Film Review “St. Vincent”

Starring: Bill Murray, Melissa McCarthy and Jaeden Lieberher
Directed by: Theodore Melfi
Rated: R
Running time: 1 hour 42 mins
The Weinstein Company

Our Score: 4.5 out of 5 stars

Vincent (Murray) lives alone with his cat. He spends his days at the track, his nights at the bar and the occasional afternoon with his pregnant Russian girlfriend (Naomi Watts) who, despite her condition, continues to entertain as an exotic dancer. Things change when Maggie (McCarthy) and her young son, Oliver (Lieberher) move in next door. Their first meeting doesn’t go well, causing young Oliver to quip “it’s going to be a long life.”

Full of strong performances, “St Vincent” is a film with many a cliché’d character that manages to avoid every cliché’ you’d expect. Yes, Vincent is a curmudgeon and set in his ways while McCarthy is the single mom trying her best to make things work. Throw in Watts as the “dancer” with a heart of gold and you could have had a film that would make you roll your eyes constantly. But somehow writer/director Melfi manages to pull everything together almost seamlessly.

Murray gives an Oscar-worthy performance here, rivaling his work in “Lost in Translation.” I should point out that I put Murray on the short list for supporting actor earlier this year for “Monuments Men” so, in Murray’s own words from Caddyshack, “I’ve got that going for me!” McCarthy is also strong in a rare dramatic role while supporting work by Chris O’Dowd, Terrence Howard and Ann Dowd stands out as well. And I must give a shout out to young Lieberher who, at the age of 11, manages to hold his own against the unpredictable Murray in his feature film debut.

 

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Concert Review: Jimmy Buffett & The Coral Reefer Band “Songs from St. Somewhere” Tour, Tampa, FL

Jimmy Buffett & The Coral Reefer Band
MidFlorida Credit Union Amphitheatre
Tampa, FL
April 19, 2014

It was a rather chilly and on and off rainy night, April 19, 2014 in Tampa, FL but that didn’t mean anything for us hardcore Jimmy Buffett fans. I do not think I have ever been to a concert with as much energy and excitement that this show at the MidFlorida Credit Union Amphitheatre. The last time I saw Jimmy and his band perform was in Orlando, FL at the Amway Center and I have to admit thinking back on it now it just felt so claustrophobic being in that closed arena. Now the MidFlorida Credit Union Amphitheatre was a open arena that really gave Jimmy and the band a chance to open their wings and really soar higher than ever. The band was in fine form at this show. You can honestly just look at Jimmy’s face and know that he is honestly and genuinely having fun. Just plain fun. I may have said this before but the guy seems to really love what he is doing and I swear he only seems to be getting better and better each time I see him.

When you look at this stage, there are literally so many people up there that I didn’t know where to look first. In fact, I counted and including Jimmy his Coral Reefer Band adds up to twelve members. Now the reason why that is unique is that you could literally pick out the role of each person throughout the entire person. If you were listening out for Michael Utley on the keyboards you can clearly hear him jamming. If you were looking out for Mac McAnally (I mean you can’t miss the guy with that hair but…) you can easily pick out his voice on each song. To be that is so very important. You can tell that there was a lot of time put into making sure that each member of the band was equally balanced and sounded just right. Congrats to the sound engineer for this sound because it was an outstanding performance.

What I really loved about this show was that from the moment it started it was just hit song after hit song. We were on our feet literally the entire show. If we got tired after at any point, the excitement of the next song just completely took over and drew us in. Some highlights as usual were “Boat Drinks”, “Come Monday” and “Southern Cross”. Since this is the “Songs From St. Somewhere” tour, we got to hear the new hit song “Too Drunk to Karaoke”, which was just such a blast to hear live. The band’s cover of “All Night Long (All Night)” got such an outstanding response, I looked around at one point during the song and didn’t see a mouth not moving and anyone not dancing like crazy. They not only play the songs that they want to play, they play the songs that fans want to hear and they were right on queue!

