Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Archive for the ‘Count Basie Theatre’ Category

Beat (Hackensack Meridian Health Theatre at the Count Basie Center, Red Bank, NJ, October 9, 2024)

Posted in Beat, Count Basie Theatre, Hackensack Meridian Health Theatre, Red Bank, NJ, Set in New Jersey!, Steve Vai, Tony Levin on October 9, 2024| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: October 9, 2024] Beat

I have seen King Crimson five times, all in the most recent iteration of the band.  I never saw the earlier incarnations when Adrian Belew was the singer/guitarist.

When it was announced that Adrian was gathering troops together to play 80’s era King Crimson, I was intrigued.  The tour had the blessing of Robert Fripp AND it featured Tony Levin on bass.  So that was pretty much all it took.

I’m not sure why Pat Mastelotto wasn’t invited, but Tool’s Danny Carey was a great choice.  As was bringing in fellow Frank Zappa guitar player Steve Vai Although the two never played together).

This ear of King Crimson is not my favorite.  Although Discipline was the first KC album I’d ever bought, I never really got into the other two (a few songs from each, but never the whole things). (more…)

Read Full Post »

Guster: “We Also Have Eras Tour” (Hackensack Meridian Health Theatre at the Count Basie Center, Red Bank, NJ, March 26, 2024)

Posted in Count Basie Theatre, Guster, Hackensack Meridian Health Theatre, Red Bank, NJ, Set in New Jersey!, Talking Heads on March 26, 2024| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: March 26, 2024] Guster

This was my eleventh time seeing Guster!  This show pushed them in to second place (along with Tori Amos and Richard Thompson) as the artists I’ve seen the most.

And what a great show this proved to be.  Following Taylor Swift’s Eras tour, Guster announced that they have eras too (since they’ve been around for 30 years) and they announced a two set retrospective of their career.

What I didn’t know (I saw no spoilers!) is that there would be a narrator telling us what was going on with the band.  Dave Butler (who also plays drums with Marco Benevento and has played live with Guster since 2015) was the evening’s narrator. [This also means I’ve seen Dave Butler play 12 times]. (more…)

Read Full Post »

Fortune Feimster: Live Laugh Love (Hackensack Meridian Health Theatre at the Count Basie Center, Red Bank, NJ, January 21, 2024)

Posted in Caitlin Peluffo, Count Basie Theatre, Fortune Feimster, Hackensack Meridian Health Theatre, Red Bank, NJ, Set in New Jersey! on January 22, 2024| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: January 21, 2024] Fortune Feimster

My wife asked for tickets to see Fortune for Christmas.  I was pretty delighted to see her too.  I don’t know her career that well, but she was a favorite character (Dougie) on the short lived Life in Pieces.

I didn’t really know what to expect from her stand up, but I assumed it would be brash and funny.

What was really impressive is that she basically told four stories over the course of 75 minutes and each story was funnier than the next.

There’s weren’t jokes per se, there’s no real one liners, they’re just very funny stories.

The first was about her and her wife going on a honeymoon to the Maldives and her discovering mid-flight that in the Maldives being gay is a crime.  Her (over)reactions to everything that people did on the island was great.  (more…)

Read Full Post »

Caitlin Peluffo (Hackensack Meridian Health Theatre at the Count Basie Center, Red Bank, NJ, January 21, 2024) [FORTUNE FEIMSTER]

Posted in Caitlin Peluffo, Count Basie Theatre, Fortune Feimster, Hackensack Meridian Health Theatre, Red Bank, NJ, Set in New Jersey! on January 21, 2024| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: January 21, 2024] Caitlin Peluffo

Being an opening band has got to be tough.  being a warm up comedian might be tougher (or maybe not, if the crowd is already pumped).

Anyhow, we didn’t know if there was a warm up act, and then as the show was announced we were told that Caitlin Peluffo would be warming us up.

I hadn’t heard of her.

She came out in jeans and work boots and joked  that she wasn’t gay, it was just a clothing choice.  She then announced that she had a boyfriend.  Peluffo has a very loud, aggressive style, which worked really well for some of the jokes, but here it almost felt defiant–that she was straight opening for a gay comedian.  Or something.

