Bob Dylan - July 24, 2013 - Virginia Beach, Virginia

He growled, he barked, and he wheezed.  It was another round of “Name That Tune – The Bob Dylan Edition.”  As he has done since he began his Never Ending Tour, His Bobness re-arranges his songs so that his fans have to pay close attention to what he sings.  Most of the time this approach works out ok – sometimes it doesn’t.  On this night it didn’t work so well for A Hard Rain’s Gonna Fall and Blowin’ in the Wind.  If you want to see someone who makes their live stuff sound exactly like what is on their records, go see The Eagles [cue "The Dude" here…].  I prefer the Dylan approach.  That said, Dylan didn’t disappoint the hardcore fans [such that they were – the house was half-full], but those younger folks who were there mainly to see the opening bands, My Morning Jacket and Wilco, were a bit perplexed.  They weren’t sure if what they heard was great or if it sucked.  In my mind, Dylan performed to expectations.  I heard some songs I didn’t hear the last time I saw him, and I heard a couple I didn’t need to hear ever [A Hard Rain’s Gonna Fall and Blowin’ in the Wind].  As I’ve told friends who aren’t fans, Dylan is an acquired taste.

The setlist:

Things Have Changed / Love Sick / High Water / Soon After Midnight / Early Roman Kings / Tangled Up In Blue / Duquesne Whistle  /She Belongs To Me / Beyond Here Lies Nothin’ / A Hard Rain’s Gonna Fall / Blind Willie McTell [Yes!!!] / Simple Twist of Fate / Summer Days / The Weight [Surprise!] / All Along The Watchtower / Encore: Blowin’ in the Wind

The band:

Bob Dylan - piano, harp  / Tony Garnier – bass / George Recile – drums / Stu Kimball - rhythm guitar / Colin Linden - lead guitar / Donnie Herron - violin, banjo, electric mandolin, pedal steel, lap steel

The opening bands:

There was an opening band, whose name I do not know and whose set I missed.  My Morning Jacket went on first.  I missed about half their set because of Hampton Roads traffic  [I had to work right up until showtime].  Someone always manages to stall their car in the tunnel portion of the Hampton Roads Bridge Tunnel – this day was no exception.  What I was able to see and hear of this band from Louisville, Kentucky floored me.  The first time I had ever heard this band play was for last years “Love for Levon” tribute.  I liked what I heard then, I loved what I heard this night.  I can’t name a single song of theirs, but after the concert was over I thought they were the best band of the evening.  I might just have to check out some of their work.  I like these guys.

Wilco followed My Morning Jacket.  Like the band that preceded them, I couldn’t name a single one of their songs if you put a gun to my head.  The first few songs they played I thought “hmmm…they’re pretty good.”  Then a few songs later I though “well, they’re just okay now.”  By the end of their set I started to ask myself “are they done yet?”  The young folks who were sitting in the same row as I was seemed to thoroughly enjoy Wilco, but the common complaint amongst them was that the band didn’t play enough songs [they played 12].  One surprise is when Wilco came out for an encore and they brought My Morning Jacket.  The two bands played a superior version of Neil Young’s Cinnamon Girl.  A note on the “kids” who shared the same row I did – they were extremely thoughtful and considerate.  I had an obscured view because there was a post between me and the stage.  One of the guys had a drink and a cup of fries and was standing in front of me, but then he saw he was blocking my view.  Since my view was already blocked I told him that he was fine and that he should stay where he was.  But he moved anyway.  Nice touch, that guy.  Another of his friends asked me who I came to see.  I told him I was old so I came to see the “old guy.”  He allowed that if he was older he probably would be as well, but he was there to see Wilco.  At the end of the show he asked me if I thought it was good, and I asked him if he got his money’s worth.  We both said yes and wished one another a safe and good night.

Unlike past tours where Dylan would vary his setlist from night to night, Bob has played pretty much the same setlist in this tour.  He’s on his third guitar player in the last three week.  First, Charlie Sexton left on his own accord to other projects.  The blues legend Duke Robillard lasted only a few dates.  He was either fired, or he jumped before he was pushed.  Neither party is talking, not like it matters.    The Duke has since replaced by a man named Colin Linden, who BTW sounded pretty damn good.  But back to the setlist.  The only surprise on this part of the tour has been the encore – would he play Ballad of a Thin Man of Blowin’ in the Wind?  If he played the former I would stick around and listen.  If he played the latter I would leave early.  I left early.  The biggest surprise of the evening came when Dylan invited Jeff Tweedy [Wilco] and Jim James [My Morning Jacket] to the stage for a song.  The song turned out to be The Weight.  It was a nice tribute to Levon Helm [RIP].  I’ve said it before – Robbie Robertson wrote the song, but it belongs to Levon Helm.

