In this episode of Seeing Them Live, Charles and Doug host Jessica Catena, a seasoned podcaster and avid concert-goer. Jessica shares her musical journey, offering in-depth stories from live music events and shares the inspiration behind starting her podcast. Discussions include her first concert featuring George Michael, navigating concerts during unpredictable weather, and her most surprising concert experiences, including Lady Gaga and the Global Citizen's concert. Jessica also reflects on missed opportunities to see performances, such as the Nashville TV series cast, and explores the intriguing realm of misheard lyrics, including a notable Iggy Pop song. The interview concludes with Jessica’s plans for upcoming podcast episodes and her passion for connecting people through music.
In this episode of "Seeing Them Live," host Charles introduces Jessica Catena, creator of the Music Notes with Jess podcast, a weekly show focused on the latest trends in the music industry. With over 200 episodes covering diverse topics and genres, Jessica shares her unique perspectives on live music, drawing from her experiences attending numerous concerts and her passion for singing at church. Charles highlights an episode where Jessica discusses her first concert experience, featuring George Michael at Madison Square Garden in 2008, emphasizing her deep admiration for the artist and the emotional connection she felt during the performance.
The conversation delves into Jessica's attendance at various concerts, including her experience at the KFest concert sponsored by radio station K104, where she enjoyed performances from a lineup of diverse artists. They also explore her memorable encounters at concerts, such as making eye contact with George Michael during a performance and discovering future soul band Mad Satta through a local concert series.
Charles then transitions to discussing surprising concert experiences, including a Lady Gaga concert at City Field, where unexpected rain made for a memorable and wet performance. Jessica also shares her experience attending the Global Citizen's concert, an event aimed at raising awareness of global issues through music, where she witnessed performances by a range of artists for free in Central Park.
As the conversation progresses, Charles and Jessica touch upon regretful missed opportunities, with Jessica expressing her desire to have attended a concert featuring the cast of the TV series Nashville. Finally, they discuss the origin of Jessica's podcast, Music Notes with Jess, which she started after being inspired by friends creating their own podcasts and her passion for sharing her insights and opinions on music. Charles also brings up a humorous anecdote regarding the interpretation of lyrics from an Iggy Pop song.
Overall, the episode provides listeners with a glimpse into Jessica's diverse concert experiences and her journey in the world of podcasting, showcasing her enthusiasm for music and storytelling.
ARTISTS MENTIONED: Aaron Fresh, Adam Lambert, Alicia Keys, Ayaz, B.O.B., Ben Platt, Carole King, Cherise, David Gray, French Montana, George Michael, H.E.R., Iggy Pop., John Baptiste, Kat DeLuna, Lady Gaga, Ludacris, NCT 127, OneRepublic, Orianthi, Pharrell Williams, Queen, Richie Sambora (from Bon Jovi), Taylor Hawkins (from Foo Fighters), Train, Tyle Cruz, Usher.
VENUES MENTIONED: Beacon Theatre, Citifield, Central Park, Dutchess Stadium, Madison Square Garden, Radio City Music Hall.
[00:00:00] Charles: Jessica Catena is the host and creator of the Music Notes with Jess podcast. A weekly show featuring the latest trending news about the music industry. Jessica began her podcast four years ago and has over 200 episodes covering a wide range of topics and music genres.
[00:00:22] She has been to numerous concerts and has some interesting perspectives about live music. Jessica also, enjoys singing at church. Jessica, welcome to Seeing Them Live.
[00:00:34] Jessica: Thank you So, much, Charles and Doug. So, nice to meet you and thank you for having me.
[00:00:38] Charles: It's kind of interesting. I listened to several of your, episodes and one that kind of lined up with our guest um, sheet where we have our guests fill out you know, their first concert, best concert, things like that. You had this episode, it's episode 18, which is the, uh, I believe it was a Facebook challenge concerts. I think it was called.
[00:01:02] Jessica: Yeah, it was a superlative I happened to see on Facebook and January is a very tough year to cover because you're just coming out of the holidays and I was like, well, this is perfect. Now we can all pretend we're at a concert and I could share my variety of music tastes that way.
