Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Milwaukee Punk Rock Reunion Show Shank Hall

Milwaukee Punk Band The Crusties
I'm preparing for another reunion show.  It's for my old Milwaukee punk band.  I will also be filling in on the drums for another great band named Sacred Order.  This time, I'm not doing any of the promotion, as the event is a fundraiser for an aspiring author.  The even is at Shank Hall this weekend.  All I have to do is try to play drums like I played back when I was 21 years old.  That's hard enough.

My bass player already asked me to bring the tempo down a bit on the songs.  I have no problem with that, as I really can't keep up with that drummer who used to be me. I can safely say that I'm not as flexible as I was all those years ago.  It's not that I need the flexibility, but it would be nice to have.  I'm drumming smarter now.

After the first few rehearsals on my own, I was starting to think that I would not be able to get my chops back up to snuff.  I was losing drum sticks, hitting the rims, and folding my arms onto themselves.  It was messy, to say the least.  To make matters worse, I had a ten day vacation planned well ahead of this event.  The vacation would take up precious drumming time. 

Our first full band practice went well.  When the rest of the band saw that I was just about as rusty as they were, it seemed to make them feel better.  Not that they need me to be playing poorly so they can feel better about themselves.  It was more of a "we're all in the same shape" kind of thing.  By our second rehearsal together, we had improved greatly.  The only wild card will be how well our singer performs. He's flying in the night before the event. 

Aside from the singer, the members of the band have all been performing in various bands in the past 25 years.  The singer was doing some hip jazz stuff in the early 1990's.  I don't know if he will be up to the task, but it's punk music, so all he has to do is get through the show with some sort of vocal style.    

Friday, November 9, 2012

Bob Dylan Top Charting Albums Prior To 1970



Bob Dylan BMO Harris Show Milwuakee
Bob Dylan is coming to the BMO Harris Bradley Center on November 17. Will he play the new album, or just the classics? I would think that most fans want to hear the classics, but I could be wrong.  Perhaps he could toss out a couple Traveling Wilburys songs too. 

Dylan first hit the charts in the US with his album titled The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan.  That album was more popular in the United Kingdom, but managed to hit the top 25 in the charts here at home.  He had similar results with his third album titled The Times They Are a-Changin’
The album went gold in the states, and made the top ten in the UK.

In 1965 Bob Dylan had two very popular albums hit the charts.  Bringing It All Back Home sold over a million copies, charting at number six in the USA.  Once again, he had a number one hit on his hands in the UK.  Following up with Highway 61 Revisited, he made fans very happy with that effort.  He sold over 1.5 million copies of that album. 

Between 1966 and late 1970, Dylan released five albums.  All five albums were top ten efforts in the United States and Europe.  Nashville Skyline did best, selling well over one million copies.
His album titled Together Through Life was released in 2009.  That disk hit number one in American and abroad.