Date: Fri 26-Dec-1997

Publication: Bee

Author: SHANNON

Quick Words:

Road-INXS-Tydes-Clancy-Crowley

Full Text:

ON THE ROAD/SHANNON HICKS

Before I get into the big project of the week - releasing the annual

best/worst compilation - two bits of news concerning local musical

performances this weekend.

On Friday, MIND TYDES will be performing its second acoustic show at Olde

Newtown Tavern, on Route 25 in Newtown. The show will be getting underway

around 10 or so.

On Sunday night (Dec 28), LISA ST. ANN, along with her Fabulous Band, will be

opening the JEFFREY GAINES show at Tuxedo Junction. Among the members of The

Fabulous Band are Newtowners John Clancy and Paul Crowley.

Tickets for the show are $12. There will be a canned/non-perishable food drive

going on at the club that night, but Tuxedo Junction says it is not mandatory

to bring a donation to get into the show (although it would be nice...). Doors

open at 7, St. Ann is scheduled to begin her set around 8, and Gaines will be

taking the stage at 9 or so.

OK, so here we go. The final "On The Road" for the year, and you know what

that means. In no particular order, the Top Ten Best and Worst Things of 1997.

Try to keep up.

TEN THINGS TO ALWAYS KEEP IN MIND WHEN RECALLING 1997

(1) INXS' return to a CT stage (September 22, Oakdale Theatre, Wallingford);

(2) In March, Grady McAuliffe, Fred Dotson, Greg McWilliam and Adam Solinas -

Newtown resident musicians, collectively better known as the band MIND TYDES -

blew away all competition and won the Radio 104 Modern Rock Wars in Hartford.

Since then, the band has released a self-produced album and continues to play

occasional dates, including the Radio 104 Fest at Riverside Amusement Park in

June and a show this Friday in Newtown;

(3) In September, perennial favorite singer-songwriter GREG BROWN released his

latest album, slant 6 mind . There is tentative talk of Brown returning to the

area - quite possibly right back into Newtown - in early 1998;

(4) While in the new albums vein, there was also the release of SARAH

McLACHLAN's Surfacing ; Elegantly Wasted , by INXS; and the debut on a major

record label for former Newtownie Angelo Gianni. Angelo's band, TREADMILL

TRACKSTAR, released only this on Atlantic's Breaking Records label in

November;

(5) July 29: the King Parrot Head, JIMMY BUFFETT returned to Hartford's

Meadows Music Theatre for a third straight summer, and an equal number of

consecutive sellout performances at the venue. So far, Buffett holds the

record for Meadows performances-to-sold-out show ratio, hands down;

(6) Momentous anniversaries: the 100th anniversary of the publication of Bram

Stoker's Dracula , Jell-O (which released its newest flavor, champagne, to

commemorate the occasion), and Campbell's Soup; the 90th anniversary of

Hershey's Kisses; the 50th anniversary of Polaroid cameras; and the 40th

anniversary of pink plastic lawn flamingos;

(7) August 1: the first of two excellent concerts by LIVE in Connecticut this

year, the first one (Aug 1) at The Meadows Music Theatre in Hartford; the

second was November 14 at New Haven Coliseum. Speaking of repeat concert

performances that were not to be missed, there was the second show in less

than six months by SMASHING PUMPKINS, in January at the Hartford Civic Center,

and the third excellent concert by BUSH in less than a year, in April at the

New Haven Coliseum;

(8) The demise of two of the dumbest shows ever to pass the go-ahead board:

"Married... with Children" and "Beavis and Butthead" are no longer sprouting

new episodes;

(9) THE LILITH FAIR. The brainchild of singer SARAH McLACHLAN, the fair - "a

celebration of the fair er sex" - celebrated its first year of a full tour.

Two months of touring North America. 61 female singer-songwriters (all acts

were solo performers, or groups with female lead singers). All dates performed

for capacity or near capacity crowds. New York Times labeled Lilith the most

successful package tour of the summer. The tour visited Connecticut July 24

with a mainstage line-up of performances by McLachlan, TRACY CHAPMAN, PAULA

COLE and FIONA APPLE;

(10) Ms MADELEINE ALBRIGHT, this country's first female Secretary of State;

and because we always like to end the year with more positive things than

negative things to remember, (11) Danielly Belly turned one!

Who says 1997 went by without so much as a wink?!

TEN THAT MADE 1997 A TOUGH YEAR

(1) MICHAEL HUTCHENCE, PRINCESS DIANA, JOHN DENVER, JIMMY STEWART, and

everyone else we lost this year;

(2) THE SPICE GIRLS;

(3) Not only did GORDON FRASER, a tradition in Newtown for over two decades,

close its doors when Hallmark Cards decided to market all Gordon Fraser

products under the Hallmark Cards Ltd. name, but the Main Street South store

closed up shop 2« weeks before it was originally expected to;

(4) PAULA COLE, fresh from her successful run as a mainstage performer on the

summer's Lilith Fair, had to postpone a November 30 solo performance at Toad's

Place. (The good news is, it's already been rescheduled for February.);

(5) The ridiculous Ebonics debate;

(6) We had to learn a lot more about Marv Albert than anyone wanted to!;

(7) THE COMMITMENTS' show at Tuxedo Junction, March 12. As usual the show was

hyped (by promoters, not necessarily the club itself) as The Commitments, as

in the original band members seen on the big screen in the film from which the

band takes its name. Hardly. Not only is the band down to seven performers,

only three are from the 1991 film. Good show, but a lousy way to draw a crowd;

(8) The 1998 concert season is getting off to a very slow start (aside from

Paula Cole's make-up date at Toad's Place and a January concert by AEROSMITH

at the New Haven Coliseum, no major concert announcements have been made yet);

(9) From music to fashion, the continuation of this awful 80s Revival;

and (10) after all this time, Newtown still doesn't have its public library

back yet!

Until next year, I'll be seeing you... on the road.