1 post tagged “johnette napolitano”

Which band or artist which is no longer performing or alive would you have loved to have seen?
Submitted by Rev Stan.

Concrete Blonde - Someday

Sometime during my sophomore year of high school that I first saw the video for Concrete Blonde's "Joey" video; some short time after that I had my first Concrete Blonde CD and was hanging around the used record shop trying to find their first two CDs.

Over the years I have managed to pick up every Blonde CD, most of the side-projects, various singles and videos, as well as tracking down the occasional interview to read or listen to or watch, but I never managed to make it to a single live show.

It's funny, really, because I have had a rock star crush on Johnette Napolitano since first seeing the video for "Still in Hollywood".  And, even to this day, she stands out as one of the best lyricists and vocalists I have ever heard.  And I really like the Southwestern angle her music has taken over the past decade of her career.  And I still have every Concrete Blonde CD in my collection; Still in Hollywood still ranks as one of my favorite discs ever printed; the live version of "Tomorrow Wendy" and the alternate version of "Still in Hollywood", called "It'll Chew You Up and Spit You Out" are never far from any playlist I put together.

And I love going to live shows.

But it was one of those things that became a sick joke after a while.  Concrete Blonde played in a town I had just been in or the club they were playing was 21 and up or they showed up in my town while I was on vacation elsewhere or, or, or...

Last year, Johnette posted a note that said Concrete Blonde was officially and finally retired.  This has happened once before so there may still be hope for a reunion, but things do not look good for that at this point and it is even less likely that they would play Japan in any case.  So, it looks like I have missed my chance, and that is something I truly wish were different.