{"id":46,"date":"2009-09-09T09:59:41","date_gmt":"2009-09-09T14:59:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=46"},"modified":"2009-09-09T09:59:41","modified_gmt":"2009-09-09T14:59:41","slug":"so-much-for-rockstock-09","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2009\/09\/09\/so-much-for-rockstock-09\/","title":{"rendered":"So Much for Rockstock 09"},"content":{"rendered":"

I only heard about the Rockstock 09<\/strong> “festival” a few weeks ago. I was quite excited to discover that the Smithereens <\/strong>would be performing. I’ve always loved their powerpop-meets-heaviness approach, and sort of projected a they’re-kindred-spirits persona onto the band, believing that the quartet was made up of True Fans Of Rock like myself. Turns out I was pretty accurate on that score.<\/p>\n

But I had never seen the ‘Reens live, so I was considering it. I visited the festival website and discovered to my delight that The Romantics<\/strong> would also be performing. I had seen the leathery quartet in a club back in their heyday (around ’85, it must have been) and they were fantastic. So that made my attendance even more likely.<\/p>\n

\"Rockstock Then I read a bit more. Ewww<\/em>, I discovered. These two great acts were pretty far down the bill. Near the top were some truly awful acts. Night Ranger<\/strong>? You’ve got to be kidding me.<\/em> Great White<\/strong>? Oh, dear; the less said, the better. T. Rex<\/strong>? That sounded great, but then since Marc Bolan<\/strong> died in 1977, this was suspect, to say the least.<\/p>\n

This Rockstock was shaping up to be the 80s One Hit Wonder tour. Cutting Crew<\/strong>? Naked Eyes<\/strong>? Tommy Tutone<\/strong>? (Well, okay, one great song.) Toad the Wet Sprocket<\/strong>? F**kin-A<\/em>. Please.<\/p>\n

But since the two good (great) acts were both on Saturday, I could pop for a single-day ticket and then leave before Great White did “Sister Christian” or whatever power ballad they inflicted on the world. (Yeah, I know they didn’t do that one. But still.) So I mulled it over a few days.<\/p>\n

Then the site offered a special: half-price tickets! So I jumped. I should have been suspicious: why would they drop the price? What about all those people who bought tickets already at full price? (Here’s a hint: there weren’t any<\/em>!)<\/p>\n

So I learned last night from Dennis Diken<\/strong> — drummer for the Smithereens and the man responsible for a great new sort-of-solo album<\/strong><\/a> — that the show has been cancelled. I had an interview scheduled with him. Damn.<\/p>\n

But perhaps all is not lost.\u00a0 After I bought my tix, I discovered that the Rockstock shows were only scheduled to be about 30 minutes each. Sort of a showcase approach. So while that would have been good, it wasn’t great.<\/p>\n

My schedule has changed of late (I quit the drama-filled band in which I played keyboards and sang lead) so I am free the weekend of the 24th. Turns out that there’s a wonderful lineup of acts performing over three days at something called the Charlotte Pop Festival<\/strong>. The Smithereens are headlining with a full set! And if that weren’t enough (and it damn well is), the rest of the lineup is manna from heaven to a powerpop fanatic such as myself. To wit: The Posies<\/strong> (aka half of Big Star<\/strong>), Mike Viola<\/strong> (the voice of “That Thing You Do!” as well as backup vocalist on the new Marshall Crenshaw<\/strong><\/a> album), The Spongetones<\/strong>, The Shazam <\/strong>and Roger Joseph Manning Jr.<\/strong> (of Moog Cookbook<\/strong> and Jellyfish<\/strong>).<\/p>\n

My attendance isn’t definite (yet) but I really hope to make it. And if I do, I sincerely hope to bring back several artist interviews. Stay tuned.<\/p>\n

Postscript: as of publishing this, there’s still no mention on the Rockstock site that the show’s been cancelled, though it’s being reported in media outlets. A buncha clowns, it would seem.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I only heard about the Rockstock 09 “festival” a few weeks ago. I was quite excited to discover that the Smithereens would be performing. I’ve always loved their powerpop-meets-heaviness approach, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-46","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-essay","cat-27-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}