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Mini-concert update: Marco Antonio Solis/Pepe Aguilar at El Coliseo

Two top Mexican music artists — Latin AC star Marco Antonio Solis and his sultry voice and the more traditional ranchera singer Pepe Aguilar — team up for a limited late summer tour that will bring "Dos Idolos" to the Coliseum on Aug. 22.

Tickets are $49.50-$89.50, on sale at 10 a.m. May 29 at the box office, Ticketmaster outlets, ticketmaster.com and 800.745.3000.

Concert review: B.B. King talks (a lot) about love, ladies and the end of the road

I think the last time I reviewed a B.B. King concert was a couple of years ago in Michigan. My lead paragraph read something like, "Suppose they gave a B.B. King concert and a comedy show broke out."

That's pretty much it in a nutshell these days. At 83, B.B. King can do pretty much whatever he wants when he takes the stage these days. And talking is what he likes to do.

He talked a lot Wednesday night at the Plaza Theatre. He probably spent half of the two hours he was onstage chatting up the crowd, an unusually long show for the chair-straddling blues legend who typically plays about 90 minutes.

Obviously, the King of the Blues was having fun.

Even after he'd finished playing, the king held court from center stage, tossing out guitar picks and trinkets almost as fast as his two aides, who stood on either side of him, could fish them out of their pockets. He signed autographs, shook hands. Probably would have kissed a few babies — or at least some of the babes he occasionally singled out — if he could have reached them.

At this stage of the game, the man they call B.B. is on his version of Bob Dylan's "Neverending Tour," only his is more like a neverending victory lap. And as his next birthday approaches (he'll have a lot of candles to blow out on Sept. 16) it's obvious that death, reflection and learning to enjoy the life he has left are on his mind.

Music? Well, he hasn't totally given up on that either; it's just half of what he does onstage these days, his crack eight-piece band at the ready and fodder for his constant but good-hearted derision (King often threatened to "cut" one of them if he didn't stay in line).

Many of the 11 songs he performed touched on the topic of moving on, from the "you only live once" sentiment of a rollicking "Let the Good Times Roll" to Big Bill Broonzy's "Key to the Highway" and its demand that a woman "give me one more kiss, I won't be back no more" to the more blatant "See That My Grave Is Kept Clean," the Blind Lemon Jefferson song (which provided the title of King's 2008 album "One Kind Favor") about a man planning his funeral.

It wasn't like he was being morbid. If anything, King was jovial, jokey and very chatty Wednesday night, thus the longer than normal running time. But it's only natural that a man his age, who struggles with diabetes, has the inevitable on his mind.

He joked about retirement, too — King is going back to Europe this summer after a farewell tour there three years ago. Chance encounters with people who recognize him inevitably turn to the subject. "They say, 'You 83. Why don't you go home,'" he said. "I think about it, then I think, 'He don't know if I got a home to go to.'"

Well, he does. It's called a tour bus. It's obvious there's nothing he'd rather do, or can do at this point, than to entertain his fans. There were about 1,200 of them last night, not bad considering it was King's third show at the Plaza in less than three years.

When he wasn't discussing the merits of fishing with a cane pole, telling the guys how to treat their women, deriding modern blues players and rappers for misogynistic lyrics and singing the praises of women (one of his real weaknesses when he was a younger man), King actually played some music.

He was a little hoarse at first, blaming a "frog in my throat" while noting he was sucking on a throat lozenge. Lucille was sounded a little more blustery than normal, and a smidge out of tune, in the early-going, which, coupled with an uneven sound mix that favored the horns over King's voice and guitar, made for some rough sailing early on.

But King, the band and the sound mixer hit stride about halfway through, sparing the Vegas-style mugging and asides from a sincere and somewhat foreboding "See That My Grave Is Kept Clean," the highpoint of the night.

He followed with a truncated "When Loves Comes to Town," the song he wrote and recorded with U2. He sang the first verse, then let the band take flight, conjuring up some sweet, tonally vintage B.B. lead guitar work, which often worked in call-response lockstep with the crackling four-piece horn section.

I had hoped he would stay on that groove for the rest of the night, but King's gift for gab took over again after that, including a lengthy discourse before and during "You Are My Sunshine" that pretty much killed whatever momentum the set had established before that.

But that's OK. This is B.B. King we're talking about. We don't know how much longer he can keep doing this. We don't know if this will be the last time he plays El Paso. We're just happy to have another chance to see the man who once ruled the blues world, and still reigns over it like a benevolent papa bear.

 

Put it this way, when he asked the crowd, "Should fate allow me to come back again, may I?,' the crowd responded with a resounding affirmative. That's what a B.B. King concert is about these days, appreciating one of the last of the living Delta bluesmen.

