The Rock-N-Roll Show Podcast
The Rock-N-Roll Show Podcast - Episode 003 - Russell Kahn
As a live music enthusiast, I've had my fair share of concert escapades, but I pale in comparison to my latest podcast guest, Russell Kahn, the Chief Content Officer at News-O-Matic and a veteran of nearly a thousand shows. Imagine losing yourself in the throngs of a Phish concert or catching John Popper's harmonica mid-air; these are the moments we live for. In our conversation, Russ and I swap tales from our collective memories, recounting the rush of our first concerts and the bittersweet evolution of ticket prices that has since shaped the concert-going landscape.
Transport yourself to the heart of iconic venues like Madison Square Garden and the more intimate havens like Bowery Ballroom as we traverse the sacred spaces that have hosted the soundtracks of our lives. From the electrifying comeback performance of Phil Lesh to the unexpected letdown of a RatDog show, we relive the highs and lows that have defined our musical journeys. The anecdotes shared span the gamut from backstage shenanigans to the cherished impact of classic concert recordings and films that have become as much a part of us as the live experiences themselves.
Whether you're a seasoned ticket stub collector or new to the allure of live music, this episode is a heartfelt tribute to the power of performance and the eternal chase for the next unforgettable show.
As a live music enthusiast, I've had my fair share of concert escapades, but I pale in comparison to my latest podcast guest, Russell Kahn, the Chief Content Officer at News-O-Matic and a veteran of nearly a thousand shows. Imagine losing yourself in the throngs of a Phish concert or catching John Popper's harmonica mid-air; these are the moments we live for. In our conversation, Russ and I swap tales from our collective memories, recounting the rush of our first concerts and the bittersweet evolution of ticket prices that has since shaped the concert-going landscape.
Transport yourself to the heart of iconic venues like Madison Square Garden and the more intimate havens like Bowery Ballroom as we traverse the sacred spaces that have hosted the soundtracks of our lives. From the electrifying comeback performance of Phil Lesh to the unexpected letdown of a RatDog show, we relive the highs and lows that have defined our musical journeys. The anecdotes shared span the gamut from backstage shenanigans to the cherished impact of classic concert recordings and films that have become as much a part of us as the live experiences themselves.
Whether you're a seasoned ticket stub collector or new to the allure of live music, this episode is a heartfelt tribute to the power of performance and the eternal chase for the next unforgettable show.
Welcome to the Rock and Roll Show podcast. I'm your host, alex Gad, and I've had conversations like we have on the podcast countless times when meeting new people, both personally and professionally, among music fans. It allows us to get to know and understand one another in a way that's have on the podcast countless times when meeting new people, both personally and professionally, among music fans, it allows us to get to know and understand one another in a way that's much more than just superficial and, hey, it's just fun swapping stories about shows that we've seen. Today, we're lucky to have as our guest Russell Kahn. Russ is the Chief Content Officer at News-O-Matic, an online learning platform for kindergarten through eighth grade students, whose mission is to spark kids' curiosity and to inspire educators to transform their teaching. Russ is also an old friend and a passionate music fan and concert goer. I'm looking forward to a wide-ranging conversation, so without further ado, russ, thank you for joining us.
Speaker 2:Thanks for having me, Alex.
Speaker 1:Yeah, really excited to talk with you. You and I have seen a couple of concerts together. In fact, we met at a concert, although I did meet you when you were a little kid and we didn't know one another. But we met for the first time November 13th 2002. It's drilled into my memory Bob Dylan at Madison Square Garden. I was hanging out with my aunt, you were with friends and we met for the first time a momentous occasion. We've since hung out at other shows. I remember you two at MetLife Stadium in 2017. We saw Dylan together at the Beacon in 2018. And also, hey, we've been in the same rotisserie baseball league for the last 21 years, but maybe that's a topic for a different podcast.
Speaker 1:Look forward to that one too. All right, let's start with just some context. How did you get into music? Where were your initial musical influences? Where did they come from?
Speaker 2:You know that's a good question, because music was not playing in my childhood home. It wasn't like it was just constantly on in the background. So I clearly had to seek it out. I'm trying to think of how it came to me, but I can tell you that when I was 11, 12, 13 years old, I would spend my allowance on a new CD, and that was, you know, every week I would just go to the store and pick out something new and I just got lost in it. Certainly I had an older brother who probably helped the cause, but I can't tell you if there was like a single moment or experience as a kid that got me into this lifelong path that I'm on, but I'm grateful for it.
Speaker 1:Right on. So about how many concerts have you seen? I'm not looking for a specific number, just roundabout. So we can start with some context.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm sorry I haven't kept a diligent count. I would have liked to look back on that, but I would say we are at about a thousand. I have probably a little bit more at this point. If you're counting, you know club shows and whatnot. There's definitely, you know, a dozen acts that I've seen 20 or more times. So think a thousand is a good, fair number to go with and what act have you seen the most?
