Right, I knew that about Waters. But a couple of people I work with laughed when I told them that I was going to see McCartney. I'm not saying that Paul won't put on a good show, but these performances from last year seem to back up what my coworkers said about his voice: Spoiler Also, I would like to see Ringo Starr's All Star Band at some point. My dad saw him the year that he had Mark Farner, John Entwistle, and Randy Bachman play with him. But this year he has Steve Lukather, from Toto, on the tour. I'll have to pass. It's bad enough that I have to hear "Rosanna" in the background practically every day at work.
Focus: Id love to see Billy Joel or Elton John live. My wife has been to both and said they were the best shows she's been to. Alt Focus: Im glad I got to see Rush live. My dad is a huge Rush fan and took me when i was younger. Unfortunately I was born too late to see Freddie Mercury.
I saw Red Hot Chili Peppers Friday. Im glad I saw them. They were good live, not great. They played tight and were high energy but had zero crowd interaction and the songlist left something to be desired. Sticking a couple of the bigger hits at the end and closing strong is all they really needed to do. That set list site makes me sad as you can see most bands play the exact same set list an entire tour. Makes it feel like bands are just going through the motions instead of really being into it. Flea is just a person on a different wave length.
I find it best to not actually check tour set lists for certain big name bands. It tends to always let you down and ruin some of the surprise. But also, RHCP last 2 albums have been lackluster at best. Especially their newest album. I bought it, listened through it once and felt pretty much nothing. Ever since Frusciante left the band, again, I feel that the energy severely dropped off. The new guy is talented but mostly plays in the background.
Focus: Not that I'm in fear of death any time soon (although in this day and age, you never f'ing know...) but Jamiroquai is by far, number one on my bucket list. He's touring in Europe right now and of course has no plans to come to the U.S. but I'm hoping I can make it to Amsterdam in November. Alt Focus: I saw the Rolling Stones 2 years ago when they played at the Indy 500 track. It was absolutely phenomenal! Mick Jagger was 72 at the time but you'd swear he was still 27. Hands down the best concert I've been too. Mother's Day weekend this year, I got to see Tom Petty. I had gone to see him about 4 year previous but after stupidly tailgating pretty rough before hand, I made it about 3 songs in and left because I was so wasted. I'm so glad I got the do over because it was a fantastic show and I've never seen more people in attendance at any other concert I've seen at that venue. It was awesome.
Alt Focus: I'm glad I got to see Rush a couple of times before they announced they are apparently no longer touring. The first time I went and saw them on a whim in Las Vegas. They played at the MGM Grand the day after Lady Gaga played. Suffice to say, it was pretty easy being able to pick out the Rush fans and Lady Gaga fans. The second was after I had moved to Chicago and got to sneak in another leg on the Time Machine tour. Geddy can't quite hit the high notes like he used to, but instrumentally they are still totally on point.
I've heard 20 killed and over 50 injured. But since it's in England, what does that convert to in Imperial body count?
I seem to be on the get 'em while you can old dudes playing guitar type of summer. In the past week, the average age of the three artists I have seen is damn near 70 (Roger Waters, Joe Walsh, and Tom Petty). Good shows. Of those named here I have seen Radiohead, Tool, Scott Weiland with STP (he was wasted), Willie (somehow about 4 times which is amazing since I despise country music), RHCP, Dave Matthews, Neil Young. I am a bit surprised nobody mentioned GNR. It was actually a great show - fat Axl was on his A game. I like live music, I am sure there are more I am not remembering right now. My bucket list - Elton John (living) and Prince and George Michael and Beastie Boys (can't believe I never saw them). I would also love to see Rage Against the Machine get back together in this political environment. I imagine they would be very .... angry.
You are right, I forgot to mention them. Saw them last year and it was hands down the best rock show Ive ever been to. Axl didn't hit the high notes the whole time but his vioce was still there and could hit them if he needed to.
Turns out that Prince was about a month away from doing one of those pop-up concerts at the Grand Old Opry House when he died, where it would've been just him and a piano. I would've been there no matter what the tickets cost.
Indeed, which leads to my Alt Focus: Ronnie James Dio. I almost saw him just over 20 years ago in '97, but car trouble torpedoed that. I finally saw him in '03 with Iron Maiden, and with the final Dio-Sabbath fling ("Heaven and Hell") ten years ago this September. I've seen Iron Maiden several times, but one special tour I saw was Bruce Dickinson with his solo band and Adrian Smith on the Accident of Birth tour in 1997. The setlist was about 70% Bruce solo, with the Maiden songs being ones Bruce and Adrian had written, not the Steve Harris classics. Final encore was "The Prisoner." When the intro from the TV show started, I about lost my shit. Focus and Alt Focus: Deep Purple. I still want to see them while Ian Gillan, Ian Paice and Roger Glover are still at it but I regret not seeing them with Jon Lord while I could. From 1995 to about 2001, they had the lineup-that-mistakenly-gets-called-the-original with the exception of replacing Ritchie Blackmore with Steve Morse (who's still their guitarist). I have zero excuses for not seeing them live in this time, before Jon Lord retired and later died. I still need to get off my ass and see 3/5 of the Mk II lineup while they're still alive.
I saw Dave Matthews & Tim Reynolds last night. It was truly amazing what those 2 guys can do when it's just them and their guitars on stage. It really was one of the best show's I've ever seen. I've probably been to about 14 George Clinton & The Parliament Funkadelic shows in the last 20 years. I absolutely loved seeing them live because of the storytelling, theatrics, antics, and most importantly their musical talent. That being said, the last George Clinton show I went to is hands down the worst live act I've ever seen. George was only present for the last 20 minutes of the show, there were no recognizable names in the line-up (what was worse was the actual lack of musical talent in a lot of cases) and it was painfully obvious that the band didn't want to be there... It's weird to see the same artist put on both the best and worst show you've ever seen.
Peter Frampton has always disappointed me. He was 90 minutes late one concert and pretty lit up when he arrived. He was just kind of boring when I first saw him back in 1978. In all fairness to him he was following Lynyrd Skynyrd .This was in 1977 when Skynyrd live were probably as good a band as anyone. There have been other bands who I may not have cared for their music, but I always felt they were trying to put on a good show. You will always get a good show from Springsteen whether you like his music or not. Warren Zevon was always a good show whether he had is band or solo. Currently, I will always try and see Roger Hodgson (from Supertramp). His band is very tight, a very close attention to sound quality and making the small touches in a song. Just do not expect electric guitars as it is a keyboard based band for the most part. Otherwise, I am just going to the concerts my kids want to see. They ask me how they are and I truly think the current bands are every bit as good as what I grew up going to in the 70s. Us geezers just have selective memory about that shit.