My Life in Concert.com

(EP 22, no. 205) Caribou: Suddenly, London Music Hall, London, Ontario, Canada, Saturday November 20, 2021

Various Artists Season 1 Episode 22

In February 2020, Caribou returned with his first new album after an absence of six years.  It was released to universal critical acclaim and commercial success, and an extensive world tour was planned. 

And then …. Suddenly …. Everything was off, as the Covid pandemic shut down the planet, including live music.  2020 turned out to be the first year since 1976 wherein I did not see a single live music performance. 

A seriously depressing proposition for an admitted live-music addict.  It also meant I could not finish my initial sequence of podcast episodes of one show from each decade of my concert-going.

And then … Suddenly, in the summer of ’21, through vaccines and the socially responsible sacrifices of many good people, live shows were on again including Caribou’s delayed tour which included a stop here in London, Ontario, in November. 

“But if we buy tickets, will there even be a show?” We wondered.  Or will everything close back down and, Suddenly, it’ll be off again? 

Join me and my guest—Colin, my nephew, aka Fast and Bulbous in past blog entries—for a night of magic (albeit with some asterisks and apprehensions), last-minute decisions, and sprightly social intercourse with the over-served and mushroomed.

 

Next on Stage: Join me next time for another out-of-sequence show with one of two anniversary podcasts I’ll be doing in 2022.

While I originally launched the written blog on OpenSalon.com on June 3, 2010, and celebrate every year on that date with my own mock-up of a favourite album cover—it was the Rolling Stones’ Sticky Fingers for 2021— I didn’t get around to marking the podcasts’ first anniversary on Feb. 7, 2021.

So, to make up for that, I am going to do two anniversary episodes this year: one coinciding with the podcast launch, and one in June in tandem with the blog’s 12th anniversary.

What I will be doing with these anniversary episodes is that I will be selecting gigs from throughout my concert-going years that are personally significant for me or that I really want to highlight or talk about.

And my first anniversary podcast jumps into 1988 and a gig wherein I had some extraordinary revelations that I have never forgotten.

Join me next time for Episode 23, concert no. 51, and an unforgettable show by Keith Richards and the X-Pensive Winos at the then-recently—and beautifully—refurbished Fox Theatre in Detroit, on December 8, 1988.

Unexpectedly, and through a bizarre merging of synchronicity and happenstance, I find my self directly in front of Keith, about 10-or-so feet away, for his entire encore.  And it results in an epiphany.

I’ll also be writing a full blog entry on the show as a companion piece to the podcast.

Tune in next time for avoiding a strip search at the border, being in agony and the healing power of music, and some realizations about rock stars.

The delayed Beat & REM show from 1983 will be Episode 24.

(EP 23, no. 51) Keith Richards and the X-Pensive Winos: Connection, Fox Theatre, Detroit, Michigan, USA, December 8, 1988