Eric's Eddyfications

Dennis DeYoung - the full review

Okay, as per the comment request, here is my review on the concert:

It was great! Dennis confessed that he is 61 years old, and stuck to the classics. He performed two solo album songs, but most everything was from his days with Styx. His voice is still in great shape, I didn't detect a single key change to try and "reach the notes."

A couple of cool things - his wife Suzanne is his childhood sweetheart, they've been married over 35 years, and she sings backup for him in the show. His son Matt is the Lighting Designer for the tour, and in a "we're happy for ya!" sidebar, Matt took Kristi's acting class when he went to Columbia (___) years ago - so we hung out afterward and talked to him for a while. He seems to be doing well, and is apparently going to be the LD for a Night Ranger tour this year in Europe. Cool and rocking.

Other cool thing: Dennis didn't bother with the formality of an "encore." After his "last song," he talked about how normally he would go off stage and pretend to leave while the crowd kept cheering, and then he'd come back and play one more song. But let's just pretend that we did that, and we'll play that one more song. Then he broke into "Come Sail Away." Awesome.

Here's the set list, which I put into my blackberry memo pad because I'm a total geek:

Grand Illusion/Lady/Lorelei/Show Me the Way/Castle Walls/Light up/Mr Roboto/Desert moon/100 years from now/Don't let it end/Rockin the paradise/Suite madame blue/Babe/Best of times/AD 1958 (fake encore) /Come sail away

My good friend Steve Cochran is doing the morning show on WGN on Labor Day and tells me that Dennis will be calling in on the show. So listen in and see what he says about the show in Naperville...

Dennis DeYoung

Getting excited about tonight's Dennis DeYoung: the music of Styx concert tonight at Naperville's "Last Fling." I've loved Styx music for a long time, and I do a killer DeYoung impersonation (if I do say so myself!) Going to the show with a bunch of neighborhood friends that we are trying to hftwbtg... so pray that we have a great time together!

Fourth Judge for American Idol

They're adding a fourth judge to American Idol, and as far as I can tell, it's further proof that they will need to change the name from American Idol to American Arranger. Grammy-nominated songwriter Kara DioGuardi will join Paula and Simon and Randy. Read about it here. Here is a blurb on her credits:

DioGuardi-written or co-written hits include Christina Aguilera's "Ain't No Other Man," Gwen Stefani's "Rich Girl," Kylie Minogue's "Spinning Round," Celine Dion's "Taking Chances" and the PCD's "Beep" and "I Don't Need a Man." Her songs have also been recorded by Pink, Hillary Duff, Paris Hilton, Ashlee Simpson, Marc Anthony and several "Idol" alums, including Kelly Clarkson, Carrie Underwood, Katharine McPhee, Taylor Hicks, Bo Bice and Clay Aiken.

Anyone who's heard any of the first three songs listed knows that they were creatively sampling many very interesting sources, like Fiddler on the Roof. Those songs were creative for sure, but had as much to do with creatively using songs already in the public consciousness as much as inventing new melodies.

Which is exactly what AI has started to become, as winner David Cook gets mucho props for using alternative arrangements of songs, and even runner-up David Archuleta got props for destroying John Lennon's Imagine with his un-soulful runs and creative omission of lyrical content. It's the only way to stand out in this competition anymore - everyone's heard the way the song "was done" before, and after seven seasons, it's going to be even harder to find a unique take on a song or stand out in any way. Just adding instruments isn't enough.

I do think it will be good if Kara ends up sounding as though she has intelligence within the field. It would be the first time a woman would have done that regularly on AI, and long overdue. No wonder Paula is "concerned..."

UPDATE: Kara in her own words...

Get your 3C Gear here!

So if you noticed my header having changed to reflect the "new" eddy... then you might have noticed that it contained a picture of an eddified bib.

Now on the communitychristian.org website, you can get 3C gear! Click here to go to our cafepress store contained within the website, and order gear that proudly displays the Eddy, the Community logo, SFTA, StuCo, Kids' City, Community 4:12, you name it.

And yes, you can buy an eddified bib for your pre-3C tot.

Have some fun! I have an eddy mug on its way!

