Concert Review: Ringo Starr and his All-Starr Band 06/27/2008 @ the PNC Bank Arts Center

      An extremely well put on show last night by a group of great musicians. That was probably the most technically sound show I've seen so far. These guys play like, I don't know, LIKE THEY ENJOY PLAYING MUSIC!! And for all you people that were heading towards the door during "With a little help from my friends" should be ashamed of yourselves. What? You need to beat traffic or something? Didn't you plan on attending a rock concert? Show started at eight and it ended like twenty minutes after ten its not like they went on all night like a Grateful Dead show in 1967 or something. Ringo Starr had the All-Star band in full effect with Hamish Stuart, Gary Wright, Colin Hay, Billy Squier and Edgar Winter. And of course I know that none of you people know who any of those names are, and I hardly know these people. But last night I got to know the band a lot more then I did or for that matter thought I would. I didn't think it would be that good, I thought I'm going there and like fucking around but my eyes were glued to that big screen man, shit was dope.

     I'm looking at the complete set list but I'm not going to list 25 songs but I'll go through the ones that you know and be you I mean probably nobody, because you people are clinically brain dead when it comes to music. Anyway, so I was in the parking lot waiting for my friend to show up and then I heard "Free ride" with Edgar Winter on vocals and I I like knew that song and so do you guys you just don't know that you know it. The same with the next song which was Colin Hay doing "Down Under" (he's from the band 'Men at Work') and that song is like the unofficial Australian national anthem like because I guess that's where dudes' from. Then Gary Wright steps up front and does "Dream Weaver" and at this point I'm like "whoa, I know like all these songs". Then Ringo did a song or two off the new record "Liverpool 8". Then as I'm walking to get a beer, I hear "Yellow Submarine" playing, of course as I'm waiting on line to buy the official concert tee-shirt. And by the way, that shit cost me 40 bucks man, that's not cool at all. I walked out of this place with like 8 dollars, 2 beers and a shirt and I'm out of money. Anyway, I get back to my seat and start blazing as Colin and Billy went with solo acoustics, respectively. Then here comes Edgar Winter back to the center like with his Keyboard on a strap like and he says " Just wanted to let everyone know, that I was the first one to use the strap-..board, the strap-..board". AND they have a sense of humor. He went on to explain that he didn't like being stuck behind the keyboard all night, then got into "Frankenstein". That is one hell of a song man, especially live in that venue when Winter is going from Keyboard, to Saxophone(plays a meeeeeeeeeeeeean saxophone, in other songs coming up too) to a little drums at the end. And by the way, when Ringo wasn't singing he was drumming and the hired drummer was also doing. Two drummers is a fucking hard thing to do, that's why only like two bands have ever done it('Grateful Dead', 'Captin Lipton and the Acid Commandoes', and I recently saw Modest Mouse doing it but it might just be for that one song). So on to Ringo doing two songs one of them having being "Never Without You", which is a song I recently discovered and sang along to. So I'm blazing the rest of my joint after they CUT OFF THE BEER AT 9:15!!! WHAT THE HELL???? and then a little later Gary Wright hops back on vocals to do "Love is alive", another song you all would know if you heard it. Followed up by Colin Hay doing "Who can it be now" with Edgar Winter playing sick saxophone, I mean its not like its Winter's song its Hays'. But anyway, Ringo does "Photograph", which is one of his biggest hits as a solo artist and then follows up with another one of his songs "Oh My My" and I found that song like a month ago so I was glad to hear and sing it. good stuff. Then Ringo starts saying we've been great, and "you know what time it is… we jog off stage into the night and come back on and do one more" like sarcastically and then he had us all sing along to the Beatles classic "With a little help from my friends". That was great too, because everyone knows it and its in some commercial now. Not by Ringo, but like a sped up version. And people just left like I sat there with my friend Gina and like watched them take the stage apart, he's a Beatle like and she says to me "You know, it makes me sick that this place wasn't packed and these people headed for the door before the last note hit. Do they have no appreciation for music?", something like that, and 100% correct there. It's the truth and it makes sense and want to know why she says things like that? It's because she knows music unlike some people I know and by some I mean all. So in the end I believe they only did two of the Beatles songs, which is typical Ringo trying to not profit off of songs written by a friends of his who are dead i.e. John Lennon, George Harrison. So all in all, incredible night, and I hope you all enjoyed hearing about it.Because I sure as hell enjoyed just thinking about it
     
     Next stop on the Jay Porks summer concert series, is 311 w/ Snoop Dogg and Fiction Plane on July 19th which is a Saturday Night. Gonna be a fun night, got some good, reliable friends who I've known a while attending. going to be an experience, because think about it. If i smoked all that pot at the Ringo show, and the STP show, then how much weed am I going to blaze at a show featuring 311 and Snoop Dogg??? stay tuned people.... stay tuned....