Geoff Davis: My Friend In His Creative Prime

I met Geoff Davis in 1987. At the time, he was helping found the Noblesville Preservation Alliance, trying to make a then, indifferent Noblesville, care about its historic architecture. For the 35 years since, he’s doggedly walked his own path, pursuing out-of-the-ordinary interests, delighting and inspiring people like me along the way. 

We sat on that early NPA board together and restored our own Victorian-era houses in the same neighborhood. I knew I loved old homes and restoration, and already knew a lot about carpentry, but Geoff understood the granular details of architecture and historic design and helped me deepen my own knowledge. I’ve learned so much from him over our 35-year friendship. 

 

Together, we salvaged old buildings slated for demolition. Once, we scoured a decades-long-abandoned boarding house, picking decorative hardware, woodwork, light fixtures, and eventually, a staggeringly heavy 1940s refrigerator we slid down a stairway and into my truck.

 

I wrote and published a novel called The Salvage Man, about a man doing what Geoff inspired me to do; save those irreplaceable bits of beauty before they got thrown in a dumpster. I returned the favor by giving him a set of 1890s doors with matching ornate hardware I’d salvaged to be used in an addition he was building to his 1890s home. 

Twenty years ago I was free-lance writing, doing a piece about IPS schools. Thanks to Geoff’s help, I interviewed teachers and students in the school building where he taught. There, I discovered what an amazing teacher he was. Geoff was allowed to teach his elementary students a unique topic of his choosing each semester. He taught them to play the ukulele, creating a school ukulele band. It was an insane success. He and his students would go on to perform at former Indiana Governor O’Bannon’s funeral and in one of Garrison Keillor’s Prairie Home Companion shows. 

Some years later, when I was going through a divorce and an emotional mess, he took me for a for peaceful walk along White River near the Blatchley Nature Study Club land, identifying birds and trees, giving my troubled heart exactly what it needed at that very moment. He probably has no idea how powerful, healing and inspiring that walk was. I went on my own walk the next day, and the next day. From that day on, I’ve walked in the woods and biked in the countryside to clear my mind and find relief from the chaos of life.

 

For 35 years we commiserated over beers about our difficult relationships with our fathers, woodworking, historic preservation, primitive country blues recordings, and our love/hate relationships with our shared former profession of teaching. 

 

A decade ago, my friend Bill Kenley and I created a literary journal for Noblesville, called the Polk Street Review. It was only natural Geoff would get involved. He set out on the North Forest Canoe Trail, a six-week, 350-mile canoe journey (with his canoe, named Joe) through New York, Vermont, Quebec, and Maine, and chronicled the arduous trip for that year’s edition of Polk Street.

His retirement from teaching in 2018 ushered in his most prolific creative period. He opened his own workshop in downtown Noblesville, teaching woodworking and ukulele building. This soon grew as he added a letterpress print shop that he operates for profit and for teaching that disappearing craft.

He plays uke and trombone in various ad-hoc bands and has built an impressive reputation as a wood carver, best known for his 50 Little Birds series that started with birds but grew into fish, dogs, and sea-going creatures. He’s a leatherworker, making belts and suspenders and is an impressive decorative painter. In the past year he’s given a TedTalk and a documentary was made about him called 50 Little Birds. And now he’s organized Noblesville residents to build a community toboggan to enter in the National Toboggan Championships in Camden Main this February.

There’s just about nothing he doesn’t do. Oh, and did I mention he set up a workbench in his shop window this past Christmas season and entertained shoppers dressed as Santa working in his workshop? Yeah, he did that, too!

Last December, at a bourbon tasting in my garage, Geoff arrived with two wooden cocktail garnish muddlers he’d made on a wood lathe. He pulled them from his pocket and handed one to me and the other to Samir Mohammad, like it was no big deal, “Made these for you guys.” The self-deprecation is very Hoosier–to make something so precious and beautiful and give it so casually. 

