Grammy's Bring Down The House

WOW! WOW! DOUBLE WOW!!! Last night's Grammy's were spectacular. The live performances- NOT the awards. I always rag on this show, because they only acknowledge the most obvious overblown pop stars to the exclusion of the years best music- ya know, Arcade Fire, Arctic Monkeys, Joanna Newsom, Spoon, etc. I will grudgingly give them a tiny prop for nominating The Raconteurs and Imogen Heap, but they were merely a speck on the spectacle and did not win a dang thing. But, and this is a big BUT(T), the live performances were exhilarating. I had a rock show to go to, so I ended up watching it late at night (thank you Tivo) when I got home. I was really worn out and expected to fast forward through most of it but, instead, ended up fast forwarding through very little, jumping up and down and Whoo-whooing my way through the live performances by Gnarles Barkley, Justin Timberlake(?!), and The Red Hot Chilli Peppers. The Police kicked things off with a perfect, sentimental rendition of fan-favorite, "Roxanne", so I knew I was in for something extraordinary, and that materialized with Christina Aguilera's drop-dead gorrrgeous, knock-down-drag-out tribute to James Brown. That girl gives me chills. Another high point for me was watching recording engineer, Chris Testa, get acknowledged and even go up on stage every time the Dixie Chicks won. Chris is an old & fondly remembered acquaintance. He worked on an album of my fiance's a couple of years back when he was in an L.A. band I managed called Radar. It was obvious he would go on to bigger better things & he has, lickity split. Only now, he's got himself a bit of a disguise with the long hair, beard & glasses. Do we have a bay Rick Rubin in the works here? Me things so. Anyway, these red carpet pics are from Justjared.com. Click here to see more...