[00:01:16] Charles: And so, it's like best, worst, loudest, which I thought was kind of cool. So, we, we kind of put this interview together; kind of a mashup between the guest sheet and your episode 18. So, I wanted to just start you know, at the beginning, like we always kind of do with um, your first concert. I believe it was uh, George Michael at Madison Square Garden in a 2008. So, go, go ahead and uh, tell us about that show.
[00:01:45] Jessica: Sure. So, I loved George Michael. I still can't believe he's gone. And I first learned about him from my parents because I'm born right before the 90s started. So, I remember listening to a lot of his music when it came out past that point as a solo artist. And then when I unfortunately started to see a downfall in his career in the mid-2000s, I was like, no, this, this can't be, this can't happen. So, when I saw that he was gonna tour again in America, that hasn't happened in a really long time. And I loved the compilation. He released, I believe it was 2006, called 25 to celebrate the 25 years he's been in the industry. And I wanted to go to the concert. So, my dad was nice enough to buy the tickets for me and I took my mom and I loved it.
[00:02:42] It was great. And 2008 doesn't sound like it was a long time ago, but I did not have a smartphone back then. So, I don't have any photos. I do have the ticket stub, but I don't have any photos or video of that night. Luckily, the tickets were little bit of expense where everybody got a concert program to come with. being at the show. So, I do have that and the footage of it in the book does look like how I saw him on stage. So, that's my photographic memory of how I saw him. But the stood-out moment for me was, do you know his song Waiting for that Day or Waiting Reprise off of Listen Without Prejudice?
[00:03:25] Charles: You know, I I, I don't um, but I wanted to mention too, Jessica, don't you have, is there a recording of this um, concert on your episode?
[00:03:35] Jessica: Yeah. So, that I actually got from YouTube.
[00:03:38] Charles: No, I thought that was cool. How you kind of uh, put as many as you could include...
[00:03:43] Jessica: Yeah.
[00:03:44] Charles: Of your concert stories, the recordings of them. So, So, go ahead. Sorry for the interruption.
[00:03:49] Jessica: No, that's okay. So, I was gonna say, especially because of that part that you were saying, Charles, I loved that you heard the song Waiting and all of a sudden, the doors open and George Michael walks out. 'Cause we were all waiting for the longest time for him to come back to America. He really had, you know, a bad reputation for the longest time that he stayed away from America. He kept on just touring in Europe. So, I was So, happy and I was singing along. I was dancing and I was sitting section 60, row C, seat 4. I wrote it down. So, I could talk about it on the show. And I guess he was close enough at one point where I was singing along and he was pointing at me.
[00:04:28] My mom's like, he's staring at you. He's looking at you. And I was like, I can't believe this is happening. I got to go to more concerts. And I was late to the party. I was 19 for my first concert. So, I definitely had more to go. And we'll be talking more about that.
[00:04:43] Charles: We've had other guests, who, you know, they, they, similar situations where they kind of lock eyes with the, the artist and it's this really cool, you know, connection that, that it's So, memorable. Um, So, that was your first concert, which uh, sounds, sounds like an awesome first concert.
[00:05:06] Jessica: It was great.
[00:05:07] Charles: And then though you make this distinction, I believe again, in episode 18 of your podcast um, of your first festival concert. So, I was like, huh? Yeah. Cause they're different.
[00:05:18] Jessica: They're very different.
[00:05:20] Charles: Yeah. So, go ahead. And I believe that was sponsored by a radio station. Was that the K Fest, K104?
[00:05:28] Jessica: Yes, So, K104, they're a great radio station out of Poughkeepsie, New York, and they consider themselves a top 40 radio station where not only do you hear pop music, but sometimes you hear a little bit of rap, which was kind of rare back then and nowadays, because usually you separate the two and they threw a concert called K Fest named after their radio station.
[00:05:53] And it used to take place out of this local baseball stadium called Deja Stadium and my now roommate, my best friend, she invited me to go on Sunday, June 6th, 2010, and there was a variety of artists there. I had to write down the list to just go through all of them. I don't know if you want me to or not, or we could just share the link, but it was great.
[00:06:19] Charles: Go ahead.
[00:06:20] Jessica: So, it first opened up with Orianthi. She's a great guitarist, and I believe she's dating Richie Sambora from Bon Jovi. Then you had rapper B. O. B., R & B star Aaron Fresh, Ludacris, who just did the Super Bowl with Usher, Tyle Cruz, Ayaz, Cherise Train, Kat DeLuna, and this was what sold me to go into the concert.