 

I love him for that quality. And over the holidays, every time I muddled the orange peel and cherry in my old fashion, I was reminded how lucky I am to call this incredible person my friend.

*Santa photo by Rocky Walls

 

 

Are New Downtown Developments Good For Old Town Noblesville?

The Village At Federal Hill is set to break ground in 2022

I see folks on social media claim new high-rise apartment buildings are “destroying downtown Noblesville.”

 

I disagree.

 

Some eight years ago I was guest speaker at a local civic group. Asked to name the biggest change I’d seen while living in Old Town, I answered that because of rising population, rising economic activity, and increased traffic, it was becoming less a small town environment, like Tipton or Lebanon, and more an urban environment, like Fountain Square. 

 

That didn’t’ go over well. A Noblesville Common Council member in the crowd scoffed that traffic congestion in Old Town was no different than when he was a teenager in the 1980s. That astonished me. The next day I called the Indiana Department of Transportation and got 30 years of traffic counts for Conner and 10^th streets. The data showed a nearly 300% rise in traffic since the late ‘80s.

 

Perceptions have to meet reality.

Village At Federal Hill looking west. Conner St. is at left and
existing amphitheater green space is out of view to the right.
The existing playground remains in middle of this rendering.

 

I’m fine with Old Town’s increasingly urban environment. Two years from now when four more planned apartment complexes are complete, any debate on the topic will be over.

 

I was the first president of Noblesville Main Street back in the early ‘90s. Main Street is an economic development entity that works to revitalize historic downtowns. At Main Street’s founding, we got a year of consultation from experts on that very subject thanks to the National Trust of Historic Preservation. They examined Noblesville back then and made two big observations.

 

First, Noblesville was developing a surface “parking doughnut” around downtown, an asphalt desert between commercial and residential Old Town. They warned that this tends to destroy downtowns, that people don’t like to move through an ugly, barren environment to get to a pleasant destination. The pleasant destination will just wither. No one in power listened at the time. The City, the County, a law firm, and a developer all torn down historic structures and made more ugly surface parking. So I’m thrilled now to see these asphalt deserts turned into something that can both increase population and intensify economic activity, which will help sustain downtown restaurants and retail and make for more compelling night life. 

 

Their second observation was that we Noblesville folk saw the river as the edge of downtown and should reimagine it as the middle. At the time, the Kroger strip mall was under construction. They argued Noblesville should have zoned the west side to work like the east side: buildings right up on the sidewalk, put parking behind, and add wide sidewalks along bridges to encourage pedestrian movement across the river–in other words, an urban environment. Instead, we let the Kroger mall, including the street width out front, be built like a suburban environment designed for cars.

The Bridge of Flowers, the brainchild of Dick Gordon, seeks to transform the new, wide Logan
Street sidewalk over White River into a lush, green connection between east and west downtown.

 

Those consultants were 100% right. And the current City leadership appears to be in the process of undoing that mistake. And I say ,“Hell Yes!”

 

With the construction of a new 3-building complex at Federal Hill, we lose a Wendy’s, a Mexican restaurant eyesore, and the parking area next to Federal Hill Park. Ninety five percent of the park’s green space will remain. The buildings will have apartments, garage parking, retail and offices. The City intends to narrow Logan Street there so it’s more like a neighborhood and less like a highway. Hopes are the Kroger outlots will get redeveloped and better fit what those National Trust consultants argued for 30 years ago.

 

I’ll admit, we’ve got a developmental tiger by the tail, one that might turn on us and our goals, but at the moment, that’s not what’s happening.

 

Do I wish the Levinson was one story shorter so it fit in downtown better? Yes. Do I wish the county had put two stories of their new parking garage underground so it wouldn’t loom over downtown? Yes. Do I wish the historic structures at 10^th and Clinton could have been restored rather than a new apartment building put in their place? Yes. But I’m tired of waiting for downtown to be transformed into a compelling, energetic place, so I’m not going to let the perfect be the enemy of the good.

