Sunday papers

July 5, 2009 - 8:15 PM by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: General 

joe-jacksonGiven my recent homeboundedness (not surprising with nearly nine-month-old twins), my happiness knew no bounds when my husband urged me to buy tickets for the Joe Jackson concert last Thursday night in Tel Aviv. A concert! With old fave Joe Jackson! In Tel Aviv! At Hangar 11 in the Namal!

The concert was fun — what’s not fun about a night off in Tel Aviv with two friends and no babies — but low-key. Joe, it must be said, was in great form, played a good amount of his newer music from more recent albums, but allowed for a solid number of older numbers, including ‘Sunday Papers,’ ‘Steppin’ Out,’ ‘Fools in Love’ and ‘Is She Really Going Out With Him,’ my own personal favorite and his very last encore of the night.

At 53, the tall, thin Jackson, in his dark suit — no tie — and slicked back hair — hard to tell if it’s gray or still blonde — sat at his piano and sipped at a thermal mug throughout, sometimes chatting with the audience. It was his second time in Israel, having been here last summer, and he was clearly pleased to be back. But while he’s got fans here, he couldn’t sell enough tickets for two nights of performances, and they ended up combining the two shows into one. Even then, the port’s spacious and starkly black Hangar 11 wasn’t filled, which made for lots of space and extra chairs for putting up one’s feet. This was not a dancing crowd, and if you wanted to get up and boogie, you were told by the ushers to do so in the wide side aisles.

And as to be expected at the performance of a former angry New Wave musician who came of artistic age in the late 1970s, the crowd was mostly older, 30s, 40s and 50s, with some teenagers brought along by their parents.

So it was a sedate crowd, one which was content to sit in the comfortable black chairs, sipping their beers and drinks, laughing when Jackson good-naturedly told some audience members: “Shut up, I don’t take requests!”

I can imagine that it’s boring to constantly be asked to play one’s older numbers, particularly when you’ve been doing this for the last 25 years, as Jackson has. And what’s interesting about his newer albums, which I’m not as familiar with, is that their sound and words bear the unmistakable stamp of Joe Jackson, and are therefore easy listening, although not to be mistaken for Muzak-like ‘easy listening.’ As always, the never-married Jackson sings about love and unrequited love, lonely nights and how to survive the solitude.

Fools in love they think they’re heroes
’cause they get to feel no pain
I say fools in love are zeros
I should know, I should know
Because this fool’s in love again

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Israelis go on tour

May 20, 2009 - 8:32 PM by · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Business, General, Music, Pop Culture, Travel 

Springsteen's just a short flight away for Israelis.

Springsteen's just a short flight away for Israelis.

There’s plenty of rock shows being imported here this summer, but nothing that you’d want to write home about: Appearances by Joe Jackson, Suzanne Vega, Steve Vai, Chris Cornell and Dream Theater, may satisfy some people, and Leonard Cohen in September will likely be a grand event. And we may even have Madonna to celebrate Yom Kippur with.

But when bona fide heavyweights like Springsteen, U2, The Killers, Coldplay and Pearl Jam are only a couple thousand miles away in Europe, it’s a little hard to get excited about our dubious offerings.

But thanks to a couple of Israeli entrepreneurial endeavors, getting to those superstars isn’t any more difficult than finding parking near Ramat Gan stadium. On.Tour, a Tel-Aviv based online rock & roll travel agency – and similar companies like Kavei Hofsha – provide Israeli music fans with package tours to the top festivals and shows in Europe – including airfare, hotel, transportation and, of course, the coveted tickets to the shows, even those that are listed as sold-out.

And it’s suprisingly affordable – not much more than the vacation without the concert tickets would be. A quick glance at the On.Tours homepage finds a generous offering of summer festivals, including this year’s Rock Werchter, featuring Coldplay, Metallica and The Killers; Denmark’s Roskild with Coldplay, Oasis and Slipknot; Germany’s Rock Im Park (RIP) featuring The Killers, The Kooks and Placebo; Istanbul’s questionably titled Rock & Coke, featuring Linkin Park, Nine Inch Nails and the Kaiser Chiefs; and some of the most popular attractions – the heavy metal festivals like Wacken 2009, The Ozora Festival and Hellfest. The average price for a package, including three or four nights’ accommodations, runs between NIS 4,000 and NIS 5,000.

“Pretty quickly, we learned that Israelis weren’t interested only in music festivals, but in concerts as well. There’s not a lot of top names coming here, and through us, you can go see just about any of the top names touring Europe,” Ido Mart, the company’s marketing director told me last week.

Indeed, the site offers packages for artists ranging from U2 and Springsteen to Britney Spears and Take That, all for prices similar to the festival tariff. According to Mart, On.Tours not only removes the hassle of arranging your own flights and accommodations, it also eases the stress of the biggest task of all – getting tickets to sold out shows.

Lianna Yedida, 25, who has traveled on three On.Tours packages, including two festivals in Europe and is signed up to see Radiohead this summer in Berlin, can’t praise the service too much.

“Everything was great, and of course, it’s easier than doing it yourself. They worry about everything,” she said, adding that the attention to detail was the biggest feature. According to Mart, those details include providing free transportation from the airport to the hotel and back again, and other amenities, like tips on after-show parties and access to them.

So, if you’re going to take a vacation outside of Israel anyway, why not make it a musical one?

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