The only full Hall & Oates Christmas show of the year!

Well, I did it. I managed to win tickets to the China Club show in New York City to see my favorite act Daryl Hall & John Oates, performing their music along with some songs from their latest CD Home For Christmas. This must be my lucky time of the year as I looked forward to this past Monday night's show and Hall & Oates did not disappoint.

There was this cool Marvin Gaye t-shirt I had purchased in Manhattan this past Saturday night. I felt that it was the perfect outfit to wear for the show, since I knew both Daryl Hall & John Oates were big Marvin Gaye fans. It caught my eye as I was leaving the t-shirt shop that Saturday evening, so immediately I had to turn around and go right back into the store on 42nd Street to get it.

Originally, I was anticipating a full blown tour to support Hall & Oates' new Christmas album, but it never panned out. So lucky for me and the rest of the people fortunate to live in the northeast and win tickets to this special show, we got to see a very unique, yet rare performance by Daryl & John, unlike any other show they've ever done.

Here's the setlist on what they played that night:


Home For Christmas
Christmas Must Be Tonight
It Came Upon A Midnight Clear
Children Go Where I Send Thee
The Christmas Song
Jingle Bell Rock
Maneater
Say It Isn't So
One On One
Sara Smile
I Can't Go For That (No Can Do)
Rich Girl

Encore

Oh Holy Night


What a terrific night to see Daryl Hall & John Oates perform a completely different setlist than what many fans had been accustomed to in the past, thanks to the Christmas season. John Oates simply put in a brilliant performance of "The Christmas Song". And Daryl Hall's take on "Oh Holy Night" was a fitting end to a great night of Christmas music and their greatest hits. There won't be any more performances from them for this album for the rest of the year, but you can purchase their album Home For Christmas at TransWorld stores throughout the U.S.

I took lots of pictures of the China Club show and you can check them out at my photo album page. The web address is http://maniacmel.smugmug.com

Merry Christmas!

Taking full advantage of a company's demise...

News of Tower Records closing their shops came a few weeks ago and with that, a major liquidation sale began. Over the last few weeks, they've slashed prices from 30% to around 85% of their merchandise. With Tower Records folding in just a few short weeks, it signals another sign of the times...many consumers would rather download mp3s, whether legally or illegally (especially those cheap punk teenage kids), instead of having an actual CD in their hands, with a CD booklet filled with liner notes and lyrics.

For over 22 years, I've shopped at various Tower Records locations throughout New York City, Philadelphia, Cherry Hill, Paramus and Nanuet. I could always count on them to carry a wide variety of products, ranging from music, movies and audio/video hardware. But in the last few years, and believe me, I'm not totally blaming internet downloading (I'm guilty of it myself), but chain stores like Best Buy have come in to kick ass with their competitive pricing. Yes, I found myself shopping at Best Buy because I got the best deals there when it came to music CDs and movies on DVD. In fact, when I scrape up enough cash, I plan to purchase a Samsung HDTV at Best Buy, simply for their immediate availability and low prices.

That doesn't go without saying that I'm milking Tower Records' misfortune into my goldmine. Over the past few weeks, I've purchased CDs, DVDs and magazines for dirt cheap. Tower completely blew it over the past few years by not staying competitive. The people behind the counters seem to be more concerned about where their next body piercing is going to be located. Kind of leads me to believe that Tower Records hired for cheap and these punk losers needed a job that didn't require them to take a course in French Fries 101.

So if you have a Tower Records location near you, get to it now before they shut down because you might find something you always wanted, but never got it because it was overpriced. As of this writing, the minimum percentage off list price is 50%. And the saying goes, "If you wait for it to become cheaper, it may not be here next week".