The show was billed as “Adrian Belew and Eric Johnson.” I had never heard of Eric Johnson before, and the Minnesota Zoo isn’t normally high on my concert venue list. On the flip side, Adrian Belew is one of my favorite guitar players. I love his solo work, as well as the stuff he’s done with King Crimson.

Bethany, Patrick’s girlfriend, works for a local ticket distributor, so when she mentioned the show, I just couldn’t pass it up. She offered to reserve me a seat and get me the ticket via Patrick.

About a week later, I saw Patrick and was completely floored! Row B, Seat 13. The Zoo doesn’t seat Row A for concerts. I had a front row ticket to see Adrian Belew! As it turns out, I was a mere 30 feet from Belew for his entire set.

I was a bit disapointed to find out that Belew was the opening act, rather than it being a true double-bill, but it was better than nothing. I’ll take Adrian Belew as an opener over no Belew any day.

This tour was in support of Side One and Side Two, released earlier this year, and Side Three, scheduled for this fall. Belew was accompanied by Mike Gallaher on bass and Mike Hodges on drums. Both accomplished musicians in their own right, they combined perfectly with Belew’s top-notch playing. I’ve always considered Belew to be an amazing guitarist, quite possibly the greatest alive today, and this show only reinforced my opinion.

Right from the outset, the 60 minute set was loud. I’m sure part of it was that I didn’t have earplugs and I was seated right up front. The new album falls more along the progressive-rock side of things than the some of his more accessible, pop-friendly tunes. During the show, he snuck in a couple older songs like “Big Electric Cat,” but, despite calls from the audience, “The Momur” (one of my favorites) didn’t make the list. It ended up being about 1/3 King Crimson and the rest from his solo work. I was able to pick out “Dinosaur,” “Frame by Frame,” “Three of a Perfect Pair,” and “Elephant Talk.”

At one point during Belew’s set, a security gorilla got in my face. I could only guess that he didn’t like something about my camera, although I couldn’t hear a word he actually said. There were other people shooting pictures and I had the flash turned off, so I’m not sure why he picked on me. Better to do what he wants rather than get thrown out.

The crew turned the stage pretty fast, but I had time to go talk to the gorilla. He thought it was a video camera, which is “never, ever allowed at shows.” I showed him the camera (Canon PowerShot S500) and explained that it does digital stills. Admittedly, it can do video, but at horribly low resolution only minutes at a time. He apologized for the confusion and told me to make sure the flash was turned off.

When Eric Johnson took the stage, I really didn’t know what to expect. From everything I could find, including his Web site, he’s described as a pop/blues/progressive/rock guitarist. Kind of an unusual combination really, and one that had me a bit wary. It’s not often an artist can bridge that many styles and do any of them well.

Johnson was accompanied by bassist Chris Maresh and drummer Tommy Taylor. They pretty much launched right into it with a blues influenced vocal number named “My Back Pages.” It really reminded me of “Red Barchetta” by Rush. The comparison may be a bit of a stretch, but that’s how my brain connects things.

I was continually surprised throughout the 2 hour show. He floated seamlessly between styles and managed to pull it off. I liked Johnson’s blues and progressive songs the best, the pop-oriented tunes the lest. That said, the set was well put together and nothing came off as a clinker.

As for a set list, I think it’s “My Back Pages,” “Trademark,” “Forty Mile Town,” “Summer Jam,” “Down on the Floor,” “Columbia,” “Solo by Chris (the bassist),” “Tribute to Jerry Reed,” “SRV,” “Desert Rose,” “Cliffs,” “Anthem for Today,” “Righteous,” and “Manic Depression.” It still looks incomplete, but I had to find the set-list on-line and that’s the best I could find.

All said and done, I would have preferred Eric Johnson opening for Adrian Belew, or a double-bill. Even so, I expect that the next time Johnson plays in town, regardless the opening act, I’ll probably go see the show.

My only real complaint for the whole evening was the volume. It was remarkably loud, almost painfully so. I forgot my earplugs and they didn’t have any at the venue. It felt like I had a hangover the next day; not from alcohol, but from sound pressure. My ears rang (more than usual) the better part of the following week.

The final tally: 397 pictures (83 during Belew’s set, 314 during Johnson’s), zero autographs, 180 minutes of music, and a new artist to add to my collection. Actually, the autograph count isn’t 100% true. I did pick up Eric Johnson’s latest at the merch table and they had them pre-autographed. In my book that doesn’t really count; I like to talk to the artist for even those fleeting seconds and ask for the autograph directly.

From an email exchange with a friend about an upcoming show:

In an interesting bit of syncronicity, I’ve been working on a CD sampler from my music collection. As yet unnamed, it will showcase artists and songs I always play for friends when we start talking music. Stuff I’m excited about and think they should check out.

Most of my friends, save for a handful, have fairly unvaried musical tastes. They like what they like and don’t have much cause to experiment. There’s nothing wrong with with that, but I’d find it boring. Another way to put it is that I’m always looking for something new and they have lives.

In the sampler series, I’ll undoubtedly toss in something familiar here or there. Perhaps a Tears for Fears or a Jack Johnson track (but none of the radio singles), but most of it won’t be so familiar. You could say I’m trying to do for them what Northern Lights (Twin Cities record store) did for me in the 80′s. A way to expand their musical horizons and experience something outside the little box they currently live in.

So far the first draft is nearly 23 hours of music; 317 tracks. However, there’s some bloat in there too. I started with artists I wanted to feature and added whole albums, sometimes whole catalogs, worth of stuff knowing I would remove most of it later.

I figure I’ll have about 3 CDs worth (3 hours or so) by the time I’m done. But that means I really have to start culling the list. Whittle it down to the tracks that will actually make the series. That means grouping the tracks, building sections of the playlist, and removing anything that just doesn’t work.

Even though it’s the hardest part for me, it starts with auditioning every nominee and cutting the obvious chaff. I came to a group of Adrian Belew tracks on the way to work this morning. One of my favorite artists, it just so happens he’s playing a show in town this weekend (the original subject of our email exchange and hence the syncronicity.)

Barrelling down the highway at 70mph, I was treated to “The Lone Rhinoceros,” “Burned By the Fire We Make,” “Old Fat Cadillac,” “Inner Revolution,” and “The Momer.” Singing along at the top of my lungs, I was actually having fun!

Then I arrived at work.

While headed into the basement to do laundry, I found a dead bee. It was on a ledge next to the stairs, which I thought it was an odd place for one to die. Even so, no big deal.

Once at the bottom of the stairs, I discovered another half-dozen or so, dead, on the floor. OK…that’s kind of strange, but not enough to be alarming.

Then, in the 30 feet between the landing and the washing machine, I saw more. There were two groups at least 12 and a few pockets of three or four, all dead. All told, there must have been 40-50 dead bees in my basement.

I’m not sure what worries me more, that 50 bees have found a way into the house, or that something (what, I don’t know) is killing them.