Speaker 2:you promise not I, I, no, no, not at all I I did a bunch of tours with fish uh, from 1994 through the early aughts and I think my last show was number 200.
Speaker 1:Wow, that is amazing. Yeah, you know, I spent time with Phish as well, but only in New York. I didn't do a lot of touring with them, you know, maybe as far as I went was Camden, new Jersey or Burlington, but not further than that, and I've only seen them 30-something times altogether. So 200 is really something All right. Let's go back to the beginning. So 200 is really something All right. Let's, let's go back to the beginning. So you're buying CDs. You're a kid, you're listening to your brother's music, maybe, but not getting a lot of influence from your parents. What was your first concert?
Speaker 2:So I guess I was always obsessed with Paul Simon. That was, you know, the sounds of Graceland and and and just sort of permeated my, my, my universe. And he was playing at Madison Square Garden. It was not the Graceland tour, it was the next one, rhythm of the Saints, I think it was. I want to say 89, maybe 90. And so MSG, right where I met you about 20-odd years ago, that's where my journey began. And how old were you at the time? I want to say 13. 13, I think, was the age. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Who'd you go with?
Speaker 2:I went with my mom.
Speaker 1:My first concert was not with my mom but with my aunt, as you won't be surprised, knowing my aunt as you do. But I saw a number of my first concerts with my mom because I was too young to see concerts and get myself there. So I get that. That's not a problem for me at all.
Speaker 2:So, madison Square Garden, paul Simon, rhythm of the Saints, do you remember? How much the ticket price was. I didn't buy it, so that was irrelevant. I should probably look that up, but my guess is it'll be, you know 20 bucks, 25 bucks maybe less.
Speaker 1:It is funny to see those old stubs and realize how much cheaper things cost back then. Right, yeah, my first show well, second show was Springsteen at the Garden in 1980, and it was $1,250. Compare that to $800 last time you played there and it's quite something. Do you have any memories, specific memories, of that show?
Speaker 2:What about that show stuck with you, so I can tell you a story from that show that I didn't remember from when I was there, but my mom loves to tell this story. I'm 13 years old and my mom decided she would test me. So some folks were smoking something nearby as a. You know, it's a common experience at a concert and I have no recollection of this happening. But my mom apparently said, hmm, what's that smell? What's that weird smell? And I apparently looked to her and just said, duh, it's weed Pot, mom, come on. And so I either passed the test or I failed the test, but either way, that has never been shared with you.
Speaker 1:She never shared with you which way that went.
Speaker 2:I think she was disappointed, sorry because I failed the test, but I can, you know. But that's her favorite story and for me I still remember his incredible percussion player, especially for the song from Rhythm of the Saints Obvious Child. It's just this incredible African drumming and there's this pause in the song and then this drummer comes in and I still remember that moment I love those kinds of memories because those are such uh strong imprints, you know, on everybody.
Speaker 1:Let's book in that with your most recent concert, what was the most recent concert you saw, so I went to a blue note jazz show for Valentine's Day.
Speaker 2:So there was that. Although I didn't go for a particular performer, I went to experience some live music and I'm a big jazz guy and I wanted to do something kind of romantic. And I honestly can't even remember her name. I've got to look her up again. Victory, her name was Victory. Her last name was Victory. But I can tell you, the last show I went to where I had bought a ticket and then had the name of the performer on it Looks like that was well.
Speaker 2:I took my daughter to see Unforgettable Fire, the U2 cover band in Montclair.
Speaker 1:Nice. Hey, every concert is a concert. I was in a cover band band, so I don't have any complaints about any concert any.
Speaker 2:How was that? I mean, you know it's funny, it was actually a cold play cover band that was the opener. I think they were called fix, fix it or fix me. Um, you know, it's good to see that kind of music live and, uh, youtube's not necessarily an easy band to go catch around the corner and my daughter's been obsessed with the band for a long time so it was beautiful to see her get to experience that. I thought they did a great job with it. And then the band that I went to go see on my own before that was J-Rad Joe Russo's Almost Dead, which is another cover band. Really, I mean, they're absolutely tribute band, almost they're amazing they're.
Speaker 2:I mean I might say they're the greatest cover band of all time.
Speaker 1:Whoa that's putting down the uh gauntlet there. What's the longest concert you ever saw? Now I assume you're going to tell me it's fish, because for me it's fish. Sure, at New Year's Eve, fish shows tend to go a very long time.
Speaker 2:They play three sets on New Year's Eve and each set being, you know, an hour to 80 minutes, 90 minutes sometimes. I've seen a few three set shows, festivals and New Year's Eve performances, halloween performances, so one in Amsterdam, just because they kind of wanted to keep playing. But I think the longest show that I ever saw them do was the New Year's performance from 1999 to 2000 in Big Cypress Seminole Indian Reservation for the Millennium, and they came out, I want to say 15 minutes until midnight and played until sunrise and there was no set, it was just six or seven hours or something nonstop.
