Roger McGuinn SOPAC review, N. Jerseyland

So first, a bit about the Venue & local conditions.  Maybe some locals are considering attending a show there soon, like David Bromberg this week, or "The Weight" Band cover band coming up.

Place is small, 400-something seats with a micro-mezzanine. Part of a larger structure with three small movie theaters up on the third floor. I did peek in to the cinema venues during intermission.  Looked like a nice spot for a movie. That's not allowed; separate $ admission for that. They had some Kiddo film with cartoon characters, and "Beauty & The Beast" and some other one.

It (SOPAC) is literally right at the South Orange NJ Transit train station.  Check your rail schedule for easy commute. Whatever line runs from Secaucus Junction, not NE Corridor. Plenty o' spots for pre-show Eats & Drinks. There is a Burrito place which is BYOB, a Moroccan spot (Delicious) a traditional NNJ casual Italian place, a Brewpub and a dive bar (Bunny's) all within a 2-minute walk.

Parking nearby is free after 6 PM at the meter spots. It's a whopping 25 cents per half-hour at the meter before 6 PM on weekdays. We parked at a metered lot near the Tire place and Auto Repair Shoppe near the venue. The NJ Transit lot may have different rates for parking. We did not investigate.

Our vehicle was safe and uninjured in the well-lit lot near Tire Shoppe, as were all the other vehicles. The area is the trendy part of town & cops roll through every so often.  However, be aware that your GPS machine might direct you to "Exit 144" of the Garden State Parkway, which is a tour of South Orange Slum-town.

"Exit 142" takes you through the neighborhood of charming Tudor manors built of Stone & Brick.  That other area looks more like CrackTown... Avoid that route. Traffic lights are timed poorly and there are potholes, nowhere you might want to stop for a leisurely snack, or stop at all. We observed shady stuff rolling through.

The googoll-map or mapquest directions are fine and avoid the exit 144 slums.  

Anyway, the Moroccan place makes great Food. It's tiny, 7-9 tables but Aromas of Good Stuff circulate there.  I went in to check it out and grab a take-out menu just about 6 PM and the Happy Diners all had nice-looking plates of food. Typical Mediterranean stuff like Lebanese with the Falafel, Shwarma, Skewers of animal with Rice, Tsatziki, Dolmos, all that jazz, done up with great care and love.  They've got the rotisseries spinning in the kitchen and the place smells wonderful.

http://falafellyyours.com/menu.php

I just got a Shwarma / Pita sandwich to go, and it was succulent.  That was great, because our pre-show snack at Bunny's was absolutely awful  (where's my Energizer bunny barfing smiley?) 

Just don't even bother eating there. It's OK to go in for a Beer or Cocktail I suppose, but if you're in South Orange and want a drink + meal bring your favorite booze to one of the many BYOB places and avoid Bunny's completely. I was already done with the "Stale Grease Deep-fryer lameass Bar food" genre at age 19 or so, but if you're into mozzerella sticks, bar-pies and rancid grease don't let me deter you. Absolutely the worst Cheese-Steak and Calamari I've tasted in decades. Just completely awful.

But their food would be just fine in rural Nevada, Saskatchewan, North Dakota, or  Namibia.  It is sub-grade Jerseyland bar food. Don't eat there.

I suppose the vast majority of people between LA and Seattle would be able to eat that sandwich and say "pretty good cheese-steak" but I felt ashamed chopping the leftovers to mix in with the Dog-Food, and Hüsky scoffed at it. He's still pissed off at me. That's saying a lot

So anyhow, the lameoid pre-show 'meal' will aid me in my recollections of a Very Stellar R. McGuinn show as I enter my Golden Years.

Let's say if you can look back on 40 years x 2.6 meals per day, 364 days per year, that's about 37,856 meals, give or take. You only can recall the really Good ones or the really Bad ones. Like that time at 'Waffle House' on the way to Lock'n: (How can they actually fuck up 'Steak & Eggs' that badly ??)

Or the time in Köln, Germany where I had a Delicious roasted Swine leg and my pals attempted some Vegan meal. They had some pitiful salad, which they probably still recall, and I had a succulent Pig leg. I can remember how the little elbow-hairs glistened while I munched the roasty swine-goodness all swathed in herbs and cooked to perfection  washed down with trays & trays of Kölsch in their tall skinny glasses. That's just how they do it in that town, and there is a Huge Cathedral.

Now that I've covered all the Logistics of South Orange PAC, a few notes about the show.  I walked around the corner from 'Bunny's' to grab the tixx from Box office and scoped out the place. Big sign by the 'Bar' (just a couple tables with coolers) stating "Bar Is Closed During Performance - Open before and during Intermission".