 

Downtown projects have faced simmering resentments. On the morning
of the groundbreaking of the County's parking garage last May, this awaited.

Having said that, compromise isn’t limitless. The city needs a moratorium on the demolition of pre-1960 structures in Old Town. Most of the lovely homes and historic buildings we see now and love looked terrible at some point in the past 75 years, but they were reclaimed. Just because something looks bad today doesn’t mean it can’t be made beautiful. If we’d torn down everything when it looked bad, we’d be . . . well, Fishers or Westfield.

 

For those disheartened by these new developments, be prepared for 2022. There are more new buildings coming. If you see a surface parking lot in or around downtown, assume someone is planning to build something new.

 

 

 

 

What Could Noblesville Learn From Lancaster, PA?

Lancaster's war memorial, a Federal-style 

visitor's center, and Romanesque Central Market.

When I travel to dynamic towns, I keep my eye out for what makes them dynamic. What choices have these communities made that set them apart? What lessons could Noblesville learn?

For over 30 years I’ve chaired boards, sat on committees, restored homes, argued at board of zoning appeals and plan commission meetings, written hundreds of newspaper columns and blog posts agitating for a more exciting town, and along the way sold many hundreds of houses and businesses in my day job as a Realtor. Call me a “land-use nerd."

Because Lancaster, PA is so similar in population to Noblesville (at 59,000 people it’s about 5,000 less than us), and because it leans heavily on its historic past, as we do, it’s useful to see what works for them.

 

Lancaster is old–their oldest architecture a 100 years older than ours. And though slightly lesser in population today, it was a much bigger town in 1890 than Noblesville was. So their downtown commercial district is bigger, its historic buildings taller, its historic neighborhoods much bigger, it’s architecture more dramatic, and it’s urban sprawl a smaller percentage of the whole than ours. While we’re a suburban satellite town to a state capital , they’re just far enough away from Baltimore and Pittsburg they have to be a little hub of their own.

Early 1800s architecture in Lancaster, PA

My location as I write this offers an initial lesson. Lancaster has a Marriott Hotel and a modest convention center in the very heart of their downtown (out its front door is the view above) This brings convention business and tourists who feed an impressive expanse of shops and restaurants. That’s not beyond Noblesville’s ability. Gossip in development circles a couple years back said a boutique hotel was looking to locate in our downtown and there are a number of prime undeveloped locations on either side of White River to put one. The possibility of a hotel with an events center would be a game changer for the urban environment unfolding right now in Noblesville.  And with Grand Park in Westfield, Ruoff (Deer Creek) Music Center, Morse Reservoir, and White River, our own historic districts for wandering, there are plenty of reasons for regional tourists to spend a weekend in Noblesville.

For context, let’s restate reality: 18 months from now, thanks to large high-rise apartment buildings being built in downtown Noblesville, there will be at least 500 hundred more people living in our urban core, a number I believe could quadruple in the next 4 years as new projects are announced. Add to that some 60,000 square feet of office and retail space. Forget about what downtown Noblesville WAS. I’m thinking about what it WILL BE.

 

Dinner atop a 4 story historic building with a view of the city.

Lancaster is abuzz on Saturdays. They have the best produce market I’ve ever seen in a smaller city. You walk the stalls of a back-alley Victorian Romanesque warehouse choosing wares from Amish, West African, Polish, and Italian booths. Cured meats, donuts (the Long John is serious business here), gourmet coffee, butchers, cheese makers, pasta makers, pastries, breads . . . it’s all here. The surrounding alley’s have been bricked and tables and chairs abound where locals, and on the weekends, tourists relax here and also further out amid blocks of brunch spots and coffee shops. Outdoor restaurant and bar seating fills up first, so much so, some eateries who don’t have ground level room for outdoor spaces have created rooftop dining. There are 4 or 5 of these and it’s fabulous to dine overlooking the city. Think I’ve been to all but one of them.