    

Footnote: Due to an earlier assignment, I got to the theater after King's band came on for its 15-minute warmup. Rather than disrupt the folks already enjoying the show near my assigned seat closer to the stage, I opted to sit toward the back of the floor area, where a loud, rude, disruptive lout of a woman and her obnoxious partner created a lot of unnecessary distraction for the people around them. People near them scattered into other empty seats.

The buttheads eventually moved a few rows in front of me and proceeded to talk loudly, not so loud that I could hear what they were saying, but loud enough that I could hear they weren't paying attention to the show, prompting one woman, whose husband had some kind of physical disability that required crutches, to ask them to quiet down.

They did, for a short while, then the idiot woman got up and made a caustic remark as she passed the hapless couple in the row in front of her. She made more comments once she was returned. Security was summoned and stood a few feet away from the loudmouths. The offending couple eventually walked out, blabbing and complaining all the way.

You watch. They'll tell their friends about how poorly they were treated by security, which was very restrained. I can't stand people who aren't considerate of others, especially in a setting like that. Why go see someone like B.B. King if you're not going to pay attention? Idiots! They should have stayed at the bar. Thanks for ruining it for the people who wanted to watch a legend, not a couple of selfish buffoons.

         

Mini-concert update: Music Under the Stars acts announced

Finally, the city has gotten around to announcing the lineup for this year's Music Under the Stars free concert series at the Chamizal National Memorial. The job fell to Victor Guerrero this year — marketing director for the city's Museums and Cultural Affairs Department — and he said it just took a little longer to piece it all together.

Here's the schedule, released today:

June 14 — Sobredosis del Sabor (salsa)

June 21 — Davis and Dow (jazz)

June 28 — Texas Alibi (country)

July 4 — 4th of July Fireworks Spectacular with the El Paso Symphony Orchestra

July 12 — Del Castillo (Latin rock)

July 19 — Kiss Mania (tribute band)

July 26 — Lascivious Biddies (lounge pop)

Aug. 2 — Border Roots (reggae)

Aug. 9 — Windy City (Chicago tribute band)

Aug. 16 — Noche Ranchera with Mariachi Tapatio and the El Paso Youth Symphony Orchestra

All concerts are free and will be at 7:30 p.m. Call the MCAD at 541-4942 with questions.

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Mini-concert update: 3 Doors Down

3 Doors Down, the Mississippi rockers and friends to the military who gave us "Kryptonite" and "When I'm Gone," will play the Chavez Theatre at 7:30 p.m. June 30.

Tickets are $48 and go on sale at 10 a.m. May 30 (Saturday) at the Plaza Theatre box office, Ticketmaster outlets, ticketmaster.com and 800.745.3000. Fan club presale begins May 28, according to their Web site, 3doorsdown.com.

Concert update: Akon, Koz, Kowalczyk, Alacranes Musical, Reik and more

Ticketmaster's Web site is listing an Akon show at 8 p.m. July 10 at the Don Haskins Center.

Power 102, fresh off another successful Power Jam at Wet 'n' Wild Waterworld, is expected to announce the show Tuesday morning.

Ticketmaster's listing at 10 a.m. May 30 on-sale, with tickets ranging from $20.50 to $50.50.

The in-demand singer, songwriter and rapper has been a featured collaborator on dozens of other people's hits, and has scored several major hits of his own, including breakthrough single "Lock Up" from his 2004 debut album, and a string of hits from 2007's "Konvict," including "Don't Matter," one of those rare hits that crossed over onto several radio formats.

Tickets will be available at the UTEP Ticket Center, Ticketmaster outlets, ticketmaster.com and 800.745.3000.

In other concert news:

• Look for the return of smooth jazz man Dave Koz at 6 p.m. July 26 at the Plaza Theatre, which has become like a second home to the California sax player. He'll be joined on this year's summer tour  by slick R&B crooner Peabo Bryson and pianist Brian Culbertson. Tickets will range from $40-$100, according to the Ticketmaster site, and will go on sale June 6. You might not want to wait around if you're thinking of going. Koz routinely sells out the 2,000-seat movie palace.

• Thanks to reader Rosie for telling me the acoustic show by Live's Ed Kowalczyk on May 28 at Diggs Tavern had been postponed. She was told the new date will be in mid-June, but a call to someone close to the singer, who asked not to be identified, confirmed the Diggs date had been postponed but revealed a to-be-determined makeup date in July. Kowalczyk's lining up some solo acoustic dates between gigs with Live.

