Where have all the rockers gone? We found some!

Melissa Etheridge and Sheryl Crow came to Wellington last night, and @kiwideb and @andysantics48 were there with bells on, and half a dozen girlfriends.

Where have all the rockers gone?
Long time passing.
Where have all the rockers gone?
Long time ago

@sift666 often complains that there’s no music any more and I always argue with him, because I’m like that. There’s lots of new music; vast numbers of albums every year! But then he finally clarified his position to the lack of rock music. That shut me up. We’ve looked and we can’t find any recent rock music. If you have found some, please enlighten us!

After a few decades of awesome rock music, has rock died?

Two middle aged women
Came to Welly to rock out
An arena full of women
Exploded with a shout

OK, to be honest, that was a bit of poetic license. Although there were hordes of middle aged women there, many in comfortable shoes, there were also plenty of younger women and a decent amount of men of all ages. I swear the granddad head banging right in front of me was pushing 65.

Sheryl Crow

I’m not terribly familiar with Sheryl Crow, but it didn’t matter that I only knew a couple of the songs. The show was polished and she rocked! As well as singing and playing guitar, she played keyboards and harmonica at times.

Here she is with “If It Makes You Happy” in Sydney, Australia just before crossing the ditch to NZ:

She talked a little as well about how she put out a Greatest Hits in 2002, and thought that was her retirement album. It didn’t quite work out that way, and the reason she is on tour again, as a middle aged woman (her words), is that she wants to encourage girls to play guitar. She also talked about how nice it was to be in the comparative peace of New Zealand, and how much she and her boys had enjoyed visiting the Weta workshops that day.

But good as Sheryl was, when Melissa Etheridge came out, she blew her out of the park. That woman has more rock in her little fingernail than an entire generation of modern musicians.

Music through the generations

That’s not to disparage the fine musicians and songwriters here on Steemit, of many different genres. But are any of you rock? If you are, please wave your hands in the air, like you just don’t care, and I’ll be over to visit.

But seriously, folks, are there any rock musicians under 40? Do Millenials and Centennials even like to rock out? I’m not just being provocative here, I’m genuinely interested in how forms of music have changed over the last 20-30 years.

I think I like quite a wide range of music, so there IS music from this century that I like. But there’s nothing that beats a good session of rocking out, head banging and singing at the top of your lungs. As far as I can tell, Millenials and Centennials are not into it, and that kind of debauched behaviour is something they just have to put up with from those embarrassing old dinosaurs they call their parents.

EDIT: Here's a photo of said dinosaurs - 6 girlfriends, me at the back and a glimpse of Andy over my right shoulder.

Anyway, getting back to Melissa

Although she’s best known for her smoky voice, until I saw her in concert last time she was in Wellington, I didn’t realise what an accomplished musician she is. She blew me away.

She didn’t disappoint this time, either. At the start of her set, she strolled onto the stage, sat down at the drum kit and proceeded to belt out an impressive drum solo. The drummer came and joined in and they drummed together for a couple of bars before she left him to it. Most of the songs included an awesome guitar solo from her, and one had a harmonica solo. The encore included a more extended drum duet. Holy moly, is that woman talented!

Here’s her doing “Bring Me Some Water” in Auckland, three days before the Wellington show:

And “I Want to Come Over” from the Hamilton gig, two days before Wellington:

My knees had only just recovered from rocking out on Saturday (and I promise I will post about that next, just need to sort photos), so they weren’t best pleased with me today!

But boy, it was worth it!

Thanks for reading and listening

Top picture taken by @andysantics48 on @kiwideb’s Samsung Galaxy cell phone. 2nd Pic by Tia, from her FB. Videos from Youtube.

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