Late Friday afternoon a corn hold game

begins on a rooftop bar as the parking 

garages start to fill up

There’s been some conflict in downtown Noblesville about creating expanded outdoor dining. The City wanted to do it by reducing street parking and widening sidewalks, but merchants pushed back. With 4 separate parking garages planned or underway within a couple blocks of the courthouse, parking in our downtown WILL change. In Lancaster folks can either parallel park on the narrow streets, pay in the hard-to-find surface lots, or park in multi-story garages–which they do. People keep telling me Noblesville folk won’t park in garages, but I can’t figure out what defect we have that prevents us from acting as reasonable people act in urban environments everywhere else I travel in American. Everywhere!

And those brick sidewalks? I’ve been told by past Noblesville city engineers that brick sidewalks just have to go, that they’re too dangerous and tend not to meet ADA mandates. Well please! Tell me why every other dynamic historic town I visit, like Lancaster, makes it work? Are they smarter or more hard working than us? Do they care less about the handicap? Of course not.

 

Our Hoosier defect might be nothing more than a curmudgeonly lack of vision. Noblesville’s Street Department has a massive stockpile of star bricks removed from sidewalks. Put ‘em back in the damn sidewalks and quit thinking up reasons why it won’t work!

Sidewalk bricks abound in Lancaster, but they 

don't have the beautiful star bricks we have.

Like Noblesville, Lancaster protects its historic resources (like those brick sidewalks). They appear to understand that it’s their trump card. Noblesville needs to double down on this and perhaps go as far as declaring a moratorium on demolition of pre-1970s buildings, (don’t quibble with my cutoff date. Mid-Century houses are all the rage), and taking action to encourage restoration of neglected older properties. There needs to be a review and protection process. Something more than homeowner whim.

Lancaster is not all rosy and clean. Walking a few blocks west of the bustling downtown, I smiled at an elderly shirtless man smoking in the doorway of an ancient, crumbling house on a street where fast food trash gathered against a stairway and weeds sprouted from cracks in the sidewalk. Here, blocks of low income housing with peeling paint and crooked gutters are found, made up of 200-year-old simple Georgian and Federal-style row houses bending this way and that along streets following colonial-era mule paths. Working your way clockwise north, surrounding streets reveal big ambitions not entirely realized. There are a couple blocks of art galleries and record stores, a couple more streets of wonderful restaurants, but here and there, empty buildings with “For Lease” signs. Further on the axis to the east you return to envious environs, tree-lined streets with stunning Victorian homes–Queen Anne, Italianate, and French Second Empire, all beautifully restored.

 

Like Noblesville, Lancaster has iconic American

streetscapes filled with shops and restaurants.

Low-income housing remains a challenge for Noblesville, too. Thankfully, we don’t have large neglected zones meant to house those struggling financially, but we do need more affordable housing and as our downtown gentrifies, the challenge will mount. Rather than ranting at Help Wanted signs, “People don’t want to work!” perhaps consider that the folks qualified to take that job can’t afford to live in our town. Lancaster and Noblesville, each in their own way struggle with low-income housing, as our entire nation does.

I am proud to be a Hoosier, but just as I can recognize my personal faults, I recognize those of the place I come from. I worry the Hoosier mind set is our biggest enemy in city building. We’re so used to the old stereotype of Indiana being a backwater, fly-over state, do we carry the cancerous germ of belief that while we’ll vacation in great places, our own towns can’t compete?

 

Noblesville is poised for greatness, but it will take hard choices and enlightened value judgments to get there, just like those made here in Lancaster, PA.

 

 

Downtown Noblesville At A Crossroads

We can wish for powerful, transformative forces to enter our lives, but once they come, they might just take over and lead us somewhere we never wanted to go. We’ve got to invite them on our terms. That dilemma is where downtown Noblesville finds itself today.