Speaker 1:That's one. It got to be one of the longest popular music concerts ever.
Speaker 2:It's incredible that was definitely before trey found sobriety and what was the shortest concert you ever seen?
Speaker 1:have you ever been in a concert where the musician storms off or you know anything like that? Or they have technical difficulties and cancel the show after they started.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I was a freshman in college and I went to go see one of my favorite bands at the time, green Day, perform a public show in Boston, the Hatshell, right on the Esplanade along the Charles River, and a free show at the height of this band's popularity, and they've got a bit of They've got a bit of a punk element. Anyway, I think the show lasted about 20 minutes and there was things being thrown and there was just absolute chaos and they called it and they said we're done here, take it easy everybody.
Speaker 1:It's funny I feel like they both encouraged that and then got sick of it really quick Foo Fighters Dave Grohl always told a story about. After the first record they went out on tour and everyone threw Mentos at them because of the first video they did, and then after a while it got to the point of just total torture.
Speaker 2:But I would like to think of this award as some sort of closure. Stop blowing Mentos at our shows. That's what I'm trying to say. Closure, some stop-bullying man-pose that are shown. That's what I'm trying to say.
Speaker 1:But I can imagine Green Day could get pretty wild with those early crowds, especially the first, the Dookie record those first two records were pretty younger crowds of wild kids and punk wasn't really re-established yet in the mainstream and they were really right there and bringing it back. So I can imagine that would have been a little while.
Speaker 2:And we talk about the cost of concerts and the idea of a free show is beautiful, but it's a double-edged sword.
Speaker 1:Right. I think that the price actually keeps people in line. Nowadays, no one wants to get out of a show. They paid $400 for the ticket for yeah. So of all the shows you've seen, do you have a favorite concert? Is there a way to quantify a favorite concert? And you can. You can take that word and interpret it however you'd like, but what's your favorite concert that you've ever seen?
Speaker 2:oh, that's such a tough question. Um, I guess I mean there's recency bias, right? I mean a couple months back I I saw gregory alan, gregory Alan Isaacoff at King's Theater with my daughter and it was a beautiful, magical show, especially sharing live music with my daughter. But usually my go-to answer for that question is Warfield Theater, april 1999. Phil Lesch is. He has just had a liver transplant. He was basically on death's door after a lifetime of abuse, for sure, and he had a liver transplant and he got a second lease on life. And here we are, almost 25 years later. He's actually playing tonight at the Capitol theater.
Speaker 1:Right down the road from. Me.
Speaker 2:My brother's going. I was thinking about it but the tickets are over 200 bucks so I'm going to pass on that. But I saw I flew out to california after the workfield theater he played a three night run. I saw two of the three nights. Uh, very small theater for for phil and I loved that. Um, you know, it was again sort of a newfound lease on life and he was joined by a few incredible musicians and so for me, you know, at the time, completely, completely immersed in the Phish world, always in love with the Grateful Dead, his Phil and Friends lineup included Trey Anastasio and Paige McConnell from Phish, john Mollo on drums and also Steve Kimmock on guitar who just adds an incredibly beautiful sound to the mix. And those shows are just absolutely legendary. They still hold up 25 years on.
Speaker 1:Was that his first Phil and Friends shows.
Speaker 2:I think he might've had a few before them. You know, just that was kind of his name for when he's playing with some other randos. Right, it was the first Phil and Friends with a PH. You know, phil, and Friends, right, uh, so just seeing those two worlds half of fish is there exactly and having, you know, having the mix of those two bands kind of come together. You know, mostly dead song is a couple of fish songs, a lot of dylan, it was just absolute, pure heaven, oh that sounds great.
Speaker 1:Now, what's the best live act you've ever seen? Is it the same as that Phil and Friends show, or what's the best live act? I mean, oftentimes the best live act is not a person's favorite show, because a favorite show has something unique about it, like what you just described, but the best live act is a little more.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I am also a huge fan of Yola Tango, and they're not for everybody, but they're very much for me and I have seen them for about 20 odd years and in all sorts of different venues and different performances and I just am always blown away by their ability to stir something in me and inspire me. So, yeah, I'd say they're my favorite act, my favorite live act, even if they're You're right, it's a different question.
Speaker 1:Yeah, what's the most disappointing concert you've ever seen? Have you ever gone to a show with high expectations and left saying, oh my God, that was what I wanted?