The verdict:  despite my impatience to see Wilco get off the stage, they actually put on a pretty good show.   But, the night belonged to My Morning Jacket.  I don’t know if their records are that way, but they exhibited a jam band ethic that appeals to the Allman Brothers fan that I am.  These guys stole the show.  Bob Dylan’s live presentation seems to be going through some kind of de-evolution [please, don’t think “Devo”].  The band all wore gray suits and black shirts.  Dylan wore a dark suit and no hat, so he didn’t look like Zorro the Gay Blade like the last time we saw him.  He alternated between singing and playing the harp from center stage, to just singing and playing a grand piano.  He didn’t touch a guitar.  The older he gets, the older his music sounds.  The night’s presentation had the look and feel of an old-timey band from the late 1920s/early 1930s.  It was weird, kinda interesting, but still entertaining.  Bob still has a hell of a band.  It was a good show all around.

I’ve seen Bob Dylan twice now.  I think I’m done.

Gregg Allman & Friends - Jan 10, 2012, Pensacola, Fla

Of all the people I’ve seen in concert, I’ve seen Gregg Allman the most.  I saw him six times in the 1990s with the Allman Brothers Band, and now four times with Gregg Allman & Friends.    Carol and I first saw him in Pueblo, Colorado the day after we got married in 1987.  He was on tour promoting his then-new album, I’m No Angel.  He opened for Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble.  This is the first time I took my kids to a concert.  My oldest son Greg has actually heard Gregg Allman before.  Carol was six-months pregnant with him when we saw Gregg at The Boathouse in Norfolk, Virginia in late 1995.  And now fifteen years later Greg got to actually see him in person.  Since both Greg and Mark were little kids they’ve been exposed to the Allman Brothers Band, and unlike other kids they actually like the music their parents listen to.  I thought this would be the time for them to go to their first concert.  They liked what they saw, liked what they heard and had a good time.  It wasn’t too loud and didn’t destroy their hearing.  It’s good to see Gregg in a setting that doesn’t demand high-volume guitar heroics

The venue for the evening’s festivities was the Saenger Theatre in Pensacola.  It’s an old Spanish Baroque/Rococo style theater that first opened its doors in 1925.  It hosted Vaudeville-type road shows, Broadway plays, and silent screen classics. During World War II it stayed open constantly to show news reels from the war.  Later years saw use as a movie house until 1975 when age caught up with it. It fell into disrepair and closed.  That same year the theater was donated to the city of Pensacola as a cultural arts center.  Both the city of Pensacola and the University of West Florida restored the theater in a joint effort.  The restoration took four years and $15 million dollars, and the theater reopened in 1981.  Today it’s on the National Registry of Historical Sites.  I have but one complaint.  The seating isn’t meant for tall people or large people.  One gets the feeling of sitting in coach on a cross-country flight.  But that is a minor complaint.  With a capacity of 2,250, it’s a cozy little place to see concerts.  We saw Peter Frampton there last October.  It’s a little smaller than New York’s Beacon Theatre, where the Allman Brothers play a multi-night stand every March [the real “March Madness” if you ask me and other Peacheads].

Jaimoe’s Jassz Band opened the show with a pretty good set.  They played selections from their new CD Renaissance Man.  I recognized all of two songs: Leaving Trunk and Rainy Night in Georgia. I wasn’t sure what to expect except to hear jazz.  I’m not a jazz person.  The closest I get to liking jazz is the improvisational music played by the Allman Brothers Band.  But when I see a band that says they play jazz, I thought that’s all I would hear.  I was pleasantly surprised when the music Jaimoe and his band ranged from jazz to R&B, blues and soul.  Another pleasant surprise was Junior Mack.  He played guitar and sang.  I’d heard of Junior Mack but I’d never heard any of his music.  I know he’s sat in from time to time with the Allman Brothers Band, but that’s the only connection I had with him.  After his performance in Pensacola I’d like to find anything else that bears his name.  He’s a very good guitarist and an even better singer.  A note of humor – after Jaimoe introduced the members of his band, someone in the audience shouted out “who are you?”  Jaimoe smiled and said “I’m Johanny Johanson from Gulfport, Mississippi.

