Music Fan
My life has always been accompanied by music. I grew up listening to rock and roll on the radio in the Seventies. I watched music videos on cable TV in the Eighties. I started seeing live music on a regular basis in the Nineties.
Live Music
I have attended 500+ live concerts by a diverse range of bands and musicians. I enjoy the experience of going to famous venues across the country from The Fillmore and Warfield Theater (SF) to Red Rocks and Mishawaka Amphitheatre (CO) to the Bowery Ballroom and Madison Square Garden (NYC).
Since moving to the San Francisco Bay Area in 2000, I have seen great performances by: The Beautiful South, Beulah, Les Claypool, Billy Corgan, Crowded House, Dead Can Dance, Depeche Mode, Doves, Foo Fighters, Furthur, Robert Forster, Bill Frisell, Galactic, GFE, The Go-Betweens, Jackie Green, Herbie Hancock, James, Etta James, Keane, King Crimson, LTJ Bukem and MC Conrad, Makoto and Deeizm, Morrissey, David Nelson Band, New Order, Brendan Perry, Pet Shop Boys, Primus, Prince and NPG, Joshua Redman, SF Jazz Collective, Smashing Pumpkins, Spearhead, Star Wars In Concert, STS9, Tears For Fears, Throbbing Gristle, Roger Waters, Yaz, Yo Miles, and Zwan.
In the past, I saw performances by music legends such as: Allman Brothers Band, Laurie Anderson, The Beach Boys, The Beastie Boys, Big Head Todd & The Monsters, Blues Travellers, David Bryne, The Connells, Sheryl Crow, Crosby Stills & Nash, The Cult, The Cure, Karl Denson, Disco Biscuits, Duran Duran, Echo and the Bunnymen, Erasure, Bela Fleck and the Flecktones, Peter Gabriel, Grateful Dead, Hall and Oates, Charlie Hunter, Billy Joel, Stanley Jordan, KVHW, Let's Active, Love and Rockets, Barry Manilow, Branford Marsalis, Paul McCartney, Men At Work, The Mighty Lemon Drops, Steve Miller, Ministry, moe., Nine Inch Nails, Ominous Seapods, Pavement, Phish, Pink Floyd, The Pixies, Prince and the Revolution, Public Image Limited, R.E.M., Santana, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Sonic Youth, Sting, The Stone Roses, String Cheese Incident, The Sugarcubes, Til Tuesday, Traffic, U2, Violent Femmes, Widespread Panic, Weird Al Yankovic, Yolk, and Neil Young.
I never got to see Frank Zappa live. I did see 10 of his former band members play Zappa songs live in The Band From Utopia. I have also seen his former lead singers Ike Willis and Ray White perform Zappa songs with various bands.
Live Music Festivals
I have attended numerous music festivals including Area 51 Festival, Bonnaroo, Coachella, Earthdance, Furthur Festival, Gathering Of The Vibes, Hardly Strictly Bluegrass, Harmonic Convergence Festival, Harmony Festival, High Sierra Music Festival, HooDoo Bash, HORDE, Lollapalooza, Love Parade SF, New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, Outside Lands, Power To The Peaceful, Rock The Vote Tour, Sea of Dreams, Slow Food, Summer Sessions, Tamarack Mountain Music Festival, Vegoose, and WOMAD.
Deadhead
I got on the bus. I saw the Grateful Dead with Jerry Garcia perform 43 live concerts across the country from 1990 to 1995.
I also saw the Jerry Garcia Band perform 8 concerts on their East Coast tours in 1991 and 1993. The band featured Jerry Garcia, John Kahn, and Melvin Seals.
My sister took me to my first Grateful Dead concert at Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh on July 8, 1990. The opening act was Crosby, Stills, and Nash. We drove a few hours to get there from our hometown of Cleveland, Ohio.
We had great floor seats on Jerry's side of the stage. The concert was like nothing I had ever experienced. The band played Touch Of Grey, Terrapin Station, and Estimated Prophet, songs that I was familiar with at the time. By the end of the night, I had fallen in love with their music.
My first show was apparently a good one because it was officially released on DVD. It was the first in a series by the band titled View From The Vault.
I went on to see the Grateful Dead perform across the country from the Atlantic Coast to Las Vegas. I frequently saw the band play live at the Richfield Coliseum (OH) and Deer Creek Amphitheatre (IN).
I gathered over 750 hours of Grateful Dead live shows on cassette tapes by trading with other Deadheads around the country.
Since 1995, I have seen performances by the remaining members of the Grateful Dead in: The Dead, Dead Heads For Obama, First Fusion, Furthur with Phil Lesh & Bob Weir, Phil Lesh & Friends, The Other Ones, Planet Drum, Philharmonia, Ratdog, RD3, Rhythm Devils, Seven Walkers, Bob Weir Solo Acoustic, and Weir & Wasserman.
My 20+ years as a Deadhead has really been a long strange trip. I moved to San Francisco because of my love for the Dead. I now see live music at venues whose names I know because of those cassette tapes.
Music Journalism
I have written numerous live concert reviews that were published in a nationally distributed book, printed magazines, and online.
College Radio
In the spring and summer of 1989, I hosted and produced a weekly 3-hour afternoon radio show on WUJC 88.7. The show was broadcast from the campus of John Carroll University in Cleveland, OH.
I played alternative rock and dance music from the US and UK. I frequently interviewed bands and musicians for segments on the show.