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's happened a few times. It's always sad when you leave a show feeling like you, like the band and the music, less than when you walked in. Um, I know my brother took me to a birthday show. We joke about it still. It was in the early days of a rat dog and I guess I didn't realize that the part of the grateful dead I loved was not the bob weir part of it. And, um, this was, you know, 96 or 97, so it was, you know, shortly after the dead and I will say that that you know probably has come a long way and he's, he has done, he, I've seen, you know afterwards, where it's been lovely. But that show was really sad, especially, um, it was packed, you know, absolutely packed and expensive and and it was, it was not the best show I'd seen, oh yeah, well, look, I mean 96.
Speaker 1:You said, yeah, maybe 97, so one of those, right. So I mean it was. I mean jerry's death was still raw, I'm sure, and that must have been hard. What's the most pleasant surprise? Have you ever gone to a show where you didn't know the band and you walked away saying, wow, that was amazing?
Speaker 2:yeah, uh, I mean, it certainly happened with yola tango. Did not expect to be so blown away first time.
Speaker 2:You mean yeah yeah um, the first time I saw them, they were doing a concert called the sounds of the sounds of science, and it was they were scoring. They were creating the soundtrack to an underwater film, basically a predecessor to Jacques Cousteau, and it you know, it. You know you're watching a film and they're just creating the music for it and I haven't looked back since. Uh, but I think my biggest most pleasant surprise as a live music junkie is that my daughter has good taste in music and has taken me to shows that have been beautiful experiences as well.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's great. Have you ever been at a show where a guest performer came out? And if so, I can't imagine you haven't seen as many Phish shows that you've seen but guest performers. Do you have a favorite unannounced guest performer experience?
Speaker 2:Yeah, that was always fun for Phish. You know, jay-z came out in Brooklyn. I was there too. That was pretty fun. You know, that was a good time. Big Pimpin' on the floor, big Pimpin' and 99 and 99 problems both of them. And you know, the one thing about fish is in hindsight. You know, they really they don't really have a lead. I mean, they don't really have a singer like a real singer, a real front man, and it's fun to see that. Uh, I was there when kid rock came out in las vegas, and not saying I'm a huge kid rock fan, but boy was that fun.
Speaker 1:Um, yeah, they. They make it fun because they're so amped up. I wasn't hanging out with them backstage because they didn't let anyone backstage that night because, as we found out why, because Jay-Z was there. They were super amped about it. They loved how that went down. Honestly, that show it was at Keyspan Park in Brooklyn, out on Coney Island the place erupted and every Phish fan knew every word to both of those songs and it was Jay-Z seemed pretty thrilled by it and excited by how into it the Phish crowd was.
Speaker 2:I mean, you guys are deciding all this huh and deciding all this from me, I felt it.
Speaker 2:And then I was talking briefly about my daughter's live music experience. I took her to her first show. Talking briefly about my daughter's live music experience, I took her to her first show. She actually liked this singer-songwriter named biba doobie and biba doobie was opening for the bleachers at radio city music hall. We went for biba doobie bleachers were incredible and your friend bruce springsteen came out. So that's a good way to. Yeah, there we go. So that that, then that yeah that was a good show.
Speaker 1:I saw the video of his his song that he recorded with the bleachers and it was great.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and the bleachers are a great band, so that was, and you know, and also you know, I'd like to kind of have a checklist. I want to be able to say I've seen all these different artists and that was my first time ever seeing bruce, so I can at least say I've caught that, although maybe one day we'll catch a full show together.
Speaker 1:Oh, I think we're going to this year, cause we don't have a lot more chances after that. If he waits another seven years, that'll be the end. So we'll, we'll go this year. I'll figure it out. We'll go to Philly. Um, let's switch over to venues. Do you have a favorite concert venue?
Speaker 2:So I think that there's two different ways to look at it. I think indoor and outdoor are very different experiences and you know, I think there's something wonderful about being on the ocean on Jones Beach. There's something beautiful and majestic about being at Red Rocks. It's really hard to argue with that no-transcript longer here. Oh, I loved roseland you didn't like.
Speaker 2:I mean, I, I liked it once I figured out how to uh scan my way up to the balcony and the VIP section, and then it was wonderful Uh but until the roller rink downstairs wasn't so great.
Speaker 2:It's just, it was just so big and so cramped, and I guess there are other venues that have that that layout. It's terminal five or Brooklyn steel, where you know you're either you know in the thick of it or you're like way, way, way off to the side where you can't see or hear anything, and it's like there's almost it's great if you're in it, if you're like, really really fully involved, but it's just a bit of a madhouse Right on.
Speaker 1:Now, what venue have you seen the most shows?
Speaker 2:at Gotta be, msg, gotta be I mean I started there. I think this just played there like 70 or 80 times. Now I've probably seen 50 or 60 of them and you know I've kind of stopped. I see them like once a tour or so and I'm very happy with that Right. But I like MSG.