That's part of Mr. McGuinn's rider, not standard for the venue. Of course they would like to sell overpriced booze for the whole show.  Mr. McGuinn tolerates only discrete pee breaks, which is Good.  No dozens of people climbing all over you going to & fro Bar and restrooms. Sure, you are allowed to go pee, but no puffing Fatties in the venue or probably not even the discreet E-Vape.  Also the Emcee told us "Shut off yer damn fones, no fotography or electronics allowed !!" Some person in the row adjacent was piddling around with their fone-device and the Shark-like usher immediately shone a flashlight.  I'm not opposed to people puffing Thin Havana in the theatre, but SOPAC would likely complain or make a scene. It's a tiny place.

His whole routine at this point is based upon "Small Audience, sit down, shut up and Listen, Listen, Listen". It's really more like a Off-Off Broadway performance compared to a Bar-Band with jumping, chatting teenagers howling & screeching. Not that I'm opposed to that, but this is different. It's an extremely intimate solo acoustic performance that is well-choreographed and rehearsed.

Don't want to spoil the surprises for anyone attending the show in your own local Venue... 

I would bet it's a similar show each night with a few change-ups here and there.

Mr. McGuinn strolls out from Stage Right playing a classic Tune on the pristine Rickenbacker electric.

I will tell you more soon... 

My defective Krap windoze box just erased a paragraph.

^

The show format is basically a mini-autobiography. He sits down with some potted plants as a backdrop and his 'props' are in stands nearby, one banjo, two acoustics and the Rickenbacker.  He starts at the beginning and meanders on in a chronological manner with the storytelling.  Tells about his first guitar, hearing stuff on the radio & learning it, going to music school part-time as a kid, all the while illustrating his tales with various riffs and chord progressions. We get samples of Blues, Country, Folk and Pop stylings interlaced with parts of songs or the whole song or a couple verses.

But he's starting with the early pre-Byrds part of his career from when he started playing Pro before graduating High School, working with 'The Limelighters' and flying out to LA and SF to make records, meeting Pete Seeger, it's all  a pretty complex structure of Folk-tales and tunes. It's obvious that he's been doing this format for a while. His patter is informative and comedic at the same time, and just when you start drifting off he picks up an acoustic and plays a Ripping version of 'Bells of Rhymney' or such.

BTW as he explains, it is pronounced 'Rum Knee' not 'Rim Knee'.

Of course during the progress of the 90 - minute + set with intermission, you get to hear all of your favorite Byrds tunes and some obscure stuff you never heard.  Between each song is a rambling Diatribe of Musical history.

Ever wonder how 'Ballad of Easy Rider' came to be? It seems Peter Fonda visited Bob Dylan, who wrote the intro verse on a Napkin and said 'Go see McGuinn -- he'll know what to do with it'. So he plays a nice version of that and then describes how Dylan wouldn't accept his 1/2 of the songwriting credit. Generous fellow, indeed. McGuinn describes 'Easy Rider' as a low-budget motorcycle film,which is hilarious.

About the song selection --

Not in any particular order, some of his tunes were 'Chestnut Mare', 'Bells of Rhymney', 'My Back Pages', 'Mr. Spaceman' (and another one from 4D), 'Turn, Turn, Turn', 'Ballad Of Easy Rider', a couple from 'Sweetheart Of The Rodeo'...

In terms of his picking style, I wasn't close enough to see his fingers, but I noticed something funny with the 'Six-String' Martin. Turns out it's a Seven-String HD-7 which he had custom built, extra bass G-string, as that was his favorite combo on the 12-string. So Martin then went and built a few hundred and sold them.  He went into a few minutes of description and played a few solos illustrating the benefits of that extra 'G' on the 7-string.

His version of 'Eight Miles High' was more than worth the price of admission. Again, it came with a tall tale of how the song came to be written and a possible fudge of the actual altitude of transatlantic flights.

Don't want to spoil it for those who might be attending any McGuinn shows on this tour, but he only does one Banjo song, preceded by a round of Banjo jokes.

There is a double 'Mr. Tambourine Man' exploration: an interpretation of the Dylan original followed by a Byrd-esque version.

Somebody mentioned drinking...

This is the sort of performance which you would approach with a glass of nice Cognac or Armagnac, something mellow. If you must drink at SOPAC, they sell you the 3-dollar souvenir sippy-cup with your first round. So the 5-dollar beer is 8 bucks for the first one; the 9-dollar Cocktail is 12 bucks for the first. Too rich for me, although people still lined up at intermission. I opted out and took a brief walking tour of the location.

If you must have your Whiskey during the show, just pack a hip-flask.  Someone on the Zone used to call it 'Ass Pocket'.