I planned on last week’s post to be primarily about the Tenderloin Throwdown in Greensburg, Indiana. I arrived in early afternoon and bought my set of four sample tickets. A fifth contestant was a no-show. I tried them all and took several pictures including one of each sample with the associated booth in the background. When I did the same thing at the homemade ice cream stand operated by the local historical society, the shutter wouldn’t cooperate.

There was an error message displayed on the camera’s screen, but there’s just no way I’m going to read those tiny letters without glasses. I don’t need no stinkin’ glasses, I may have said to myself. I went down the list of common problems. The mode dial was not out of position and the lens was securely seated. Must be something with the SD card. I popped it out and back in and clicked off a couple shots. The problem returned and I “fixed” it the same way. When It happened a third time, I began to get concerned but I was ready to leave so didn’t investigate.

I’d kind or forgotten all this until I moved the SD card to my laptop in preparation of producing a blog post. It contained just four pictures and one of those was of my feet. Subsequent tests have revealed no errors with either camera or card although I don’t intend to ever use the card again. Sure wish I knew what that error message said.

So last week you got a canned My Wheels post and this week you get one picture of the back of one of the tenderloin stands with the famous tree-in-tower in the background. It is the winner of the grilled category, so there’s that. Obviously four entrants does not a major showdown make, but all four were top notch and tasty, and the homemade ice cream was excellent.

Even when I anticipated a photo spread from the Tenderloin Throwdown, I was considering tacking on a paragraph about the one concert on my schedule. I ended up attending three concerts during the week and, in light of the Throwdown’s vanished visuals, I’m including cell phone photos of all three. Remember, if you want a picture real bad, I’ve got a real bad picture.

On Wednesday the 20th, it was the LSD (Lucinda Williams, Steve Earle, Dwight Yoakam) Tour at Riverbend. This is one I hadn’t planned on, but when a friend’s significant other fell ill the day before, I got her ticket. It really was almost like three concerts with each of the artists doing nearly hour long sets. That’s Steve and his band in the first picture. I didn’t get a picture of Lucinda during her own set but the second picture has her and Steve flanking Dwight for the Dim Lights, Thick Smoke (and Loud, Loud Music) finale.

Thursday’s concert was the one I had planned for a long time. I’ve been sort of focusing on long time legends I’ve never seen. I saw Jackson Browne last month and Steely Dan, Van Morrison, and Paul Simon over the last year or two. This time it was possibly the ultimate living legend with Tony Bennett at Fraze Pavilion.

The quartet opened with an instrumental then Tony’s daughter, Antonia, did three songs. At that point, Tony came on and for the next hour he was on the stage, on his feet, and singing essentially non-stop. He performed basically full songs for the first half then commenced doing one or two lines from hits like Rags to Riches, Fly Me to the Moon, and I Left My Heart in San Francisco. I can’t remember everything he did but there wasn’t one I didn’t recognize at the time. It’s kind of astounding to realize that this guy could do a full concert singing just a line or two from each hit and probably have enough left over for several encores. Yeah, he’s 91 and didn’t hold every note as long as he might have a decade or two back, but he hit them and he was having fun. The Good Life for sure.

The other unplanned concert was a freebie at Miami Valley Gaming held as part of their Rhythm and Brews Festival on Saturday the 23rd. Knowing friends would be there, I stopped by on the way home from the Tenderloin Throwdown and caught the performer I was most interested in, Tinsley Ellis. I also saw part of Lil’ Ed and the Blues Imperials’ set but don’t have even a real bad picture of that.