Tom Nousaine'a latest pop music adventures.

As I get older I have to reflect on life. One of my most profound musical disappointments was K.D. Lang with the DSO at Orchestra Hall late in June. The show (seats 9 and 11 row H) started fine.... the DSO did a 25 minute set of nicely non-aggressive music and then K. D. appeared. She had a microphone in her face and was fronted by a standard pop-music group (two guitars, bass, and drums) presented to the audience with stacks of PA speakers to the left and right of the stage.

So far so good; but then her voice was delivered over a monitor sent from Hell--steely, boxy, and heavily colored. So much so that I couldn't stop hearing the sound of the speaker. It wasn't until the encore that I was finally able to disregard the sound of the speaker for just a heartbeat.... but that may have been because she was finally singing with enough power to overcome the PA system.

Part of the problem was that K.D. didn't really get in to the performance until the obviously planned encore ("Three Cigarettes in an Ashtray; Patsy Cline.) For example she milked Roy Orbison's "Crying" instead of letting her voice go. What a disappointment to pay nearly $60 each for these tickets six months in advance and still got a horrible PA delivery of the best voice in popular music in an acoustically great hall. On the other hand, it was true that hearing protection was not needed.

So what was next? My 4th attendance at the 16th annual Bayfront Blues Festival at Duluth Minnesota. This year the big names were Little Richard, Gary US Bonds, and Koko Taylor plus 32 other acts spread out over 3_days. Let's get to the bottom line first. Koko Taylor was a bust. She looked like she had lost 50 to 100 pounds (good) but her show was a flop. Missed notes, missed screams, grunts and those things that blues Mommas are noted for.

Little Richard explained that he was going to be 72 in December and put on a short but spirited show. My salesman at Full Compass told men on the phone that his girlfriend is a flight attendant in Minneapolis and Little Richard now travels through the airport in a wheelchair, being quite accomplished at 'directing' the people who ...