{"id":256,"date":"2015-01-29T22:24:41","date_gmt":"2015-01-30T03:24:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/culturated.com\/?p=256"},"modified":"2015-01-30T10:35:20","modified_gmt":"2015-01-30T15:35:20","slug":"lets-radiate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/culturated.com\/lets-radiate\/","title":{"rendered":"Let\u2019s Radiate: The Radiators Live at Tipitina’s"},"content":{"rendered":"

My wife left me.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Hopefully not permanently. Her mother had a heart attack earlier in the week while working in Houston, so naturally she drove there to tend to her ailing mom. This left me alone for the annual Radiators<\/strong><\/a> reunion\/anniversary shows at Tipitina\u2019s, which my wife and I had been looking forward to for months.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

But the show must go on and, despite juggling three kids, a job and the medical updates from Houston, I didn\u2019t miss a minute of my favorite band. Hundreds of Fish Heads flew in from around the country to get their white boy wiggle on as the band jammed three-and-a-half-hour shows for three nights into the wee hours of the morning.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

From the onset, it was clear that, even with the long layoff, these geriatric rockers could still bring it. Despite the less-than-packed house, lead singer\/songwriter Ed Volker brought the funk, dipping into his trusty handbag for his maracas, cowbells and even his bicycle horn. Highlights from that night included \u201cSoul of the World, \u201cHot Lube\u201d and my wife\u2019s favorite song, \u201cRed Dress\u201d from the first set. Opening the second set with the Rolling Stones\u2019 \u201cWild Horses\u201d brought the funk down a notch, but it kicked back up with fan favorites \u201cDevil\u2019s Dream\u201d and \u201cPapaya.\u201d It was a great night had by all.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"51VqlcoJf5L\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The weekend brought slightly larger crowds, but still plenty of room to maneuver around the confines of the storied concert hall. Opening with a medley of Earl King\u2019s \u201cCome On,\u201d Howlin\u2019 Wolf\u2019s \u201cWang Dang Doodle,\u201d and Sam Cooke\u2019s \u201cLet the Good Times Roll\u201d got the crowd into the groove. Friday\u2019s show was packed with jams by guitarist Camile Baudoin and singer Dave Malone. Overall the show was bluesier than the night before, but a surprise appearance by George Porter\u2013 handling bass for the first two songs of the second set\u2013 got the crowd whooping and hollering.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

As I walked up on Saturday to see the opening band (a disappointing acoustic duet from the Honey Island Swamp Band), I thought to myself, \u201cFeet don\u2019t fail me now.\u201d After two nights of partying, I could barely keep my body in the groove. At times, I think the band felt the same way. It never ceases to amaze me that these guys in their late 60s can get back together after not playing for nearly a year and still sound like the tight band that had been around since the late\u00a0’70s.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I couldn\u2019t tell if it was me or them, but the final show seemed to drag a bit. Ed Volker\u2019s smiling face from Thursday night was replaced by tired eyes, and methinks his keyboards were off on the first few songs. Even so, there were certainly some stand out moments from Saturday night, including \u201cSuck the Head,\u201d \u201cScrew Loose\u201d and a funky \u201cCissy Strut\u201d that would have made Porter proud. And the encore was brilliant, teasing four songs sandwiched between \u201cThe Party Ain\u2019t Over Til I Say So\u201d and \u201cSoul Kitchen.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I did feel bad for the band that they couldn\u2019t pack the house for their annual shows, and I felt bad for me that I couldn\u2019t sell my wife\u2019s extra ticket. With the added cost of babysitters, it made for an expensive weekend. Since The Radiators<\/strong><\/a> don\u2019t tour anymore, it is difficult for them to attract new fans, making the median age of the revelers somewhere near the big 5-0. That didn\u2019t stop anyone from having a blast and staying until the final guitar riffs. The band made sure to acknowledge the loyal Fish Heads throughout that final show.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

On a more personal note, I wish my wife had been by my side all weekend as these shows seem to act like marriage therapy for us, zapping us into la la land and continuing through the carnival and festival seasons. Hopefully there will be more anniversaries for us and for the band, so we can reunite with them next January and do it all over again. Because, as Dave Malone likes to remind us, \u201cwe are all too stupid to stop.\u201d \u00a0\u2013Shane Finkelstein<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My wife left me.   Hopefully not permanently. Her mother had a heart attack earlier in the week while working in Houston, so naturally…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":257,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[14,7,21],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/culturated.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/01\/Radiators-Anniversary-Pic.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5slei-48","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/culturated.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/culturated.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/culturated.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/culturated.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/culturated.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=256"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/culturated.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/culturated.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/257"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/culturated.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=256"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/culturated.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=256"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/culturated.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=256"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}