[00:06:46] The last person to perform was Adam Lambert and I took his loss at American Idol where I needed to like, I needed a moment. I just couldn't believe that he didn't win American Idol. And this was right before the talk about history. This was right before he would be singing with Queen, which is my favorite band.
[00:07:06] So, it was a really great day and what's happened because of COVID, there's been some sort of licensing where they couldn't perform at the baseball stadium anymore. So, now they go upstate to where Woodstock was taking place. They perform at Bethel Woods from now on. So, I haven't been there since, but that was a really great day. That was an all-day concert where it was raining on and off, but it was enjoyable the whole time.
[00:07:34] Charles: Yeah, you mentioned rain seems to kind of plague you throughout um, a lot of your concert experiences that you had mentioned as memorable ones.
[00:07:46] Jessica: I think it follows me, follows me everywhere because I'm also, born in April. So, it always rains.
[00:07:51] Charles: So, from that point, then um, if, again, we get into the superlatives. um, we’ll go to uh, if you don't mind uh, 2014, this band that you've seen uh, I believe it was either four or five times called Mad Sada.
[00:08:10] Jessica: Oh, yes.
[00:08:10] Charles: Was that the Danbury summer concert series? .
[00:08:14] Jessica: Yes. So, I went to Western Connecticut State University and I also, was lucky to get into two of the radio station companies that are located nearby as internships, and I worked with one of them a couple for a couple of years. And one of the events that we would go to would be this local concert in the city where they would have a concert dome that they built upon this little grassy area that's um, it's seasonal. It's right by the train station though. So, that's why they like to choose that spot in case people like to come from all over. And I happen to recognize one of the band members that they were advertising. I had a music class with him and he played trumpet. So, I happened to see the concert and I loved it. What's amazing is the genre is not something you would think of seeing everybody getting excited about. It's modern jazz.
[00:09:08] Charles: Yeah. I thought it, it was described as like future soul, whatever, whatever that means. Um, but yeah, listening to a few of their tracks, was to me yeah, it's like uh, kind of really chilled out, cool music. And uh, Joanna Teeters?
[00:09:25] Jessica: Yeah. Joanna Tatters. Right.
[00:09:27] Charles: Yeah, she's the, um, the lead singer, which um, you're, you're friendly with her as well, right?
[00:09:33] Jessica: Yeah. So, unfortunately, Mad Satta didn't last too long. They did make a couple of indie albums, but I think just to try to keep things going was a little difficult for all of them to stay together. So, they did part ways amicably, but Joanna has taken on a solo career where she could... She still sings soul music mostly, and she's done reggae.
[00:09:57] She's done all these different styles and she posted on Instagram too. So, that's how I've been able to stay in touch with her. But her idol is Amy Winehouse. So, she loves that type of soul, Joss Stone type of music where, as you said, it makes you relax. It doesn't even think about music. Usually you're pumped up, but it's So, serene at one point where you're just So, happy when you hear their music.
[00:10:23] Charles: Yeah. And, um. you know, again, you would, you would uh, talked about how many times you'd seen them and uh, it made me think like, there's a lot of bands. It seems to be my sticking point of like five times, you know, that, and then I don't, I don't see them any, any longer after that. It's just, It's kind of weird.
[00:10:43] Jessica: I gotta catch up with that.
[00:10:45] Charles: So, then uh, if we move to, let's see, there's a couple of um, I guess your most, uh, was it the most surprising concerts. There's one in 2018 with uh, Lady Gaga at City Field, and again, you're, I I think the, the, the surprising thing for you was that it ever happened at all, right? Because again, because of the weather.
[00:11:08] Jessica: Yes. So, I don't know how it is where you guys live, but we get notorious rainstorms over the summer. It's practically hurricane season, and there's once in a while where we can even get a nor'easter where you literally have to look outside to make sure it's okay to just even be outside and from working in radio, I can tell you that normally, once you see that things have to be taken into consideration for safety, you cannot go outside if there's any thunder and lightning, because lightning, you don't want to play with that.
[00:11:42] So, City Field is where the New York Mets play and there's no coverage at all. That it's just an open arena where you just there it's you and the sky and the Mets, that's it.