Speaker 1:Me too, just love it, and I've seen about 50 shows there as well and just adore it. I mean, I get it's not the best sound and the smaller you get, uh, as venues go, you have a chance of getting really good sound. But some small venues have terrible sound. I mean, irving plaza is deafening, they. They don't know how to moderate the sound and so you go in there for a rock show and you get crushed by the sound. At Madison Square Garden it's always good. It's not the best, but it's not bad at all. Love it. Now, overall, if you had to see a show only in one type of venue club, theater, arena, festival, stadium, amphitheater what's your favorite place to see a show?
Speaker 2:I love being able to get up close, and not every venue allows for that, including MSG. I even miss the old days of Yankee Stadium where you could just more easily sneak your way down. I think I do love the Bowery ballrooms, where you're allowed to get there early. You don't want to stake out a spot, you want to have that experience, because it does change the experience. You know whether you're you're stuck in the back or, of course, all the way up front. So I guess if I had to choose a venue that's I kind of is a venue that's a kind of Bowery, but Bowery is beautiful.
Speaker 1:Yeah, great, great room. I always like to ask a little bit about recorded live music, which is an oxymoron, maybe in some way. What's your favorite live song? Yeah, I should say.
Speaker 2:Well, since we were just talking about the those fill in friends from 99, I've kind of been hearing those songs in my head and for me that was the introduction to a lot of those songs and I guess the one that keeps. Can I say Help Slip Franklin's Tower. Can I say that as one song?
Speaker 1:Sure.
Speaker 2:Of course, there we go Right, help Slip Franklin's Tower, and I'm just. It was also incredibly special, not only for where phil was in his life, but for me flying across the country to see my brother and be with him when he was living in the bay area. Um, yeah, again we. We can pretend that we want to try to disconnect the music from the personal experience, but they're very much intertwined right.
Speaker 1:This whole podcast is about making sure that connection is front and center, so I'm all about that Favorite live album. Do you have one?
Speaker 2:You know, I went years not really getting the dead. I didn't really understand what it was all about. You know, I heard some of their studio stuff and wasn't really thrilled. I mean, I, some of that I thought was just downright like not good operator. Can you tell me? Tell me, yo, okay, this, this is this is what people are like going on tour for. But one uh, one from the vault, just uh, gets it right. It's just perfect. Note for note.
Speaker 1:Yep. And then favorite concert film Do you have one, and if so, what is it? I'd love to make sure I've seen it.
Speaker 2:You know, I don't really. I'm trying to think it's a, it's a good question. I might have to come back to that. I don't know, I mean in the, you know, as a fellow Dylan file, I Dylan file. I guess we can not so much. It's not a concert film, but um, don't look.
Speaker 1:Oh yes, it is Okay, don't look back. Don't look back is great. I mean, you get to see him at the height of his early power. Yeah, it's amazing.
Speaker 2:And then what that film does in terms of telling a story, where we are in the, in history, where you know the, the change in music. So, yeah, let's go with.
Speaker 1:Yeah, don't look back not a not a bad choice at all. Love it now just for fun. Do you have any outrageous things you've ever seen or even done at a concert before? I mean a lot of fish shows. I've seen, you know, lots of people taking hits of whatever and then passing out right there and face planning in the parking lot and well, that seems perverse.
Speaker 2:I always found that funny even though I've seen 200 fish shows, I'd like to say I, I'm, I'm, really. I've always been able to be sober at shows and enjoy my experience. So I, I'm proud to say I've never done the passing out on my face. No, no judgment to those who have, but no, no, no.
Speaker 1:It's just funny. I find it funny Putting yourself through that kind of torture afterwards. But yeah, I guess From a whip it.
Speaker 2:I've done, I've definitely, you know, snuck in and gone backstage and had those kinds of experiences.
Speaker 1:Let's hear that story. No one's. There's a statute of limitations. I'm sure it's. It's over.
Speaker 2:I wanted to share this experience with you because I think, when I think back on my live music days, this is the one, one story that I loved it because of where, where I was in this moment and all the things going on with it. I was at Roseland and this was 90, February 24th 1995. It was Dave Matthews band.
Speaker 1:Now, I was there.
Speaker 2:You were there. You were at that show too. Yep, it was right before my birthday.
Speaker 1:I was there.
Speaker 2:And I don't know that we ever talked about that. We were at the same show because at the time I mean, I don't really talk about Dave Matthews.
Speaker 1:Band shows a lot, but that was early, dave Matthews and I was going to check it out.
Speaker 2:I had just discovered Dave and I was really enjoying his music. But I was there at the show representing my other two favorite bands. So I had a fish shirt from Junta and I had a baseball cap that was the blues travelers logo, cause I was big into blues traveler and I had also, you know, just seen fish for the first time on New Year's Eve Madison's rather that was Boston garden with my brother and I was representing Fish. And then, on a personal note, I was a freshman at college and I kind of lost my way a little bit. I got mixed up with some people that really were not good folks and then I decided I would try to go to a fraternity because maybe you could meet some good people there.
