Oh yeah, just remembered I forgot one here... we got a concert in Qatar... Bryan Adams. Not a fan by any means, but beggars can't be choosy, and we get around a concert every year or so here... Hopefully I get to see some real rock in Scandinavia this summer...
Steve Earle Two members of his band, The Mastersons (Eleanor Whitmore, the red-headed lady and Chris Masterson, the blond guy both to the left in the video above), opened for him. Beautiful. (Not from the Memphis show but it's all I found) EDIT: Chris Masterson toured with Son Volt earlier in his career. EDIT II: They're married. EDIT III:...to each other. EDIT IV: You'll probably notice in the SE video there seems to be a lot of people talking and walking around. That's because there were a lot of people talking and walking around. I wanted to stand up and shout, "EVERYBODY SIT DOWN AND SHUT THE F___ UP!!" But I didn't. One, it's not my nature and two, I'd be the one to get tossed.
Trey Anastasio with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra 29 September 2017 Atlanta Symphony Hall Atlanta, Georgia Guitarist and singer for Phish playing a few of his large scale orchestral works as well as some Phish material that'd been arranged for orchestra. Never thought I'd see a three hour orchestra show!
John McLaughlin & Jimmy Herring 22 November 2017 Atlanta Symphony Hall Atlanta, Georgia This is McLaughlin's farewell tour for the United States. He's still pretty sharp at 75, but the set was definitely designed so he didn't have to go hard the whole time. I'd never seen him before, but was totally glad I got to check him out before retirement.
Parquet Courts Phoenix Concert Theatre Toronto ON, May 27, 2018 I've seen an absolute ton of shows here over the years, and before that I remember club nights when they'd just project a person surfing the web, when it was still a novelty in the early/mid 90s. Not to mention Mr. Pongs, possibly the worst Chinese post bar/club fast food ever - but enough nostalgia. Touring on their new album Wide Awake! - they opened with its side one, track one Total Football with tons of energy including holding up a novelty scarf they had made up for the song. They proceeded to play a significant chunk of the new album (including a fave of mine Mardi Gras Beads) as well as several from their first album Light Up Gold. As the show wore on, they got a bit lackluster and by the end of the show they were not the same high energy band they came out as, which killed quite a bit of enthusiasm in the crowd - and for me surprisingly that no encore was played (a rarity outside of festivals IMHO). Either way - a good, if not great, show - worth a look if you get a chance. #fucktombrady
Taylor Swift w/ Camila Cabello and Charlie XCX Soldier Field Chicago, IL 6/1/18 We took the three girls to this. It was really, really good. Next show I'm going to is, I think: The Make-Up Empty Bottle Chicago, IL
Wasn't sure where to put this, so.....here. Question: So I'm checking out the local venues to see who's coming to town when I see this: In Dreams: Roy Orbison In Concert - The Hologram Tour. Before I finish my first thought, "Oh my God! Roy Orbison is....", I remember - he's dead. So this is how the description reads: "Through breathtaking state-of-the-art cutting-edge digital and laser technology and extraordinary theatrical stagecraft, this first-of-its-kind live concert sees Orbison brought to life on stage to perform his classic tracks as well as newly recorded and never-before-heard arrangements of his originals." Back to my question... Has anyone seen this? While I like Roy Orbison, I'm not sure I have any real interest in going to this other than curiosity of how this works. Opinions?
Bump! Saw Guns n' Roses yet again... this time Moscow as they happened to play right before the final and right after the semifinal matches at the Luzniki Stadium... Took some convincing to go as I've seen them many times, but other BS posters in the World Cup forums convinced me... glad I went as I managed to get pretty close...