[00:11:54] So, what happened was, two of my cousins had asked if I wanted to go see Lady Gaga with them. So, I said, sure, you know, that sounds cool. She's awesome. So, we were looking at the forecast and we didn't even know it was going to happen. So, to play it safe, my dad offered to give me a lift because I lived in New York at the time and I had one cousin in New Jersey and another cousin who would work nearby in, in the boroughs in Brooklyn and Queens.
[00:12:23] So, to be safe, my cousin from New Jersey asked if she could sleep over regardless of the concert happens or not. And I said, of course. So, that was our plan. And we continued to just go into the concert regularly and then. A few hours in, I get a text message from my dad saying, I got in. And when I say you got in, I was like, like, you know, inside the venue, cause it was pouring outside.
[00:12:50] It was literally a downfall where it just did not stop raining. I could show you the pictures. I don't know if you saw my Instagram, but you literally see, it looks like there's a hose right behind Lady Gaga singing, it was just... It was messy. It did not look good, even though she did great. But my dad said, no, I'm in, I'm on the ground floor. They gave me a free ticket and I was like; I hate you.
[00:13:12] Charles: He scored some great, great seats, huh?
[00:13:14] Jessica: Yeah. And you know, it's crazy. I really believe in this, but I believe he got those tickets because of good karma, because he was staying at the bar area right by City Field. And someone was going to the concert and they didn't expect it to just rain like this the whole time.
[00:13:32] They were just thinking that it was going to stop eventually, but it didn't. So, he actually lent someone or gave someone his umbrella that he had. So, he was watching Lady Gaga in the rain and he happened to see in the box office if there was some extra tickets and they just split it to him out of sympathy.
[00:13:49] Charles: Wow. Yeah. You know that never hurts to ask, right?
[00:13:52] Jessica: No, and what's wild is in fact, I don't know if you saw, I know you listened to a couple episodes of my podcast, which thank you, but I found out from my friend Luke, a few years ago, when Taylor Hawkins had passed away, he wanted to talk about his Citi Field concert to go see Foo Fighters, and the same thing happened to him and his friend where they got upgrade seats at that same venue. So, they're really nice over there at Citi Field.
[00:14:16] Charles: Yeah. If you're gonna brave the weather, right? They help you out. But then like under that same category of most surprising, you also had, I believe it was in 2019, you went to this Global Citizen's concert. Is that correct?
[00:14:31] Jessica: Yeah, So, are you familiar with the organization Global Citizen?
[00:14:35] Charles: I read a little bit about them, Jessica, but uh, go ahead and, and just uh, yeah, if, if you don't mind, if you want to kind of fill us in on that.
[00:14:44] Jessica: So, this is an amazing story, and it's gonna sound crazy for it to be real, but it is real. So, Global Citizen is a nonprofit organization where they really look into the world issues of what's going on by looking at the stats and just political news. That's been discussed about certain things. So, what they do is to make it interactive and to make an impact on looking into all of this, they actually allow participation through people like you and me to write essays and give support on their app and their website, and every year they decide to throw a concert. I would say, usually it's right after Labor Day, So, late September. But what's cool about it is, if you do all these good deeds, they actually give you the tickets for free.
[00:15:38] Charles: Oh, wow.
[00:15:39] Jessica: So, I saw John Baptiste, Ben Platt, OneRepublic, Carole King, French Montana, Her, NCT 127, Alicia Keys, Pharrell Williams, David Gray, and Queen plus Adam Lambert, for free.
[00:15:56] Charles: Oh my God. That's awesome.
[00:15:59] Jessica: Now, there's one other surprising part, which I have to share this with both of you. I could not find, for the longest time, who could go to this concert with me. I was literally going through my phone and nobody could say yes. And the first person who happened to say yes, I was like, So, surprised because she loves to go to sleep early.
[00:16:18] And I said, this is going to be a long night. I don't know if you want to come with me. She's like, Yeah, I want to come with you. Are you kidding me? I can't believe you've got all this for free and we get to go. So, that took place at Central Park, the great Central Park in New York city.
[00:16:32] Charles: Yeah, and that was, was that your, your friend uh, that was her first concert?
