Monday, May 10, 2010

The Concert I Missed...

Grateful Dead, 6/25/95, RFK Stadium, Washington D.C. 
Pink Floyd, 7/9/94-7/10/94, RFK Stadium, Washington D.C.
David Gilmour, 4/5/06, Radio City Music Hall, New York, New York (w/ the late Richard Wright and guests David Crosby and Graham Nash)
MGMT, 6/14/08, Late Night Set, Bonnaroo, Manchester, Tennessee (w/ guests Kirk Hammett and Zack Galifianakis)

and most recently...

Mark Knopfler, 5/6/10, United Palace Theater, New York, New York

Due to an {cough} innocent mistake in scheduling by a fellow Weightstaffer, I am adding the recent Mark Knopfler show in New York City to my list of fateful missed concert experiences.  While I can't offer any commentary on the show per se, I can say that after reading a short but pointed review (link below), I feel a bit worse than I did yesterday about not witnessing one of the finest guitarists/songwriters of the last 40 years.  Knopfler, who is of course best known for his tenure as frontman and guitarist for Dire Straits, is undeniably part of the dying -- well, aging -- fraternity of real "guitar heroes":  Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page, Pete Townshend, David Gilmour, etc.  He has played with his good friend Clapton on several occasions and has recorded with Dylan, Elton John, and John Fogerty, just to name a few.  He has scored films such as The Princess Bride and Wag the Dog.  He has played venues as legendary as Wembley Stadium and Knebworth.  And while bands like the Eagles and the Stones have played the same setlist for the past 30+ years, Knopfler has dared to explore new territories -- alternative genres that others were unwilling to risk -- and with great success.  Indeed, he has three Grammys to his name -- all in the Country Music category.  As late as 2007, he was nominated again for Best Folk/Americana album for his work with  Emmylou Harris.  Perhaps Robert Plant, Van Morrison and Bob Dylan are his only contemporaries who dared stray from the predictable path of "arena rock" retirement tours.
It would have been nice to have experienced Knopfler, under the lonely spotlight with his red Strat and his haunting guitar sounds, listening to him sing songs of the Welsh working-class and times of old.  There is a great quote in the review from another fan that I'd like to re-state here for emphasis:
"After all this Lo-fi chill wave bullshit, it sure is refreshing to hear clear, confident, crisp instrumentation. Knopfler sounds GREAT."

I can only hope he will visit again... 

The Concert I Missed:

Mark Knopfler, 5/6/10, United Palace Theater, New York, New York
 http://stereogum.com/366081/mark-knopfler-united-palace-theater-nyc-5610/concert/

2 comments:

ak said...

i second the gilmour at radio city show. man, i dont know why i missed that. just no excuses.

do you think if i dont see roger waters perform the wall this fall, ill regret it?

a part of me thinks i will regret it either way. if i spend the $100 to watch Waters prance around the stage like a meglomaniac applause seeking douche i will want my money back...but if i dont get the tickets, come October, ill be kicking myself for not witnessing Roger Waters' Wall concert experience in the way it was always meant to be. catch 22?

WeightStaff said...

Is it a catch-22? Yes. Though I somehow thought that 100 bucks (which i've easily spent on dinner and drinks on any given weekend) was not justified for Sir David Gilmour. BIG MISTAKE. We won't go to the show and Van Morrison will come out and sing Comfortably Numb w/ Waters...Or, Waters will exile himself from touring forever and will never allow songs from The Wall to be played again. Something like that...I'm more concerned about the drunken bridge & tunnel a-holes yelling out "Hotel California!" during his set...

DS
Weightstaff