From there, he's gone on to release four solo albums, the latest
of which was Universal Love in 1992.
Tickets to see Pato Banton and The Reggae Revolution are $12.
STOP CARRYING ON ALREADY: Alan Parsons and Kansas are also in
town tonight. Parsons is, without question, a creative studio
person. He has worked on a few albums you've probably heard tell
of, as either producer or engineer: The Beatles' Abbey Road
and Let It Be, Pink Floyd's Dark Side Of The Moon,
Al Stewart's Time Passages and Paul McCartney's Wildlife
and Red Rose Speedway.
He also had a bunch of hits with his Alan Parsons Project in
the late Seventies and early Eighties: "Time," "Eye
In The Sky," "I Wouldn't Want To Be Like You,"
etc.
He's touring the U.S. for the first time (his Project was a studio
band) in support of his The Very Best-Live album. It was
recorded last summer when Parsons toured Europe. Anyone familiar
with his work wouldn't expect a really high-energy disc from Alan,
but here he sounds as if Jim just shot him with the tranquilizer
gun on Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom. Expect to sleep
well during his show here.
You may not get to nod off until after Kansas has performed,
however. As a young lad I was taken to a Kansas concert by some
former friends. I had fallen in with a fast crowd with low morals
and bad taste in music. Several of the young women in that crowd
had gone "all the way" and owned Boston and Foghat albums--that's
how despicable these people were.
Anyway, the show opened with Kansas hidden behind a giant red
velvet curtain which opened slowly as they cranked out the opening
strains of "Carry On Wayward Son." The whole show was
an onslaught of pretentious, overblown "arty" rock anthems
and power ballads. I'm starting to get a headache remembering
all of this, so I'll just tell you that tickets are a mere $27.50
for these two cutting-edge artists performing at the Tucson Convention
Center Arena, 260 S. Church Ave.
IT'S IN THE NAME: The punk band once known as the Descendents,
now calling itself All, plays Club Congress this Friday, July
28.
As the Descendents they missed the punk-pop explosion into mainstream
radio and music stores. As All, they're trying to catch up with
a major label deal with Interscope and perseverance.
"In terms of the new punk rock movement," drummer Bill
Stevenson says in the latest issue of Alternative Press,
"I consider this to be a trend just like any other, and it's
a trend in which we aren't really a part. Our music is a part
(of the trend) because it's being delivered through this fashion-vehicle
second generation, but our band is not (part of the trend) because
we have no image."
All ends an evening starting with Shovel and Dirt Clod Fight.
Admission is $3.
THIS IS THE END: The era of the Downtown Performance Center comes
to its conclusion with three shows: Skankin' Pickle, Dave's Big
Deluxe and Blink on Friday night, Avail with J. Church and Quincy
Punx on Saturday and Teeth, P.S. 9, Casey Tripp and Yellow Brick
Roadkill on Sunday, July 30.
ROCK NOTES: Dread Zeppelin returns to The Rock, 136 N. Park Ave.,
on Saturday, July 29 for another night of dance and silliness.
Just in case you don't know, this Zeppelin performs tunes of Led
to a reggae beat with a bloated Elvis impersonator doing his best
to imitate The King. Tickets are $8 each.
His press bio includes a resume with a recommendation written
by country outlaw hero Billy Joe Shaver. That right there is enough
to convince me that Todd Snider is cool, but you may want a little
more information.
Billy Joe has this to say about Snider's Songs For The Daily
Planet album: "It is one of the few things on this earth
that's worth more than what you pay for it."
The Memphis-based singer/songwriter pens clever, literate lyrics
that make fun of slackers (the two-steppin' "My Generation--Part
2"), examine greed (the Rolling Stones-country kick of "Easy
Money"), laments the decimation of the environment (an anthemic
"This Land Is Our Land") and touches upon child abuse
with thoughtfulness ("You Think You Know Somebody").
The album also includes "Alright Guy," a funny song-story
about trying to be good, the stone cold beatnik groove of "Joe's
Blues" and the cynical, Dylanesque "Talkin' Seattle
Grunge Rock Blues."
Snider is, by turns, a folk singer, country rebel, jazz man and
heartland rock and roller.
Admission to the concert at The Rock on Tuesday, August 1 is
five bucks.
--Michael Metzger