The “Songs From St. Somewhere” tour took a break in December but picked up this month to close out the tour. This show actually was one of the last one of the tour before the band (taking only a month off) kicks right back into touring with the new summer tour, “This One’s For You”, which starts in May. So even though that this was the “end of the tour”, you could have easily told me that it was the kick-off because like I said the energy was insane and the band was in rare form. I don’t know how they tour for most of the year and never take a break…but I guess it just goes back to my original statement of how much fun these talented performers are having on the stage.  I hope that it is not too long before they decide to take over the state of Florida again because I already feel the itch to take a trip to Margaritaville again soon!

Set List:
1. Kinja
2. Landfall
3. Brown Eyed Girl
4. Boat Drinks
5. Weather With You
6. Pencil Thin Mustache
7. It’s Five O’Clock Somewhere
8. Son of a Son of a Sailor
9. Rhumba Man
10. Come Monday
11. Too Drunk to Karaoke
12. Cheeseburger in Paradise
13. Cultural Infidel
14. Piece of Work
15. Somethin’ ‘Bout a Boat
16. Southern Cross
17. Volcano
18. Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes
19. A Pirate Looks at Forty
20. Back Where I Come From
21. One Particular Harbour
22. All Night Long (All Night)
23. Fins
24. Margaritaville

Encores:
25. We Are the People Our Parents Warned Us About
26. Knee Deep
27. Defying Gravity

 

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CD Review: Jimmy Buffett “Songs From St. Somewhere”

Jimmy Buffett
“Songs From St. Somewhere”
Release Date: August 20, 2013
Label: Mailboat Records
Tracks: 16

Our Score: 5 out of 5 stars

Calling all Parrotheads! Jimmy Buffet is back with new music.  This guy refuses to take it easy. Not only does he consistently tour non-stop every year, but he still manages make new music.  “Songs From St. Somewhere” is not just a cash in album, this is some of his best work to date and really delivers for his fans.  If you follow Jimmy Buffett, you know that he has hundreds of great songs in his library and he can continue to tour without ever making a new song, but this guy just never stops.  You can just tell that he loves what he does and that love is easily found in these new tracks. The album was recorded earlier this year all over the world including Key West, Nashville, Austin, Miami, St. Barts and London. There are several sounds in this new album yet it still has that island laid back Buffett feel.

To kick off this album, the first hit single reunites Jimmy with Toby Keith (last one was “Hey Good Lookin’”) on the duet track “Too Drunk to Karaoke”. This song is such a blast and I can see this song becoming another “Margaritaville” or “Five O’Clock Somewhere”. Jimmy has done some amazing duets over the years with everyone from Alan Jackson to Zac Brown Band but this might be one of my new favorites. “Oldest Surfer On The Beach” is such a chill song and you can literally just sit back and jam out. One thing that I noticed about the album is that he has this very personal and special feel, especially this track. I also really enjoyed bonus track which is “I Want to Go Back to Cartagena”, a Spanish version duet with the Latin singer Fannie Lu. I really loved this track and it is a fantastic way to close out the album.

It is rare that an album comes with a hit on every single track. But “Songs From St. Somewhere” is literally a hit after hit. Plus if you listen to Radio Margaritaville, they have been playing at least four of these songs already for the last few weeks, which has been a bit of a tease but also go us ready to start singing along right from the get-go. So from the moment I received this CD, my wife and I were already fans of those tracks and knew all the words. One thing I am most excited about is hearing these songs live.  I think that these tracks are going to fit very well into their shows, especially songs like “Too Drunk to Karaoke” which is going to be a huge hit with fans. Overall, this is a must have for any Parrotheads!