She had some good jokes about being a physically strong woman and how she liked to date smaller guys.  I enjoyed the gentle male bashing that she did, but somehow her jokes fell a little flat for me–smiles but not a lot of laughs. (more…)

Read Full Post »

King’s X / Trope (The Vogel, Red Bank, NJ, August 4, 2023) [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in Count Basie Theatre, King's X, Red Bank, NJ, The Vogel, Trope on August 4, 2023| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: August 3, 2023] Kings X / Trope

I’ve seen King’s X five times, all within the last ten years.

I’ve enjoyed all of their shows although I started to find them a little samey.  Nevertheless, I enjoy them and, since they’re all suffering from some kind of health issues, who knows how much longer they’ll tour.

So when they announced two shows near me, I thought I might be able to go.

I had tickets for another show on the third and I had another show on Sunday, so I decided I didn’t need to go to either of these shows.  I would have liked to go to this one to check out The Vogel, the small venue inside of the Count Basie Theater in Red Bank.  But there will be other times I’m sure.

I’ve seen the setlist that they played this night and it was the same as the night before and those were similar to previous years.  So I really didn’t miss all that much. (more…)

Read Full Post »

Mystery Science Theater 3000: Time Bubble Tour [Making Contact] (Hackensack Meridian Health Theatre at the Count Basie Center, Red Bank, NJ, February 6, 2022)

Posted in Conor McGiffin, Count Basie Theatre, Emily Marsh, Joel Hodgson, MST3K, MST3K Live, Mystery Science Theater 3000, Nate Begle, Red Bank, NJ, Set in New Jersey!, Yvonne Freese on February 6, 2022| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: February 6, 2022] MST3K Live

This was my fourth MST3K live experience and it was a hoot.  This was the first time that there was only one movie (in previous years they did two back to back–separate tickets).  This was also the first year that the host was a newbie.  Well, not totally new, Emily Marsh was on set for the previous show and as Emily Connor she will be co-hosting and maybe full-hosting the upcoming season.

Which is all well and good because I thought she was outstanding.  A bundle of energy, great comic timing and what a singing voice!

But the show started with the imposing presence of Yvonne Freese as Mega Synthia and sweet, one-eyed purple GPC!  She was outstanding last time and was even better this time as she was the center of attention for most of her on-stage time.  She was very funny and threw in some good improvs as the crowd reacted or didn’t.  She also has an amazing voice.

And of course, there are the bots–Conor McGiffin as Tom Servo and Nate Begle as Crow.  It’s amazing what a small crew they have for this tour (the props take up more room than the people).  There’s a mysterious fifth person on the tour as well.  She is “swing puppeteer” Kelsey Ann Brady who I gather is meant to fill in where and when she can.  Since the cast was all there, she was added as a kind of clone the Mega Synthia, which was pretty fun. (more…)

Read Full Post »

Loudon Wainwright III / Deni Bonet (Sellersville Theatre, Sellersville, PA, December 4 & Count Basie Theatre, Red Bank, NJ, December 5, 2021) [DID NOT ATTEND]

Posted in Count Basie Theatre, Deni Bonet, Loudon Wainwright III, Red Bank, NJ, Sellersville Theater, Sellersville, PA on December 4, 2021| Leave a Comment »

[DID NOT ATTEND: December 4 & 5, 2021] Loudon Wainwright III / Deni Bonet

Loudon Wainwright III has been playing pretty and also pretty funny music for decades.  I discovered him about fifteen years ago and quickly became a fan of his work.

His newer material deals more with old age than his earlier stuff but it’s still enjoyable.  I’m sure he would play songs from throughout his career.

I’ve been aware of Loudon Wainwright playing the Sellersville Theatre for a long time (like two years).  I’ve wanted to see him for a while now, but Sellersville Theatre is a real hassle to get to.  When I saw that he was also playing in Red Bank, I thought that I might go to that show instead.  And that something came up and I never got there either.

I’m under the impression that he tours a lot (when he’s not acting) so I’m sure I’ll be able to see him again.  I hope so (maybe a little closer to me).

Deni Bonet is a pop/rock singer/songwriter and classically trained violinist who has recorded and performed with R.E.M., Sarah McLachlan, Cyndi Lauper, Scissor Sisters, and Warren Zevon among many others.

I’m not sure if she played in Red Bank as well, since there was no opening band listed.  But I’ll assume so.