Jaimoe's Jassz Band (Picture courtesy of Slyckyr, Allman Brothers Band web forum)

After a fifteen minute break to get the instruments in place, Gregg Allman & Friends took the stage.  The big surprise of the evening for me was hearing Please Call Home.  In all the times I’ve seen Gregg Allman, this was the first time I heard that song live.  It was the Laid Back version, not the Idlewild South version.  I’d seen from setlists of previous shows from this tour and I noticed the show we saw was one of the very few where he played it.  In other shows on this tour he played Just Another Rider.  We didn’t hear that, nor did we hear Midnight Rider.  Midnight Rider wasn’t missed since I’ve heard it live many times before, but I was looking forward to hearing Just Another Rider.  I think he’s past the stage of promoting his latest album, Low Country Blues.  He’s digging deeper into his back catalog.  But I got to hear Please Call Home, so that made up for it.  Another surprise was the number of Allman Brothers songs in his set.  About half the songs his set was ABB songs.  Dreams and Wasted Words were especially good.  It was good to hear Dreams without a screaming guitar.  Scott Sharrard is a fine player, and he didn’t feel the need to go balls-to-the-wall like Derek Trucks, Warren Haynes or Dickey Betts would in an ABB setting.  Hearing Wasted Words live during this show was another first for me.  I’d always wanted to hear These Days and Melissa in the same show, and I finally got my wish.  We got to hear Jay Collins play the flute on Melissa. I wasn’t sure how a flute would work with Gregg Allman’s music, but it di and very well. When the band played Ridin’ Thumb, I didn’t recognize it.  I pride myself in knowing Gregg’s music inside and out, but this one stumped me.  I had to look it up when I got home.  It’s a song written by Jimmy Seals [of Seals and Crofts fame] that had been covered by the likes of Ray Charles, King Curtis, and Three Dog Night.  When I found that Ray Charles had done it, it’s inclusion in Gregg’s set made perfect sense.  I would love to have heard Queen of Hearts from Laid Back, but on this night it was not to be.  Gregg’s rendition of Whipping Post was the Searching for Simplicity arrangement, not the jam monolith from the first ABB album.

Gregg was in very fine voice.  He reaffirmed why he is my favorite singer.  Considering that he had liver cancer and had a liver transplant two years ago, he’s holding up very well.  When I first saw him he was 39 years old.  Now he’s 64 (!).  He spent most of the evening behind his Hammond B-3 organ, but he’d play the acoustic guitar on some songs [These Days, Melissa, Floating Bridge], a Fender Stratocaster on others [I Can’t Be Satisfied, Whipping Post, One Way Out].  It must be hell to be talented.

The setlist:

I’m No Angel / Statesboro Blues / Please Call Home / I Can’t Be Satisfied / Ridin’ Thumb / You Must Be Crazy [Floyd Miles] / These Days / Don’t Keep Me Wonderin’ / Dreams / Wasted Words / Melissa / Going Back To Daytona [Floyd Miles] / Just Before the Bullets Fly / Whipping Post

Encore:

Floating Bridge / One Way Out

The band:

Gregg Allman – vocals, Hammond B-3, acoustic and electric guitar

Floyd Miles – vocals, percussion

Scott Sharrard – guitars

Bruce Katz – keyboards

Jay Collins – saxophones, flute

Jerry Jemmott – bass

Steve Potts - drums

Gregg Allman & Friends (Picture courtesy of Slyckyr, Allman Brothers Band web forum)

Gregg Allman & Friends (Picture courtesy of Slyckyr, Allman Brothers Band web forum)

Not all of the entertainment came from the stage.   We sat up in the balcony, about six rows back.  There’s a small half-wall between the first three rows and the rest of the balcony seats.  A guy who sat three rows in front of us and had way too much to drink, and during one of the songs he jumped over the wall and stating to pretend to play piano on the half-wall.  In his mind he was Jerry Lee Lewis.  He was fun to watch.  Too bad the light wasn’t good enough for me to film him.  Otherwise I’d post it here.  I was highly amused.  There weren’t any twirlers though…I guess they only go to Allman Brothers shows.

