March 25, 2016 – Phillies 4, Blue Jays 4 – Clearwater FL

This tie was better than kissing your sister (story, box)

 

Weather: 72 degrees, cloudy

Time: 3:08

Attendance: 8,537

Section 105, Row 23, Seats 10-14 – back row of lower level, directly behind first base. We were under cover in case any more rain materialized. (Fortunately the deluge we had earlier in the afternoon was not repeated, and it was a perfect evening weather-wise.) Easy to get in and out, only drawback was that it was difficult to hear the PA announcements.

 

Unfortunately two members of our crew weren’t able to make it, but we managed to have a good time anyway. I had forgotten how good the fan experience is at Bright House Field, especially the staggering variety of concessions options. (And a plethora of small stands leads to mostly short lines.) I certainly would recommend the grouper nuggets (new this season), and the cheesesteaks got a thumbs-up as well. Since I wasn’t driving (just a 10-15 minute walk to/from the motel), I took advantage of the opportunity to get a 24-ounce glass of craft beer on tap (New Belgium Brewing’s “Fat Tire” amber ale).

 

Despite the lack of closure, the game was interesting, if not exactly perfectly played. Odubel Herrera returned to the lineup after his bruised finger and made a great leaping grab at the CF wall on the second pitch of the game. Neither starting pitcher got through even 5 innings, as Toronto’s Marco Estrada is running behind due to an earlier injury, and Jeremy Hellickson struggled some, hitting the 90-pitch mark before getting the final out of the fifth (although the only damage was a 2-run homer by Casey Kotchman). Maikel Franco had gotten the Phils on the board an inning earlier with his eighth round-tripper of the spring.

 

Toronto expanded their lead to 4-1 with single tallies in the sixth and seventh, but Peter Bourjos hit one out with one on off Brett Cecil in the bottom of the seventh to trim the lead to one. With two outs in the frame, the Phils played classic small-ball to tie the score. Galvis singled, stole second, and with no one paying attention to him there took off for third with Hernandez up. Cesar then proceeded to tap a soft grounder to second for an infield single, with Galvis scoring all the way from second.

 

We also got to see former Nat Drew Storen throw a clean 6^th inning for the Jays. The highlight of the evening for me, however, was an appearance by switch-pitcher Pat Venditte. (I had previously seen him pitch a few years ago in a AA game in Harrisburg.) He replaced Estrada with 2 outs in the 4^th and retired Ruiz (pitching righthanded). He stayed in for the bottom of the fifth, retiring David Lough, Ryan Howard, and switch-hitter Cesar Hernandez while throwing from the left side.

 

March 24, 2016 – Phillies vs. Braves (rainout) – Lake Buena Vista FL

March 24, 2016 – Phillies vs. Braves (rainout) – Lake Buena Vista FL

 

Phillies game cut short by thunder

 

Section 216, Row M, Seats 12-16 – upper level, near the top, just on the third-base side of home plate. Plenty of other Phillies fans in our section.

 

Oddly enough, this game was exactly one year after my last trip to Champion Stadium. The variety of stadium concessions hasn’t improved much (never did find the flatbread they were bragging about), and the lines were long at all the main stands. The game was scoreless through 3 innings before it was called because of an impending storm, which arrived shortly thereafter with a vengeance. (They actually evacuated the stands before the final half-inning was over.) They waited quite a while (seemed like well over an hour), but things didn’t improve and they finally cancelled the game.

 

The pitching matchup featured Matt Wisler vs. Adam Morgan, who’s in a two-man competition for the final spot in the Phillies rotation. He did fine overall (although I’m sure he wished he could have kept pitching), although the leadoff 3^rd inning walk to weak-hitting Gordon Beckham with the pitcher on deck was not his finest moment.

 

So, uncooperative weather and a long drive each way. Fortunately the company was good.

Marshall Crenshaw & The Bottle Rockets – The Birchmere, 3/18/2016

Table 317 – close to the center, one of the tables that are parallel to the stage and just in front of the divider. One of the best seats I’ve had there. Arrived around 4:30 to find a couple dozen or so people ahead of me in line waiting to get in (and was able to watch the last half-minute of the Michigan State upset on the iPad of the guy standing in back of me). Wound up with number H29 to get in (starting point was H17).

 

There was no crying at the Birchmere, although (probably by coincidence) Crenshaw opened with “Calling Out for Love (at Crying Time)” and closed the main set 70 minutes later with Buddy Holly’s “Crying, Wishing, Hoping” (which he performed when he portrayed Holly in the 1987 Ritchie Valens biopic La Bamba). When they came back, they started their 3-song encore by honoring the crowd’s request for his only top-40 hit, “Someday, Someway”, joking that he would make it a special performance by using the Bernie Sanders guitar pick he had recently been given. He then sent everyone home happy by doing two more favorites, “Something’s Gonna Happen” (the demo that got him his initial record deal) and “Mary Anne” from his classic debut album.

 

As I remembered from the last time I had seen him (which I found was January 25, 2002, thanks to the wonders of the Internet), Crenshaw and his band play pretty loud (let’s say a 9). This doesn’t always serve his catchy, melodic material all that well; I’d suggest dialing the volume back to 7 or thereabouts. At times he sounded as if he was straining to be heard over the band, and they also slowed “There She Goes Again” down a little, which removed even more bounce. For me, the show really caught fire about halfway through, when he performed some later, less-familiar (to me at least) material: “Passing Through”, “Move Now”, “Red Wine”, and a great cover of Richard Thompson’s “Valerie”. Four of the songs in his set that I hadn’t heard before were co-written with Dan Bern, who also wrote and performed one of the best baseball songs of all time.

