: A Love Story – Doug Stanhope

Your Favorite Band is Killing Me – Steven Hyden

End of Watch – Stephen King

The Girl With The Lower Back Tattoo – Amy Schumer

The Martian – Andy Weir

Room: A Novel – Emma Donoghue

The Prettiest One – James Hawkins

Mystic River – Dennis Lehane

She's Not There - P.J. Parrish

My Seinfeld Year (Kindle Single) - Fred Stoller

Going under-Wisdom teeth removal

I got my wisdom teeth out and all I got was this lousy blanket. 

I had Friday off to go to the oral surgeon for their 1st surgery of the day to have my two bottom wisdom teeth removed. I'd already had the top two pulled on different occasions by dentists. At the time they told me I should get them all out, but my bottom two were impacted, meaning under the gums. They couldn't simply be pulled (not that there's anything 'simple' about it), they needed to be surgically removed. One was horizontal, at a right angle to my other teeth. 

Kind of like this

I'd never had any kind of surgery where I had to 'go under.' I was deathly afraid of that part. Going under. Being sedated while someone cut into me. I wanted no part of it, and delayed the procedure as long as I could. Recently I noticed pain in my jaw, and knew the pesky wisdom teeth were the culprit. I also knew it wasn't going to go away, or get better on its own. I had to do it. I made the appointment for surgery to have them cut out.

The week of surgery I woke up around 3:00am every morning and couldn't fall back asleep because I couldn't stop obsessing about surgery. I wasn't even scared of the recovery. I knew that was a given; I just couldn't get over the fact that I was going to be knocked out. I talked to people about it to try and calm me down a bit. 

Most people were very sweet and kind, telling me that they went through it and there's nothing to worry about. It happens really fast. And then there were some who only told me about their horror stories. They went under for surgery on their eye lid, and could smell burning flesh. They were still awake during surgery! One guy had his wisdom teeth out, and now half of his bottom jaw is always numb. The doctor damaged his nerves. 

I posted on Facebook about my anxiety asking for kind words, and everyone was really positive. One of my friends even called me on the phone to tell me about when he had all four of his out, and how going under was a breeze. He said I also wouldn't see anything, which made me feel better. And then things came into perspective when we talked about how he'd recently had brain surgery. I was feeling better little by little. 

Friday morning rolled around. Again I woke up at 3:00am and obsessed about surgery one last time. Megan was my ride. We dropped Ozzie off at daycare, and went straight to the oral surgeon for my 7:30 surgery. We checked in at the desk, and my hands started to visibly shake. Surgery was literally minutes away. I was called back, and brought into a room with a dentist chair. I told the nurse how I was nervous, and she said a lot of people are, but there's nothing to worry about. 

She put a few monitors on my chest, took my blood pressure that was 158/98. I told her that it was nerves. And then the dentist came in. I'd never met this guy before. I saw a different guy for my consultation; a guy who doesn't work on Fridays. This dentist was kind of a dick, but he was about to go into my mouth with knives. 

He put the IV in my arm and said that was the most pain I was going to experience. I was waiting for the "count backwards from (number)," but it never came. He told me that things were going to get fuzzy in about 10 seconds. AND THEN THEY WERE WAKING ME UP. It was that fast. I recall a nice nurse waking me from the dentist chair. My mouth was stuffed with gauze, and dry as the Sahara. I wanted a drink of water. 

As far as I remember, I walked myself to a small recovery room that felt like a coat closet. They had me lie down on what felt like a bench and brought Megan in. She later told me that it was a closet, and I was on a bench. I was covered with the tiny black blanket pictured above. I don't remember a lot from that closet, but Megan said the dentist came in and told both of us that surgery went well, and gave pain pill prescriptions. She later told me that she thought he seemed like a dick too. 

I remember being thirstier than I've ever been, and my tongue and jaw were completely numb. My next memory is sitting in Megan's car in the Target parking lot while she was in to get my pills. I was sipping from a small McDonald's cup of water. Megan later told me that we drove through to get the water, and she got breakfast. She hadn't eaten anything while she waited during my surgery. I don't recall that pit-stop. 

As the novocaine wore off throughout the day, I had small bites of pudding, apple sauce, yogurt, and ice cream. I could start to feel the pain and trauma my jaw had been through. There are (what seems like) large parts of my jaw missing where the teeth were inside my gums, replaced my stringy stitches. It's painful to move my jaw to chew or talk, but I know that will get better day-by-day.

They let me keep that black blanket, and it wasn't on the bill. I'm glad it's over, and it really was a piece of cake. I look forward to drinking from a straw again, and taking adult-sized bites of food. Maybe I'll lose a couple of pounds. I think we can all agree that I can stand to. 

Picasso at the Lapin Agile

I was cast in a play! I play a young Albert Einstein in the Steve-Martin-written Picasso at the Lapin Agile. Rehearsals started in early January, and some of the actors with smaller roles didn't have to be at every rehearsal. Even Picasso didn't have to attend every rehearsal. Einstein is on stage for all but about four pages of the script, so I've been at every one. 

The show opened to a sold out crowd on Saturday, and it went well. It'd been a while since I was on stage in front of an audience. I wasn't nervous at all, but jump-out-of-your-skin excited. I accidentally "stepped on" the first line that I delivered that got a laugh. I wasn't expecting a laugh at the line, and we've been going over and over the show in rehearsals with no audience. It was a quick reminder to let the laughs, and pauses breathe. After that incident, it was like riding a bike. 

We had the last "rehearsal" tonight, which was just a brush up on the lines. We actually did what The Collective used to do with our scripted Fringe Fest and sketch shows, which is "speed read" through our lines. No emotion, no character, just recite the lines to make sure that we still have them down. Having the last rehearsal is bitter-sweet. I'll get my nights back next week, but I'm going to miss my friends that I've made in this show, and our goofing around, and our inside jokes. 

I forgot how much I love being involved in theater. The other night I told Megan I love everything about it, and wish I could do it for a living. She said "Even..." and I said "yes. There isn't anything you can say where I'm going to say I don't like it." I love the intimacy. I love that if a line is messed up, we have to cover it and go on as a team. I love feeling the energy of the live audience. It's easy to turn the TV on and have it in the background while you eat dinner. You can watch movies on your cell phone, but going out to the theater is an event, and I'm proud to be part of that. 

All right. Enough waxing poetic. We have four shows left. Thursday night, Friday night, and Saturday night are all dinner theater performances. Megan is sort of a foodie, and said the dinner is good. Tickets are $25 for dinner theater. We close the show on Sunday with a 3:00 matinee show with no food for $15. You don't have to be Einstein to see that dinner is only $10 if you come to one of those shows. How can you beat that deal? 

Order your tickets here. You need to buy your ticket 24 hours in advance for dinner so the caterers know how many meals to serve. I heard the pre-ticket sale numbers tonight, and there aren't many left. Get yours while you can. I say that not only to plug the show, but I'd feel bad if you want to see the show and it sells out before you got your ticket. That's happened to me with several rock and roll shows, and now I don't monkey around. I suggest you don't either. I'd love to hear your laugh, and/or see you there!