The Seldom Scene -- BlackRock Center for the Arts (Germantown MD), 4/22/2017

Orchestra Center, Row B, Seats 105-106 (second row, on the center-right aisle)

 

I have actually “scene” this band very seldom; not sure when the last time was, but it was almost certainly not in this century. Although the current lineup doesn’t feature any of the original members, the group still put on a nice show, with two fifty-minute sets. They’ve always been known for pulling in songs from other genres, and this evening’s performance included “Sitting On Top Of The World” (done by Cream and many others), James Taylor’s “Sweet Baby James”, and John Fogerty’s “Big Train (From Memphis)”. Having three primary lead vocalists provided plenty of variety in the sound, and the harmony vocals were excellent, especially when Ronnie Simpkins added bass on the gospel classic “I’ll Be No Stranger There”. And they did do my personal favorite, “Wait A Minute”, as the last number in their second set.

Average White Band – Rams Head on Stage, 4/20/2017

 

Table 103, Row A, Seat 2 (front row of tables, center stage)

Absolutely amazing 90-minute high-energy show by a band I’ve liked since my college days (not everyone shared my opinion) but had never seen live. “A Love Of Your Own”, 5 songs in, featured a wonderful sax solo by Cliff Lyons, and sounded like the kind of performance most bands would save for the end of their main set. All 7 musicians were great, including founding members Alan Gorrie and Onnie McIntyre, but I was especially impressed by lead vocalist Brent Carter, who’s one of the best soul singers I’ve heard in my many years of concert-going. Naturally, the evening ended with a rousing audience-participation version of “Pick Up The Pieces”. This may have been my first AWB show, but I doubt that it will be my last.

 

Setlist

April 16, 2017 – Nationals 6, Phillies 4 – Nationals Park

http://m.nationals.mlb.com/news/article/224665428/bryce-harper-hits-walkoff-home-run-in-ninth/

 

Attendance: 29,774

Game Time: 3:11

Weather: 84 degrees, partly cloudy

Wind: 15 mph

Umpires: Home Plate - Greg Gibson, First Base - Jerry Layne, Second Base - Dan Bellino, Third Base - Mike Estabrook

 

Notes – classic ending, as Harper erased Philadelphia’s one-run lead with two outs and two on in the ninth with his fourth career walk-off HR … Phils second-baseman Cesar Hernandez led off the game with a homer for the second time this season … Nats tied things up quickly in the bottom of the inning on doubles by Eaton and Rendon, and took the lead in the third when with two outs Rendon beat out an infield single and Harper hit the next pitch out of the park … Gio held the Phils down until the 8^th, when they tied it up in an inning featuring 3 singles, a Jayson Werth error in left field and a Koda Glover wild pitch … bullpen problems continued in the 9^th, when Aaron Altherr doubled off Treinen and subsequently scored on two infield grounders … 10:30 departure from Rockville met with relatively light traffic, a good parking spot, and still-available autograph vouchers … had shade in our regular seats for almost the entire game, nice on an unusually hot April day … the Easter Bunny shed his nice-guy image with a vicious take-down of Teddy during the Presidents Race

Owen Danoff – AMP, 4/15/2017

As our party of four had “VIP” tickets, we got great seats (front row of tables, in the center). Owen had the same two bandmates as at the November show I attended, but this one was somewhat longer (about 75 minutes) and included a few new songs, which were good enough that I forgave him for not performing “Hometown Headstone”. In addition to the opening “(If I Had A) Starship” (after which he expressed disappointment that so few of us had yet seen the recently-released trailer for the upcoming Star Wars movie), and the usual solo take on “Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right”, highlights included 3 great covers: Leonard Cohen’s classic “Hallelulah”, Van Morrison’s “Crazy Love” (which I hadn’t heard in quite a while), and a kick-ass version of Johnny Cash’s “Folsom Prison Blues” as the first encore.

 

April 12, 2017 – Cardinals 6, Nationals 1 – Nationals Park

http://m.nationals.mlb.com/news/article/223893660/mike-leake-leads-cardinals-over-nationals/

 

Attendance: 31,647

Game Time: 3:14

Weather: 77 degrees, partly cloudy

Wind: 13 mph

Umpires: Home Plate - Brian Knight, First Base - Lance Barrett, Second Base - Dale Scott, Third Base - Jim Reynolds

Seventh-inning stretch song: We Got The Beat – The Go-Gos

Section 310, Row D, Seats 20-22 – our regular location for the year, only 2 seats away from the aisle, with a nice view down the first-base line

 

Highlights – great start for Max, who fanned the first two batters … great start for the Nats’ offense, getting first-and-third with no one out in the bottom of the first on an Eaton double and a Rendon single … Scherzer fanned 10 (for the 50^th time in his career) in 6 innings of work … Nats got hits in each of the last 3 innings … weather was great, Metro was uneventful, and they still had dollar dogs in the fifth inning

 

