Post by jptheprofessor on Jan 5, 2008 13:04:46 GMT -5
First, here's wishing everybody a safe, happy and prosperous New Year 2008!
We gave away the Mick Jagger compilation CD set The Very Best of Mick Jagger this past week on the daily 4:10 PM "Classic Rock Clip" contest. Friday's answer was "Foxey Lady" by Jimi Hendrix.
Friday's 5:15 PM "Lost Classic" was "Roisin Dubh (Black Rose)" by Thin Lizzy, the title from their 1979 album Black Rose: A Rock Legend. We played that song to commemorate the 22nd anniversary of the passing of former Thin Lizzy singer/bassist Phil Lynott, who died from pneumonia after collapsing from a drinking binge on this date in 1986. He was 36.
As many people know, I like to go see and report on local bands, and I go out anywhere from 3 to 6 nights a week to do so. Those bands and shows add up over the course of a year. Even so, I even shocked myself after going through and doing a tally count on the bands and shows I took in during 2007. To satisfy my own curiosity, this past week I did an "audit" of my bandwatching activities, counting who I saw, what I saw, how often I saw it and where I saw it in 2007. After you see these numbers, I'm sure you'll agree that I am either a live music fanatic, have some deep-rooted problems, or both!
Here we go. In 2007, I attended a grand total of 310 shows. I define "show" as a live music occurrence in one setting; which includes individual band/artist shows, multi-band/artist shows (each multi-band show counts as one show), festivals (I counted one day of a festival as a single show; if I returned to the festival the next day/weekend, it was counted as a separate show), and other miscellaneous events that included musical performances (Millennium Music Conference, jam nights, musical theatre [Mad Muse Productions' presentations of Hedwig and Rocky Horror both involved live bands], Crazy Fest, etc.).
Within these 310 shows, I witnessed a grand total of 512 individual band/artist performances (if the show was a multi-band/artist show, each band/artist I( saw counted as an individual performance). I saw a grand total of 260 different bands and artists perform during 2007, including 203 NEW bands/artists ("new" defined as new to me; including brand new bands/artists as well as established ones I saw for the first time; this number also included national artists I saw for the first time in 2007). These shows and performers were all witnessed at a grand total of 99 different venues, festivals, fairs and other locations/situations; mostly local, and a few that were out of the area.
Local favorites Felix & the Hurricanes were the band I saw the most in 2007; I caught the Hurricanes in action some 18 times this past year, including ten of their appearances as part of charity concerts, special blues/rock shows, and their "Blues Cruises" on Lake Raystown. I saw Spirit Lost and Bad Daze 10 times each during 2007, and saw Mt. City Grass and Dustin Burley 7 times each in 2007.
You may also know that I photograph the shows I attend for Rockpage (www.rockpage.net) and Pennsylvania Musician Magazine (www.pamusician.net). In 2007, I took a grand total of 5,569 digital photos, mostly of the local music scene. And actually, that number is just the photos that I saved - there were probably at least 500 more photos that "didn't make the cut" and were deleted due to being blurry, too dark, etc. When I first started covering the local music scene for Pennsylvania Musician back in 1987, I used the conventional 35mm film camera, and paid to have pictures developed (before digital photography came along); imagine how much it would have cost me by today's standards to develop 5,569 print photos!
When I go out to see bands in 2008, it won't be with the intent of trying to top my 2007 totals...but I won't be surprised if by year's end, I still somehow manage to do it!
We gave away the Mick Jagger compilation CD set The Very Best of Mick Jagger this past week on the daily 4:10 PM "Classic Rock Clip" contest. Friday's answer was "Foxey Lady" by Jimi Hendrix.
Friday's 5:15 PM "Lost Classic" was "Roisin Dubh (Black Rose)" by Thin Lizzy, the title from their 1979 album Black Rose: A Rock Legend. We played that song to commemorate the 22nd anniversary of the passing of former Thin Lizzy singer/bassist Phil Lynott, who died from pneumonia after collapsing from a drinking binge on this date in 1986. He was 36.
As many people know, I like to go see and report on local bands, and I go out anywhere from 3 to 6 nights a week to do so. Those bands and shows add up over the course of a year. Even so, I even shocked myself after going through and doing a tally count on the bands and shows I took in during 2007. To satisfy my own curiosity, this past week I did an "audit" of my bandwatching activities, counting who I saw, what I saw, how often I saw it and where I saw it in 2007. After you see these numbers, I'm sure you'll agree that I am either a live music fanatic, have some deep-rooted problems, or both!
Here we go. In 2007, I attended a grand total of 310 shows. I define "show" as a live music occurrence in one setting; which includes individual band/artist shows, multi-band/artist shows (each multi-band show counts as one show), festivals (I counted one day of a festival as a single show; if I returned to the festival the next day/weekend, it was counted as a separate show), and other miscellaneous events that included musical performances (Millennium Music Conference, jam nights, musical theatre [Mad Muse Productions' presentations of Hedwig and Rocky Horror both involved live bands], Crazy Fest, etc.).
Within these 310 shows, I witnessed a grand total of 512 individual band/artist performances (if the show was a multi-band/artist show, each band/artist I( saw counted as an individual performance). I saw a grand total of 260 different bands and artists perform during 2007, including 203 NEW bands/artists ("new" defined as new to me; including brand new bands/artists as well as established ones I saw for the first time; this number also included national artists I saw for the first time in 2007). These shows and performers were all witnessed at a grand total of 99 different venues, festivals, fairs and other locations/situations; mostly local, and a few that were out of the area.
Local favorites Felix & the Hurricanes were the band I saw the most in 2007; I caught the Hurricanes in action some 18 times this past year, including ten of their appearances as part of charity concerts, special blues/rock shows, and their "Blues Cruises" on Lake Raystown. I saw Spirit Lost and Bad Daze 10 times each during 2007, and saw Mt. City Grass and Dustin Burley 7 times each in 2007.
You may also know that I photograph the shows I attend for Rockpage (www.rockpage.net) and Pennsylvania Musician Magazine (www.pamusician.net). In 2007, I took a grand total of 5,569 digital photos, mostly of the local music scene. And actually, that number is just the photos that I saved - there were probably at least 500 more photos that "didn't make the cut" and were deleted due to being blurry, too dark, etc. When I first started covering the local music scene for Pennsylvania Musician back in 1987, I used the conventional 35mm film camera, and paid to have pictures developed (before digital photography came along); imagine how much it would have cost me by today's standards to develop 5,569 print photos!
When I go out to see bands in 2008, it won't be with the intent of trying to top my 2007 totals...but I won't be surprised if by year's end, I still somehow manage to do it!