I can only vaguely remember the day 30 years ago when John Lennon was shot, which is probably a good thing (I was 8 and had yet to learn how much the world can suck). I still vivdly remember my first time at Curtiss A's annual tribute to Lennon at First Avenue, though. It's the first time a concert that lasted 3-plus hours breezed by so quickly. It might've been the first 40-song-plus concert where I knew every single song, even if I didn't know I knew them all. And it was the first time I had heard a lot of those Beatles classics performed on stage -- not "Come Together" or "A Little Help From My Friends," mind you, but the weirder nuggets I grew to love by my teens, including "Happiness Is a Warm Gun," "Everybody's Got Something to Hide Except for Me & My Monkey." Here's a lo-fi clip below of Mr. A and his masterful troupe performing another of those odd masterpieces that Lennon himself never got around to performing on stage, plus one he did.
Tonight's show should kick off around 7:30. Curt & Co. will take a break mid-show, and Communist Daughter and Total Babe will come on to promote their excellent tracks on the exceptional new charity CD, "Minnesota Beatle Project, Vol. 2," which closes with Curtiss leading an orchestral version of "Good Night." It's gonna be a very good night.