Other – Cards notched a two-out run in the first on a walk, wild pitch, and double … scored two unearned runs in the fifth in an inning that featured a Difo error, a hit batter and a walk … with the Nats still within striking distance, Piscotty launched a 3-run tater in the 9^th off Blanton to put things away (the ninth homer allowed so far by the Nats bullpen) … Nats botched their first-inning threat after Rendon was picked off, Harper fanned, and Murphy grounded back to the pitcher … starting with Harper, St. Louis starter Mike Leake retired 19 Nats in a row … Werth took a called third strike with runners on first and second to end the 7^th … in the 8^th, with two outs, men on first and third and a run in, Jedd Gyorko made a great play on Harper’s line drive to snuff out the threat … three Scherzer pitches got by Wieters, one more WP than Max had all last year

#142 Goodbye Train – Grayson Hugh (2014)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZrmMGE_dni4

 

This is one that I discovered on a Carolina beach music station, most likely AM 770 “Big Wave Radio” in Rockingham NC. Since there were no DJs the first couple times I heard it, I had some difficulty trying to identify the song – finally wound up Googling a snatch of the lyrics. My only previous encounter with Grayson Hugh was via his 1989 single “Talk It Over”, which I never particularly cared for. This one, fortunately, is much better; according to the single solitary YouTube comment the last time I checked, “if this doesn't get your foot tapping or make you pound the dashboard like a piano, you better get your pulse checked!”

April 3, 2017 – Nationals 4, Marlins 2 – Nationals Park

http://m.nationals.mlb.com/news/article/221849148/stephen-strasburg-nats-top-marlins-in-opener/?topicId=27118414

 

Attendance: 42,744

Game Time: 2:47

Weather: 66 degrees, cloudy

Wind: 5 mph

Umpires: Home Plate - Jerry Meals, First Base - Ron Kulpa, Second Base - Ed Hickox, Third Base - Chris Conroy

Seventh-inning stretch song: Can’t Stop The Feeling – Justin Timberlake

Section 133, Row UU, Seats 14-19 – lower level, about a third of the way down the right field line, top row, on the aisle, good view (did suffer a mid-game “beerfall” due to a spill in section above us)

 

Highlights – Strasburg tossed 7 efficient innings (63 strikes in 85 pitches) to get the win, allowing just 2 runs (both in the fourth inning) and 6 hits (2 of which were by Miami starting pitcher Edinson Volquez, a lifetime .082 hitter), with no walks and 3 Ks … Harper put the Nats on the board in the sixth with his fifth opening-day homer, and Adam Lind made his first Nats’ appearance count an inning later, with a pinch-hit two-run blast to give Washington the lead for good … Solis and newly-anointed closer Blake Treinen set the Marlins down 1-2-3 in the 8^th and 9^th to nail down the win … perfect weather for baseball, and the drives down and back were not nearly as bad as they could have been … food was good at the “Budweiser Brew House” sit-down restaurant in center field (still the Red Porch Restaurant to me), although getting and settling the charges took an excruciatingly long time

 

Other – Nats didn’t take advantage of early opportunities, failing to score in the first and fourth after getting their first two men on base … ballpark operations lagged far behind the baseball side (getting an F- from one frustrated fan on Twitter), as they were having “technical problems” with both their eCard and credit card processing … fans wanting to use cash found that the ATMs were down as well … it took one member of our party 55 minutes to get a pretzel and two sodas … to top off the frustration, the “Magic 8-Ball” giveaway  items were not distributed until fans exited (with vouchers distributed on the way in), causing lines to get out of the park … so far, more than 24 hours later, no apology to fans that I’ve been able to find, via either Twitter, email, or press release

March 27, 2017 – Nationals 6, Mets 0 – Port St. Lucie FL

http://m.nationals.mlb.com/news/article/221109958/nationals-harper-turner-homer-behind-scherzer/

 

Attendance: 4,510

Game Time: 2:43

Weather: 78 degrees, partly cloudy

Wind: 8 mph

Umpires: Home Plate - Chris Conroy, First Base - John Libka, Second Base - Ryan Additon, Third Base - Nick Mahrley

Seventh-inning stretch song: Lazy Mary [Luna Mezza Mare] – Lou Monte

Section 203, Row V, Seat 20 – a bit down the first-base line, on the aisle, two rows from the top (but still with a good view), in the shade all afternoon

 

I went through the first 4 of my 5 games this spring without seeing the Nats hit a single ball out of the park, but they made up for it this afternoon. Trea followed his single leading off the game with solo shots to left off Mets starter Seth Lugo in the third and fifth, the latter a no-doubt-about-it blast. Harper, who ended the first by grounding into a double play, hit two long ones to the grassy area beyond the right field wall: a solo shot to lead off the fourth and a two-run blast in the eighth. Doubles by Drew and Zim added another 4^th-inning run, a frame that ended with an excellent at-bat by Scherzer with runners on 2^nd and 3^rd, as he fouled off several pitches and worked the count full before finally grounding out sharply to Lugo. (The final 6 Washington batters of the afternoon fanned against Mets minor leaguers, but by that point no one really cared.)

 

Max didn’t do badly on the mound in just his second official spring start, throwing 85 pitches over 5 innings and holding the New Yorkers to 2 hits while striking out 7, although he did issue 3 walks. Enny Romero, Vance Worley, and Koda Glover, all competing for the final two spots in the bullpen, held the Mets to one hit and one walk the rest of the way.