All things considered [to borrow a phrase], it was an excellent show. I’m especially glad my boys went with us.  They got to see real musicians play real music that means so much to many people.  Gregg Allman has a knack for taking old songs, re-arranging them and making them sound fresh.  I hope that someday soon Gregg will see fit to record another album and that he will stop by Pensacola again.

Thanks to Slyckyr, a "Peach Pro" from the Allman Brothers Band website forum for allowing me to use his pictures.  He was at the same show but took better pictures than I did.

Bob Dylan - July 27, 2011 - Pensacola

A couple of months ago Carol told me Bob Dylan was going to play a show in Pensacola.  She asked me “wanna go”?  I didn’t expect that from her since she’s not a fan of his singing.  She knew I’d jump at the chance, so naturally I said “yes!”  Then she told me she wanted to see him when she was 19 or 20, years before I met her.  But her dad wouldn’t let her go, even though the show was in Fort Collins.  She must have gotten in trouble or something, so she never got to go.  So here we are, more than 30 years later, and Carol finally got to see Bob Dylan.

Here’s the deal with Dylan.  Some of his songs are now over 50 years old.  The most popular songs in his catalog are almost as old.  If you were a working musician and had to play those songs night after night for that that long, you’d get sick of them.  You wouldn’t want to play them anymore.  So if you want to keep it fresh, you change things up a bit.  That’s what real musicians do.  What you hear on the record is the version that Dylan liked at that time, but times change, and minds change along with the times.  In Dylan’s case, he changes his songs a lot.  The lyrics don’t change, but the arrangements do.  If you want to hear Dylan’s songs exactly the way they sounded when they were released, save your money, stay at home and listen to the albums.  For me, it’s a fun challenge to play “Name That Tune” when it comes to hearing Dylan play live.  That’s my expectation when I go see him in concert.  If a song sounds like it did on the original album, then I’m disappointed.  That’s the appeal of his Bootleg Series, especially Volumes 7 & 8.  You get to hear different versions of songs you thought couldn’t be heard in any other way.  Case in point:  the song Mississippi from “Love And Theft.”  I have three recorded versions of that song in my collection, and what I heard live didn’t sound like any of them.  It took me awhile before the light bulb came on and I realized “hey, that’s Mississippi.”

How was the show?  Fabulous!  Dylan looked he was having fun, and he knew he had his audience in the palm of his hand.  So enamored were some of his fans that if he blew a harp solo with his ass instead of his lips, they would have loved it.  Of course, I would have laugh hysterically because I got the joke.  Dylan opened his past few shows with Rainy Day Women #12 & 35, he’s opened others with Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat.  I was hoping for the latter, and my wish was granted.  Little did I know that he’d play some of my other favorites as well [Tangled Up In Blue, Things Have Changed, High Water [For Charley Patton], Highway 61 Revisited, Ballad of a Thin Man].  Dylan has an excellent band.  Such is the nature of Dylan’s changing music that all band members’ eyes were on him for cues.  But they navigated all the twists and turns of the music effortlessly.  At least they made it look easy.  These guys are very, very good.

There were 11 rows of seats between us and Dylan.  Yes, we had good seats.  No backup dancers were harmed in the presentation of this show [because there WEREN’T any!].  But there were quite a few Grateful Dead twirler wannabees in the crowd who nearly killed themselves because they were too trashed to stay on their feet.  One of them almost passed out on Carol’s lap [no, it wasn’t me…].  But luckily she left her seat before the show ended.  We did see her and her significant other in the lobby as we were leaving.  They both looked pretty rough.  After all these years, I still don’t get why people go out of their way to get so blotto at a concert they can barely stand.  I want to remember the shows I attend, especially at $65 a pop.

