April Lindner

At age 63, Chrissie Hynde is still a badass, still the reigning queen of cool.  So when our ticket taker at Upper Darby's Tower Theater informed us that Chrissie had requested we not take cell phone photos at her show, I wasn't about to risk pissing her off. photo lifted from The Tower Theater Facebook page Andre and I have been looking forward to seeing Chrissie and the Pretenders for a long time.  More years ago than I care to count, we saw them with a bunch of our college friends from the front few rows of the University of New Hampshire field house. The band was incredible.  I was nineteen, surrounded by friends, seeing a band we all loved more or less from the front row.  The good vibes are basically all I remember. Original lineup circa 1989 photo by Fin Costello  Fast forward to 2014. The show began with new material--all of it top-notch--from Chrissie's Stockholm album.   I'm happy to report that Chrissie Hynde still...

Aimee Mann and Ted Leo clearly enjoy each other's company.  Onstage, she ribs him about his nerdy proclivities for  memorizing Hobbit trivia and Paul Stanley stage banter, and he teases her right back. It's not hard to see why these two musicians recently joined forces to write and record as The Both. At Saturday Night's show at Union Transfer, it was also clear how two fairly different sensibilities can add up to something electrifying. I've long admired Mann's solo work, and, before that, her work with uber-Eighties band 'Til Tuesday, but I wasn't prepared for how well her acerbic folkie sensibility would meld with Leo's punk/indie rocker style. Ted Leo on guitar His voice is resounding and earthy where hers is ethereal and poetic.  And his guitar solos lent welcome heat to each song.   Aimee Mann on bass Saturday night's show included every song on The Both.  It also featured solo material from both and a Thin Lizzie cov...

Chris Collingswood Last weekend, Fountains of Wayne came to the Ardmore Music Hall, a nifty new venue fifteen minutes for our house.  As big fans of FoW, we were so there.  If all you know of Fountains of Wayne is "Stacy's Mom," I urge you to give this band a closer listen--especially if you crave lyrics that range from clever to heartbreaking, sometimes in the same song.  And especially if, like me, you're a sucker for power pop. Adam Schlesinger and Chris Collingswood are one of those songwriting teams whose talents meld perfectly.  Schlesinger's a brilliant wordsmith with, of all things, serious Broadway credentials.  You know that boffo opening  number Neal Patrick Harris sang at the 2011 Tony Awards?  Guess who cowrote it?   Adam Schlesinger Schlesinger also writes for Hollywood (including songs for one of my favorite goofy rom coms, Music and Lyrics .)  He brings a storyteller's sensibility to Fountains of Wayne's ...

Today Andre helped me put up the beginnings of a rock and roll memorabilia wall.  On the left we've got an autograph and two picks from Eric "Roscoe" Ambel of the Del Lords.  And on the right we've got a ticket from Fairleigh Dickinson University's 2010 WAMFest which featured a conversation/concert with Bruce Springsteen and poet laureate Robert Pinsky, moderated by John Wesley Harding, a.k.a. Wesley Stace.  If you squint, you'll see that my ticket was autographed by Wes and by Bruce.  Robert Pinsky remains the one that got away! We've got a lot of concerts lined up for October, so I'm hoping my wall will get some new swag soon. And though it's already hanging on a different wall (with my other favorite memorabilia--poetry broadsides by Charles Simic and Richard Wilbur) I have to share one of my very favorite souvenirs: The day the Advanced Review Copies of my novel Catherine  first reached me also happened to be the day Andr...

Jake Clemons had some big shoes to fill when Bruce Springsteen tapped him to play sax in the E Street Band after the 2011 death of Clarence Clemons (Jake's uncle).  Fans can be a cranky bunch, and some of Springsteen's longtime followers were skeptical that anyone could come close to taking Clarence's place as Springsteen's tenor sax player and onstage foil. But it didn't take long before the skeptics came around.  For one thing, Jake can really do justice to songs like Thunder Road, Spirit in the Night, and even Jungleland, a song some fans thought should be retired after Clarence's death.  For another, Jake has a pleasing onstage presence, bringing out a warm and avuncular side of Bruce's personality.  Nobody will ever take the place of Clarence Clemons.  But Jake has quickly become a beloved member of the E Street Band in his own right. So when my friend and fellow Bruce enthusiast Diane told me that Jake Clemons would be headlining at the ...

So yesterday was our 26 th  wedding anniversary.  These days my husband works some seriously long hours visiting customers in northern New Jersey.  Asbury Park—rock and roll mecca, home of the legendary Stone Pony nightclub, and spiritual home to all rabid fans of Bruce Springsteen—happens to be right smack dab in the middle of his territory.  So early yesterday morning I hitched a ride with him and spent the day in Asbury writing in a coffee shop, waiting for his workday to be done. Andre and I have spent a lot of very happy hours at the Pony seeing some of our favorite musicians—Jesse Malin, Willie Nile, Butch Walker, among many others.  Last night, They Might Be Giants was on the bill.   We’ve long loved TMBG for their wild creativity, their sharp intelligence, and their sense of fun.  The Johns (Linnell and Flansburgh) put on a fun, high-energy show, too.  Unlike some acts I could name, t...

In 1988, my husband Andre and I were living in Yonkers, N.Y. in an attic apartment that got hotter than hell in the summer.  We were newly married; I was in grad school, and we were dead broke.  We didn't have money back then to buy music, but we listened to the radio--a lot.  One day I stumbled onto something unusual; the deejay on a college station was so crazy about a new song he'd just heard that he couldn't stop playing it.  He played it at least ten times running--which might have sent me running for the dial.  But the song was captivating--the tune memorable, the lyrics biting and smart, the guitar solo blazing--and ten times running wasn't enough.  I called Andre into the the room so he could hear it too. That song was "Judas Kiss" by a band I'd never heard of before, New York's own Del-Lords. Like I said, we didn't buy CDs back then; we didn't go to concerts either.  Not long after that we had two kids, and signed on for mo...