 

As is frequently the case these days with Marshall Crenshaw shows, his four-man backing band, the Bottle Rockets, also served as the opening act, playing for almost a full hour (including all 11 tracks from their latest CD). Good cowpunk sound (two guitars, bass, drums), with some interesting material, notably “Dog” and “Building Chryslers” (which I suspect they don’t perform in their Michigan gigs) from the new CD, plus “Radar Gun” and “1000 Dollar Car” (don’t ever buy one). They joked that one of their new songs was written with Tom Jones in mind; oddly enough, Jones’s “Help Yourself” was featured on the playlist during intermission. And be warned that if Crenshaw’s set was at a volume level of 9, the Bottle Rockets by themselves pushed the knob to 11 – definitely the loudest set I’ve heard in my years of Birchmere shows.

 

By the way, all three of us at my table were surprised (and not in a good way) that the Birchmere no longer provides pitchers of water. Instead, they’d be happy to sell you water in plastic bottles. What is this, Flint?

 

Setlist

Trumpmusic

Chris Richards has a great article in today’s Washington Post about the musical selections played before and after Donald Trump rallies. (Note – the publication of this link does NOT constitute a political endorsement!)

 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/authoritarian-hold-music-how-donald-trumps-banal-playlist-cultivates-danger-at-his-rallies/2016/03/16/723159ac-eab1-11e5-bc08-3e03a5b41910_story.html

Serendipity #57

You Turn Me On I’m A Radio – Joni Mitchell

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTef-VeJLY8

Heard 3/17/2016 around 12:15, at Wegman’s (Germantown)

Serendipity #56

She Can’t Dance – Marshall Crenshaw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxD0JKtv4Rw

Heard 3/14/2016 around 6:00, at Potbelly (Rockville)

Serendipity #55

Waiting Game – Swing Out Sister

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bu3yrQ77E1Y

Heard 3/8/2016 around 12:15, at Wegman’s (Germantown)

Shuffle #83 (March 6, 2016)

Don’t Take Your Guns To Town – Johnny Cash

Hung On You – The Righteous Brothers

Wichita Lineman – Glen Campbell

(Love Is Like A) Heat Wave – Martha & The Vandellas

My Baby Loves Me – Martha & The Vandellas

Rock And Roll Is Here To Stay – Danny & The Juniors

Portland Town – Schooner Fare

Can’t Depend On Love – Gordon Lightfoot

Message In A Bottle – The Police

Coming Of Age – Foster The People

Shuffle #82 (March 5, 2016)

Born Yesterday – The Everly Brothers

Best Thing That Ever Happened To Me – Gladys Knight & The Pips

Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right – Peter, Paul & Mary

Creepin’ In – Norah Jones

Gold Mine – James Hunter

The Hard Way – Mary Chapin Carpenter

Save The Country [LIVE] – Laura Nyro

Rev It Up & Go – Stray Cats

I’ve Got A Woman – Ray Charles

See Saw – The Moonglows

Oh Girl – The Chi-Lites

International Guitar Night – The Barns at Wolf Trap, 3/3/2016

Row E, Seats 109-110 (center section, left aisle – could see reasonably well despite two tall people sitting directly in front of us)

 

International Guitar Night is an annual tour of acoustic guitarists, which has been organized since 1995 by Californian Brian Gore. The current tour features Gore along with three European musicians: “Gypsy Jazz legend Lulo Reinhardt, contemporary fingerstyle innovator Mike Dawes and multi-genre showman Andre Krengel.” (The IGN web site has more extensive information about each artist.) The opening set featured each of the four performing two original songs, followed by a final number featuring all four. The second set was mostly performances featuring 2 of the 4 in various combinations, with all of them coming back on stage for the final song and the encore. It wound up being over 2.5 hours of music all told; we didn’t leave until close to 11:00, driving home in the little snow flurry we had that evening. Fortunately the roads weren’t at all slippery and traffic was light, although it was coming down hard enough that visibility was less than ideal.

 

The solo performances demonstrated amazing virtuousity, although some were a little too new-agey for my taste. Things picked up considerably when more than one musician was on stage, especially during the second set, as much of the material was more up-tempo and the chemistry being the artists added a lot. Dawes, who’s toured with Justin Hayward of the Moody Blues, was the focus pretty much whenever he was on stage with his energy and self-deprecating British humour. Krengel was very earnest in his solo numbers, but I was particularly impressed with his work on the collaborations. I especially enjoyed the interplay on “Tight Trite Night” (written by Canadian guitarist Don Ross) and on Dawes’ “Boogie Shred”, which ended the second set.

 

The encore did not disappoint either, as all four joined in an instrumental version of David Guetta’s “Titanium” (a big hit a year or two ago with Sia on vocals). At Krengel’s suggestion and Dawes’ urging, crowd members activated the flashlights on their cell phones on each chorus, matching the pulsing of the multi-colored stage lights.

 

(Other song titles I remembered or figured out: “Silverado Squatters” (Gore solo), “Looking Out For Peace” (Krengel solo), “The Impossible” and “Somewhere Home” (Dawes solo), “Memories of Dachau, No. 4” (Reinhardt solo), “Stone Haulers” and “San Luis Obispo” (second set duets).)