The Rolling Stones at U.S. Bank Stadium 2021

 

The Rolling Stones in concert at U.S. Bank Stadium, Minneapolis, Minnesota, October 24, 2021. (Photo by Mark C. Taylor)

The Taylor family, ready to rock and roll!

Ronnie Wood's illustrated set list for the show.

The Rolling Stones were scheduled to return to Minnesota on their No Filter tour in May of 2020. Obviously, covid changed all that, and the concert was eventually rescheduled for October 24, 2021.

By the time the Stones got close to getting back on the road, the band announced in early August of 2021 that drummer Charlie Watts wouldn’t be joining them on tour, and that Steve Jordan would be filling the drum kit. Three weeks after that announcement, Watts passed away at the age of 80.

The Rolling Stones have never toured without Charlie Watts, so it’s weird and more than a little emotional to see them live without him. Watts joined the Stones in February of 1963, and he never missed a concert. I think about how emotional it must be for Mick and Keith and Ronnie to play the shows on this tour—they’ve never played these songs without Charlie. The show on Sunday opened with a moving video tribute to Charlie. Watts’ passing has been more emotional for me than I had anticipated it would be. I’ve long appreciated Watts’ talent as a drummer—like Ringo Starr, Charlie found the perfect pattern to fit each song. Charlie wasn’t about flashy playing—he was all about what would fit the song. I didn’t think that I would be so emotional about Charlie’s passing, since I didn’t see him as being the center of the Stones, the way Mick and Keith are. But Charlie’s death has made me think that he was more the center of the Stones than I realized.

Sunday night was my 5^th Rolling Stones show, and it was my son Miles’ first Rolling Stones show. And his first rock concert, proper. (Although he was insisting that seeing a Beatles tribute band at Little Canada’s “Little Canada Days” was his first concert.) Miles turns 7 next month, and he’s been a huge fan of the Beatles and the Rolling Stones since he was about 2 and a half. If the Stones had come in May of 2020 as originally planned, I wouldn’t have taken him along, but fast forward a year and a half, and my wife and I decided we should take Miles along. It’s most likely going to be his only opportunity to see the Rolling Stones live. (I say most likely, just in case I have to delete this sentence when he sees the Stones on their 2025 tour.) We got him noise-canceling headphones, since he’s not the biggest fan of loud noises. We stayed for more than half of the show, and afterwards Miles said, “I was surprised that I knew the first 5 or 6 songs.” I wasn’t that surprised since I’ve been looking at the setlists and they’re jam-packed with hits that he’s very familiar with.

The Stones still sounded great, of course. Mick Jagger’s voice hasn’t lost anything over the years, and Keith and Ronnie’s playing is still spectacular. Ron Wood looks a lot older than the last time I saw him live, in 2015, but man, he can still play. Live in concert is the best way to appreciate Ron Wood’s playing with the Stones, since on the records it’s so hard to tell who plays what.

Jagger had a lot of funny, playful banter, as he name-dropped all kinds of Minnesotan things. He even joked about the “Juicy Lucy” a burger stuffed with cheese that is a local delicacy. Two different bars have a fight about who invented the “Juicy Lucy,” Matt’s or the 5-8 Club, and Jagger claimed he had one burger at each bar. Looking at Jagger’s svelte, lithe figure, it’s hard to imagine that he was telling the truth. (Oh, and yes, Matt’s does spell it “Jucy Lucy,” an inadvertent misspelling that has caught on.)

I was pleased that Stones played “19^th Nervous Breakdown,” since I haven’t heard them play it live before. The song that won the fans’ vote was “Monkey Man,” a hidden gem from Let It Bleed with a great guitar riff. I had voted for “She’s So Cold,” since that’s one of Miles’ favorite Stones songs. When you look at the setlists from the Stones’ 2021 shows, it’s amazing to see how many huge songs they have. Simply put, there’s no other band like the Rolling Stones, and we’re lucky they’re still rolling, close to 60 years after they started.

Concert Review: Michael Feinstein at the Dakota Jazz Club

Singer, pianist, conductor, and music archivist Michael Feinstein.

Tonight, I saw Michael Feinstein at the Dakota Jazz Club in Minneapolis. I’ve been a fan of Feinstein’s since I was a little kid, and his music was the way I was introduced to the Great American Songbook. Which is only fitting, since Feinstein is such an advocate and proponent of those songs.

For this concert, Feinstein was backed by Tedd Firth on piano, Phil Palombi on bass, and Mark McLean on drums. They were an excellent backing group and provided superb accompaniment on both ballads and swingers. I’ve never seen Feinstein sing with a small backing group like this—I’m pretty sure every time I’ve seen him he’s either been on his own, just accompanying himself on piano, or with an orchestra. 

Michael looked and sounded great—it doesn’t look like he’s aged a day since the last time I saw him in person, which was back in 2012. (I also reviewed his 2011 concert here.) He was sharply dressed in a dark blue suit and a black dress shirt. Feinstein’s voice sounds great, and it even seems like his voice has gotten more powerful, as he held some ending notes for a very long time. And he hasn’t lost any of his upper range. Feinstein remains a fun and vibrant nightclub entertainer, as he brings a warm and engaging personality to the stage. It’s hard to imagine someone not having fun at a Michael Feinstein concert. 