 

The Mets regular outfielders and shortstop were playing a split-squad game down the road in Jupiter, so New York started some guy named Tim Tebow in left field. (You may have heard of him.) Appearing to make a statement, Max brought the heat in the second, fanning him on 3 pitches that registered 97, 96, and 97 on the scoreboard. He struck him out again to start the fifth. Tebow did get a nice round of applause when he ended his 3^rd AB (against Romero) by grounding the ball back to the pitcher, but Glover fanned him one more time to end the game.

 

I have to say that I really liked First Data Field (“Tradition Field” until a month or so ago). It’s not the newest or fanciest place, but the sightlines are good, there’s plenty of shade, the lines for food and restrooms were short-to-nonexistent (at least when I went), and they did a nice job of getting the cars out of the parking lot after the game. (Allow 10-15 minutes after exiting the lot to get back onto I-95, however.) The concession prices were also reasonable; I got the largest slice of pizza I’ve ever had in my life for a mere $6.

March 26, 2017 – Astros 5, Nationals 1 – West Palm Beach FL

http://m.nationals.mlb.com/news/article/220962032/astros-go-yard-twice-musgrove-sharp-vs-nats/

 

Attendance: 5,135

Game Time: 2:47

Weather: 76 degrees, partly cloudy

Wind: 13 mph

Umpires: Home Plate - Brennan Miller, First Base - Mike Estabrook, Second Base - David Rackley, Third Base - Shane Livensparger

Seventh-inning stretch song: It’s Not Unusual – Tom Jones

Section 110, Row M, Seat 6 – same section and row as Friday

 

After yesterday’s 4-run outburst, the Nats’ offense continued its struggles on Sunday. Things started off well with a leadoff double by Turner in the bottom of the first, followed by long fly outs by Murphy and Harper to bring him home. The Nats managed only 2 hits over the final 7 innings, however, and fanned 9 times over the course of the game. (Hitters from both teams were frequently frustrated with Brennan Miller’s strike zone.)

 

Meanwhile, the Astros tied the score on a solo homer by Jake Marisnick in the top of the third (the first round-tripper I’ve seen this spring), and teed off on Gio the next frame, with an infield single by Altuve and a double by Gurriel plating the go-ahead run, followed by a two-out single by Josh Reddick and a homer by Marwin Gonzalez to complete the day’s scoring.

 

There were no actual games going on in the complex when I arrived around 11:15, although I did get to see Strasburg and Joe Ross throwing on the side. Went with the grouper tacos again for lunch.

March 25, 2017 – Nationals 4, Astros 1 – West Palm Beach FL

http://m.nationals.mlb.com/news/article/220907504/daniel-murphy-tanner-roark-help-nats-in-win/

 

Attendance: 4,354

Game Time: 3:07

Weather: 76 degrees, partly cloudy

Wind: 17 mph

Umpires: Home Plate - John Libka, First Base - CB Bucknor, Second Base - Greg Gibson, Third Base - Mike Estabrook

Seventh-inning stretch song – Deep in the Heart of Texas

Section 109, Row R, Seat 7 (same seat as Thursday)

 

Tanner Roark and Daniel Murphy made their first game appearances since returning from the World Baseball Classic, so the Nats had what looked like a regular season lineup on the field. (Although Houston used Carlos Beltran as their DH, Washington elected to let Roark hit for himself.) Tanner was in fine form, allowing only one run before exiting with one out in the sixth after 73 pitches to a standing ovation. Solis, Kelley, Romero, and Treinen blanked the Astros the rest of the way.

 

The batter’s box wasn’t an especially safe place in the first few innings. Roark plunked Bregman in the first and Gurriel in the second. In the top of the third, after Murphy beat the shift with a one-out single to left, Houston starter Lance McCullers got Harper and Rendon (although Bryce wanted to decline the base and take his swings). Werth then put the Nats on the board with a long sac fly.

 

Washington broke things open and chased McCullers the following inning. With one out, following a Zimmerman double and a Wieters single (and a wild pitch advancing Matt), Turner grounded to second – Zim looked like an easy out, but somehow managed to avoid the tag at the plate. Murph then doubled into the right-field corner to easily score Wieters and Trea.

 

This was a home game for Astros in their shared ballpark, which meant Astros programs on sale and plenty of appearances by quirky-but-cute green mascot Orbit. No Racing Presidents, and the Washington player photos didn’t appear on the scoreboard when they batted, although there seemed to be more Nats than Astros fans in the stands.

 

Splurged on a “Diablo Burger” (lettuce, tomato, pepper jack cheese and jalapenos) – large and tasty, but definitely not a bargain at 12 bucks.

 

I arrived at the complex around 11:15 and got to see the last several innings of a pitchers’ BP contest – starters (Max, Stras, Gio, Ross) vs. relievers (Guthrie, Albers, Worley, Nathan). No infielders or baserunning (except for ghost runners), with the two teams taking turns batting and playing the outfield. Coach-pitch until the last two innings, when they used the machine. Quite competitive, as the final score was 20-19, with Gio making a game-saving catch in right to end it.