Speaker 2:My brother was in a frat. It seemed like a nice place to go. And after I was in the frat for a month or two and then there was some big event at the frat house and they said everyone had to be there. I said, well, I'm not going to be there because I'm going to this concert. I was in Boston, had to go down to New York city for the show and I said well, russ, you gotta, you can't just do, they can't blow off this event. This is important. You either gotta, you gotta make a decision. So I made the decision and I uh unpledged to the fraternity and went down to the show and front and center, blues traveler had Fisher and Dave is playing on stage. Blue traveler hat Fisher and Dave is playing on stage. And from the front of the stage I can look over and see on the side of the stage Trey Anastasio waiting in the wings waiting for his turn and I'm losing my mind.
Speaker 2:And I look over on the other side and I see John Popper and they're on opposite sides, and I'm the only one that is seeing this because you could, either you know, maybe you saw, but I was the only one that is seeing this because you could, either you know, maybe you saw one, but I was, and I had that one spot. I knew what was about to go down and they came out for the next song and they played all along the watchtowers. We want to bring a couple more friends back over there, cause, then we have such a good time. Let them work on jail, my little man. We wanna bring a couple more friends back over here, sir, cause, then we have such a good time letting them all go. Jowl, my little man.
Speaker 1:I.
Speaker 2:It goes straight from the fish, so you know, dylan, with members of fish and blues, traveler and dave matthews, absolutely fire and then at the end of it a popper throws his harmonica into the crowd to me, Because clearly he must've just seen a dude losing his mind.
Speaker 2:And I remember dropping it. It hit off my fingers and I dropped it into this packed sea at Roseland, where we're just, you know, complete sardines, even in the best of scenarios. And here, with you know, with all that was going on, it was, it was, it was, we were all packed and I just decided split second, I'm going to go down and I'm going to find this thing, and then I just dive in. I'm under the sea of people and I had heard, I remember grabbing something and it was a, it was a cup, it was like a, you know, a beer cup and it took a long time. I can still remember the process that I'm freaking out. Anyway, I find it, I grab it, and then I remember someone telling me a story once where these things are so in demand that someone had his stolen because he had gotten the blues travel harmonica. Anyway, I stood up with harmonica in my hand and I screamed who has the harmonica?
Speaker 2:and then I ran and then I all the way to the back venue uh, as as the guests left the the stage and I was like shaking and I still have my harmonica from that night.
Speaker 1:Well, I am very glad that you didn't get kicked in the face while you were doing that. Oh cool that you were there, man. Yeah, I wasn't in the front, though I promise I was in the back. I didn't want it. I didn't want it that bad, and my mind was blown too when they came out. Have you ever hung out backstage at a show with the musicians?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I got my. I finally got my Phish backstage experience in Hamburg, germany, on their Europe tour in 96, as I'm a teenager backpacking my way through, I feel only a little bit bad about this, but not that much. There was a car parked out front that had a backstage pass like sticker from the tour on the car. It was clearly from a previous show in the tour, but I just killed it off and then used it to get backstage. So I got to meet. The members of the band was which was which was cool, and I'm trying to think of another. Good, uh, you know that's a good one, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:Were they nice.
Speaker 2:Uh, yeah, that's a good one. Were they nice?
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely, I think I had a nice long conversation with Paige. I didn't really talk to Fishman too much. I think he was trying to hit on some girl I didn't want to be in. Yeah, he's hard to talk to backstage. I mean I spent many nights backstage and he was the one that acknowledged me the least. After a point all the people from Vermont got to be known. You know you weren't friends with the guys, but I knew Trey pretty well. But Paige and Mike at least recognized me and acknowledged me. Fish never did. That's a good one. So I have a couple of questions about your bucket list, because this is the meat of it for me. You've talked about a bunch of things that you have done. What concert venue would you like to go see a show at, but you haven't yet? What's left for you? You've hit my number one, which is Red Rocks. I've never been. I'm really anxious to go. So where is a venue you would love to see a show that you haven't yet?
Speaker 2:Well, I think that, in hindsight, all those experiences I had with Phish was um, it was certainly I enjoyed the music, I certainly danced all night long and I made a lot of friends along the way, but I loved the travels, I love the experience of going to new places and that that continues to be a motivator for me. And so for me it's it's about picking the next experience and and and seeking that out. I just had my first Berkeley Greek experience, just flying out there to see crumb in, right, I wanted to have that, have that show. Um, I never saw a show at the gorge, so that seems. But you know, I feel like I'm a little old for like camping and I don't know, but I do too.
Speaker 1:I wouldn't do that anymore.
