The Tubes for Free

I saw The Tubes again for the fifth or sixth time last night in San Jose for free at "Concert in the Other Park". I don't think I have ever paid to see them. The first time I saw them it was at The Keystone in Palo Alto for one of my birthdays and we actually snuck in. This was about 1989 or so. About 10 years later I saw them for free at some street fair in Hayward. Then two years ago, they were in San Jose at this same "Concert in the Other Park" event. I especially liked that one as they did their "Wild West" show.

Last night's show was more straightforward and more PG-13 rated. They said that they were having their X-rated show in a couple of nights at a paying venue. At least Fee Waybill did WPOD in full Quay Lude attire. Strangely, the show started off with "Turn Me On", not a bad song, but not one of their big hits either. After a few more of these obscure gems like "I Was a Punk Before You Were" and "Mr. Hate", Fee launched into a James Brown tribute before settling into a string of their hits: "Tip of My Tongue", "What Do You Want From Life", "She's a Beauty", "Sushi Girl", "Don't Want to Wait Anymore", Talk to Ya Later" and the aforementioned "White Punks on Dope". They even did "Tubes World Tour" which I've never seen them perform live. All very lowkey and very fun.

Fee Waybill, Roger Steen, Prairie Prince and Rick Anderson were there, plus an unnamed keyboardist (it wasn't Gary Cambra).

Oh, How the Mighty Have Fallen...

People who know me well, know of my Harvey Comics fandom. Anyway, part of that is following the exploits of Casper. Well "Casper", the movie from 1995 has been compiled with three other so-so family films from the 90's, "Leave it to Beaver", "Flipper" and "The Little Rascals" in a single DVD set under the title of "Family Favorites". See it here at http://www.amazon.com/Family-Favorites-Collection-Rascals-Flipper/dp/B000LV6NZY/ref=sr_1_1/103-2231692-6437463?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1181402128&sr=1-1

McCartney Finally Dood a Good One!!

Paul McCartney finally released a good album. His first good studio album since 1997's "Flaming Pie". After duff albums like "Run Devil Run", "Driving Rain" and "Chaos and Creation in the Backyard", he's finally come back with something that's worthy of his Beatles status. I was EXTREMELY hesitant in purchasing this album since Ringo's albums have been so much better in recent years and even George's and John's posthumous releases. I felt that McCartney should either hang it up or just release older unreleased material when he knew how to compose a tune.

I bought the deluxe edition with the extra tracks, but unless you are a completist (like I am), save your money and just buy the single disc version. Even though this is touted as Starbucks Coffee's debut release and they acted like you could only find it there, Best Buy actually had it as a best buy at $9.99, whereas Starbucks had it at $15.99.

Will McCartney have a hit single with this? Probably not, but that's not due to the quality of the tunes, but rather the climate of music sales where there's no such thing as a single market anymore and people tend to download for free what they previously paid for.