The wave of redevelopment hitting downtown is, on it’s face, a good thing. Most towns across the Midwest would kill for it. But it could also threaten our historic architecture and the very historic identity that defines our community. Can we protect our idyllic, historic commercial and residential architecture amid a swirl of investor millions and newly arriving, deep pocketed residential buyers who may have little interest in our town’s history?

 

Hamilton County’s other growing cities have readily sacrificed their old downtowns in various ways amid transformative, developmental makeovers. Towns like Carmel and Cicero have allowed linear development to sprawl down their main drags, filling former homes with businesses. Carmel has also allowed the relentless demolition of existing homes in established neighborhoods for new, larger, more lavish replacements. Fishers has allowed widespread demolition and redevelopment to utterly obliterate and remake its downtown. And Westfield has gone all-in, not only allowing both linear development down State Road 32 and demolition of key pieces of its history, but also giving over established residential neighborhoods to commercial redevelopment. 

 

You could start thinking living in an older, traditional neighborhood is illegitimate–only disconnected neighborhoods with curvy streets and matching mailboxes are safe.

 

But not in Noblesville. All the pressures neighboring towns gave into are breathing down our necks, but we’ve held off most of it, so far.

Hamilton County government has just broken ground on a 5-story parking garage located at the
brackish northern border between commercial and residential Old Town. It will face commercial
downtown and has residential homes immediately at its back and east sides.

 

Noblesville has by-and-large protected its historic neighborhoods. For decades attempts to rezone homes for commercial use along Old Town’s main arteries have been rebuffed by residents and the City. There are actually fewer commercial uses of buildings in residential Old Town now than thirty years ago, and that’s not just due to activism and regulation. It’s also an organic trend, driven by the market–people wanting to live in those structures. And in its most recent master plan, the City drew a firm zoning line down the north/south alley east of 10^th Street from Wayne Street to Seminary Park, making it clear that our booming commercial downtown could not bleed east into our reborn residential neighborhoods. 

Yes, Noblesville has chosen a different path than its neighbors. 

 

But with the construction of high-dollar apartment buildings on old parking lots and the demolitions of a couple small homes in rough condition to make way for newer, bigger homes, pressure is quietly mounting and city leaders will soon be forced to make hard decisions about Noblesville's future identity.

The $48 million East Bank development at White River and Conner St. will break ground later this 

year and hold 219 apartment, 295 parking spaces and 5,000 sq. ft. of retail. Immediately at its back 

is a residential neighborhood with many homes in need of renovation.

In my last blog post I detailed the projects underway in commercial Old Town. They’re pushing property values up. Once those projects are complete and the urban foot traffic they promise hits the streets, filling restaurants and retails shops, I’d expect those values to climb even further, along with retail rent. That could lure chains not afraid of historic districts, like Starbucks and regional restaurant groups.

 

Meanwhile, in adjoining residential Old Town, property values have also risen rapidly as more homes are restored and buyers pursue an urban lifestyle–a walkable/bikable life near parks, summer festivals, concerts, restaurants and shops. As a result, in a couple recent incidents, small, poorly maintained homes have been demolished and replaced by new, bigger homes. In both cases, the new homes are an improvement, but I fear someday we'll see routine demolition of smaller, historic homes to make way for big modern homes, simply because the lot location is so coveted. 

 

1437 Clinton before demolition.

Noblesville will have to fight this tooth and nail, making it clear that this is not Carmel. Carmel is fine–good for Carmel and what they want to do. But we have a different identity that’s worth protecting.

Why not tear down a few eyesore houses here and there? In my 3 decades fighting for historic preservation I recall a time when demolitions were far more common. Over those years I could count perhaps 25 historic properties torn down because they were an eyesore and someone had a “good idea" for using the land better. But when your  town’s identity is built upon authentic historic charm, it’s a lesson in how 25 little “good ideas” add up to one big bad idea. Remember that most of the beautifully restored historic buildings in Old Town were eyesores at some point in the past 60 years. If they’d all been torn down when they were an eyesore, we’d be . . . well, Fishers. 

