Contest To See RHS & DeBarge Has Begun

Hey Soul Mates,
we've begun a contest that is open to all of our friends on MySpace. So if you aren't a member, it's a decent reason to sign up. We are offering a free pair of passes to see us open for DeBarge on Wednesday, Dec 14, 2005. Visit our MySpace page for all the details. All you have to do to enter is leave the sassiest, funniest, best comment for us on our MySpace page. Check our blog there for rules, etc. The band will be judging the entries. We have a pretty creative bunch of fans, so I'm expecting some good reading this coming week. The winner will be announced in a week. Best of luck to everyone! I hope that we'll see a lot of you at this show anyway. It should be good fun.
Enjoy your Saturday night.
Love, Power, Peace

By McCartney's Mullet [Show Recap]

Hey Soul Mates,
I'm speechless. Literally. I haven't blown out my pipes like that in years. My throat was acting up from lack of sleep and the hysteria at the McCartney show last night. But we made it to the end. I couldn't get near the high notes in A Talent For Loving and did the song 2 octaves lower than usual. Fortunately, we had a good crowd and we rolled with them like they were "student body right." Ha Ha.

We put on a lively show, starting with Fall Out. We did an extended intro to Sucka and I'm proud to say, I didn't hurt myself leaping at the end of the song tonight. Our MySpace friend Lola from Georgetown had put in a request for Done Lost My Mind, so we dedicated it to her. And after plugging MySpace, our good friend Kurt, who works with the site, presented me with a paper rose. How sweet. We wish all of you could have been there. Those who were there, thanks for helping us rock the hizzie.

Set List:
Fall Out
Everyone's Ingenue
U Had The $
Done Lost My Mind
Sucka
Hold On, I'm Comin'
A Talent For Loving

Plus we had the Double P's: Pat on video, Patty on photo documenting the night. Pictures at 11 tomorrow. I've gotta get some beauty rest. I have to get the voice in fighting shape for our night with DeBarge, Dec. 14 @ the Rumba Room. I'm sleeping til 9 and I don't care if I'm late to work. The man can kiss my... G'night.
Love, Power, Peace.

I Got Blisters On My Fingers

Hey Soul Mates,
we had a smashing time at the Paul McCartney show at Staples last night. Sadly, the rest of the audience didn't seem to be feeling it. The setlist may have had a lot to do with it. Paul opened with Magical Mystery Tour, Flaming Pie, I'll Get You (the flip of She Loves You) and Jet. Not exactly a jump out of your seat hit parade. Regardless, the sound was crap and he was visibly perturbed about something. So it was a very slow start to the last night of the tour. Which is a shame. The crowd just didn't want to give back what the artists were giving. Macca's current backing band is a topnotch group, anchored by a vicious drummer who sang all of John's harmonies on the Beatle numbers. They really were better than last night's jaded LA audience deserved.

I roamed between two sections during the show, Bryan had waaaaaaaaay better seats than me. His were next to the stage, front row. So we got to see Paulie from about 50 feet away. He looks good at 63 and was in pretty good vocal shape til the end of the show. From below I could really get a sense of the house and what he sees from center stage. I knew that he could sense the disconnect with the audience. That must be frustrating, but he soldiered on.

In the 300 section where my seats actually were, the mix was unforgivably bad. Most of the concert-goers around us sat on their hands. They were polite, but by no means involved, except when Macca played the real chestnuts: Yesterday, Hey Jude. Some numbers like Band On The Run actually slowed the momentum to a stop. Which is strange for a song that is clearly a classic. The new songs from Chaos & Creation In The Backyard came across well, but were received poorly. An odd contrast to the recent Stones show at the Bowl, where the crowd was down with the new numbers. In fact, the LA Times called out the Stones a few days before for not including enough new material in their set. Suffice it to say, the new disc from the Rolling Stones is stronger than Paul's.

There were a number of wonderful musical surprises including I Will, For No One, I'll Follow The Sun (with multiple false endings), I'll Get You, and In Spite Of All The Danger. So for a hardcore McCartney fan like myself the setlist was a treat. The most blazing point of the evening was Helter Skelter. I'd seen Paul do it in the concert at Red Square, but man, that's the most intense Beatle performance, esp. since it came from the cute one. The band ripped the hell out of Helter Skelter. I wish my mates Mike & Mark could have been there. We must have attempted to play half the Beatles' catalog at some point including that one.

