Thursday, July 9, 2009

More "Local" News

This just in from Marlene O'Malley / Rock On Chicago regarding an Ides Of March appearance tomorrow morning:
Heads-up!
We'll be on the air with a Live Unplugged Appearance on Y103.9 FM in St.Charles, Illinois, with Jim Shea, Friday Morning, 7/10/09 at 8:00am at the Arcedium Coffee Shop / 60 Indiana Street / St Charles, Illinois
Public Invited!!
Hop in your vehicle and head on over if you're able to attend!!! (kk)

We've always tried to present BOTH sides of the story here in Forgotten Hits ... so when we received this VERY negative review about a recent performance by one of our local heroes, we felt obligated to run it, if only so that any other parties interested in catching this show could be forewarned. Remember, this isn't OUR review ... we didn't see this show ... and let's face it, ANYBODY can have a bad night ... but in the interest of objectivity, here's a report we just received from one of our long-time readers.
Hey Kent,
Just thought I'd drop a few lines regarding a couple people I saw perform Sunday evening.
We went to the Mt. Prospect Lions Club Festival to catch Ronnie Rice and Jimmy Sohns (Shadows of Knight). Ronnie gave his usual highly-entertaining performance, with his crowd participation / interaction. He's still the 'human jukebox' (a 'one man band', the wife remarked).
As for Sohns, however ... (if he's on your FH newsletter list, you might wanna omit including this in your comments) ... the guy was godawful. He should hang it up already. He sang off-key and isn't that great to begin with. He comes onstage singing "Do Wah Diddy" of all things. He's starts striking all these rock singer poses for this photographer who kept taking pics. He really thinks he's still relevant. Oh, and no band, just a lead guitarist beside him, who played along with pre-recorded music. Piped in music! I felt as though I were watching a bad rock karaoke singer. It was so bad that the wife told me to be sure to let you know how bad it was!
He and this chick dueted on Pure Prairie League's "Amie", but the mix was so loud I guess it sounded more like a bad Shadows of Knight version of the song. At least we had some good laughs during Sohn's set, if you can imagine this: dancing to the left of the stage was the one-an-only DanzMan and to stage right some drunk guy stagger-danced, his eyes rolling in the back of his head. It's a wonder he didn't crash into us, lol. And every so often this guy from the fest would walk by, wearing this wacky corn-cob thing on his head (promoting the roasted ears, which were good). At one point they were all three out there - man, I wish I had had a camera! We laughed so hard, : )
I remarked to a guy behind me that it's amazing this guy (Sohns) has managed to carve a 43-year career out of recording a Van Morrison song. He remarked, "You'd do it too, if you could." I said "Yeah, I probably would, but I'd at least try harder than that." We sat in the front row but split after maybe 6 songs. I noticed many bewildered faces among the crowd, staring in somewhat disbelief. It was that bad. Don't ever pay to see this guy. He's lucky to have had a 43- year career based on having been in the right place at the right time -- he should hang it up already. He's under the mistaken notion he's some relevant rock star.
Okay, 'nuff said, you get the picture, lol.
bob
Sorry to hear you had such a bad time. We saw Jimy Sohns last year as one of the featured guest vocalists at a Cryan' Shames show (that also included Ronnie Rice, Dennis Tufano and Jimy Rogers of The Mauds) and he was actually quite good. Singing along to a pre-recorded track though?!?!? Live on stage ... when you used to front one of the hardest rocking bands in Chicago?!?!? Bad form, Jimy, bad form!!! (kk)

We haven't heard anything about any of the OTHER Fourth Of July Weekend local shows ... if you attended any of these, please drop us a line and let us know what you thought! Get 'em to me fast enough and I'll include some in this weekend's Sunday Comments Page!