[00:16:36] Jessica: Yeah, technically, that was her first concert. And it's a memory that we've been, you know, very lucky to have, it was a beautiful day with the weather, for once there was no rain, and it was such nice weather, it was very peaceful, and what was interesting is, I've never saw this at a concert, you, normally I'm just around a party crowd I guess, but this was the first concert where they didn't allow alcohol. They wanted everybody to just kind of stay hydrated and focus on the good times and doing well with the world, where they really wanted to keep it as peaceful and tame as possible, where you're just enjoying the weather, enjoying the music and enjoying Central Park.
[00:17:16] Charles: Yeah, that's, uh, that's probably not a bad idea. I know, like, I've been to some Lollapalooza concerts and they hand out bottled water for free, which I was like, wow, yeah, that's a, that's a great idea for people who want to stay hydrated.
[00:17:30] Jessica: Can we have that now? Because the concert tickets are expensive. I think water's the least they could give us.
[00:17:35] Charles: Yeah, yeah, how about it?
[00:17:38] So, there, there was a, there was another category under an episode 18 of your podcast, Jessica, and I kind of put it in the regrets category. Like, we wish you would have seen. Cause that, cause for me, there's been times where I passed up an opportunity to see a band and then unfortunately or tragically uh, they pass away or, you know, it's just uh, the band doesn't tour anymore. But I, I was uh, kind of surprised at your answer for this one, the under wish you could have seen, um, you uh, had mentioned a uh, it was a TV series called Nashville, is that correct?
[00:18:20] Jessica: So, Nashville was a great, basically a country soap opera that was on ABC about a decade ago, and what's cool is the music that they would have. The actors sing were written by famous country music songwriters. So, everything was fresh and that's what kept the show going. But for the strangest reason, some of their viewership went down only by a couple million, So, it's not like you could say it just went all the way down, but ABC canceled the show and because of the, I don't want to say backlash, but basically because of the decision the fans actually fought for it online and it got picked up by CMT Country Music Television. So, at the time I was talking about it with a couple of friends at the radio station I was working at, cause it was for a country station and it was for a classic rock station. And I happened to see that some of the listeners who had won the tickets didn't come to pick them up. So, I was So, tempted to, cause we are allowed to just grab it.
[00:19:21] It's not like you could say, oh, nobody come. Oh, finders’ keepers. Wasn't like that. Everything's was legit. But I really regret that I didn't go see them in concert because that was when the show ended. And just to have all those actors together in one room, it must've been beautiful and just So, special and the venue that it was at, it's called a Mohegan Sun.
[00:19:43] It's an upstate casino in Connecticut. So, it would have been a really long ride if I could have gone but it was definitely those what ifs moments where I'm like, oh, I should have just went.
[00:19:56] Charles: Yeah, I know, there's, there's been a couple times. Like, I had an opportunity to see Frank Sinatra, and then I, I passed it up.
[00:20:04] Jessica: Oh, no.
[00:20:05] Charles: When I was a kid, I was waiting in line with my mom um, to buy tickets to see Lynard Skinner, which the original band in 1977.
[00:20:15] Jessica: Wow.
[00:20:16] Charles: My mom's famous words were, " Well, we'll see them again when they're in town next time." So, we all have those kinds of stories. But I, I thought this was an interesting one, because it was from a TV series and stuff.
[00:20:32] Okay, Jessica. So, I thought maybe now we could move into your, podcast, Music Notes with Jess.
[00:20:39] Jessica: Oh, thank you! So, as I mentioned before, I had worked in radio, and unfortunately, was let go beginning of 2017. It was very unexpected. So, I was turning 28 soon and I hadn't got a steady full-time job. since then, well back then I should say So, I was kind of focusing on what would stick and luckily, I've been employed for a really good company. I work for a medical manufacturing company. I'm a scheduler and making sure that everything just stays on schedule and then if something comes up where things get delayed, then I just kind of look into it and just remove the hold that's on our software. So, right when I was getting settled into this job, I had just turned 30 and I really missed being in radio because I was involved with it for my college radio station and just working around it.
[00:21:33] So, I kept on seeing a couple of my friends making their own podcasts and I wanted to try my own. So, to mimic off what I was doing at my college radio station. I loved the idea of saying the music I like that was out there, cause let's be honest, not all of it's great.
