21st Century Schizoid Hoople

Ian Hunter
Live at the World Cafe
Philadelphia, PA
Friday, June 22, 2007 (noon)
General Admission
free

All Four Original Members of Asia
Keswick Theater
Glenside (Philadelphia), PA
Friday, June 22, 2007 (8:00PM)
Section Left, Row G, Seat 21
$49.50

This past weekend didn't seem too hectic, but looking back, it sure was. Roy and I saw 12 bands over three days. One was a two day long festival, and the other three were individual concerts. Lots of good music. I saw two members of Yes, two members of King Crimson, and a band from France who topped them all.

The original point of this trip was to attend Nearfest, the North East Art Rock Festival. I went to the original one in 1999 when I still lived in Philly. Also went to the next five of them, but we skipped the last two years. We decided to go this year because of two bands - Magenta and Magma - and because we missed some friends that we haven't seen recently.

Some other concerts got added because of scheduling luck - Asia was playing in a Philly suburb the night before the festival. Adrian Belew added a show with his power trio in Sellersville, only 40 minutes from Bethlehem. We decided to skip the headliner that night to see Adrian again. The radio station I used to work at hosts free concerts on Fridays at noon; we were going regardless of who was playing, but it turned out to be Ian Hunter of Mott the Hoople. I sent Roy an IM saying we would be seeing a "not-too-young dude".

Roy and I flew into Philly on Thursday night after work. We stayed by the airport and slept in the next morning. The weather was beautiful, low humidity and temps in the 80s, quite good for a Philly summer. We made it to my old radio station WXPN for the free concert. I tried to get in touch with my old bosses. I keep in touch with Kathy, the host of Kid's Corner and my college substitute-mom, but unfortunately both she and Robert Drake were not in the office while we were there. I did see program director Bruce Warren and reintroduced myself to him.

I was expecting a seated concert and small crowd, but I was mistaken. It was standing room only. We grabbed a spot by the wall, so I had something to lean on and still an okay view. Ian Hunter opened with Once Bitten, Twice Shy. I knew the song from the Great White cover version, but I didn't know it was originally an Ian Hunter solo track. I'm amazed to see on Wikipedia that he is 68 years old. He played several songs from his recent solo album, and they fit in well. I thought the only song I'd know was All the Young Dudes, but I knew more of his material than I thought, another song was All the Way to Memphis. The band played for a little over an hour, and I enjoyed the show. I like daytime concerts, but after the show, the guitarist told the crowd to go back to bed. Perhaps noon is a little too early for rock and roll.

I was a little upset that I'm losing my connections to WXPN. The balcony of the theater (with seating) was closed off to all but VIPs, and I didn't have anyone to get me in. I used to be a person that could get in with just my name. I didn't visit with anyone, because the people I'd visit work nights and weren't there yet.

Roy and I did the tourist thing. We went to the food court at the Bourse for a quick lunch, and then walked around the city. Focused on Old City, north of the historic section. Roy had never heard of Elfreth's Alley, the oldest continuously occupied residential block in the US. So we walked up 2nd Street and looked at the houses and little museum.

The most fun I had that day was a trip to Franklin Square. When William Penn founded the city, he planned for five public squares, one in the center and one in each quadrant of the city, what is now the downtown Center City area. The center square now holds City Hall, and the other squares are the well-known Rittenhouse, Logan, and Washington. Franklin Square frankly was in a bad area and a hang-out for miscreants. No fancy apartment buildings and restaurants surrounding this park. But the area did improve, and the square was renovated. It's kid-friendly now, with a fountain, sand sculptures, playground, carousel, and a miniature golf course. The golf course has symbols of Philly, from the Liberty Bell to 45s for the Sound of Philadelphia. We rode on the carousel, and I felt like a kid. I loved the views. I hope this square does well, because it will have to be a destination unto itself - there's still not much in this area except for industry and some renovated loft buildings.

We walked around Old City and Society Hill for a little bit, and then headed out for dinner. The evening's concert was at the Keswick Theater in Glenside. I used to work in nearby Jenkintown, so I made plans to have dinner there with my old friend Debbie, her husband, and year old baby Robbie. These are old, established suburbs, from long before urban sprawl, so they have their own character and are pretty to drive through. Debbie got stuck in traffic, and they were a half hour late. It cut our time with them short, but it was still good to see them.

We left dinner later than planned, but still got to the Keswick in time for the Asia concert. I had screwed up the tickets, forgot when they went on sale, and then used Ticketmaster rather than the Keswick's own website to buy the tickets. We were about 20 rows back, not quite on the far left aisle. I was chastened when people sat in the row behind us and talked about what great seats these were. I kept comparing this show to the one we saw last year. That was a general admission concert, and we were in the front row, right in front of Steve. That one was so exciting.

This concert was well performed, but I missed the eye-contact and the feeling that I was adding to the energy of the show that I got when I was up front. I didn't get the adrenaline rush I got at the previous show. Maybe it was also because I was sitting instead of standing up and dancing. We were a few seats off the aisle, and I could have stood in the aisle without hassling anyone. I just didn't feel the need to, like I do with Yes. We saw Dian at the show, her seat was a few rows in front of mine.

It was practically the same concert as the last leg, with the songs in a different order. They made good use of video screens this time, showing closeups of the musicians and also clips of the videos from the songs playing. Kinda strange hearing John Wetton singing Video Killed the Radio Star and then looking up and seeing Trevor Horn on the video. It still felt like two separate bands to me - one doing the Asia songs and the other being a true prog supergroup playing the classics.

The actual setlist consisted of most of the first album, acoustic versions of Don't Cry, The Smile Has Left Your Eyes, and the non-album B-side Ride Easy, Roundabout, Court of the Crimson King, Fanfare for the Common Man, and Video Killed the Radio Star. I really got into Roundabout; it was the highlight of the show to me, but I wasn't as excited as I should be seeing two members of Yes. Enjoyable night, but not too memorable. This was my first time not seeing Asia from the front row.

After the show, all four of them came out to do a record signing. I think this is so classy. Roy bought their new live CD called Fantasia and got that signed. Dian had bought a poster, but she had to leave early, so I got that signed for her. Even here, I enjoyed meeting them more at the previous show - they were all more talkative there and I was more excited to talk to them then. I barely said anything to Steve Howe, and he's one of my all time favorite musicians. (Then again, all the other musicians I've seen so many times recognize me by now. More on that at tomorrow's show.)

After the show, we drove up to Bethlehem. No problem finding the hotel. We got to bed around 1:00 AM, and planned to wake up at 8 for the next day's activities.