f13.net

I  :heart: live music. Used to be a concert junkie when I worked at wellymart, because my buddy ran the scheduling and gave me any day I wanted. I literally saw every good show to roll through my area (not that my area is great since it's the giant gap between Albany and Buffalo...).

Anyway, after a good show I like to talk about it, thought I'd start up a thread for music lovers and whatnot.

Saw the Allman Bros Band saturday night, I was blown away. Warren Haynes (Gov Mule, Skynyrd) and Derek Trucks (Derek Trucks Band, son of Butch, who drums for ABB) were on guitar, blistering lead action. Trucks has had some lessons from Betts, iirc, I've seen them jam together a couple times (and I think he's married to Susan Tedeschi, iirc).

Mix of classic and new material, with a heavy dose of jamming. Most songs were clocking in over 9 minutes.

The guitar solos were amazing. Both traditional playing and slide playing from both guys, Trucks plays with his fingers, something I do occasionally, but he does it exclusively. I thought that was very cool. The bassist (Oteil Burbidge) was phenomenal, I've long said black guys play the bass the best. He makes me weep at my bass playing. He got a solo break and just crushed. Three drummers (well, 2 drummers + percussionist). Gregg on keys and vox, that guy is the man as well, just a total strong lineup of competent musicians cutting loose (at a state fair, no less!).

They brought out the Jukes Horns, a 4 piece horn section, for a few tunes. They were extremely talented as well, and I knew one of them...La Bamba from Conan O'Brien! He got a trombone solo.

One cool thing about the show is that it was one of those "Instant Live" shows, where you pony up a few bucks before the show and get a voucher. After the show, you turn in the voucher for a cd of the show (actually, 3 cds in this case). That blows my mind, though it's something I've been thinking of offering local bars (just running the PA lineouts to a laptop with a burner). Very cool listening to the show you just saw on the ride home.

Seen any good shows lately? I'm dying to catch the Mars Volta, but it's not happening in upstate ny :(

It's pretty much been local jazz bands lately for me. I can't stand much else in this town. There's lot of tours coming through here and all that, probably more than most places, but I just can't stand that kind of thing. Local bands are pretty much just playing a jukebox. The last good rock band I saw was 3 Balls of Fire in Austin, but besides that, not much else.

We get to see Broken Social Scene and Arcade Fire in the same week next month. Yay! And I think Stars is playing in November. Sauced, is that about right?

Next month is Arcade Fire and the New Pornographers, BSS and Stars is in November.  Close tho!

Meh, they all sound the same anyway.

I just saw Salsa Y Mas last friday.  Was a pretty good concert, and FREE.  Not sure if they play outside the Hampton Roads, but I recommend them to anyone in the area.  There was a lot of that crazy latin dancing going on; I would say maybe 1/3 the crowd was dancing at one point.  Was a good time for me and the kids!


www.salsaymas.us


Oh and its Salsa music.  In case you were wondering what they play.  I did not like the venue so much; Mount Trashmore gets very dark after the sun goes down.  It would of been better to watch at the beach methinks.

You live in Virginia?

Si.

I have seen Mt. Trashmore (VA Beach or Richmond, right?). Quite impressive. I knew they had a park on the landfill, but I didn't realize it was a venue.

Virginia Beach, yes.  It was an outstanding idea really; turn your trash into a place for families.  The "Mountain" is a fairly large hill, with the back end being U shaped.  The U over looks a beautiful lake, which features ducks and crap like that.  To the side is a fairly large playground, with all the stuff kids love.  Since I returned to the Hampton Roads (was gone around 5 1/2+ years) I have been continually impressed with what the area is doing to enhance culture and foster family values.  Maybe it was always like this, but since I have had kids I go out of my way to find things for us to do (expand young minds and all that).  I try and take them somewhere every week.  As a child growing up in the North West I have fond memories of Jazz festivals, aquariums, and all sorts of neato stuff my parents did with me in Seattle.  I would like to pass that on to my children.

I saw Mars Volta and System Of A Down just a few weeks ago.  I'm not a big fan of live music, to be honest.  I rarely go to concerts- only when I'm a big fan of the bands in question do I feel like bothering with it.

The first band that was up- Bad Acid Trip- was truly awful.  My girlfriend suggested that maybe they were good for what kind of music they were, but I listen to scream metal... these guys were not good for scream metal.  The crowd seemed to agree, staring blankly at the group from the pit, no moshing, no jumping, no movement at all really.  After what seemed like far too long, they were done.

The lights came up for a while as the stage was rebuilt for Mars Volta.  When they came down again, some music came over the speakers which I could not instantly identify- I believe it was the theme to Unforgiven but can't be sure.  Regardless, it sounded like epic western music.  It fit the stage, which was decorated like an intimate mexican cafe, complete with mexican flags on the amps.  As the music climaxed, the band members walked onto the stage and started rocking.  From this point until the end of the set, there was never a moment where someone wasn't playing something musical.  I do feel, however, that the guitar was a bit too loud and drowned out everything else (and there were a lot of other things- saxophone, trumpet, flute, bongos, a couple pianos, and the vocals were all difficult to make out when the guitar was doing anything).  Even so, it was a very impressive show.  They opened with "Cygnus... Vismund Cygnus" and played that for about... 15 minutes or so.  Huuuuuge extension in the middle of the song for some soloing.  In fact, that happened in just about every song.  They were on stage for an hour and played four songs. The next one was "L'via L'viaquez", followed by "The Widow" followed by "Drunkship Of Lanterns".