Speaker 2:Um, but I think if I'm going to see a show, I want it to be international. I want to travel, I want to go to a new country and see a music venue. Sorry, my cat just went by my lap Um trying to think if there's a great bucket list international venue, um, I mean we'll figure one in paris. Um, I don't know. Let's. What are the best music venues in the world right outside of the us? What? What are the great ones? Royal albert hall I don't.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I would think that that is a pretty good one. Or the o2 arena now in london is good, um, but royal albert hall would be a nice one for sure. I don't think I'd ever want to go see a show at a soccer stadium, uh, football stadium in europe, because those are just too big yeah, they're not intended for music.
Speaker 2:I've seen a couple of those and that's not the experience that I think us music snobs seek Right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I don't know. I don't have a great answer for you. I mean, maybe it'd be cool to see a show at the Cavern Club. I don't know, I don't have an idea if that's good or not anymore, or if it's even a place that has shows with new bands. I don't know. I have not seen a lot of shows overseas, In fact maybe in the single digits, and they were bigger shows like Hyde Park shows and things like that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's the draw for me. That's what I want to see next. I want to see live music in different cities, in different countries. I mean, I did see fish in 10 different countries, so you know, it was always about traveling and getting those, getting to experience those other cultures. Um, trying to think, what you know, I got, I don't know, I gotta find a, find a venue that I want to go seek and then make that the next big experience.
Speaker 1:Note to self Good. If you could see any musician perform, living or dead, who would it be?
Speaker 2:So I have two beautiful framed portraits in my living room, both from the photographer Elliot Landy, and one is Dylan in 1968 and one is Jimmy in 1968, and very different styles, um, both playing in New York, once in Woodstock, once in the Fillmore East. But I just, you know, I would love to experience the magic of his guitar playing in person and feel that energy. Yeah, only that. That. That fire only burned for a brief, brief moment in time.
Speaker 1:But if I had, if I had a chance, yeah, that is one of the for our generation who couldn't have seen him live. I mean, I was three when he died. That's the answer for me too. I mean, that's just such an influential performer hidden essentially three albums in four years.
Speaker 2:And such a legacy. Even over 50 years now he's been gone and he still holds this incredible place in my music history.
Speaker 1:So influential, for sure. If you could meet any musician musician, who would it be, and why?
Speaker 2:you know it's, it's, it's tough. I think you and I are both big dylan fans and I don't know, I can tell you I don't want to meet him, I don't really want to sit down and have a conversation. I, I, I've learned to really separate, uh, the performers, the artists, from my personal connections and I, I, I don't know, I feel like if you, you know, you can meet somebody and they're human and they're flawed, and then all of a sudden, the art doesn't have the same look to it.
Speaker 2:So you know the days of me dying to get backstage and hoping to meet various musicians. I'm happy just to kind of head home after a show, right?
Speaker 1:on.
Speaker 2:There's not really anybody that I would want to, and I think that's a lame answer, but I'm happy, no, that's fine, there are no lame answers here.
Speaker 1:It's funny. When I was a kid I met a lot of people through my aunts and I kept it to just high. There was no conversation, because, I agree with you, I was young and I knew I didn't have anything to add. So it was high. Great to meet you. Thanks for having me. I love the show if it was after the show show.
Speaker 1:And I met the Stones and Springsteen and Van Halen, all at their own shows and it was something. It was heady stuff for a young kid but I kept it to the absolute minimum. And then with Phish, I hung out with them so much that it was, you know I'd hang out with Trey's wife or, you know, his mom backstage and not get involved with Trey while he's performing, because that's not what he wants and needs. But I did go out to dinner with him and Stuart Copeland before an Oysterhead show at Roseland and that was pretty good. That was fun. They treated me like a normal person for the most part. So it's not so bad to meet your heroes, as long as you keep it in context. What are you doing next, concert wise? Uh, any shows coming up that you already have tickets for?
Speaker 2:they just announced what's called the outlaw music festival. Yeah, and you know I, you know I keep seeing Dylan, I keep catching his shows. I, um, I, uh, you know I saw him in, uh, Montreal in the fall and and in New Jersey. I'm sorry we missed that show together.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we were supposed to go together.
Speaker 2:I still regret that. Oh, he's, he's, you know. So he's torn again, and this time he's doing his tour with Willie Nelson and uh, robert Plant and Alison Krauss as part of that tour too. Anyway, I have not seen Willie. He's 91 years young, bought, bought tickets, uh, june 29th at Jones beach, and the idea then is, after the show, walk home to fire Island.
Speaker 1:Uh, so five five mile trek on the beach.
Speaker 2:Beach, but the ferries don't run. So your choices are either a 250 water taxi or five uh mile walk on the beach.
Speaker 1:Um, or don't go, which isn't bad, and do you have any shows you haven't bought tickets for yet, but you're looking forward to seeing um a lot of people touring this yeah, tell, yeah, tell me I've been.
