Compelling and thoughtful perspectives on arts and culture from the staff of The Tonearm.
There was a time in my life when September meant "Fall Tour" and "Fall Tour" meant taking the train to New York City a couple of times a week for the Grateful Dead's annual residency at Madison Square Garden...
Dressed in her iconic white shirt and vest for the Pirelli calendar decades after 'Horses,' Smith's contradictory journey has seen her mold herself after rock legends while creating something uniquely her own.
Listening to this show 25 years on, I am reminded of the truth behind the Keith Richards quip (which I've also seen attributed to Larry Hagman and the British comedian, the "Cheeky Chappie" Max Miller): "It's good to be here. It's good to be anywhere."
Well I'll be, a show where three of the four musicians on stage have been guests of Spotlight On...
Over the last 30 years or so, Derek Trucks has gone from nepo baby child prodigy, to adult virtuoso, to grizzled American Road Dog. He's even an avid fisherperson. And he still has a lot of life and career ahead of him.
One of hip-hop's most cerebral artists grapples with the nature of morality itself. Parsing Lamar's lyrics reveals a complex philosophical system where earthly existence traps us in perpetual error, while salvation waits in the beyond.
I do not remember my in-the-moment impressions of this show, but I do have a memory sense that I was underwhelmed. I think this is one of the first concerts I attended where I noticed in real-time that I was surrounded by the "wine-and-cheese crowd"...
I used to love going to see this band. Known as "The Quintet", this was the longest-running incarnation of Phil Lesh & Friends.
This show was the first of a three night run to close out the Grateful Dead's 1990 Summer Tour. The band was on a stellar, multi-year tear that began with the Spring East Coast Tour in 1987 but really found its legs throughout 1989...
This show took place during the era when hip hop shows had a reputation (and oftentimes reality) of being hit or miss affairs, with late artists, middling sound, stage full of posse (out numbering band members)...off-kilter, chaotic and unpredictable. On a good night, exciting.
For the Furthur ‘98 concert in Saratoga on July 4, 1998, the band was called “The Other Ones” and was co-led by former Grateful Dead members Bob Weir and Phil Lesh.
Once upon a time, a wicked and wretched people were smitten with a catastrophe - potentially of their own making - which ground their world to a halt...