• The Coliseum has lined up two very different Spanish-language acts for next month. Chicago's Alacranes Musical (Musical Scorpions) bring their duranguense sounds (a hyped up mix of banda and norteno) to the old arena at 8 p.m. June 16. Tickets are $31.95.

Former Latin Grammy Best New Artist nominees Reik bring their brand of Mexican pop-rock to the Barn at 8 p.m. June 18. Tickets range from $40 to $50.

Tickets for both shows are on sale at the box office, Ticketmaster outlets, ticketmaster.com and 800.745.3000.

• I've never quite understood the attraction of tribute bands. I guess they're a cheap substitute for the real thing. I'm especially wary of anyone who attempts to imitate the Beatles or Rolling Stones, but one of the better faux Fab Four bands, Rain, was here earlier this month and drew a big crowd to the Plaza Theatre. Stones' imitators Satisfaction: A Rolling Stones Experience will play, fittingly, on the rocks of McKelligon Canyon Amphitheater at 7 p.m. June 14. Tickets are $22, on sale at the Plaza Theatre box office, Ticketmaster outlets, ticketmaster.com and 800.745.3000.

• Nashville rockers Safetysuit play Diggs at 9 p.m. June 19. Ticktets are $10 at ticketbully.com.

* Pollstar's listing a couple of interesting shows coming to Las Cruces: Los Lobos Sept. 26 at the Enchilada Festival; and the Eli Young Band (who've got their first country Top 10 hit with "Always the Love Songs") are scheduled to play the Southern New Mexico State Fair Oct. 2 at the Dona Ana County Fairgrounds. No ticket info on either yet.

• With the 24th annual Balloonfest behind it, expect KLAQ to announce ticket details this week for the Downtown Street Festival, which will featured Candlebox and Trapt on July 3 and The Cult, Over the Rainbow and Lacuna Coil on July 4. Tickets will go on sale in early June.

• The city's Museums and Cultural Affairs Dept. will announce this year's Music Under the Stars series on May 27. We already know the El Paso Symphony will headline its annual Fourth of July fireworks extravaganza and Austin's Del Castillo will be there July 12.

Jacko going wacko again?

Did you hear that Michael Jackson has postponed the first four shows of his 50-date "This is It" concert residency this summer in London?

Are you surprised?

Why would you be?

There's been a huge amount of skepticism (present company included) that these shows will ever come off. The post-"Thriller" Jackson has been too obsessed with topping sales figures, his and others (among other things), than making the kind of good music or putting on the kind of show that showcase his abilities as a singer, dancer and entertainer. The ones I've seen were robotic spectacles, not engaging performances.

Promoter AEG Live announced the postponement today on michaeljackson.com. The July 8 show moves back to July 13 (the new opening date), with the July 10, 12 and 14 shows pushed back to March. He's scheduled to play shows in July, August, September, January, February and now March.

AEG personnel, quoted on his web site, cited the production's ongoing evolution and scale for the delays, noting the postponements were needed "in order to meet the challenges presented by such a massive and technically complex show."

 I don't doubt that Jackson's trying to come up with the biggest concert spectacle ever, but I can't help but think that he'll get cold feet and call the whole thing off. I hope not. I'd like to see him restore some of his badly self-tarnished legacy.

Concert update: YYYs coming!, Corsten, Wheel, Dunham and more

The Yeah Yeah Yeahs are coming!

The trendy NYC rockers, who cut the bulk of new album "It's Bliss" at Tony Rancich's Sonic Ranch studios in Tornillo last year, will play Club 101 on June 10, their last stop before the Bonnaroo festival in Tennessee.

It's a 7:30 p.m. show with a 6:30 door, openers to be announced.

Tickets are cheap — $25 — and go on sale at 10 a.m. May 21 at  ticketbully.com.

The rustic, rural Tornillo setting apparently inspired Karen O and the group, who shifted away from their quirky club rock sound to a more retro, '80s-synth disco sound on much of the new album.

This marks, by the way, the third time a major act that recorded at Sonic Ranch will perform here within the past year. Mudvayne, who cut an as yet unreleased album there last summer, kicked off their fall tour at the Coliseum on Oct. 28 last year. Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band, who recorded their new "Outer South" album there late last fall, headlined a benefit here on April 13.

In other concert news:

• SMG Events is bringing superstar Dutch DJ Ferry Corsten to the new Karma Nightclub (in the old Studio 69, 524 San Francisco) for a Memorial Day Weekend performance at 8 p.m. May 24. Corsten, considered one of the better trance DJs in the world, is touting his new album, "Twice in a Blue Moon." tickets are $10, $150 and $20 at groovetickets.com or $20 at All That Music & Video and the Headstand.

