The Giant Panther

OK, let's get the juvenile rock digs out of the way. I know many people, The Giant Panther included, who don't find Australian rockers AC/DC particularly compelling. They're too loud; they're too heavy; they're bad boy image is too juvenile; all of their music sounds the same. I've heard it all and I could care less. I LOVE AC/DC and I don't care if I am 48 years of age. They rock my world. Unfortunately for the masses, most people MIGHT be able to name one song after Back in Black, Shoot To Thrill, You Shook Me (All Night Long), Hells Bells, TNT, It's a Long Way To The Top (If You Wanna Rock & Roll...Thank you School of Rock), Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap, Highway To Hell or For Those About To Rock (We Salute You). For me and 20,000 other hard core AC/DC fans at the TD BankNorth Garden last night that is a crying shame. I'm a huge fan of legendary guitarists such as Jimmy Page, Eric Clapton, Keith Richards, Pete Townshend, The Edge and anyone else you'd probably care to name. None of them get me going like Angus Young. I can't explain it and I won't even try. I'm not much of a dancer, but I cannot sit still when this guy is playing his guitar. I'm so glad a camera wasn't on me during last night's rendering of Hell Ain't a Bad Place To Be. It was the second song of the night and I swear I was hollering like some school girl at Paul McCartney. It's quite embarrassing to see a grown man enjoying himself so much. You're going to have to trust me on this. I have to laugh just thinking about it. I must have close to a thousand rock shows under my belt and I swear my level of enjoyment at AC/DC shows borders on the absurd. What a rush. This was my sixth AC/DC concert. For the record I'm noting the dates below for fun...

I'm sure I missed a few over the years, but it doesn't seem like they come around here much anymore. I know the seven year gulf between the last time they played here and last night felt like decades. I went with a couple of long time friends of mine and one of them donned a kilt for the show. I'm not sure exactly why, but two separate TNT chants broke out (Oiy! Oiy!) as we made our way towards our seats and people caught wind of his get up. It was hilarious. Before the show we usually gather at a local establishment owned by a friend of mine called The CharlesMark Hotel on Boylston Street in Back Bay Boston. The place usually caters to the traveling salesman or the families visiting college kids so the music is toned way down to snoozeville most of the time. Every now and then, for special occasions like this concert, my friend Mark will go against the grain and crank out some good old fashioned rock and roll. I love this side of Mark. It's in remission most of the time, but he does have his moments when he lends his bar to our cause. Coupled with our friend Dave the limo driver we do it right for every concert we attend in Boston. So a tip of the hat for Mark from me here...

Like The Rolling Stones, AC/DC is unfortunately bound to play certain songs. The nine I mentioned above are usually wedged into every set to the dismay of folks like me who don't really care if they play them at all anymore. I'm clearly not your average concert goer anymore, but I could subsist exclusively on AC/DC "B" cuts like Rock & Roll Singer, Girl's Got Rhythm, Shot Down in Flames, Down Payment Blues, What's Next To The Moon, Rock & Roll Damnation, Have a Drink On Me, Can't Stand Still, Sink The Pink, Touch Too Much, Rock & Roll Ain't Noise Pollution, What Do You Do For Money, Money Talks, Hard as a Rock, Stiff Upper Lip, Problem Child, Dog Eat Dog, Let's Get It Up, Sin City, Who Made Who, Hold Me Back, This House is On Fire, Burnin' Alive, Whiskey On The Rocks and Jailbreak. In fact, though the concert would reach Springsteenian proportions in length, if they only played these songs I would consider it to be the perfect AC/DC concert. It would be under the radar nirvana for me.

I don't want to start any Blasphemous Rumors, but I'd dump Back in Black, You Shook Me, The Jack, Whole Lotta Rosie, Let There Be Rock, Highway To Hell, and Thuderstruck and For Those About To Rock immediately if I were running the ship. I would keep TNT, Hells Bells, Dirty Deeds, and would get It's a Long Way back into the set as well. If they all sound the same then what's the harm right? You still have to promote the present record, but (and I'm stealing this from an online article I read this morning) AC/DC songs need ten years to mature and become staples of their set according to one fan. It's beer run time for most when the new stuff is played. I go during some of the war horse staples. I realize it's futile to complain about the hits, but I love bands that shuffle the deck and play something different every night. I think that's what made The Grateful Dead so popular. You never knew what you were going to get. People rarely follow bands more than two or three nearby cities in this day and age the way The Dead's following traipsed across the country to see them anymore, but more bands should promote that. It's a great sales gimmick and the artists wouldn't get bored in the meantime. Yeah it's harder to rehearse and recall, but what a draw. It's so fan friendly it seems like a no brainer to me. I don't know why more bands don't do it to be honest, but what do I know?