 

1437 Clinton today with a home nearly 4

times the square footage of the previous

home nearing completion.

No offense intended. That's fine for Fishers. But let's

be Noblesville. We have an authentic identity.

In my day-to-day life as a Realtor, I’ve recently heard both commercial and residential owners of historic properties speculate about tearing down their 

buildings and putting up something more lucrative. The City’s answer needs to be an emphatic, “NO.” 

 

These transformative redevelopmental forces need to come on our terms, or they need not come at all.

The Contrarian's Favorite Music of 2016

My appetite for new music is as strong as when I started buying albums and 45s at the age of 8 (I think it was a Monkeys album). Now, after 48 years that have included acquiring some 2,000 albums, 1,500 CDs, and a private 22,000 track digital database (and now streaming services), there’s no denying that my new favorites reflect I’m in my mid-50s and gravitating toward music that echoes the sounds I grew up with.

C. W. Stoneking: Gon’ Boogaloo

As a kid, I hated the blues, even dismissed Stevie Ray Vaughn’s “Texas Flood” when it came out during my college years (it would later become one of my favorite albums).  Now, other than Americana, blues is generally what I listen too. C.W. Stoneking’s latest album speaks to those preferences.

Upon first listen to Gon’ Boogaloo, you might think you’re hearing a long lost 1950s gem recorded on primitive equipment, showcasing an overlooked Chicago or Delta bluesman. But Stoneking is a white Australian and the album was recorded in 2015. This album is a buoyant celebration of roots blues.

The song that first grabbed me was The Thing I Done. Its rhythm says ska, but the raw power of the feral guitar snarls the blues. The call and response of Tomorrow Gon' Be Too Late will easily put a big fat smile on your face, and while the chirpy female harmonies opening Good Luck Charm are reminiscent of early ‘60s girl groups, Stoneking’s voice arrives to steer the vibe toward gospel. The Zombie, is a fun number that should make your Halloween playlist. And the final track, We Gon’ Boogaloo truly could have been recorded in the mid-‘50s, a rock n’ roll rollercoaster delight about the giddy pleasure of buying a new record that makes you wanna dance. And this one certainly does!

Jayhawks: Paging Mr. Proust

My first introduction to the Jayhawks was in 1995 with their now signature song Blue, back in the days when we called their sound “Alt-Country.” And though nowadays they’re categorized as “Americana,” many thought the groups’ best days lay back in the 90s and early 2000s. Their last reunion in 2011 resulted in Mockingbird Time, a huge disappointment. So I wasn’t expecting much. But Paging Mr. Proust ranks in the top 3 albums of the Jayhawks 30-year output. It finds frontman Gary Louris catching a 2nd wind in mid-life, regaining his song writing, singing and guitar playing pinnacle. It’s simply astonishing to find a group well past its prime producing like a band half its age and eager to make a statement.

In the late ‘90s the band left behind their raw, stripped down, folk-rock picking and added polish to the songwriting and production. In doing so, they created a sound on albums like Smile and Rainy Day Music that would have put them on top 40 radio and on arena tours had they been a band of the 1970s. This newest effort is in that vain; harmonies that are at times romantic, then melancholy, then soaring, and guitar driven songs that could be strumming, sing-along soft rock, like Lovers Of The Sun and Pretty Roses In Her Hair, or grinding, feedback blowouts like Lost The Summer and Ace.  

Louris’s reenergized songwriting is crystalized on The Devil Is in Her Eyes. It's like he's fallen in love long after losing his innocents, elated to find such joy is still possible. Over an infectious jingle-jangle guitar, his strident tenor calls:

"Hail stones and butter scotch,

Firewalls and forget-me-nots,

Baby won’t you take a chance on me.

Heels dug in and braced to fall,

Hung my holster on your wall,

Baby won’t you take a chance on me.”