Track Listing:
1. Somethin’ ‘Bout A Boat
2. Einstein Was A Surfer
3. Earl’s Dead – Cadillac For Sale
4. Too Drunk To Karaoke
5. Serpentine
6. Useless But Important Information
7. I Want To Go Back To Cartagena
8. Soulfully
9. Rue De La Guitare
10. I’m No Russian
11. Tides
12. The Rocket That Grandpa Rode
13. I Wave Bye Bye
14. Colour Of The Sun
15. Oldest Surfer On The Beach
16. I Want To Go Back To Cartagena (Spanish Version)

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Concert Review: Paul McCartney: On the Run Tour – St Louis, Missouri

Paul McCartney/On the Run Tour
Date:  November 11, 2012
Venue:  Scottrade Center, St Louis, Missouri

Even at age 70 Paul McCartney can bounce around like a youngster.  Despite a trip off of a riser towards the end of the show (Macca quickly hopped up, struck a pose and began his guitar duel with Rusty Anderson and Brian Ray on the solo riffs during “The End”) McCartney and company played for a solid 3 hours, introducing some new Beatles and Wings songs to their live catalog.

After taking the summer off, St. Louis saw the beginning of the second leg of the “On the Run” tour.  The Fab Five (besides McCartney, Anderson and Ray the group included longtime members Paul “Wix” Wickens (Keyboards) and drummer Abe Laboriel, Jr.) kicked off the show with “Magical Mystery Tour.” before sliding into “Junior’s Farm.”  After a rousing “Drive My Car” – with the audience supplying the “Beep, beep, beep, beep, beep YEAHS – McCartney removed his jacket.  As the woman in the crowd began to “Woo” he smiled and informed them “That is the wardrobe change of the evening.”

With a playlist full of Beatles and Wings classics, the band managed to sneak in some lesser known songs, including “Sing the Changes” (The Firemen) and “My Valentine,” a song McCartney recently penned for his wife, Nancy.  After the first group of songs McCartney held aloft what has to be the most recognizable musical instrument in the history of rock and roll:  his Hofner 500/1 violin bass.  Later in the show McCartney strapped on his old Epiphone Casino guitar to introduce the song he wrote on it, “Paperback Writer.”  There were other song snippets played as well.  “Let Me Roll It” ended with a quick, loud snippet of “Foxy Lady,” with McCartney giving a quick shout out to the other left handed musical genius, Jimi Hendrix.  Later, during “A Day in the Life” the song evolved into an audience inducing “Give Peace a Chance.”  He also paid tribute to his former Beatles mates no longer with us.  A touching accoustic “Here Today,” a song he wrote to John Lennon, had him brushing away a tear at the end while a simple version of “Something” on a ukulele given to him by George Harrison ended as a full blown rendition.

As with everytime I’ve seen McCartney (this makes number six since the 1980s), his back up band was tight.  But even they are not above reproach.  Deducting that Rusty Anderson had made a minor mistake during his solo on “And I Love Her,” Paul admonished him and had him play just the solo over again.  And I’m pleased to say that the one song I’ve wanted to hear live and never have, “Maybe I’m Amazed,” was finally played.  I can now die happy!

The audience was packed with music fans of all ages – from senior citizens to teenagers to a young boy in his stroller whose parents were staying in the same hotel we were.  He may not remember the music he heard but years from now he can proudly tell people that he saw Paul McCartney live!

SET LIST
Magical Mystery Tour, Junior’s Farm, All My Loving, Jet, Drive My Car, Sing the Changes, The Night Before, Let Me Roll It/Foxy Lady, Paperback Writer, The Long and Winding Road, Nineteen Hundred and Eighty-Five, Maybe I’m Amazed, I’ve Just Seen a Face, And I Love Her, My Valentine, Blackbird, Here Today, Dance Tonight, Mrs. Vandebilt, Eleanor Rigby, Something, Band on the Run, Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da, Back in the U.S.S.R., I’ve Got a Feeling, A Day in the Life/Give Peace a Chance, Let It Be, Live and Let Die, Hey Jude.

FIRST ENCORE
Lady Madonna, Birthday, Day Tripper, Get Back

SECOND ENCORE
Yesterday, Helter Skelter, Golden Slumbers/Carry That Weight/The End 

Photo Credit: Rob Pue

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