• One of my favorite concert memories was watching Asleep at the Wheel, circa late '70s, doing their Western swing thing, including double fiddles, at the old Anthony Gap (saw John Lee Hooker there, too). The Wheel's put on a lot of miles and gone through a ton of members since then, but head Wheel Ray Benson's commitment to country and Western swing remain unshakeable. The group's booked a June 26 show at Whiskey Dicks, a great place to see them. The dance floor will fill up. Tickets are $15 at ticketbully.com.

• Speaking of Texas country, the State Line's free concert series has confirmed four more shows: Whiskey Myers on June 10, Micky & the Motorcars on July 22, the Derailers on Aug. 19 and Del Castillo to close things out on Aug. 26 (they also play the Music Under the Stars series at the Chamizal on July 12). They all start at 8 p.m. Doug Moreland's there tonight (May 20), followed by Aaron Watson, who's cutting a new live album in Waco next month, on May 27, Zack Walther & the Cronkites (June 17), Cory Morrow (June 24), Stoney LaRue (July 1) and Band of Heathens (July 15).

• Comedian Jeff Dunham, who tried out his Comedy Central Christmas show on us last summer, is headed to the Pan Am Center on Sept. 2. Tickets go on sale June 1. No prices have been announced yet.

• KLAQ has added Trapt (July 3), Over the Rainbow (July 4) and Lacuna Coil (July 4) to this summer's Downtown Street Festival. Trapt originally was scheduled to play this weekend's Balloonfest, but postponed when singer Chris Taylor Brown had throat surgery. They'll open for Candlebox. Over the Rainbow, fronted by former Rainbow singer Joe Lynn Turner, and Lacuna Coil open for the Cult. Ticket prices and the on-sale date will be announced after the Balloonfest.

• Brass players from the El Paso, Juarez and Las Cruces symphonies will give a benefit concert at 7:30 p.m. May 29 in honor of the late Jorge Avendano, a musician and educator who died Nov. 30, 2007. the concert is free and will be in the Fox Fine Arts Recital Hall at UTEP. Donations will be accepted for his favorite charity, the Casa Hogar Bethel Orphanage in Juarez.

Sleepercar added to Wilco bill

Well, this seems like a no-brainer.

El Paso roots-rockers Sleepercar will open for Wilco June 17 at the Chavez Theatre.

This makes sense on a couple of levels. One, their musical styles are complimentary, and a show like this is a good showcase for the local boys, who are likely to play to more than a few folks who'll travel in from the region to see the show.

And given Sleepercar frontman Jim Ward's new My Town blog on the El Paso Convention and Visitors Bureau web site (they run the Chavez Theatre), it's a good bit of synchronicity.

Tickets for the show are $23.50 and $28.50, on sale at the Plaza Theatre box office, Ticketmaster outlets, ticketmaster.com and 800.745.3000.

Chamizal blues/jazz festival gets off to good (if windy) start

Day one of the first Chamizal Blues & Jazz Festival was a sunny success, though organizer Jim Murphy admits he wasn't so sure when the 5 p.m. Saturday start time rolled around and hardly anyone was there.

Not to worry. By the time soul man Johnny Rawls finished his set around 8 p.m., there were more than 3,500 people scattered around the amphitheater at the Chamizal National Memorial, where tonight's jazz half of the festival just got underway (Mike Hamilton closes it out tonight).

Rawls had plenty of people up on the concrete slab-turned-dance floor in front of the stage on a crisp if windy Saturday night. It was dark, windier and cooler by the time three-time Handy Award blues band of the year winners Rod Piazza and the Mighty Flyers took the stage to close out the first day.

Talk about a tough setting. This is a band best suited to small, intimate environments, not large, spread out grassy areas where crowd members are scattered around, not concentrated in one area. But the Flyers accepted the challenge, whipping up the kind of howling, honking, scintillating Chicago-meets-West Coast blues that has made them such a popular club fixture for more than 20 years.

Led by Piazza, whose harmonica prowess is legendary in blues circles, the bass-less group played with a club-like intensity that quickly won over the crowd, some of which gathered in front of the stage as the rest of their ranks, many donning blankets and jackets, began to thin out early.

Musicianship is the key to this band, weather it's Piazza's tradition-rich blowing, wife Honey Piazza's honky-tonk-fueled piano work, Henry Carvajal's blustery guitar work or the sharp, precise stick work of drummer David Kida. Sure, it would have been better to seem them in a more intimate (and less windy) setting, but they tore it up anyway.