Handel's Messiah -- The Piedmont Singers Sometimes being in the backwoods will stun the hell out of you... The Piedmont Singers, for this iteration, were 44 singers accompanied by a 13-piece orchestra and I have to say, this may be the most impressive rendition of Messiah that I have ever seen. These guys are not professional singers -- my dad is a member and he has a fine voice, but he is 84 and largely self-trained -- but they rehearsed 27 times to put on this show. It turns out that in the 18th Century Messiah was performed at much more sprightly pace that what we're used to. If you think of the "King of Kings, Lord of Lords" from the Messiah, we typically take a little over 6 seconds to sing that. In the 18th Century it was faster, maybe taking 3.5 seconds to sing. Apparently, there was some big celebration in Germany late in the 18th Century, whether is Handel's birthday or an anniversary of the Messiah, and it was performed with a booming 500-person choir and that gave rise to the pace we're all familiar with. The Piedmont Singers used the Schirmer score, which is the one you'd buy if you bought it at music store, but the pace was very hard to keep up with. In fact, maybe the first dozen practices were just to get the players up to speed. I was listening to the director warm up the Singers before hand and she wanted a very controlled performance, not at all with the virtuosity that a mass choir might give, but she did allow them to belt out For Unto Us a Child is Born, I think, just to show that they could. These guys blew the roof right off the church. It was amazing. Another treat: she arranged Rejoice Greatly, O Daughter of Zion (normally a soprano solo) as a duet for alto and soprano. Stunning.
Nick Lowe with Los Straightjackets Wilbur Theater, Boston Mass, April 11 Nick Lowe has an gift for pop music and Los Straightjackets are unrelenting fun. A really great show.
Paul McCartney - Freshen Up. O2 Arena London. It was nothing short of epic. He even got Ringo Starr & Ronnie Wood to perform on stage with him.
Bob Seger -- The Farewell Tour Geezer Rock! So I saw Bob Seger a couple of weeks ago, not because I really care about Seger, but more to see a friend who I don't get many chances to see. Again, I don't care for Seger, but I was simply stunned by the number of Seger tunes I knew. It was like a freakin' soundtrack for the 70s. So the past two weeks, I've had any number of Seger tunes running through my head. It's a strange sort of earworm hell because I DON'T KNOW THE FVCKIN' WORDS! I don't like Bob Seger, but man, I've been humming the one line I know from each of a dozen songs. Weird.
Once upon a time - 1987 I think - some friends and I decided on a Tuesday night to see Seger in the second of a two-night stint at what was then LA's Fabulous Forum (pre-naming rights for stadia). We went to the local ticketmaster outlet about 7:30 pm on Tuesday and purchased the tickets. Next day was very cold for Southern California, made even more so as I was coaching a JV team at the local high school and I spent the afternoon shivering in the rain. We drove the two hours through OC/LA traffic, paid for parking, walked in - and were called back by security at the door. Turns out we had purchased tickets Tuesday night to that night's show (or been given them - same result) and were not allowed in. And so we drove home, never to repeat that mistake again.
I'm so out of touch, the last concert I went to was Enrique Iglesias in Salt Lake probably 15 years ago.
Bubba Feathers (son of Charlie Feathers) & Steve Clark (upright bass) from last week; a couple of Elvis tunes, "My Baby Left Me" and "Milkcow Blues Boogie" Dale Watson was playing at a local bar during Elvis Week and invited these two on stage to play a few songs. Mike Bernal (drums) and Don Pawlak (pedal steel) are with Watson's band. Ms Robot and I are juuuuuuuuust left of the camera (which, of course, is the only reason I posted this). I guess they didn't want our stunning good looks to interfere with the music.
Sting at Kit Carson Park, Taos NM last night. The first six or seven songs were pretty devoid of new ideas; I was just about to decide that he's just not a live act when up comes this odd, syncopated and staccato version of "Seven Days," and it just took off, wall to wall for another couple of hours. Almost every memorable thing he ever wrote or played; didn't do "Don't Stand," "Probably Me," or "Born In the 50's," but he did get to "So Lonely" which I really didn't expect. And boy, he's not losing his lungs with age... Opening act was Fantastic Negrito; hard working and noisy, but pretty dull. Robert Mirabal did a sort of invocation to start...
I like this description so much that I'm going to steal it for the next time I come across a band that fits, which shouldn't be long.
I don't own that, so I'm nor real familiar with it. He did "Last Ship" and several things I didn't recognize and took for new, one of which was definitely "Its Not the Same Moon." And on consideration I think "August Winds" was another and maybe the other was "Language of Birds." It was an add on show, the last in an extended tour, and seemed like a good place to try something extra maybe? Shaggy wasn't there and they didn't do any of his stuff except the one mashup with "Shape of My Heart..."so there was room to perform/practice things that hadn't been in the big gigs of the tour maybe. I went in thinking this might be a farewell gig-- he's vacationed in Taos before and seems to see our little town as as special as we do-- but he made a big point after the second encore of saying "goodnight, but see you again before long" so...