Upcoming Concerts for me are: Fun. at the Brick in Minneapolis on April 13th. Hellyeah and Cluth at the Venue on April 26th. Volbeat at the Venue on May 10th. Chevelle at the RRV fair on July 14th. RHCP at the Target Center in Minneapolis on Oct 30th. Hopefully there are many more.
Just saw Childish Gambino last night at the Riviera in Chicago $35 a ticket. Only having heard 2 of his songs going in, it ended up being a damn good concert. His technique is incredible, I'm still a little iffy on his content. The amount of hipsters threw me off entirely. Nom has ranted about how he is hip-hop lite for white people, I'm leaning in that direction. I can't even get started on his opener Danny Brown, he's like Tyler the Creator on crack.
Just saw Roger Water's The Wall at the LA Collesieum. I actually saw the very first Pink Floyd Wall tour in 1980 at the LA Sports Arena. As for the current show, the music is the music, the players and singers do a fine job of filling in for David Gilmour, and I loved every minute of it. The staging and visual effects were simply breathtaking. The Wall essentially went from one side of the Stadium to the other at the 50 yard line (for those who don't know this venue is an outdoor football stadium.) Thus the wall is probably 2x the size of the one used for the indoor shows. There are (at least) three gigantic video projectors that seamlessly generate HD images on the wall. Including amazing images of the band members. The one advantage of the show in 1980 was that we had no idea that Gilmour would perform his singing parts and the guitar solo on top of the wall during Comfortably Numb. So we had the privilege of being surprised when all of a sudden there he is in a spotlight. There are many benefits of social media, YouTube, etc. but one loss to us all is the chance to be surprised.
I'm heading up to Cincinnati on June 5th to see Radiohead. I have an extra ticket, and am having trouble selling it off or finding a friend who wants to go. Anybody here from around that area and needs/wants a ticket, let me know.
Just got back from seeing Radiohead in Cincinnati. Even if you're not a hardcore fan (which describes me), it's worth checking them out. They are able to pull off the same sound live as they are with the studio albums, and I was shocked at how many songs I enjoyed even though they weren't playing what you'd consider the "hits." I was a little disappointed that I didn't get to hear "Paranoid Android," which is a pretty common song in the set, but they did debut "Subterranean Homesick Alien," and they played "Myxomatosis," "15 Step," "Bodysnatchers," and a pretty funky new song called "Identikit." And they do two encores - I respect that. However, I will never buy a lawn ticket at the Riverbend Music Center again. The lawn is astroturf so my feet were killing me, and the roof over the seats is held up by four of the widest support trusses I've ever seen. Not an easy view.
Blink 182 - July 27 Reading Festival - August 24-26 (Looking forward to seeing: Foo Fighters, Black Keys, Gaslight Anthems, Florence and The Machine.) Gaslight Anthems - October 15 NB - Seen Kanye & Jay-Z this month, best gig ever been to ever! They are so fucking talented I was there cursing them for how awesome they are.
I had the funds earlier this year to buy some tickets for two shows at the Ryman Auditorium, here in Nashville, aka "The Mother Church of Country Music." It is a great venue, but there's a downside to it. A lot of the shows are populated by music industry insiders (not executives, but those who are able to get some free tickets through their companies). Because of this, it's a very awkward venue - there are some hardcore fans who are there to see the band and love them, and then a large group of people who are there because they got tickets, they know the right people, and they want to sit and talk to their friends the entire time, as if it's a pre-game for their later escapades at Robert's Western World down on Broadway. Ben Folds Five - We had front row seats, right in front of Ben's piano. He came out, and everybody stood up, cheering....and then sat down. Which was kind of annoying, since they rocked it out for most of the show. And it was all classic Ben Folds Five songs - "Kate," "Battle of Who Could Care Less," "Underground," "Song for the Dumped," etc (none of the Ben Folds solo stuff, which makes me eager to see a solo show in the future). When they started playing "Army," I turned to everybody around me and said "Fuck it, guys, we paid for these seats, we're standing the fuck up." Nobody at this show was really annoying - they just weren't really as much fun as I expected. The opener was Kate Miller-Heidke. An Australian singer-songwriter. The switches to operatic vocals were kinda weird, but overall her songs were entertaining. It was ust her and a guitarist, and he was one of the most tasteful acoustic players I've heard in a long time. Gotye - I had seats with my girlfriend in the second row of the balcony, but the Ryman is small enough that it was still a great view. His set was ridiculous. I loved this show. Because of the nature of his songs, he has a lot of sampling pads with the sounds he used in his recordings. The band was a drummer, bass player, guitarist, keyboard/sampling player, and Gotye (who played samples and drums). The backdrop was a white screen, and they played videos during the songs, some of which were the ones released on YouTube, others were cool loops based on the official videos. He started out with cool groove songs, like "State of the Art" (which kicked ass, my favorite part of the show), then the quiet songs, back into the favorites like "Somebody that I Used to Know," and the encore was the Motown-ish songs like "I Feel Better." It was a great show. HOWEVER - this was the show with the assholes sitting behind us. Four people behind us who had gotten tickets through work, a couple and two girls. The girlfriend was there to hear "THAT ONE SONG!" as she said in their annoyingly loud, drunk voice, during every song that wasn't that song. The guy was begging her to leave and go to the bars, and the two girls were talking the entire time, trying to yell over the music. They spilled beer on the floor, onto my girlfriend's purse, and they shut up for the most part after that. I hate being passive sometimes - I wish I'd turned around earlier and shut them the fuck up. But then he played "THAT ONE SONG OMFGLOLZZ" and they left, and everybody around them gave them some exit applause. The opening acts were: Jonti (a South African DJ/sampling kind of guy) - this guy was socially awkward, I felt like I was watching Durbanite. Missy Higgins (Australian singer/songwriter) - She was really good, as it seems most Australian singer/songwriters are. Catchy pop rock, her song "Helo Hello" is on the radio here and I like it.