[00:21:51] So, I figured I can input my opinion of why I like it and also, tell you the cool things to learn about it. Cause what's the point if you're just listening to it and you just don't know anything about it. You're like, oh yeah, this is good. That just isn't So, well with me. So, I wanted to turn it into educational and connecting with everybody to say, you really should listen to this. And that's what can keep people interesting. interested in these topics. So, I started up Music Notes With Jess. I literally looked in the thesaurus to see what could, because I didn't want to say news. I figured news was a little too generic. I wanted to see what would pop out. So, I looked in a thesaurus and news and notes came in next to the news entry and that's how I came up with Music Notes With Jess. And so, I've kept it going, literally trial and error. In fact, I thank you for listening to episode 18 because, I don't go back to my past episodes. I pretend that that's not even me.
[00:22:46] Charles: I thought it sounded just fine. And again, I would recommend people go listen to it because there are some uh, live recordings of the concerts you talk about, which is kind of cool.
[00:22:57] Jessica: Yeah, I was able to get away with it back then, but I should warn you that that's not allowed anymore in any podcasting because now they claim copyright infringement. And unfortunately, I have gone into a situation where they started deleting some of my episodes and luckily, I backed them up where I was able to do it without the music and try to have it somewhat listenable since then. But it's been great and that's how I've been lucky to meet the both of you and connect this way. You're the first people to interview me on another podcast, So, I am, I I'm very grateful and I'm glad that you enjoy listening to the, the podcast. It's, um, Thank you. Truly.
[00:23:37] Charles: Sure. No, um, it’s very informative and I have to tell you though, and the people listening, I think what's really cool, and, and sometimes very, very funny is uh, I guess because of the copyright. uh, laws and such you speak or say the lyrics to some of the songs from the artists you're talking about. And, and it's and it's cool to, to kind of hear the words because like, oh, oh yeah, I've heard that song, but oh, that's what they're actually saying.
[00:24:07] Jessica: Right.
[00:24:07] Charles: I have to tell you, if I was like drinking coffee or, or anything while I was driving, listening, some of the lyrics are really raunchy, okay, on some of these songs.
[00:24:19] Jessica: That's why I stamp them explicit.
[00:24:20] Charles: But the way you read them, like, it's just matter of fact, I find it So, funny, like, I spit out my coffee if I was, you know, I, I laughed out loud in my car because I just, it, it was just hilarious.
[00:24:35] So, with that thought, and, I kind of asked you before the interview what your, uh, your thoughts were on this idea I had. There's this Iggy Pop song, okay, from his, I think it's his 1988 album, Instinct. It's called Squarehead. And, you know, I, like everybody else who sings along with songs, sometimes they realize they're singing the wrong lyrics.
[00:25:00] Jessica: Right.
[00:25:01] Charles: So, I go to Lyric Genius, I think, or one of these sites and Iggy in the song, he's talking about all these terrible things you could do to him, but he is never going to be no square head. Okay. So, uh, for instance um, you can leave me out or kick me out of a real good jive uh, use my friendship like a doorknob turn my life from green to red.
[00:25:27] So, he mentions all these things. But, in the, in the 3rd line, they have published here, you could make me super styrofoam. And I'm like, that's not what he's saying. I had listened to this song a bunch of times. It's one of the standout tracks on the album. And I've also, seen it published, you could make me "soup" or "styrofoam".
[00:25:50] And I'm like, that doesn't make any sense. He's, he's singing, "you could make me sweep up styrofoam." Anybody who's ever tried to sweep up little bits of styrofoam...
[00:26:02] Jessica: No.
[00:26:03] Charles: They stick to the floor. They stick to the broom. They don't go on the dustpan. It's, it’s hard to sweep up styrofoam.
[00:26:11] Jessica: You're on your hands and knees at that point.
[00:26:13] Charles: Yeah, yeah. It's impossible. And like some of the, the dictionary definitions or encyclopedia entries, once something's published like that out there, then people copy and paste, and it just keeps being repeated. So, I thought, and do you have the lyrics, Jessica?
[00:26:33] Jessica: I do. I have a couple minimized here because I know this was a special request as part of the interview.
