Orel Family

Who would combine the best rock show in ages, with a lesson plan? There is only one person I can think of: Little Steven. Last night, Stevie brought The Disciples of Soul Teacher Appreciation Tour to the Detroit Music Hall. Promising to "leave all politics aside," the show, according to Steve, "took a little trip down my influences, which also happens to be the history of Rock and Roll" The Disciples of Soul  total 15 musicians. Some go way back with Steve: Eddie Manion and Stan Harrison were not only part of the original Disciples of Soul, they were part of the great  Asbury Jukes  recordings and shows before that. Many of the other players weren't born until long after those records had been made. Before the show, there was a TeachRock workshop  on how teachers could use music to engage their students. Not being a teacher myself, I wasn't eligible. But Aaron was; he's primarily still a college student, but he has also been involved on the teac...

I Played the Fool The first time I saw Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes , I hadn't yet seen my first Springsteen concert. It was May, 1980, I was a high school senior in New Jersey, and the Great Adventure Amusement Park had an event called "senior night" aimed at us on warm Friday evening. Mt. St. Helens had recently erupted , and as the volcanic ash drifted eastward we'd get glorious sunsets unlike anything we'd ever seen. After school that day we wedged many of us in to two small cars and headed down the New Jersey Turnpike to exit 7A, and eventually to the amphitheater, which was basically a round concrete slab with a stage on one side. Southside performed 3 shows that evening, though we went only to the first. The band featured the famed horns, as well as "The Girls," decked out in spandex suits. So I can say that I saw Patti Scialfa perform live before I saw Bruce Springsteen perform live. That first show, I couldn't even persuade...

Lori and I saw David Chase's new romanticized semi-autobiographical movie Not Fade Away  last night. It's a new release with a spectacular soundtrack (Little Steven was its executive producer), but it was a private showing: we were the only ones in the theater at 9:30. That begs the question of whether something can fade away if it was never really there at all. Not Fade Away is not the first "Beatles era coming of age in New Jersey" movie;  I Wanna Hold Your Hand covered that ground way back in 1978. That movie was also more "down home" to me, as it started within walking distance of my childhood home. Not Fade Away's New Jersey feels more ersatz: It sure looks  like New Jersey, and is full of the types of artifacts and references that one might have found there in the '60's. It doesn't take more than a minute in to the opening scene for the "We're in New Jersey!" announcement with a name check of Delbarton Academy (a p...