Page McConnell @ Pantages Theatre

Page McConnell palyed keyboards for Phish for 20 years, from the bands inception to its end in 2004. Known as 'the chairman of the boards', Page has always been the least visible and least vocal of the fellas, positioned on the left side of the stage and seldom contributing more than backup vocals. He recently released his first ever solo album, and reviews of his tour (the first leg of which ended in minneapolis) have been stellar, saying that this is about the closest any of the post phish projects have come to re-creating that magical sound. i doubt that is what page's intentions were on this tour, but he clearly flourishes in an environment where improvisation is not only welcome, but neccessary to fully engage his audience and showcase his talents.











the most intimate moments of the evening came when page came out by himself for an encore and did 'strange design', a lovely song that is one of the few phish songs that page wrote.

Dripping in this strange design
None is yours and far less mine
Hold the wheel, read the sign
Keep the tires off the line
Just relax, youre doing fine
Swimming in this real thing I call life
Can I bring a few companions on this ride?

Pert Near Ice-T

last friday, on a lovely early june afternoon, local bluegrass stars pert near sandstone had their chance to play for the downtown minneapolis business crowd at peavy plaza. the free show, part of the 'alive at five' concert series, drew a sizeable crowd, with many young music fans bringing their children out for a foot stompin good time. the band was in good form, churning out fast paced original tunes alongside bluegrass standards from the likes of bill monroe. recieving as much attention as the band were three toddlers who were dancing up a storm, and occasionally falling down from overdoing a risky dance move. the youngsters pranced around the open dancefloor and delighted the audience.
pert near sandstone, with one of their more adorable fans in the lower left corner:



the next night and mere blocks away, brianna and i were able to catch some classic jams of an entirely different genre.

Ice T has been a musical idol of mine since i was about 13 years old and picked up my first ice-t record, 'original gangster'. The original 'original gangster', or 'O.G.' came through minneapolis over the weekend as host of a dj premeire show at the foundation nightclub in downtown minneapolis.

This was my first time at the fairly new, fairly swanky club, and i made sure to wear appropriate attire, so as to comply with the dress code. so, no white t shirts, no gang colors, no baseball hats turned backward for me on this saturday night.

the lady and i gladly paid our $20 for VIP admission to a show which i was very excited about, the infamous cop killer turned tv cop, performing with the man on the turntables for the legendary rap duo Gang Starr.

the VIP treatment meant we could carouse around behind the stage freely. it was pretty surreal to be five feet behind DJ Premeiere as he spun records, and to think that my man Guru was no more than a speed dial away.

Ice T was a treat to see, up there on stage with his wife coco. the two 'hosted' the dj event, which apparently means the host gets onstage for a few minute at a time and does a verse from a song here and there, and makes requests from the dj. ice-t, by the way, instructed the dj to throw on some public enemy, epmd, nwa, etc...the real gansta shit, of course. anyway it was entertaining to watch ice-t and his wife. apparently the integrity of coco's ass was in question, and ice-t directed more than one (female) fan to grab it and verify that it was, in fact, real.

ice-t (my shitty photo):



ice-t and coco:



dj premeir (left) with Guru:



dj evil e, the old school dj for ice-t, pictured on the right for the cover of 1988's 'power', opened the show.



oh yeah, and the coolest thing about ice-t, in my opinion, is that when he and his record company eventually bowed to insurmountable pressure from police groups, and took the song 'cop killer' off the 'body count' record (Ice's decent attempt at forming a heavy metal band)he replaced it with this song, called 'freedom of speech', from an earlier album.


Freedom of Speech, that's some motherfuckin' bullshit
You say the wrong thing, they'll lock your ass up quick
The FCC says "Profanity - No Airplay"?
They can suck my dick while I take a shit all day
Think I give a fuck about some silly bitch named Gore?
Yo PMRC, here we go, raw
Yo Tip, what's the matter? You ain't gettin' no dick?
You're bitchin' about rock'n'roll, that's censorship, dumb bitch
The Constitution says we all got a right to speak
Say what we want Tip, your argument is weak
Censor records, TV, school books too
And who decides what's right to hear? You?
Hey PMRC, you stupid fuckin' assholes
The sticker on the record is what makes 'em sell gold
Can't you see, you alcoholic idiots
The more you try to suppress us, the larger we get