[00:26:40] Charles: So, I thought you could give it the Music Notes with Jess treatment that that first verse with the sweep up styrofoam new lyrics according to me. I could be completely wrong, but, you know, I'm standing by this. So, if you would, go ahead.
[00:26:59] Jessica: Sure. You can kick me out of a real good job. You can use my friendship like a doorknob. You can make me sweep up styrofoam or you can make me super styrofoam. The other, the other possibility.
[00:27:13] Charles: You know, that was just my hang up and a it's been you know bumping around in my head for a little while and then when you start, you know reading the lyrics I thought well let's clear the air on this one, or at least put my, my thought on this forward.
[00:27:29] Jessica: Think we need to investigate that. That might need to be a Music Notes with Jess episode. We can even invite you and say, what do you think this lyric line is? And I bet you, we might need to go on a YouTube comment or even I'll contact Iggy Pop, maybe on social media to see if we could get some closure. Cause that's really something to go along I would say over 35 years where that lyric cannot be figured out.
[00:27:57] Charles: Yeah. That would be awesome. And hey, if I'm wrong, I'm wrong. I'm, I, you know, I, I'll, I'll, I'll own up to it.
[00:28:03] Jessica: No, I kept hearing sweep up styrofoam after you emailed me. I was like, what is he saying?
[00:28:08] Douglas: I've got one for you guys too. You know, the song, I am your Venus by Shocking Blue?
[00:28:14] Jessica: Yes.
[00:28:15] Douglas: For the longest time, I thought he was saying, I am your fetus. And I'm like, why is he saying I'm your fetus? I guess. Okay. Whatever, but then I realized it was, I am your Venus. Even the title of the song is Venus, but...
[00:28:26] Charles: It's a deeper meaning, Doug.
[00:28:30] Jessica: Well, you know, it's So, funny though, because, and I just know, ‘cause I mean, I know this was generations before me, but I know for the longest time there was no lyric sleeve on the records. And unless you were watching the artists on TV, you had no other way of listening or knowing the lyrics until you got to the concert, because that's why even nowadays, when who you're seeing performing, they'll stick that microphone out in the crowd and they'll just let the audience finish it.
[00:28:55] And I'm like, oh, so, that's what they're saying. But I love that anyway, because that's what I love about concerts. I love seeing how it makes the fans feel. And that's where you just feel So, welcome and connected with everybody where it's a good time for all.
[00:29:10] Charles: As we wrap up here, Jessica, is there anything you would like to add or um, point out with your podcast or to your listeners? Um, maybe what's, what's on the horizon. If you've got a concert coming up or an episode uh, idea that we should tune into in particular.
[00:29:28] Jessica: Sure. Well, just watching the Super Bowl, I am making an Usher countdown, and I think sometime soon I may also, do a Mariah Carey countdown because I saw that she's been interested in going into Vegas for her tour, and that's one of topic where every time I would try to do my Mariah Carey episode, something else would always come up.
[00:29:51] So, I'm going to stop the procrastinating. I'm going to finally get to a third time around probably the end of next month. But I literally play it by ear on how I choose my topics because I really like focusing on the attention of what's popular now. There's not too many podcasts that do that other than if they're being asked to like billboard or Rolling Stone or NPR.
[00:30:13] So, that's where I like to try to stand out where you can still have that same attention of talking about existing artists. As you can with new ones. And as far as new concerts, I do have a couple in mind that I'm interested in seeing, and thanks to your podcast, I made my list of how many concerts I went to.
[00:30:34] So, whoever I go see next, that will be number 20. So, and it would be five years later after the Global Citizen, cause that's the last concert I went to and that was right before COVID. That was September 28th, 2019. One of my cousins who I went to go see Lady Gaga with, she texted me if I wanted to go see Justin Timberlake, which could, I'll have to see the, the, the ticket amounts, but it could be either the end of June or early October. So, that's one possibility. A second one is my favorite singer, Janet Jackson. She'll be coming back around and she's been trying to tease new music for the longest time. And I'm just hoping that maybe this is the time where she can finally do it because she chose not to during COVID.
[00:31:20] She just felt the timing wasn't right. So, she's been putting that off, but even when she made that documentary a few years ago. She teased a little audio, but it hasn't been posted up since, which you would think with all the streaming that we would be having it by now, but it must be protected because it did not get leaked.