Band Members
Bob Dylan – guitar (G), keyboard (K), harp (H)
Tony Garnier - bass
George Recile - drums
Stu Kimball - rhythm guitar
Charlie Sexton - lead guitar
Donnie Herron - violin, banjo, electric mandolin, pedal steel, lap steel

The setlist:

Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat (K) / It Ain’t Me, Babe (K) / Things Have Changed (H) / Tangled Up In Blue (H) / Beyond Here Lies Nothin’ (G) / Mississippi (K) / High Water [For Charley Patton] (H) / Simple Twist of Fate (G) / Highway 61 Revisited (K) / Forgetful Heart (H) / Thunder on the Mountain (K) / Ballad of a Thin Man (H)

Encore:

Like a Rolling Stone (K)

All Along the Watchtower (K)

2^nd Encore:

Blowin’ in the Wind (K)

The opening act was Leon Russell.  Dylan gave him 45 minutes, and it was an enjoyable 45 minutes.  These days Leon is looking like an older version of Dusty Hill from ZZ Top [long white hair, long white pointed beard, big black shades and a white Stetson hat], and he’s singing like Willie Nelson.  But his playing is still spot-on, and he has a solid band traveling with him.  I recognized most of the songs [Delta Lady, Sweet Little Angel, Hummingbird, I’ve Just Seen a Face, Wild Horses].  Sorry Leon fans – no Jumpin’ Jack Flash.  There were only a couple of songs I didn’t know, but that’s ok.  Leon still plays a good show.

Would I go see Bob Dylan again?  Damn right I would!  Thanks for the great idea, honey!

We're Soundgarden - and We're Back!

Carol and I hadn’t been to a concert since our son Mark was born in 1999. Then one day I saw that Soundgarden was going to play a show at Red Rocks in July. I hadn’t been on a vacation in over three years, there was some downtime on my job, so it was time. I asked the wife “wanna see Soundgarden?” She didn’t say no, especially after I added the bit about the show being at Red Rocks in her home state.  We were way overdue to see a live show.

We got to Red Rocks about an hour and a half before showtime. After we parked the car and started walking toward the amphitheatre, we both realized we’ve been “flatlanders” for too long. So then we climbed these long steps up to the amphitheatre [and that was just to get in the place]. We both thought we needed oxygen by this time. Then we encountered the next set of steps to get to our seats. If you’ve ever seen Eisenstein’s silent movie Battleship Potempkin, you’ll recall there’s a hill with lots of steps that seems to go up forever. That’s what Red Rocks looked like to us, but we finally made it to our seats about 2/3 of the way up. Any seat in the house is good, and this show was no different.

The opening band was The Mars Volta. I’m not sure if I can say anything nice about what I heard from them. If you like them, more power to you. They did nothing for me. I’ve seen a lot of crappy bands open for bands I’ve paid to see. The Mars Volta is now one of them. Granted, I’m not a fan of theirs, I couldn’t name a single song of theirs. They just sounded terrible. The vocalist sounded like a cross-between of Perry Ferrell and 1970s-era Geddy Lee, and that’s not a compliment. Their forty-five minute set felt like it went on twice as long.

After The Mars Volta left the stage, an older woman with her 41-year old son showed up and sat next to us. She asked how the opening band was, and we told her what we thought. She said she was glad not to be sitting next to some 17-year old. I promised her we wouldn’t blow any pot smoke in her face because we don’t do that sort of thing. She asked us if we liked Soundgarden, we told her we did. She asked if it was ‘heavy metal’ and Carol told her ‘not really but it’ll probably sound that way to you.’ She was a great sport about it. I’m not sure I could sit through a two-hour show of a band whose music I never heard. One funny thing about her – there was a guy who was probably a little younger than us who was hitting on her. She was a bit creeped out, but he didn’t persist, especially after her son came back with some water.

A lot of people at the show did light up, and a lot more people got trashed on alcohol. There was a girl behind us who passed out about three songs into Soundgarden’s set, but she recovered to watch the rest of the show. I was just glad that we didn’t get high from all the second-hand smoke from everyone around us. Chris Cornell even made mention of the smoke from the stage. He said something about there being a contest the band has to see which tour stop has the most potent pot, but that the altitude at the Rocks and its lack of oxygen might make it seem stronger. He also advised the crowd to smoke what they’ve got so they wouldn’t get busted with it later. Everybody laughed at that.  He commented on Red Rocks awesome scenery:  "We played here before, and maybe a little bit was lost on us," he said. "It's f---ing amazing."  Indeed it is.  