[You have the right to remain silent]
Fuck that right! I want the right to talk
I want the right to speak, I want the right to walk
Where I wanna, yell and I'm gonna
Tell and rebel every time I'm on a
Microphone on the stage cold illin'
The knowledge I drop will be heard by millions
We ain't the problems, we ain't the villains
It's the suckers deprivin' the truth from our children
You can't hide the fact, Jack
There's violence in the streets every day, any fool can recognise that
But you try to lie and lie
And say America's some motherfuckin' apple pie
Yo, you gotta be high to believe that
You're gonna change the world by a sticker on a record sleeve
Cos once you take away my right to speak
Everybody in the world's up shit creek


Let me tell you about down south
Where a motherfucker might as well not even have a mouth
Columbus, Georgia, said they'd lock me up
If I got on the stage in my show and said "Fuck"
So I thought for a minute and said "No,
I wasn't even gonna do a damned show"
Cos for me to change my words from my rhymes
Is never gonna happen cos there's no sell outs on mine
But I vowed to get those motherfuckers one day
They even arrested Bobby Brown and Cool J
Yo, they got their's comin', cos I'm mad and I'm gunnin'
Homeboys, and there's no runnin'
I'm gonna tell you how I feel about you
No bull, no lies, no slack, just straight fact
Columbus, Georgia, you can suck my dick
You ain't nothin' but a piece of fuckin' shit on the damned map


Freedom of Speech, let 'em take it from me
Next they'll take it from you, then what you gonna do?
Let 'em censor books, let 'em censor art
PMRC, this is where the witch hunt starts
You'll censor what we see, we read, we hear, we learn
The books will burn
You better think it out
We should be able to say anything, our lungs were meant to shout
Say what we feel, yell out what's real
Even though it may not bring mass appeal
Your opinion is yours, my opinion is mine
If you don't like what I'm sayin'? Fine
But don't close it, always keep an open mind
A man who fails to listen is blind
We only got one right left in the world today
Let me have it or throw The Constitution away

Outro - Jello Biafra

What they're trying to do with radio, with this, uh, McCarron-Walter
Act and a lot of other ways, is start by saying that they're
protecting the public from wicked rock bands, or girlie magazines, or
whatever. But, if you follow the chain of dominoes that falls down,
what they're really trying to do is shut off our access to information
itself.

If they can't do it by law they know there's other ways to do it.

Charlie Parr @ the Cedar 6/2

Charlie Parr has been a staple of the Duluth music scene for years, having been the anchor of the Wednesday night 'midweek blues bracer' at fitgers brewhouse for quite some time now. recently though, charlie has branched out and has been making a name for himself throughout minnesota. he was featured on 'a prairie home companion', giving him a national audience for a few minutes at a time, and has been on the cover of city pages as well. he is a brilliant guitarist and songwriter- i recall one writer remarking years ago that "most of charlies songs are about drinkin and killin". word.

because charlie works with homeless people in duluth, he has undoubtably seen some distressing things. obviously he spends a lot of time with people who are extermely down on their luck, and that can be heard in some of his lyrics, yet his songs are not miserable and depressing. there is something about him that is calming. his voice, mixed with his talents on the guitar and his good natured, lighthearted attitude that make him more entertaining and uplifting than one would expect someone who sings about 'drinkin and killin' to be.

charlie started off the show doing a song with his wife (who had their infant son strapped to her chest onstage) along with a washboard player. what a pretty voice she had, i had no idea she was a singer.

although i was initially a little disappointed to walk into the big gymnasium like venue that is the cedar cultural center and see it filled with people quietly occupying chairs, (i was hopin for a bit of a hoedown) it was a good set up afterall.

charlie has been a huge influence on one of my favorite bands of all time, trampled by turtles. more than once i have seen those four young musicians flank mr parr, two on either side, and watch on in admiration as those furiously fast forty fingers of tbt accentuate charlies own proficient guitar pickin.

charlie has clearly been impressed with the talents of trampled by turtles hiimself, and opening the show were dave simonett of TBT and ryan young, fiddle player for the outstanding minneapolis based blugrass band pert near sandstone. the two have been playing together (when neither of the two very much in demand bands have gigs) and they make a very subdued, intimate sound together. daves simple yet forceful lyrics are nicely complimented by the violin, but the two can also easily get peoples feet stomping when they get going on a quicker song.


a brief, sideways sample of how good charlie sounded:



still working out the details of the youtube thing, quality will be much better in the future with some new fancy equipment, i promise.

and here is charlie with dave s and ryan young and a dude rockin the washboards. the four finished out the show with a neil young cover