Save The Hip

Green Day @ Patriot Center 4/4/13

I saw Green Day with my 14 year old son on Thursday night, and I must admit that I enjoyed every bit of it. The music was good and the band was predictably tight, but the music was merely the background soundtrack for the show. Sing alongs, two perfectly executed instances of audience participation, fire hoses, toilet paper machines, t-shirt guns and a reasonably good light show kept the audience energized and engaged. Billie Joe Armstrong is the consummate frontman. He moved the energy around the venue like it was tactile. Many parents attended with their kids and Billie Joe kept everyone from 5 to 55 on their feet and fist pumping. While Green Day didn't live up to their punk rock label (I think most would agree that it's been awhile since they have), they did show us a hell of a good time.

Highlight: Ten year old kid gets plucked from the audience to sing the third verse of Longview. Nails it like a motherfucking rock star. Causes Mike Dirnt to fall down in joyous, spasms of laughter. Billie Joe Armstrong breaks character, says, "That was pretty much the most memorable moment in my entire life," and hands the kid one of his guitars.

Set list: 99 Revolutions, Know Your Enemy, Stay the Night, Stop When the Red Lights Flash, Fuck Time, Letterbomb, Oh Love, Holiday, Boulevard of Broken Dreams, Burnout, J.A.R., Geek Stink Breath, Who Wrote Holden Caulfield?, Disappearing Boy, Sweet Home Alabama/Sweet Child o' Mine/Highway to Hell, Brain Stew, St. Jimmy, When I Come Around, Longview, Basket Case, She, King for a Day, Shout/Stand by Me/Satisfaction/Hey Jude, X-Kid, Minority.  Encore:  American Idiot, Jesus of Suburbia, Brutal Love

Wholly Dissatisfied!

Hip and happy new year!!!  My new year's resolution is to publish something on this site at least twice a week and continue to patiently and persistently pursue the Save the Hip mission to represent and celebrate the hipness and creativity of the over 40 crowd.  If you haven't noticed our new logo, check it out.  We have already started making Save the Hip swag, including silk screening our own t-shirts!  Our tagline, "wholly dissatisfied", is at once literal and ironic.  I won't say too much.  I'll let you come to your own conclusions.

Are you musician who's been playing out for 25 years or a pent up musician who put his instrument away 20 years ago when the kids were born? Were you meant to be Penny Lane, Jann Wenner, or Kurt Cobain?  Do you love the energy of concerts and festivals and wonder, "what if?"  If so, join our community. There will be much more to come in 2013!

If you are interested in contributing the site, we are still recruiting bloggers, writers, podcasters, musicians, and more.  If you're a rock musician, rock music lover, industry expert, closet music critic, concert goer, adventure seeker, or party thrower we want to hear from you.

Whether you're a follower or a contributor, we promise to give you something to think about while you sit through tedious meetings!

Save the Hip -j

Stay tuned...coming up soon "Jane's Addiction on December 28, 2012, at the 930 Club (or...How I Fist Bumped Perry Ferrell)

Fun or foolish?

Yesterday afternoon, Scott and I decided to look for an upcoming concert to attend. Scott searched the calendar for one of our favorite DC venues, the Rock & Roll Hotel on H Street (www.rockandrollhoteldc.com) and mentioned the Cannibal Corpse show on December 1, 2012. He noted that the death metal group had been around for more than 20 years and that it would be “something to see.”

Primus 3D @ Fillmore Silver Spring 10/15/12 (aka I Moshed with a 6' Chicken)

I went to the Primus 3D concert at Fillmore Silver Spring on Monday night.  I had seen Primus at the same venue last year, but I was interested in seeing the 3D video element they added.  Les Claypool had said to, "expect a trippy, 3D experience with a special 3D backdrop screen, psychedelic effects and an enhanced sound system."

Allen Stone? Tis a puzzlement

He'd be alright if he had a vagina...

Lana Del Rey: Paradise

"You seem comfortable in your own skin," a coworker noted recently.  That applies to my taste in music too.  In the past, I didn't trust my taste.  I didn't think it was cool enough.  When I started listening to Lana Del Rey, I knew I had gotten over it.  Del Rey is a contentious artist, and her performance on Saturday Night Live a year ago (Wow!  Time flies!!) didn't help at all.  I took a chance at my hairdresser's recommendation and gave Lana Del Rey another chance, and now I'm hooked!  I happen to prefer the Paradise EP.  Her smokey, soulful voice on Ride can only be described as "chewy," and I can't really explain why.  The vocals are tactile, tangible, malleable.....chewy.  Del Rey's range is admirable, and I think she's found a unique sound.  Take a chance on this creative chanteuse

Nirvana: Nevermind

I endured the rock & roll malaise of the late 80s in the US by living in the Middle East where Dire Straits was played on a continuous loop. I returned to the US in January 1991, eight months before Nirvana's Nevermind album was released.  I missed the cosmic importance of that album at the time – maybe because of timing and life circumstance or maybe because “cosmic importance” can only ever be perceived in retrospect.  I bought a copy of Nevermind and even listened to it a few times, but in the classic grunge rivalry between Nirvana and Pearl Jam, I stood firmly in the PJ camp.

Patti Smith: 12

I recently wrote about listening to Nirvana's Nevermind album all the way through for the first time.  I spent a lot of time listening and re-listening to “Smells Like Teen Spirit.”  It made me think about “Twelve,” the 2007 album of 12 cover songs performed by the great poet/singer/songwriter/artist Patti Smith.  I played Patti's “Smells Like Teen Spirit” and her cover of “Are You Experienced” for a young visitor in my house.  At the end of “Smells Like Teen Spirit” Patti recites a piece of her poetry, which fits in so alarmingly well it's hard to believe that Cobain didn't intend for it to be there all along.  And “Are You Experienced” somehow manages to walk that line between straight cover and totally original interpretation.

Houses Of The Holy

I’ve listened to Led Zeppelin almost as long as I’ve listened to music. In junior high, I listened to “Stairway to Heaven” before school literally every day for a year. Admittedly, I don’t put much Zeppelin in my playlists these days, but I’ve recently rediscovered Houses of the Holy, the band’s 5^th studio album. Released in 1973, it was the group’s first all-original disk, and I’ve been listening to it in bits and pieces for the last couple of weeks. I spent the long hurricane weekend re-learning “The Rain Song” on guitar, and I’m currently using “The Crunge” as my alarm tone. These two songs, one orchestral and performed in an idiosyncratic open tuning and the other a simple-sounding, whitebread funk frolic, highlight both the album’s variety and the band’s experimentation with genre. If you’re not a Zeppelin fan, try Houses of the Holy to get a sense of the group at its creative peak. If you’re like me, an avid listener who fell from grace a decade or so ago, try coming back to the band through Houses of the Holy. It’s a classic that shouldn’t be overlooked.

Ramones: Road To Ruin

Road to Ruin shows a more "classic" pop sound as well as a shift to a more serious personality to the music, a theme that would remain in later albums, most notably the band's fifth album End of the Century (1980). The influence of 1960s girl groups is evident, as well as the influence of The Byrds on tracks including "Don't Come Close" and the cover of "Needles and Pins," originally by Jackie DeShannon and later a hit for The Searchers.