The second encore kicked in with Please, Please Me (another one of those songs I thought I would never hear performed live). Followed by Let It Be, Sgt. Pepper's (Reprise) and The End. The sound mix was so shitty you couldn't make out the dueling guitars during The End. A shame. At one point Paul said, "This is the last night of the tour. I just want to soak it in." He walked away from the mic and stood next to the stage scanning the audience and the venue. It was that bittersweet moment that it hit once again, what a singular talent he and the Beatles were. We are actually privileged to have had an audience with Sir Paul. You can never depend on seeing his like again.

Overall, the audience reaction, the pacing and the sound of the show were poor. The songs, the performance and the joy which Paul brings to the very difficult task of living up to his own legend: all aces.

Well, the car's in the shop and you don't need me to tell you "that's no fun." Fortunately all the credit cards are maxxed out so it almost doesn't make any difference. Don't worry, I'll still be at the show. That means you better be there, too! You only have a few more hours to pick out what you are wearing. In honor of Little Richard, I'm wearing my vintage, blue sharkskin jacket. Whoooooo! I'll be writing more about Richard and the Beatles this week. Richard is turning 75 and we're at the 25th anniversary of Lennon's assassination.

I just walked back from the KFC up the block. I know people are boycotting the Colonel and all, but KFC's popcorn chicken is crack. A few months ago, I actually raised hell at that franchise up the street because they said it was a seasonal item. I'm like, baby it's popcorn chicken season year 'round. Of course, I found a place in Pasadena where they looked at me like I was from Neptune when I told them my neighborhood KFC didn't carry it all the time. And then, we went into our local KFC a few weeks ago, when we saw the popcorn boxes on display. The girl behind the counter said, "Oh, we're out. More should be coming in tomorrow." I said don't advertise what you can't sell. I told her she needed to make a few calls and help a brother out. Anyway, I think I ate half the box before getting back to the apartment.

Time to chill out before the show. Had to do my own hair, because my girl, Monica broke her wrist. I did not cut my own hair, just put it into place. Get better soon, Monica. This mane is getting outta control!

Love, Power, Peace

Freebird, Fla.

Hey Soul Mates,
the Rock Hall inductee class of '06 has been announced. Now, my high school mates (especially, Mike) can shut up about Jacksonville's own, Lynyrd Skynyrd making the Hall. Congrats to them. This is not my favorite group of Hall of Famers: Miles Davis, Black Sabbath, Blondie and the Sex Pistols. Of this batch, only Blondie was a contemporary presence for me. No disrespect to the fans of the other artists. Just not my cup of tea. I'm sure my buddy Mark though is still lamenting Chicago's absence from the Rock Hall.

The induction ceremony should be interesting though, because a lot of country-rockers are going to come out of the woodwork to honor Skynyrd. Blondie, Sabbath and the Pistols are all relatively intact so their performances will be highly anticipated. I'm particularly anxious to hear what the Sex Pistols portion of the evening will entail. Who will induct them? Green Day? U2? That's sure to be the highlight of the night. That, and Ozzy's acceptance speech: "Mummmble, errr. Uh, thank urrgh, I aaach. Wuh. Wuh. Gourds, galleons, gaaah. Who, mumble Sharon (indecipherable). Rubble, rubble. G'night!"

Miles Davis: much love, Miles - you had a rebel spirit, but you were never rock and roll. There are plenty of jazz artists who did heavily influence pop music, Miles isn't one of them. They would be: Louis Armstrong, Louis Jordan, Cab Calloway, Fats Waller. Even Coltrane seems to be a larger influence on pop/rock than Mr. Davis. Maybe if Davis' work with Prince gets an official release...? Yet, now he's a Rock & Roll Hall of Famer.

I'm bummed about Chic not making it. Grandmaster Flash has been robbed again. I can only truly imagine that the voters are waiting to make Run DMC the initial rap inductees. Mellencamp will probably have to wait a few more years. It's almost like he's still too active, but not enough a marquee name like U2 or Prince to put him in while he's still creating. The Dave Clark 5 (along with Chic) would have been sufficient motivation to try to attend the ceremony in NY.

Regardless, I look forward to seeing the new inductees getting their due and checking out their legacy at the Rock Hall.
Love, Power, Peace

Happy Birthday to Vin Scully, the voice of the Dodgers!