My Life in Concert.com

Welcome to the My Life in Concert podcast! Join me, your host Various Artists, on my musical time travel as I look back on (almost) every live gig I have seen from 1975 to the present. This podcast series started life as a blog on Salon.com’s late, great OpenSalon.com in 2010. It gained a regular readership there until OS closed in 2015, and is now being resurrected as a podcast in February 2020. I’ve been a lifelong tunehead and fan of many genres with a particular passion for live shows, big and small. And while I’ll be discussing the music played, the podcast won’t simply be a critique of the performance.People recall a gig’s small moments that can end up defining the event in one’s mental hard drive sometimes more than the tunes: what happened before and after; things seen and heard; technical malfunctions, musicians passing out on stage, etc. Therefore, the podcast is about the “concert-going experience” rather than simply being a description of the performance: a mixture of concert review, music history, memoir, and philosophical musing. While my main musical bases in the 70s were glam in the earlier part of the decade and punk in the latter half, my tastes have exploded through the years. The podcast will go on to encompass live concerts in many genres: r&b, jazz, folk, pop, electronic, hip-hop, country & Americana, pop, blues, reggae, and more.I grew up in and have returned to London, Ontario, Canada (with a 20-year stop in Ottawa). While I will be remembering shows from a variety of locations including Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Detroit, NYC, and more, many of the early episodes will focus on concerts that took place in the Forest City from the 70s through the 90s … and now again in recent years (it will be Ottawa-heavy in-between.) There will be notable local visits by Elvis Costello, The Smiths, Iggy Pop, Marianne Faithfull, Radiohead, Joe Jackson, Steve Earle, k.d. lang, Gang of Four, and more. I’ll also have special episodes devoted to the local and regional live bands I saw regularly from the late 70s through early 90s. Along the way I’ll be dropping back into dearly departed local live venues including Fryfogle’s, the Cedar Lounge, the London Arena, the London Gardens, Bullwinkle’s, Wonderland Gardens, and the Embassy along with ongoing stalwarts like Centennial Hall and Call the Office. Outside of London, I’ll also be remembering great nights at long-gone venues such as NYC’s Danceteria, Toronto’s CNE Stadium, and Ottawa’s Barrymore’s.While London was my starting base, I’ll also be looking back on shows in Canadian and U.S. cities where I saw Neil Young, The Clash, Lou Reed, Aretha Franklin, Joni Mitchell, Janelle Monae, Sonic Youth, The Rolling Stones, Patti Smith, PJ Harvey, Ornette Coleman, Laura Nyro, Bootsy Collins (who head-butted me), The Jam, Paul McCartney, the Buzzcocks, Al Green, and plenty more. You can also check out the mylifeinconcert.com blog for written entries, original ticket scans, and related visual and audio; VATV My Life in Concert on YouTube for live clips; and follow us on Facebook. (Instagram coming soon!)Come out and join me at the show!

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My Life in Concert.com

(EP 22, no. 205) Caribou: Suddenly, London Music Hall, London, Ontario, Canada, Saturday November 20, 2021

January 29, 2022 • Various Artists • Season 1 • Episode 22

In February 2020, Caribou returned with his first new album after an absence of six years. It was released to universal critical acclaim and commercial success, and an extensive world tour was planned.

And then …. Suddenly …. Everything was off, as the Covid pandemic shut down the planet, including live music. 2020 turned out to be the first year since 1976 wherein I did not see a single live music performance.

A seriously depressing proposition for an admitted live-music addict. It also meant I could not finish my initial sequence of podcast episodes of one show from each decade of my concert-going.

And then … Suddenly, in the summer of ’21, through vaccines and the socially responsible sacrifices of many good people, live shows were on again including Caribou’s delayed tour which included a stop here in London, Ontario, in November.

“But if we buy tickets, will there even be a show?” We wondered. Or will everything close back down and, Suddenly, it’ll be off again?

Join me and my guest—Colin, my nephew, aka Fast and Bulbous in past blog entries—for a night of magic (albeit with some asterisks and apprehensions), last-minute decisions, and sprightly social intercourse with the over-served and mushroomed.

Next on Stage: Join me next time for another out-of-sequence show with one of two anniversary podcasts I’ll be doing in 2022.

While I originally launched the written blog on OpenSalon.com on June 3, 2010, and celebrate every year on that date with my own mock-up of a favourite album cover—it was the Rolling Stones’ Sticky Fingers for 2021— I didn’t get around to marking the podcasts’ first anniversary on Feb. 7, 2021.

So, to make up for that, I am going to do two anniversary episodes this year: one coinciding with the podcast launch, and one in June in tandem with the blog’s 12th anniversary.

What I will be doing with these anniversary episodes is that I will be selecting gigs from throughout my concert-going years that are personally significant for me or that I really want to highlight or talk about.

And my first anniversary podcast jumps into 1988 and a gig wherein I had some extraordinary revelations that I have never forgotten.

Join me next time for Episode 23, concert no. 51, and an unforgettable show by Keith Richards and the X-Pensive Winos at the then-recently—and beautifully—refurbished Fox Theatre in Detroit, on December 8, 1988.

Unexpectedly, and through a bizarre merging of synchronicity and happenstance, I find my self directly in front of Keith, about 10-or-so feet away, for his entire encore. And it results in an epiphany.

I’ll also be writing a full blog entry on the show as a companion piece to the podcast.

Tune in next time for avoiding a strip search at the border, being in agony and the healing power of music, and some realizations about rock stars.

The delayed Beat & REM show from 1983 will be Episode 24.

(EP 23, no. 51) Keith Richards and the X-Pensive Winos: Connection, Fox Theatre, Detroit, Michigan, USA, December 8, 1988