Studio 60 and Aaron Sorkin

It seems that Aaron Sorkin can't stop talking about the failure that was Studio 60, a show that I really liked and thought had real potential. If you want to read the article, click here. But what I want to talk about is a quote he made in the article - he is talking with HBO about a project and admonishes those who seek to influence his stories via blog and the internet in general. And here's his quote:

He (Sorkin) calls the web "a bronchial infection on the First Amendment," and says that "nothing has done more to make us dumber or meaner than the anonymity of the Internet."

What do you think? Are you dumber and meaner since the internet showed up? Are you anonymous?

Sounds like a guy who still types his screenplays on one of these.

Footloose and moody

Just listened to a few tracks from Doveman's cover of the entire soundtrack to Footloose. Yes, that's right. Kevin Bacon dancing, Kenny Loggins, Bonnie Tyler, the whole thing. Here's the story behind why Doveman decided to cover the entire album from beginning to end, in a moody "Sufjan Stevens/Tom Waits influenced acoustic piano based" way, which he did on the suggestion of a friend, who's story reads:

"When I was very young, my half-sister Jenny died tragically. She was a teenager, and it was the 80's. She left behind a wardrobe of brightly colored clothes, rainbow stickers, life-size paintings, doodles on lined paper, and hundreds of tapes. These constitute most of my memories of her. It's sad for me to look at these things, and usually I don't. But a couple of summers ago I found a tape of hers with a startling cover photograph - this was Footloose. I couldn't stop listening: it was a portrait of 80's love, desire, pain, freedom, and frenzy; of being a teenager in a time of change. By listening, I could step into Jenny's shoes, see things from her vantage point. I could be emancipated by rock and roll and walkmen, just as she had been. We could listen together.

I asked my friend Thomas to cover the album, which, sheltered as he is, he had never heard before. I was clear that I wanted to him to cover the whole album - the point wasn't to rework any one song, but to re-imagine the picture they made together. With a new Footloose we could reply to the past, tell our own story about being young. This is what he made." - Gabriel Greenberg

You can listen to the album on his website, dovemanmusic.com, where it can stream - but no downloads, as the cease and desist orders have already gone out. But it is fascinating.

The God of the City of Shorewood

This weekend i had the privilege to play and sing at Shorewood- we sang "God of this City" while attenders wrote prayers to God on post-it notes and placed them on the Chicagoland cityscape. It was a holy moment. and John Ciesniewski did a great job with the message! Lots of fun was had all the way around...

So you think you can wait

I was tipped off by a fellow SYTYCD fan that the Bears game is delaying the finale tonight of SYTYCD, it won't be airing in Chicago until 11pm. Eeeek! Last night was pretty entertaining, but boy, they were exhausted by the end. Anyone on American Idol who complains that they get stressed out by the work load on that show have never seen what they do to these dancers on this show. It's intense. I like Josh to win it all. He's pretty amazing.

So it's a win-win, since I like the Bears, but my daughter is none too pleased that she will have to go to bed tonight NOT KNOWING who won. I on the other hand have no problem waiting. Besides, I can always check the interweb before I go to bed.

80s! The Musical

Well, sort of...

Feeling nostalgic as I read that an 80s musical is headed to off-broadway. It's like all of my worlds colliding in one brief tragically fabulous moment. Read about it here.

Mmmm... Tastes like Foreigner

So I was explaining to my wife about how Journey had recently recorded a "greatest hits" collection of sorts, in that they have re-recorded their hits with their new lead singer. We then started talking about when we had seen Foreigner at Ribfest a few years back, and Lou Gramm's voice was shot - part because of surgery and medical complications, but shot nonetheless. I remarked, "I think Journey's got it figured out - these rockers that have great songs but have to be sung in the stratosphere just need to find a new youngblood to sing their hits and then take it on the road. Foreigner should totally do that.

Well, I spoke too soon, or too late, as Foreigner is way ahead of me. Here's an article about their current tour that supports a new greatest hits CD, which includes a new song, featuring their current new lead singer, Kelly Hanson. Listen to this new song , called Too Late, on their myspace page and tell me that they didn't find a sound-a-like. Should be interesting... ironic title for some has-been rockers...