Speaker 2:I've been a little bit out of the loop and just kind of got my head down trying to raise two teenagers, trying to run this business, and, um, I have not been quite as involved. Just so often it's like, you know I'll, I'll see a show, but it's a Tuesday and I've got something to do with the kids and right now I'm just kind of leaning in at this time in my life, while I got them for just a couple more years.
Speaker 2:Um, good idea but maybe you and I should look at some lineups and tell me what.
Speaker 1:Let's go, let's go yeah, I have some ideas, so I'll share some with you before we go I'd love for you to tell us a little bit more about your business.
Speaker 1:I did a very basic intro, but tell us a little bit more about your business. I did a very basic intro, but tell us a little bit more about Newsomatic and what it's all about. And I know you've been doing it really since the beginning, or almost the beginning, and it's a big part of your life, so I'd love to hear a little bit about that and share that with the audience.
Speaker 2:Well, I'll do even better, Alex. I'll explain how I ended up in this business through music, which is the fact that I was, when I was going to see Dave Matthews and Fish, as a freshman and a sophomore in college. I was studying engineering, mostly because I was good at math but didn't really have any aptitude or enjoyment for engineering at all. And I'm at a concert at Orpheum Theater in Boston in 95. And I'm there by myself because I was that much into music. I would just go to shows and I just could not stop reflecting on the fact that I hated what I was studying and I did not want to do it and I just asked myself what do I want to do? And I knew I wanted to keep seeing live music. And I said how can I make live music part of my life, the focus of my life, given that I have no musical talent hang an instrument or singing?
Speaker 1:By the way, you do have musical talent. You're a pretty good guitar player. Thank you, sir. Thank you, don't, don't sell yourself short.
Speaker 2:Okay, I was not gonna quit my day job to play botched, botched bob dylan covers. Um, yeah, and I said, well, there are people who go to shows and they get to write about it and I guess that's a career. You could be a music journalist. Well, how do you do that? You study journalism. And so for the next couple years I switched my major from mechanical engineering to print journalism. I started working at the boston university newspaper trying to cover concerts. I remember the. I got a free ticket to a fish show to write a review about it. But that was like a really exciting moment of my life. Like I, I got a free ticket this is gold, jerry and I studied abroad in my junior year, down in Sydney, australia, and I interned for Rolling Stone when I was there Rolling Stone, australia, australia, but you know, still Rolling Stone and that's where I got my first, where I got my first byline.
Speaker 2:I was going to concerts and talking to the people and really was in that world. And actually here's a cool side story One of my journalism projects for school was interview a journalist who's in the field you want to work in, and I remember contacting like 30 journalists and 29 of them ignored me, including, like all the local at the Boston Phoenix, like people were just not responding anywhere. And I got a call out of the blue from John Perales from the New York Times and he was a big guy in his field even 25 plus years ago and we had a nice chat. I remember him saying, like you know, he kind of cautioned me.
Speaker 2:He's like you might not want to do this as your career because it can. It can disrupt what you love and it becomes a word instead of passion.
Speaker 2:But the beautiful part of this is that I continue to do music journalism. We write about, you know. Certainly we write about, you know, this Taylor Swift tour, because that's incredible through Newsomatic. But also we've done all sorts of different stories about music. And you know there was a period there where every one of the Beatles albums were turning 50. And so we would be writing articles about those albums for kids that many of them have never even heard of the Beatles. I remember we got to interview different we interviewed people who worked on the albums in different ways.
Speaker 2:50 years later, it's not. We're not just doing music, but it's part of what I'm doing to be a storyteller for children. But it's music, it's sports, it's arts, it's government, civics and culture, any stories that we think are interesting, that kids should learn about and that includes music, but it it's all because of live. Music like that actually led me on the path here to be this storyteller, and we've been now publishing for coming up on our 3 000 consecutive edition. So 12 odd years of storytelling, every single day, new stories been the journey of a lifetime and I'm excited to keep that going.
Speaker 1:Well, I hope you do. Russ, thanks so much for your time today. I really enjoyed going through your live musical history and we will find a show to see together this year, so I look forward to that, and I'll see you in a couple of weeks for our baseball auction.
Speaker 2:We have a lot to discuss. Still, my friend, thank you so much for thinking of me and for reaching out.
Speaker 1:Really glad you joined us. And that's it for today's conversation. Thank you for joining us as well. We'll be back next Tuesday and if you like what you heard today, we'd appreciate it. If you like, and either subscribe or follow to make sure you get notified about every new episode, and please tell your friends additionally, I want to know what you think. Please leave us a comment and we'll try to respond to every one of them. The rock and roll show podcast is a world highway media production. I'm your host, alex gad, and until next time, take care of yourself and each other.
Speaker 2:Thank you.