Caryn Rose's Blog, page 5

NEW BOOK OUT TODAY: Gas, Food, Wifi

Last summer, I picked up a car in Los Angeles and drove 4,000 miles in two weeks, an epic loop out Route 66 as far as Texas, and then back up and over through Colorado and Utah and Nevada. I went to the Grand Canyon and the Cadillac Ranch and drove the Loneliest Road In America. I was determined to find out if you could find America, or at least have a great, epic American roadtrip inside of a two-week vacation.

I started writing about it just as an email to friends, then it was a blog post,...

Review: Southside Johnny & the Asbury Jukes: Two Nights at the Stone Pony, 2/27-28/2015

Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes performed two special shows at the Stone Pony in Asbury Park this past weekend. Friday night was billed as “Rare Jukes: All the Non-Hits, All The Time” and night two was the Music of Bruce Springsteen. Both nights were two and a half hours of well-rehearsed, impeccably curated material.

The effort that went into putting these two nights together was obvious from the first note. The musicians had to learn, and rehearse, a lengthy set of material, the major...

Review: Southside Johnny & the Asbury Jukes: Two Nights at the Stone Pony, 2/27-28/2014

Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes performed two special shows at the Stone Pony in Asbury Park this past weekend. Friday night was billed as “Rare Jukes: All the Non-Hits, All The Time” and night two was the Music of Bruce Springsteen. Both nights were two and a half hours of well-rehearsed, impeccably created material.

The effort that went into putting these two nights together was obvious from the first note. The musicians had to learn, and rehearse, a lengthy set of material, the major...

Watching SNL Musical Performances With My Dad, A Brief History

This is how it would inevitably go down: my parents would go out, and I was charged with babysitting my three younger siblings. The tradeoff was that I had a green light to watch Saturday Night Live, most of which went right over my head, but some of which I liked, or found interesting, or funny. But the important thing was THE MUSICAL GUEST, because this was one of the few places you would get any exposure to things like this. But, my parents would generally arrive home right before the firs...

Watching SNL Musical Performances With My Dad

This is how it would inevitably go down: my parents would go out, and I was charged with babysitting my three younger siblings. The tradeoff was that I had a green light to watch Saturday Night Live, most of which went right over my head, but some of which I liked, or found interesting, or funny. But the important thing was THE MUSICAL GUEST, because this was one of the few places you would get any exposure to things like this. But, my parents would generally arrive home right before the firs...

Review: Billy Joel, Madison Square Garden, January 9, 2015

Let’s get things straight: I am not a fan of Billy Joel. When I was growing up and his songs were everywhere on FM radio, you generally chose sides, and you couldn’t be Team Springsteen and Team Joel, not that I had any affinity towards the latter. The ‘ack-ack-ack’ in “Movin’ Out” was cringe-worthy-embarrassing, “She’s Always A Woman” was the inevitable slow number at the high school dance where I had to deal with probably not being that into the dude and hating the song I was dancing to, “O...

Springsteen & U2, World AIDS Day Concert, Times Square, December 1, 2014

It seemed like the most improbable New York thing, this 3pm announcement as I come out of a meeting that U2 are performing — with Bruce Springsteen! — in Times Square a few hours from now. I text friends. I make up setlists on Twitter. I go through an executive presentation until 5:40, at which point I say, “Can we wrap this up? Bruce and U2 are playing in Times Square, I need to get a move on.”

I walk out to a chilly rain, which did not figure into my plans. I buy one of those obnoxious sara...

Bob Dylan and His Band, NJPAC, November 26, 2014

Seeing Bob is about so much these days besides *seeing Bob*. It is about showing up, it is about paying tribute, it is about memories and chasing ghosts. I am not proud to say that I insisted on going to this show on the assertion that this might be the last time we see him, so it is time to pick a show and pay the money and go, dammit.

NJPAC is a lovely venue that is a reasonable walk from Newark Penn Station; you can take the light rail one stop if it’s raining, but you’ll likely end up wal...

Nashville In 15 Minutes

The SO’s brother got married in Nashville this past weekend. We’d never been there before, somehow, and were therefore more than willing to trek down to Tennessee. However, this also meant that our sightseeing time was incredibly limited because of family events. I drafted a top-down list of must-sees/must-do’s so that if circumstances dictated we had to cut some things, we’d still have gotten the most important things out of the way.

When I say “most important” I mean “most important personal...

Concert Review: The Afghan Whigs, Beacon Theater, 10-4-14 and Music Hall of Williamsburg, 10-5-14

The Afghan Whigs arrived in New York City this weekend for two shows ostensibly as part of their Do To The Beast tour, but also in actual effect to celebrate the continued existence of the Greg Dulli Rhythm and Blues Revue as a living, breathing, thriving concern in the year 2014. Both nights were musical and emotional powerhouses, exceptionally performed and executed, with special moments and surprises. That is saying a lot for a band that always came to take prisoners and never phoned it in...