Read Full Post »

M. Ward / The Decemberists (Count Basie Theatre, Red Bank NJ, June 12, 2018) [CANCELLED]

Posted in Cancelled, Count Basie Theatre, M. Ward, Mann Center for the Performing Arts, Red Bank, NJ, The Decemberists on June 12, 2018| Leave a Comment »

[CANCELLED: June 12, 2018] M. Ward/The Decemberists

S. and I love The Decemberists.  They are probably one of our favorite bands.  Despite this, we haven’t seen them live all that much.  In part because they went on a huge long hiatus after releasing one of my favorite albums (why didn’t I see them on that tour?).

We have seen them twice (only!) and each show was great in its own way.

But when they announced a new tour with a date in Philly AND New Jersey, I was sure to get tickets for both shows.

They were scheduled to play at the Mann Center on June 7.  The Mann is an amazing venue but it is a super duper pain in the butt to get to.  So, we decided that since we had tickets to the show in Red Bank, we would blow off the Mann show.  Astonishingly I couldn’t sell the tickets, so I just ate the price.  Dang.

Turns out Colin’s voice was giving him trouble and that show wasn’t his best.  Although they did wind up playing a great set list.

Nevertheless we were very excited for our show and hoped his voice would be perfect five days later.

Then today at 3:30 this afternoon we received this email.

The Decemberists event scheduled for Tuesday, June 12 at the Count Basie Theatre in Red Bank, NJ has been cancelled due to Colin Meloy’s ongoing voice issues.

We effectively missed two shows of one of our favorite bands in a week. (more…)

Read Full Post »

The Decemberists [two failed attempts June 7 & June 12, 2018]

Posted in Count Basie Theatre, Mann Center for the Performing Arts, Philadelphia, PA, Red Bank, NJ, The Decemberists on June 12, 2018| Leave a Comment »

[NOT ATTENDED: June 7, 2018] The Decemberists at The Mann Center

Boy were we excited that The Decemberists were coming back around to tour their new album.  Even though we have seen them a few times now, we can always make room for them.

I love the acoustics of The Mann enter–it’s a beautiful location.  But it is such a pain in the butt for us to get to.  If it’s the only place a band is playing I’ll get tickets, but otherwise, I’d just as soon not travel that far.

Well, they were playing The Mann Center and I bought tickets.  And then a few days later they announced another show at the Count Basie Theatre in Red Bank, NJ.  Well, that is 100 times easier to get to, so I said we’d give up on The Mann show for the Count Basie.

Easy peasy.

Except that I could not sell these Decemberists tickets.  The Mann Center has a strict no resale policy, so you can’t do that Ticketmaster resell business.  Then I tried CashorTrade and even StubHub and there were no takers.  I even went lowball by the end.  The one bad thing about print tickets is you can’t wait til the last minute.

We could have still gone to the show but we had another commitment that night by then and it was still a hassle to get there.  Plus we had the Basie show, so we accepted the loss bitterly.

I noticed an IM on Facebook a couple of days after the show that someone was interested, but obviously that was too late.

[NOT ATTENDED: June 12, 2018] The Decemberists at The Count Basie Theatre

The night of the Count Basie show, we received a notice that Colin Meloy’s voice was shot and the show would be cancelled.  This show and one other (not The Mann Center) shows were cancelled.  And there was no immediate plans to reschedule.  So at least this money was fully refunded.

The band seemed to promise that they’d come back.  But now they have made touring plans further afield.  They are touring the West (and then teasing us here in NJ by coming back in a few weeks to play a show in Brooklyn.  And they are coming East again in October to play Massachusetts.

Then in November they’re off to Europe.

I see a few blank days on the itinerary between the last show in October and the first show in November.  I sure hope they reschedule somewhere near here for us!

 

Read Full Post »

Rodrigo y Gabriela (Count Basie Theater, Red Bank, NJ, November 14, 2017)

Posted in Count Basie Theatre, Metallica, Rage Against the Machine, Red Bank, NJ, Rodrigo y Gabriela, Set in New Jersey! on November 14, 2017| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: November 14, 2017] Rodrigo y Gabriela

My friends Liz and Eleanor came to the Rod y Gab show back in 2014 and we were blown away.  So when I saw they were playing in the Count Basie Theater and that I could get seats in Row G, I snatched seats up for all four of us again.

The last time was just such a phenomenal experience that I knew I’d want to see them again.  And being up so close and really seeing everything they were doing was a really super phenomenal experience.

I don’t know the song titles and we kind of joked that the songs all sound the same (but amazing and strangely unique at the same time) so I didn’t worry too much about what they were playing, I just sat back and enjoyed it. (more…)

Read Full Post »

Older Posts »