I *heart* Live Music

So I'm pretty sure I love live music more than I will love my first born child...and way more than I will love my future husband. (SHHHHH! Don't tell him I said that!) I don't know what it is...the movement of hundreds or thousands of sweaty bodies in unison? The electric atmosphere? The ringing in my ears after it's over? Seriously, there's nothing like it. It's one of the biggest things that seriously sucks about living on Catalina Island...the closest you get to live music is the DJ at the bar a few times a year playing "Brown Eyed Girl" or "The Macarena". Yeah, pretty pathetic, right? It's torture.

Anyway, I'm leaving the island officially on May 29th (only 16 more days!), so I'm getting my summer live music schedule figured out. Now, I'm not a Deadhead, or a PhishPhreak, and I've never followed Ratdog, but I love going to random shows, especially in the summers. As I was searching some of my favorite bands' websites, I realized that most of my favorite bands are going to be overseas this summer...Cocorosie, Ben Harper, The Decemberists, The Goo Goo Dolls, and The Submarines. And some aren't going to be touring at all...Train, The Postal Service, A Perfect Circle (though there will be another band touring that is also a shoot-off of Tool), and pretty much all of my favorite classic rock bands who's members are almost all dead.

However, there is one mainstream, popular band that I've wanted to see pretty much my entire life that is going to be touring this summer. Bon Jovi. I know, I know, laugh now. That's cool, I don't care. I grew up on that crap, and I'm not ashamed to say that I love it. I love early 90's music and I could pretty much sing every Bon Jovi song ever made. My heterosexual life-mate, Jen, whom I live with on the island, is from New Jersey and knows just as many Bon Jovi songs as me. Granted she's from New Jersey and I'm from Michigan, but still. So I find out he'll be at the Palace of Auburn Hills in August, right? I look on Ticketmaster to find out the price of tickets, right? And that's when I'm smacked in the face with reality that Bon Jovi is expensive. All the forty dollar tickets are gone...all the sixty dollar tickets are gone...and pretty much all that is left are three hundred dollar tickets. That's f-ing ridiculous! Who PAYS that much to see a live show??? I'd pay up to five hundred if Led Zeppelin ever reunited in Detroit or if Shannon Hoon miraculously awoke from the dead and the REAL Blind Melon got back together (though, I'm pretty sure I'd pay over a hundred to see Blind Melon with Travis Warren again), but Bon Jovi? RE-ally? So, no Bon Jovi for me...I just can't see spend three hundred bucks to see them. Especially since I just spent $277.00 on two tickets to a four day festival called Dunegrass in Northern Michigan at the beginning of August.

This, I can justify, however. Four days, fifty-odd bands, camping included...If you do the math on that...it's a pretty good price. If you pay a ten dollar cover charge for fifty bands in a small venue, that's five hundred bucks. One of my favorite bands, moe., will be there playing three of the days, plus some really rad lesser-known/local bands (Ragbirds, Cornmeal, Bela Fleck, Leftover Salmon, Arlo Guthrie, Melvin Seals and JGB, Macpodz, Jill Jack). Should be a good time. I hope Jerry doesn't kill me for taking him to a "hippie" convention.

I also am disappointed at the fact that James Blunt (who I also like a lot...don't chastise me for my taste in music...I'm very versatile!) will be touring with Sheryl Crow - no me gusta. And the fact that Blind Melon and Eric Hutchinson are currently in my area and will be touring the southern states by the time I get back to Michigan at the beginning of June. Though Blind Melon will be at two really odd festivals in Milwaukee (105th Harley Davidson Anniversary fest) and Indianapolis (A Rib-Off?), which are both close enough for me to drive...but I'm not interested in any of the other bands that will be there and their set looks pretty short. Dilemma.

So, thus far, my calender is as follows (subject to additions and subtractions):

June 13 - Macpodz - Top of the Park in Ann Arbor (FREE!)
June 14 - Tiger's Game vs. Dodgers (Not at all music related, but still noteworthy)
June 16 - The Ragbirds - Top of the Park in Ann Arbor (FREE!)
June 27 - Dirty Americans - Stars and Stripes Fest in Mt. Clemens, MI
July 16 afternoon - Likewater Drum and Dance - Plymouth, MI (FREE!)
July 17 - The Ragbirds - Tecumseh, MI (FREE!)
July 25 and 26 - Beer Fest - Ypsilanti, MI (also, not music related, but with 200 microbrews, it's definitely noteworthy!)
July 31 thru Aug 3 - Dunegrass - Empire, MI
Aug 5 - James Blunt - DTE Energy in Clarkston (Question Mark)
Aug 7 - Likewater Drum and Dance - Ypsilanti, MI (FREE!)
Aug 30 - Blind Melon - Harley Anniversary - Milwaukee, WI (Question Mark)
Aug 31 - Blind Melon - Rib Fest - Indianapolis, IN (Question Mark)

So that's the plan for now. I'm sure more will be added, and some of these are question marks. I'm just glad it's summer and I'm going back to Michigan to see some REAL music. Now, if only I could win two tickets to that Bon Jovi concert...