And it was a good, if less-than-ideal weather-wise way to get the first of what I hope will become an annual festival off the ground. Murphy said going in that he was hoping to get up to 5,000 over the two-night festival and it looks like he'll at least get that. Considering the first-time event doesn't have the budget or the promotional muscle of city-run events there like Music Under the Stars, I'd say that's a pretty impressive start.

Review: Cheech and Chong's stoner nostalgia more miss than hit

Cheech and Chong invented stoner comedy and stoner movies. Now they've invented stoner nostalgia.

Their ongoing "Light Up America" tour, which came to the Chavez Theatre on Friday, their first performance here since the early '70s, is a hazy stroll down a cloudy-memory lane, replete with pantomimed super-sized, KY Jelly-coated joints, butt-sniffing dogs, a blues set by Blind Melon Chitlin' and dope-dealing TV game shows.

While it was a joy to see the old friends back together and obviously having fun — Chong referred to their 24-year separation as "our long nightmare" — their nearly 90-minute performance was more miss than hit (cough, cough).

"I know why we broke up," Chong said during one of his several monologues that punctuated the set. "We got rich."

And they're building up the bank accounts again. Tie-dye T-shirts were selling for 50 bucks, though they planned to donate proceeds from the $150 per couple meet-and-greets to a local food bank). Chong, who took a financial hit when he was sentenced to prison for nine months six years ago, and Marin, who emerged from a costly divorce, have been touring off and on since September, plan to release animated versions of a couple of their albums, have filmed a concert DVD and are planning a new feature film. 

They're definitely on a reunion roll. And why not? They deserve a chance to kiss and makeup, put a postscript on their 10-year heyday and cash in a bit.

But Friday's show did not come across some like crass effort for a quick buck. Like the old-school performers they are, they worked for it.

Chong, now 70, has a warm, infectious, friendly smile and looks a heck of a lot younger than you'd think. He's now the more polished performer — he never really quit doing stand-up — and he spent more time onstage than his prodigal partner.

Marin, 62, whose ties to El Paso run deep, has lost the impish swagger and righteous indignation that made his characters so funny back in their heyday. But like his comedy comrade, the smile that often crossed his rubbery face had the look of a guy who had rediscovered his sense of play.

Sure, they looked old, especially when they opened by recreating their Pedro and the Man characters in "Cruisin' with Pedro de Pacas," on which they used a couple of chairs, some video and a lot of pantomime to bring their old stoner alter-egos back to life.

Their energy intensified with "Let's Made a Dope Deal," their "Let's Make a Deal" spoof, updated with a giant bud-bearing, smoke-blowing George Bush and Chong in vintage stoner form, "doubling" his stash (which was actually being reduced by host Marin) as he successfully stumbled across the answers to a series of questions.

They looked like they were enjoying it. The raucous crowd of  2,100 people sounded like they did too (playfully booing the theater's pre-show no-smoking announcement, in English and Spanish).

The problem, however, is with the material. It's older and stiffer than the two comedians themselves. Like an aging rock band that gets its act together for old time's, and their bank account's, sake, they don't have any new material to freshen things up a bit. 

They relied solely on vintage stuff, some of which has aged worse than the headliners. There wasn't enough of the good stuff, like "Dave's Not Here" and "Basketball Jones,"  to counter the clunky stuff, like "Old Man in the Park," in which Chong's grumpy old man squares off with Cheech's beer-swilling punk.

Most of the material they're performing on this tour is the product of another, very different time. It spoke to a generation of fans who identified with the flood of cynicism that followed the Watergate scandal, not to mention the sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll mystique that was just taking root.

Their dope jokes certainly fit those counter-culture times, and the fact that two societal outsiders — one Asian, one Hispanic — made it so big gave hope to young people of all colors back then.

But some of it seems quaint and far less edgy today, like "Ralph and Herbie," in which they played a couple of dogs on all fours (Chong's looker wife Shelby, now 61 and their comic foil on that skit, had to wear knee pads). The old couple in the porno theater was more grotesque than funny — and I don't think porn theaters exist much anymore.

The musical segment didn't fare much better. Chong's blind blues-playing "Blind Melon Chitlin'" segment featured a dated, if funny song about Michael Jackson's sex life. Cheech's Red Hickey, a country-singing bumpkin, and Alice Bowie, a cartoonish reaction to the androgynous rock stars of the '70s, weren't high on redeeming comedic values.

The set, which was opened by Chong's wife Shelby, offered insights into Chong's prison sentence and a two-song encore of Marin's "Born in East L.A." and a sing-along version of the  "Up in Smoke" theme.

Stoner nostalgia indeed. Funny thing about 30-year-old pot jokes. They were a lot funnier 30 years ago.