[00:31:40] And then If the City Field gods are listening, I do have one more concert that I better make up my mind. Cause it's almost sold out, but it's going to be Foo Fighters, Pretenders, and Wolfgang Van Halen all in one night. And that's going to be a late July concert. So, I have a few to, to pick out. And if I see any of them, I'll definitely let you both know.
[00:32:03] Charles: Okay, yeah, yeah, we would uh, like to hear that and look forward to um, your new episodes as they come out. That's a weekly thing, right, Jessica?
[00:32:15] Jessica: It is yes. So, what I try to do is by midweek, I try to see what I'm confident to talk about. Cause for the most part, I try to do what's familiar just because of the timing and scheduling of everything. I want to try to make it sound good, where I'm making sense, and it's sounding fresh, So, I just work on it a little bit each night after I finish work, and then I record it over the weekend and I, I think it's also, gotten better because, the first time I, when I first started my podcast, I was working two jobs and now I'm working one. So, I think the schedule flexibility has helped out a lot too, because now I'm able to see when I can just complete everything. And I will gladly give you and this podcast a shout out as a thank you for, for having me on and I'll be posting it everywhere. So, yes, we're going to stay connected.
[00:33:06] Charles: That's great. And I, yeah, Again, I encourage everybody to check out your podcast because it is um, you know, timely and um, I find it informative and the and lyrics are always very interesting.
[00:33:20] Jessica: I will share that one that I think fans are getting a kick out of is one I did last year with Doja Cat, her song Attention, because she really said things where I even had to not say things from, from her complete song, because I was like, I can't say this. I can't. I can't, but that's the, I try to make it you know, humorous too, because I don't just want to be textbook.
[00:33:45] I want to make people laugh. There's a lot of craziness going on in the world. So, I want to try to break the tension. I'm like this, even without my microphone, I really like to try to keep everybody going with music and I'm glad that a lot of people are subscribing to it, connecting to it and just enjoying what's out there right now, because it is hard to find nowadays, but there is some good songs and artists that are making a difference.
[00:34:11] Charles: Yeah, and it seems the um, you know, the interest in live music is really, I don't know, maybe it's because of this podcast that Doug and I are doing, but, I don't know. I just, I just see a lot of references lately to concerts in, in, you know, television shows and things like that and live music and, and just music in general.
[00:34:33] It seems like uh, something out there that people are maybe keying in more on, or just want to experience more, or maybe because it was taken away from us from, by COVID for So, long. There's like this pent-up demand. And, uh, So, yeah, um, I, I'm, I'm the same way, you know, I'm trying to get out to see more bands and get uh, introduced to things that uh, you know, maybe I wouldn't listen to necessarily and you know, have more of an open mind.
[00:35:06] In wrapping up, Jessica, is there anything else you'd like to uh, say or plug or talk about?
[00:35:13] Jessica: Well, I guess just if you want to listen to Music Notes With Jess, it's on all the streaming platforms. I don't have a website, but I do have social media sites on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram. And I do share my Spotify link when I do create playlists to go along with what I'm saying, because being that I can't play the music anymore, I try to at least try to show my knowledge through the playlist of the songs that I'm doing.
[00:35:40] So, that way you can follow along with what I'm saying. Cause it's really difficult. And that's why reading the lyrics, I feel, is helpful too, because sometimes, like you, like you said before, if you don't know the lyrics, it could just kind of pass by where you're not understanding where the artist is coming from.
[00:36:00] So, I like the idea that I'm able to see everything and hear what the point is they're trying to make and it can get through to the listener that way too.
[00:36:10] Charles: That's a great point. Okay. Well, uh, I guess uh, that'll do it for this episode. I want to thank you So, much for coming on our podcast, on Seeing Them Live and, and sharing your thoughts of your, your concert experiences and...
[00:36:27] Jessica: And Iggy Pop.
[00:36:29] Charles: Yeah. Doing the whole Iggy thing. Thank you for indulging me on that one.
[00:36:32] Jessica: Sure, you're welcome. I had a, I had a great time.
[00:36:35] Charles: Yeah, we'll stay in touch. And if something pops up, we'll get together again on a future podcast, hopefully.
[00:36:42] Jessica: Yes, thank you.
[00:36:44] Charles: All right. Thank you, Jess.