You really never know what kind of musical surprises life will throw your way. I came back from England believing that that would be my last pre-holiday trip. That was before Stevie Wonder announced a short run of performances in celebration of the 50th anniversary of his landmark album, Songs in the Key of Life. He will be playing the album from start to finish. My first thought was to catch the last show in Los Angeles, which falls just before Christmas, but since I don’t know exactly what our holiday plans will be yet, I decided that Chicago worked better. He’ll be at the United Center, where I saw Rush. I remember he toured Songs in the Key of Life in full around a decade or so ago, but I wasn’t into his music at the time. Back in L.A., I had made it a yearly tradition to attend Stevie’s “House Full of Toys” benefit concerts as long as I lived in L.A. I upheld that tradition from 2016 to 2024. The two best concerts from that run were 2017 and 2021. The 2017 show featured full performances of the Talking Book and Innversions albums, and that remains my favorite House Full of Toys show. 2021 was the first post-Covid HFOT show, so everyone, including the guest performers, were at the absolute top of their game. You could tell there was extra passion and enthusiasm from and performers and crowd, who had all undoubtedly missed the feeling of live music. The setlist was absolute fire, and it represented everything that’s great about a Stevie Wonder concert.
I keep in touch with the group of attendees from Steve Rothery and Dave Foster’s camp in Brighton. Marillion have begun their fall tour of the UK, so some of them have been documenting their experiences through photos and videos posted to our WhatsApp group. I can’t help but envy how much more accessible the band is to the UK-dwelling camp attendees compared to those of us in the states, where the band hasn’t been able to tour since 2018. They don’t appear to have any immediate plans to tour here again, so I’m all the more grateful I took the opportunity to see them in 2016 and 2018. All the other times I’ve seen them, so far, have been on Cruise to the Edge, and cruise performances are barely over an hour each. So, realistically, I haven’t been to a full Marillion concert since 2018.
I stopped into Homer’s Music down in Omaha’s Old Market over the weekend with my Dad. I went in specifically to find the new album from Steve Rothery and Steve Hackett, The Roaring Waves. I first hoped to locate a CD, but was unsuccessful. Luckily, after a brief flip through the miscellaneous vinyl under the letter “H,” I found a vinyl copy and bought it immediately. It means so much more to me since we got to listen to it with Rothery himself in Brighton.
The Girl in the Scarf 
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