I'm probably preaching to the converted if anyone is still reading, but AC/DC definitely gets your adrenaline rushing in concert. Go see them if you never have. From Rock 'N Roll Train to the cannons firing in For Those About To Rock it was a spectacle and loads of fun. I don't care how old you are. They rule in my book.

Setlist: 1. Rock 'N Roll Train 2. Hell Ain't A Bad Place To Be 3. Back In Black 4. Big Jack 5. Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap 6. Thunderstruck 7. Black Ice 8. The Jack 9. Hells Bells 10. War Machine 11. Shoot to Thrill 12. Anything Goes 13. You Shook Me All Night Long 14. TNT 15. Whole Lotta Rosie 16. Let There Be Rock Encore: 17. Highway To Hell 18. For Those About To Rock

I know I'm not the only one who wakes up one day, turns on the radio and is numbed by news of the passing of a famous person. This morning was one of those days for me. Let me admit for the record I don't have any feel for the body of work Miriam Makeba produced over her long career as a recording artist. I'm not much for World Beat music, but aside from being a bit of a Top 40 snob, I'd like to think I am very open minded when it comes to "popular" music. If I own anything to be embarrassed about, and I definitely do (hello Ohio Express and every bubblebum pop record I hung my hat on in the late 60's), I'm more likely to embrace my phases more than distance myself from them these days. I was weened on AM Gold (call it 1967-1972 if we have to pin it down) and proud of it. WABC-AM in New York was a monster station in my child hood. Even the school bus driver had it playing in my small New Jersey town of Millington when I was doing the K-4 shuffle. I loved bands like Steppenwolf (a legitimate rock band hiding among the one hit wonder fluff of the day), The Grass Roots, Three Dog Night, The Monkees, The Box Tops, and the early Bee Gees. To this day I'm not ashamed of my fondness for these bands. Slowly but surely the FM dial took over and bands that were shifting the charts toward heavier sounds like The Doors, Cream, Grand Funk Railroad, The Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Jefferson Airplane, Jimi Hendrix, The Velvet Underground, Big Brother & The Holding Company, Traffic, Led Zeppelin, Mountain and scores of others needed a place to go. What was cool and still deemed AM friendly were bands like Creedence Clearwater Revival, Free, The Kinks, Chicago, Sly & The Family Stone, The Byrds, The Mamas & The Papas, Procol Harum and The Moody Blues. The reason I mention this is because radio was so wide open there was room for diverse artists like Miriam Makeba, Desmond Dekker, Jean Knight, Mungo Jerry, Alive & Kicking, Edison Lighthouse, The Zombies, Tommy James, Hugh Masekela, Chaka Kahn, Ray Charles and the like. Today many of these artists would never see the light of day. It was literally a free for all. I liked it a lot better then. Today you can barely get new and interesting Indie artists played anywhere let alone on the face of new music here in Boston WFNX-FM. It's discouraging.

African born Miriam Makeba's 1967 single "Pata Pata" was a spectacular example of a song with global appeal. Jamiacan born Desmond Dekker's 1968 single "Israelites" was another masterpiece from that era. Cameroon singer Manu Dibango's 1972 single "Soul Makossa" is yet another one that comes to mind. All of these songs got massive radio play back in the day and were ingrained into my brain at an early age. I had almost forgot about Miriam Makeba until one day I was watching the recently cancelled show Las Vegas a couple of years back. That show was famous for resurrecting James Caan and for the parade of ridiculously attractive women; Vanessa Marcil and Molly Sims in particular. If memory serves it used to show on Friday nights (loser alert) at 10 PM and though it may appear that I am friendless I used to videotape (yikes) it so I could watch it later. Since we are getting held up at gun point by cable companies anyway...DVR is a fantastic invention. So I'm mindlessly wasting yet another hour of my life watching Las Vegas when, at the end of one of the episodes, Miriam Makeba's Pata Pata comes on. I had totally forgotten what a great song that is. I hadn't heard it in years. Of course I went and downloaded it within minutes and actually play it on my computer jukebox fairly frequently when reading other sites.

I guess my point here is unfortunately musicians die every day. I can tell you this one touched me with one single song. It's such a feel good song I can't even express it in words. It's kind of funny coming from a guy who listens to Nine Inch Nails, Stabbing Westward and even Marilyn Manson from time to time, but this song will always have a place in my heart. People love to used the phrase "one hit wonder" as if it is something to be ashamed of. How ridiculous. Making ONE great song is something I always wished I could do. It's like a .203 career hitter homering in his only World Series at bat (who is 1976 New York Yankee reserve shortstop Jim Mason). It's something to be celebrated. Miriam Makeba has had a full life of performing music I'll probably never hear, but she made her mark on this music lover. She was performing when her heart gave out at 76 yesterday. Rest in Peace Miriam. You earned it.