I can’t believe it! It’s only 2 AM and I’m exhausted already, so we’re gonna basically go right to the live picks, but before we do, I just wanna say, The Supersuckers were good, but I’ve seen them better, and John Waters, as promised, was hilarious! If you like edgy comedy, John’s your man! Every minute was thoroughly enjoyable!

Eddie Spaghetti and the SuperSuckers. Photo by C3 Photography Catharina Christiana

And now to the picks.

Wednesday, December 5 – THE WHO at Madison Square Garden and LUCINDA WILLIAMS at The Beacon Theater with STEVE EARLE, SHAWN COLVIN, SHELBY LYNNE, and AMOS LEE. Two smaller, but no less in musical stature, shows tonight are the great guitarist, ARLEN ROTH at The Iridium, and the great singer and songwriter, BILLY JOE SHAVER, at Hill Country Barbecue, both in Manhattan.
Thursday, December 6 – THE WHO at The Pru! The Prudential Center in Newark, that is! TOOTS AND THE MAYTALS celebrate Toots’ 70^th birthday at The Capitol Theatre in Port Chester, and CHAD SMITH’S BOMBASTIC MEATBALLS are at The Iridium. Chad Smith is the drummer for The Red Hot Chili Peppers, but what is a bombastic meatball?
Friday, December 7 – Big show at The Bearsville Theater in Woodstock – STEVE KIMOCK with P-Funk founding member and Talking Heads member BERNIE WORRELL! Pick of he Week! Also country blues genius, RORY BLOCK at The Towne Crier in Pauling.
Saturday, December 8 – The night we’ve all been waiting for – THE ROLLING STONES at The Barclay Center in Brooklyn! If you can’t snag a ticket, console yourself with TROMBONE SHORTY AND ORLEANS AVENUE at Terminal 5 in Manhattan! Regular readers of this column know how I feel about Trombone Shorty, so this has to be a Pick of the Week! And if you’re upstate, check out THE WOODSTOCK EXPERIENCE at The Bearsville Theater for a bit of nostalgia.
Saturday, December 9 – The only game in town tonight is DARLENE LOVE at BB King’s in Manhattan.
Sunday, December 10 – SMASHING PUMPKINS at The Barclay Center!
Monday, December 11 – Great line up of the rockin’THE DEL LORDS, Americana songbird, LAURA CANTRELL, Country satirist, TAMMY FAYE STARLITE, who has to be seen to be believed, and four more bands! At The Rock Shop in Brooklyn.
Tuesday, December 12 – Fabulous Rap/Reggae/ RnB concert at The Barclay Center with UB40, MAXI PRIEST, and SHAGGY, but the big show tonight is The 12-12-12 CONCERT FOR HURRICANE SANDY RELIEF with SPRINGSTEEN, MCCARTNEY, THE WHO, DAVE GROHL, EDDIE VEDDER, ROGER WATERS, BILLIE JOEL, JON BON JOVI, ALICIA KEYS, and KANYE WEST, with more artists to be added! We really can’t let this one go by without making it a Pick of the Week!
Wednesday, December 13 – Huge night for music! THE ROLLING STONES play their first show at The Pru Center (with the second show scheduled for next week, on December 15^th), THE RASCALS start a three day run at The Capitol Theatre(continuing on the 14^th and 15^th), and, for my last Pick of the Week, we have LUCKY PETERSON’S TWO DAY TEXAS BARBECUE BASH with THE JONNY MONSTER BAND opening! This will be great!

What a week! Of course, The Stones and The Who are picks of the week, but then, everybody knows that! What you might not know is that the Lucinda, Billy Joe Shaver, and Toots’ shows will be pretty damn great too! And I’m pretty darn sure you don’t know that The Del Lords’ show at The Rock Shop will be awesome! All of the above get an honorable mention. You can’t go wrong with any of them! Or any of the other shows this week! This is one of the strongest weeks for music in recent memory! Enjoy it!

Good night, and have a great week!

Fred Perry is the owner of Reservoir Music Center on Route 28 in Kingston, and founding member of Alt-Country supergroup, The Brooklyn Cowboys, is from a 3rd generation musical family and lives in the Hudson Valley, where he does what he can to promote live music.