A few weeks back, I searched for some reviews of Jamarama's West Coast swing. An extensive newspaper review turned up nothing, but a few blogs provided a little bit of coverage. Since then, Jamarama had six more dates and completed their spring tour (no further dates have been announced).
The list of reviews on these second set of dates is once again slim and unfortunately none of them are nearly as interesting as, say, a behind-the-scenes view of the tour. Still, one takes what one can get... and, you know, the only one that goes into more detail than "Dan Zanes is awesome" in the midst of a whole bunch of stuff utterly irrelevant to this blog is Fran's review of the Dallas show. Lots of pictures.
I tried, people...
Whither Jamarama Live Reviews?
Clea's post on attending Jamarama over the weekend reminded me of something I wanted to do...
I've received a fair amount of website hits from people looking for Jamarama Live reviews. So I decided to see what I could find for myself. And the answer was clear: the reason I'm getting all these hits is because there really aren't any reviews out there.
So rather than rail on the mainstream media, I went to the real power, people! The BLOGS, man!
Jamarama Reviews Out The Wazoo(s) (West Coast Edition)
Small Ages: The good (Dan Zanes), the not-so-good (Milkshake), and the ugly (the Ohmies) (this past weekend...)
Buzzville: See above. Also, apparently Dan signs T-shirts! (Santa Barbara)
Winters on the web: "It was sweet and treacly and nauseating. 70 minutes of my life I will never get back but worth it to see my son happy!" So at least we know it's 70 minutes long. (Santa Barbara)
Gavin: All you ever wanted to know about sound for the show. And it wasn't that crowded. (Long Beach)
News: Jamarama Live! Sets Western Tour, Ignores Fifth-Largest City in America
One of my favorite scene in the classic mockumentary This Is Spinal Tap is when the tour manager of the band Spinal Tap tells them that their Boston gig has been cancelled, but tries to soften the blow, telling them, "Don't worry, it's not a big college town."
I bring this up because in looking at Jamarama's western and southwestern swing in March and April 2006, there's one city that, uh, seems to have been overlooked.
Saturday, March 4 Santa Barbara, CA Arlington Theater
Sunday, March 5 Long Beach, CA Terrace Theatre
Saturday, March 11 Marin, CA Marin Center
Sunday, March 12 San Diego, CA Spreckels Theatre
Saturday, March 25 Las Vegas, NV Aladdin Resort & Casino
Sunday, March 26 Fresno, CA William Saroyan Theatre
Saturday, April 1 Salt Lake City, UT Ford Theatre
Sunday, Apri 2 Denver, CO Paramount Theatre
Saturday, April 8 Dallas, TX Nokia Theatre
Sunday, April 9 Houston, TX Verizon Wireless Theater
No offense to the fine folks of Fresno, but where in the name of Raffi is Phoenix on this list? We're not all senior citizens, golfers, and cacti, you know. Kids. Lots of kids. Swarming with kids. And a population bigger than any of those cities listed above (OK, the LA area deserves its shows, no quibbling there).
Sigh. I'm especially disappointed because Dan Zanes is taking over from Laurie Berkner as the headliner on this swing (with the Ohmies filling in on some dates). Would really liked to have seen him...