On the other side of the coin, I'll talk about a show at the Ryman from this last May. Jack White - I'm not a huge Jack White fan, but this show was fun. The reason I go to so many shows at the Ryman is because my girlfriend has some good connections (not industry, but ticket). So she got some tickets for us and a friend, who thinks Jack White is the savior of the music world. He played a two-night run, and we went the second night. This may be the reason this show had a different vibe - perhaps the industry people went on the first night. But we stood up the entire fucking night. This tour, he had two bands with him (one all men and the other all women), and he would decide each night which one to use. We got to see the all-female band, and they were really good. I felt bad for the bass player, who had to switch on a dime between upright and electric, since he had no setlist and just yelled out songs. But the energy was really high, and he did songs from every band, White Stripes, Raconteurs, Dead Weather, and his new solo album. The crowd was really into it, and it made it a lot more entertaining, although my ears were killing me when we left. The opening act, though, is what I remember the most. The Alabama Shakes played, and they brought the fucking house down on their own. Indie Rock/Soul, with a female fronting the band who has some PIPES.
If you are a Primus fan and don't see their 3D tour you are doing yourself a huge disservice. Shit was off the hook.
Maybe they'll even see Beavis and Butthead, that is if those numbskulls can find the tickets in time.
So i fucked up the date. It's Nov. 15. Anyway, I made a T-shirt and will gladly post before and after pics. GWAR!
January 20th - All Time Low and Yellowcard February 10th - Coheed and Cambria at First Ave in Minneapolis! June 8th and 9th - Orion Music Festival in Detroit Michigain. I can't wait!
As expected Coheed and Cambria kicked ass! First Ave in Minneapolis is easily one of my favorite venues. I think I might have to find someone to go to Flyleaf with me on March 12th.
How were they live?! It's a shame they haven't been doing much lately as far as studio work goes. I even got my kids into liking them! As for me, I'll be taking my 9 year old to see Maroon 5 next week in Charlotte, NC. He has no idea - I'm just going to pick him up early from school and start driving. I have no idea how far we'll get before he asks where we're going (it's a 3 1/2 hour trip) but when he does, I'll silently hand the tickets to him in the backseat and see how long it takes to sink in. I'm stoked myself! They're not great seats but they're better than nothing! Also, and I'm sure it doesn't count according to some of you, but I have 3rd row, VIP, meet-and-greet pit seats to Alton Brown's show here in November.
I get to attend my first NIN show on the 28th. I've heard they put on one of the best live shows. On a side note, anyone else read the Associated Press article about their smoky rendition of Johnny Cash's hurt? That kind of shit makes me livid, I hope that reporter was fired. http://www.avclub.com/articles/the-associated-press-thinks-johnny-cash-wrote-nine,102400/
If you grew up in the Atlanta area you know about Music Midtown. It's an annual festival deal that just got brought back after a long hiatus a few years ago.I've been sporadically, but every time it's always been good. It was my first rock concert ever. It was one of the most interesting acid trips I've ever had. But a few weeks ago it was probably the best concert experience I've ever had in my life. It rained all day. Due to a ticketing snafu it took 1.5 hours to get in to Piedmont park. The bathrooms were so inaccessible i peed in a can, in a bush, and in my pants one time (it was raining and I had drank nothing but coors light and bourbon all day, it's just more water, right?......right?) What made it amazing was Queens of the Stone Age. Even in shitty conditions they were professionals. Degenerate, self-effacing, fuckups that also happen to be masters of their craft with nothing but an eye for artistic integrity and beating the fuck out of all your preconceptions to what "rock star" means in this day and age. They were awesome. and this is how they opened (I know it's a camera video, but the quality is not near as bad as they normally are)
If any of you haven't seen Cut Copy live don't wait. These guys put on a very energetic show. I caught them last Sunday at the Granada in Dallas along with Classixx and they had the entire house packed.
I just saw Fuel at a little outdoor concert. It was a good show considering the only original member is Brett Scallions. It sucks how old the concert made me feel though. I loved Fuel back in the day, their first two albums were some of my all time favorite and going to a concert with under 300 people for a band I loved really made me feel my age.