LOU REED - New York City - Tuesday, April 5 - @ CroBar

[Chris G]

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I realize I'm posting after the fact. If Lou comes to your town, you have to see this show. It was one of the best live shows I've ever seen. I was blown away.

I've almost... sort-of seen Lou Reed twice before... but never really seen him, I mean until last night, of course.

Almost... Sort-Of #1: I got comp tickets several years ago (8 years ago?) when he was doing a "pre-recorded before a live audience" thing for VH1 (or MTV?) at Sony studios on the West Side. As with these sort of events, they gave away 3 times more tickets than there were seats (assures a packed audience). Myself and two co-workers went together. We made it in with the last group, but there were not enough seats. We could see part of the first song from our position in the hallway, but were then ushered into a room next to the main studio where were watched it on big screen projection TVs while we heard the crowd cheering through the wall from the room next door... pretty lame.

Almost... Sort-Of #2: I went to see David Bowie's 50th birthday show at Madison Square Garden about 6 or 7 years ago. There were a lot of guest appearances (Robert Smith, Sonic Youth, Peter Frampton... I cannot remember them all at the moment), but right there in the middle of the concert, Lou Reed came out and performed about 3 songs. Bowie left the stage for Lou! All the other bands and musicians just joined Bowie on stage for a song or two, but Lou was the only performer that performed his own material (it was unannounced), and Bowie let Lou have the whole stage to himself. He had a big red guitar.

But enough of that. Last night was unbelievable, but also very sad. My wife had a very bad Asthma attack, and was not able to go. She told me to go without her. I had an hour to try to find a friend to give the other ticket away to. Everyone I called was either not home, too far away to make it back into the city in time for the show, or had to work late, or had some other obligation that they could not get out of... so I went alone. During the show I called a good friend of mine who had to work late at a photo-shoot, and I held my cell phone up in the air to leave part of a song on his answering machine.

So I have one unused ticket for the scrapbook.


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