Being back at Red Rocks to see a show 26 years after the last time [Eric Clapton – July 1985] was a wonderful experience. We arrived in daylight and were captivated by all that surrounded us. We never tire of seeing the beautiful scenery around the park. We were seated far enough above the stage where you can see the lights of Denver. There are a whole lot more now than there were 26 years ago. It also helped that the weather cooperated. I felt a grand total of three rain drops. I’ve been rained on at the Rocks before, but not so tonight so all was well with the universe. One thing that Carol noticed was that as the show progressed, everyone who had an iPod updated their playlists so they could listen to the show all over again on the ride home. Such is the time we live in. The last time we went to a concert [January 1999], the iPod was not even a gleam in Steve Jobs’ eyes.

Soundgarden’s set was outstanding – it was everything I hoped it would be. After the opening two numbers [Searching With My Good Eye Closed and Spoonman] Chris Cornell declared "We're Soundgarden, and we're back." Then he commented about Red Rocks’ legendary acoustics - "This big rock over here and this one over there," he said, referencing the two giant stones that flank the seating area, "it acts like a speaker, funnels down to my head. It's trippy." Then they launched into Let Me Drown. When I heard Chris Cornell do the same scream in the middle of the song that he did on the original recording, I knew that it was “game on.” This band was definitely “on.” I have a copy of their Live on I-5 album, and they sounded better during this show than they did on the album. I don’t say that just because I was there – Chris had trouble hitting the notes on the album. He had no such difficulty this time. I don’t know how he does it night after night, or how he even has a voice after a two-hour show. Chris Cornell’s voice is a freak of nature, but in a good way. After Let Me Drown Matt Cameron began the familiar drums of Jesus Christ Pose, which surprised me because I thought they would save it for the encore. But no matter – it was spellbinding, especially when you see 9,400 people striking the same “Jesus Christ Pose” as Chris Cornell. The crowd [and the band] got a chance to catch their breaths as the band went into Blow Up the Outside World. The cool thing about the song – the whole crowd [including yours truly] did the long “Blow up the Outside” fade for Chris. I don’t usually go for singalongs, but this was pretty cool. The biggest surprise of the evening: Mailman. I totally did not expect that one. Another surprise:  hearing Chris sing bits of Zeppelin's In My Time of Dying during Slaves & Bulldozers.  They played nine of Superunknown’s thirteen songs, six songs from Badmotorfinger, and they also went all the way back with Nothing to Say from their first EP for Sub Pop. Beyond the Wheel was otherworldly.

As for the rest of the band, they were simply amazing. Matt Cameron is a drumming machine, and I mean that in a good way. The man drums like he’s got eight arms instead of two, and he’s perfect. Pearl Jam needs to be careful. If Soundgarden decides they want to step up their pace of recording and touring, they’ll want him back full-time. There were times I thought Ben Shepard’s bass would cause an avalanche. And what can I say about Kim Thayil? If you took a rhino and fed it through stacks of Marshall amps, I think you might get the idea of Kim’s sound. It was quite the audio onslaught. The attack on our senses was complete when, at the end of the final encore song [Slaves & Bulldozers] both Ben and Kim faces their amps and unleashed a humungous torrent of feedback that lasted about five minutes.

The setlist:

Searching With My Good Eye Closed / Spoonman / Let Me Drown / Jesus Christ Pose / Blow Up the Outside World / The Day I Tried to Live / My Wave / Fell On Black Days / Ugly Truth / Big Dumb Sex / Outshined / Nothing To Say / Rusty Cage / Black Hole Sun / Burden In My Hand / Pretty Noose / Superunknown / 4th of July / Beyond the Wheel Encore: Hunted Down / Face Pollution / Mailman / Slaves & Bulldozers

As far as setlists go, I thought it was perfect. I heard everything I wanted to hear. That doesn’t happen too often. How loud was it? I saw The Who in 1982 and Deep Purple in 1985. The Soundgarden show was louder. The winner [and still heavyweight champ] is Dio’s version of Black Sabbath. We saw them in 1992 at Constitution Hall in Washington DC and we heard crickets for three days. Soundgarden wasn’t that loud, but it was close. I think I lost some hearing, but it was worth it. With the passing of Ronnie James Dio, Chris Cornell is now my favorite living hard rock/metal/grunge vocalist. As for Soundgarden, I now have a band I would walk barefoot on broken glass to see again. If you have the opportunity, this show is a must see. Oh, and don’t forget your earplugs – you’ll need them.