And as the song’s chorus arrives you’ll be cranking up the volume just when the band’s signature harmonies lift it to a new high that soon gets punctuated by a blistering guitar solo.

This was the soundtrack of my 25 mile summer bike rides in the Hoosier countryside in 2016.

Hinds: Leave Me Alone

Speaking of young bands eager to make a statement . . . This lo-fi, garage rock, girl group from Madrid, Spain got noticed by lots of music fans this year. Their debut album, Leave Me Alone captures a unique style that is at once familiar, and yet totally their own. Quite a feat for young rookies. The sassy/half-drunk vocals and surf-guitar echo paints the picture of a band literally learning their craft in the garage, and spilling some beer along the way.

The track Bamboo is a great place to start, and follow that with Chili Town. Also worth a listen, just to get a sense of their depth, is the instrumental surf-ballad Solar Gap. Will be fun to see where these girls go next.

Great Songs & Honorable Mention:

-The Cactus Blossoms: Another band with a retro sound. In this case, think Louvin & Everly Brothers. Their album, You’re Dreaming has flashes of brilliance, including the title track and Travelers Paradise. If you like those, try their remake of the Beatles’ This Boy.

-Sturgil Simpson: I wanted to like the entire A Sailor's Guide To Earth album from this renegade alt-country hero, but the Jerry Reed-esque jive-country-funk that finds it’s way into a few songs just doesn’t work for me - like a dude who shows up at your 2016 party wearing clogs and bell bottoms. It just doesn't feel right. But there are true gems included, like Breakers Roar, Sea Stories, All Around You, and the inexplicably brilliant Nirvana cover, In Bloom. I won't spend much time listening to the whole album, but onto my Americana playlist those happily 4 songs go.

-Ray LaMontange: I just can’t get into LaMontange’s recent attempts at the blues, but half of his 2016 album Ouroboros is wonderfully atmospheric. It’s another half great album. Try In My Own Way and Another Day.

-Emeli Sande’s song, Breathing Under Water: Because I’m a sucker for a good pop anthem.

-Wildfire by Mandolin Orange is a brilliant, beautiful song.

Concerts:

My favorite concert moments of the year include Shovels and Rope opening for Jason Isbell in a smallish theater show in Indianapolis. It was my 3^rd Isbell concert and he didn’t disappoint. The Shovels and Rope set was marred by sound issues, but they powered through it admirably. Isbell is at the top of his game, at his writing and performing prime. His confidence and showmanship are exhilarating!

My wife and I on the Ferris Wheel. In the distant background
The Who were opening their show with Substitute.

In October we flew to Palm Springs for Desert Weekend. I’m generally impatient with oldies shows, but I’d never seen the Rolling Stones or Paul McCartney. Over 3 nights all the acts but one put on stellar shows. While I actually love Bob Dylan’s blues outfit in smaller venues, it didn’t work at this massive festival with 100,000+ in attendance looking to take a walk down memory lane. This moment called for big sounds and crowd-pleasing, not self-indulgent noodling. This was the event that called for Dylan to do what he has no intention whatsoever of doing - play a guitar and sing Blowing In The Wind and Like a Rolling Stone, straight, so the audience could recognize them.

The Stones understood this, following Dylan with a rousing, high-energy show that included only one song from their new blues album (they knew it was also no time to promote unknown music). The next night both Neil Young and McCartney wowed with lots of big hits and highly professional backup bands. Young opened with a perfect acoustic set, then brought on his full band, nearly outshining McCartney. On Sunday night The Who surprised by providing my favorite performance of the weekend. Townsend and Daltry have still got it and know how to build tension and deliver big payoffs.

I left Desert Weekend marveling at how far concert events have come since my first concert (Chicago, at the Indiana State Fair) in 1975. The promoters managed to bus over 100,000 people out into the desert and provide ample, 1st class food and drink venders and clean, plentiful restroom facilities over the course of 3 days. Astounding!


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