Rolling Tracker Revue Review

We were going to post a summary of our Rolling Tracker Revue event this past Saturday, but our friend, author, and fellow musician Steve Goldstein did a better job than we ever could, so we are re-blogging him! And adding many pictures taken by our resident social media guru Rick Damigella. More pics to come!

Steve Goldstein:

This past Saturday, Pi Day, 3-14-15, I had the pleasure to ride along on the tour bus with The Title Trackers as they undertook the most ambitious and brilliantly conceived 1-Day World Tour (of Los Angeles area vinyl record stores) to launch their new LP, Lost Title Tracks. Stopping at six locations in six hours and doing a completely different set at each location (except for the final stop which was a sort of after-party celebrating the day with encore performances of many songs performed earlier in the day. More on that later).

For those of you who do not know about this band or this album and did not read my review of the record back in December, shame on you. The Title Trackers ingeniously write and perform songs based on classic rock albums that lack a title track. Albums like the Stones Exile on Main Street, Tom Petty's Full Moon Fever, The Doors' Morrison Hotel, Springsteen's Greetings From Asbury Park, U2's The Joshua Tree, you get the idea. All of these and more get the Title Trackers Treatment. Made up of three incredibly talented guys with extensive rock roots, this is brilliant parody at its finest.

The "Tour" was as brilliantly conceived and executed as the album it was designed to launch. Beginning at Hollywood's Amoeba Records at 1:00, each tour stop featured a different set, complete with costume changes. Appearing throughout the day as the Stones, Tom Petty, U2, Billy Joel, Bruce Springsteen, the Doors, Johnny Cash and John Lennon, the guys tore through a combination of their own Lost Title Tracks mixed in with actual title tracks from actual albums by these same artists. The tour bus doubled as their dressing room, to the delight of their female fans riding along. The bus appropriately lacked air conditioning, but that was fine with me because rock and roll is meant to be hot and sweaty, like sex.

Hitting each stop on schedule, a different classic vinyl record store every hour on the hour, including Vacation Records, Origami Vinyl, Rockaway Records, and High Fidelity, the tour finally rolled in to the Back Room at the historic Pig & Whistle at 6pm where, for the first time all day, the guys performed in their own street clothes and sang in their own voices. No costumes or impersonations here, this was just the guys as themselves, recapping the best songs of the day, adding the actual Beatles title track, Let It Be, and closing with perhaps the best Lost Title Track, Blood on the Tracks, a loving tribute to perhaps the best Bob Dylan album, played with great affection and sung by each member of the band in turn. 

Thank you and congratulations to Tracker Russ, Tracker Dave and Tracker Andy for pulling it off and letting us all join in.