Feinstein performed several medleys of songs, and the opener was the great song made famous by Nat King Cole, “L-O-V-E,” combined with “Almost Like Being in Love.” It was a fun opener, and it was followed by a superb version of W.C. Handy’s “St. Louis Blues,” written in 1914. As Michael said, “I like to keep it current.” Another highlight was a medley of the 1959 Frank Sinatra song “All My Tomorrows” with the 1969 hit single by the Spiral Staircase, “More Today than Yesterday.” It was an inventive pairing that worked very well together. 

Feinstein is a fount of pop culture knowledge, and I laughed very hard when he said that drummer Mark McLean would be playing Buddy Rich to Michael’s Sammy Davis during the song “Come Back to Me.” Feinstein then added, “But he’s much nicer than Buddy Rich!” (There are lots of stories about Buddy Rich being, um, not so nice to work with.) 

A surprise guest was singer and cabaret performer Lynne Rothrock, who performed a fun version of “Teach Me Tonight.” Other highlights of the evening included an exuberant version of “Hooray for Hollywood,” and of course, the Gershwin medley. Michael Feinstein worked as an assistant for Ira Gershwin for the last six years of Ira’s life, helping to catalogue Ira’s music collection. Feinstein was audibly emotional during the intro to “Our Love is Here to Stay,” as he recounted how George had written the music, but Ira didn’t put words to it until after George’s death. Thus, the song became Ira’s moving tribute to his dead brother. 

And Feinstein saved some of the best music for the last, as he performed a 12-song tribute medley to Frank Sinatra. It was a fitting way to end the evening, from one interpreter of the Great American Songbook to another.

Set list: (P=Michael Feinstein on piano)

L-O-V-E/Almost Like Being in Love

St. Louis Blues

Old Friend-p

All My Tomorrows/More Today than Yesterday

Wish You Were Here/So Far Away

Come Back to Me

When I Fall in Love/My Foolish Heart

Don’t Let Me Be Lonely Tonight/One Less Bell to Answer

Hooray for Hollywood

Blame it On My Youth-p

Gershwin Medley:

How Long Has This Been Going On?-p

Someone to Watch Over Me-p

Our Love is Here to Stay-p

Frank Sinatra medley:

Come Fly with Me

Witchcraft

A Foggy Day

I’ve Got the World on a String

Summer Wind

All or Nothing at All

I Guess I’ll Hang My Tears Out to Dry

Angel Eyes

That’s Life

Night and Day

I’ve Got You Under My Skin

You Make Me Feel So Young

Encore:

Isn’t it Romantic?-p

Concert Review: "A Postcard from California" Al Jardine of the Beach Boys at the Dakota Jazz Club

Al Jardine on stage at the Dakota Jazz Club in Minneapolis, February 13, 2019. (Photo by Mark C. Taylor)

My signed copy of Al Jardine's 2010 album A Postcard from California. (Photo by Mark C. Taylor)

Tonight I saw a great concert: Al Jardine, one of the founding members of the Beach Boys, performed at the Dakota Jazz Club in Minneapolis. Jardine’s show is titled “A Postcard from California,” after his 2010 solo album, and in it he sings songs and shares stories from his remarkable career. The Beach Boys have been one of my favorite groups since I was a little kid. One of my favorite childhood memories is seeing the Beach Boys at the Minnesota State Fair sometime in the late 1980’s-early 1990’s. I still love their music, and it touches an emotional chord in me. 

Jardine started the show by playing standup bass and singing the Beach Boys’ very first song, “Surfin’”. I didn’t realize that he was the group’s first bassist, and it was only when he left the group for about a year, from 1962-3, that Brian Wilson started playing the bass. Jardine was backed by his son Matt Jardine on percussion and vocals, and Jeff Alan Ross on keyboards and guitar. Matt handled the falsetto vocals, and did a tremendous job, especially on “God Only Knows” and “Surf’s Up.” I’ve seen Jeff Alan Ross before, as he has also played a similar role in Peter Asher’s live retrospective shows. It was pretty amazing that three guys were able to do such an excellent job recreating the Beach Boys’ sound live. 

The whole concert was just so joyful—it’s very clear that Al Jardine is having a great time singing these songs. His voice sounds great, and he did a great job singing a lot of songs that he didn’t originally have the lead vocal on. Jardine’s most famous lead vocal with the Beach Boys is “Help Me, Rhonda,” which was the last song of the evening. Jardine sang several of the group’s most famous songs, like “Surfer Girl,” “Don’t Worry, Baby,” “California Girls,” and “Good Vibrations.” He also shared the story of how he brought the folk song “Sloop John B” to Brian Wilson’s attention, and how the song was re-arranged to fit the Beach Boys’ style. Jardine brought out a rarity as well, in the form of the song “Vegetables,” one version of which featured Paul McCartney eating carrots. The excellent harmony that the Jardines and Ross brought to the song made it an unusual highlight of the concert. 

“A Postcard from California” has a loose, easygoing feel, it’s like “The Beach Boys: Unplugged.” Hearing these iconic songs in such an intimate venue, and in more stripped down arrangements, just reinforced my belief that the beauty and the power of these songs remains undimmed, even more than fifty years after they were first written. 

After the show, Al came out to sign autographs and chat with fans. He seems like a really nice guy, warm and outgoing and quite funny. For me, it was really awesome to meet a Beach Boy. If you’re a fan of the Beach Boys, check out Al’s show if you get the chance, it’s very special.