Aside from the guitar drowning out the rest of the band, the only downside was that the band didn't interact with the audience much.  Didn't say much.  Some people don't care about that, but it makes the whole thing a bit more memorable to me if they show some personality.  Even so, it was easy to see that they were into it- Omar and Cedric were all over the place.  Honestly, they reminded me of the Rolling Stones with Cedric's dancing and Omar flipping his guitar around behind his back, then back into his hands.  The whole thing was reminiscent of a Tool concert which, if you've ever been to one, is a fairly.... surreal, I suppose, experience.

When Mars Volta was done, the lights came up for a while longer and a curtain rose up around the stage displaying the cover of SOAD's latest album- Mezmerize.  It was about a half hour before they were ready to go, and the whole thing was pretty damn impressive.  They started with the curtain still up, a spotlight showing Daron's silohuette as he played the opening track to Mezmerize.  As he finished, the curtain dropped and the band went into "BYOB".  The stage was very simply set- drums in the back center, three microphones at the front of the stage (one left, one center, one right) and an eastern-looking rug set up just behind each one on which the band member would stand.

The lights were amazing, perfectly synced with the music.  They had the lights that I always thought bands should try to have for their concerts.  The group was on stage for probably more than 2 hours and played a crapload of songs, so I can't really go into each individual one, but some things they played were: Cigaro, Know, Bounce, Chop Suey!, Needles, This Cocaine Makes Me Feel Like I'm On This Song, Toxicity, Psycho, Aerials, Prison Song, Revenga, Lost In Hollywood, Mr. Jack and they closed, much to everyone's delight, with Sugar.  Tell me it doesn't take balls to release a song like that as your band's first single.

The sound quality during System's set was much better- you could hear the individual instruments, nothing was drowned out, and the band made it through all the songs perfectly despite jackasses in the pit throwing shit on stage.  At one point, Serj was playing an acoustic guitar and singing when a girl's shirt landed on the guitar (but didn't hit the strings or neck, luckily, so it didn't screw anything up).  He brushed it off.  Someone threw a baseball cap up on the stage near Shavo (the bassist).  He gave the person a look, did the "I'm watching you" gesture, picked up the hat and put it on.

Both bands kicked ass, pretty much.  I feel that System gave a better show, because they displayed more personality and it was much easier to follow the music, but even the people around us who'd never heard of Mars Volta until this show agreed that they kicked ass.

Honestly, it was odd to see Mars Volta and SOAD put in the same show like that.  Those are two bands that are extremely different from one another, and I can't imagine they'd share many fans.  But it seemed to work, and I guess I shouldn't be surprised- both my girlfriend and I love both bands, so it's not impossible that others would agree.

I've been to one concert in my life.

It was for Orgy.

I was disappointed that I had to "sit" through 3 bands before seeing the one band I had actually come to see.

I then got somewhat lost in north Philadelphia int he middle of the night because of assanine detours that lead nowhere.

I almost went to the SoaD concert in Philadelphia, but as I haven't worked in about 4 months, I'm broke.  :|

EDIT: I also went to a concert/"rave" in Florence, Italy. Dj Tiesto was spinning. The music was awesome, but the people were fucking wierd.

I am jealous.  That is one of my favorite...artists.  Tell us what it was like please!

I had part of a blog entry about it. (http://strazos.4tehwin.org/?p=8) Password is ASRoma.

I haven't been to a "real" concert in years.  I hate paying what they charge these days, being super far from the stage (not interested in rubbing up against bare chested people smelling of BO, cigarettes, and booze), and all the other hassle.

If I go to see a live show these days, it's in a small club or bar, with local acts that play originals.  Yeah, you still get packed in pretty tight and it's hot, but people are civil and don't stink.  Plus, you can be 3 feet away from a band that rocks 10x harder than one on a stadium stage, and they are fookin' GLAD to be there.  They aren't making shit, and they aren't doing it for the money, but for the love of rocking out!

True that. My problem though is that I live in San Antonio now. If it was Austin, different story. Hell, even a small town like San Marcus is better in terms of local music. Like I said, there's the occassional jazz band that I'll see here, but for the most part, local bands are just playing covers. Even the country music here isn't very good (not that I go out and seek it). Lots of Ticketmaster stuff comes through here though, and I have nothing against some of the bands themselves. I'm just not going to pay an arm and a leg to see Mick and Keith. And even if I do have the cash, those kind of shows are usually boring and less-than-intimate anyways.

  I attend a ton of concerts, lot of connections at the local casino and college radio station, so free tickets galore is the norm.  This summer alone I went to Ozzfest, Sounds of the Underground, Gigantour, New England Metal and Hardcore Fest, as well as seeing at least a dozen concerts since May.

 For me, I really appreciate the musicians that put on a show, we saw Trans-Siberian Orchestra last winter, and it was amazing.  Went with 2 friends, and this year I'm taking half my family, and at least a dozen people.   It really was that good.  For those of you unfamiliar, it's the metal band Savatage, with opera singers, a full orchestra, and it's all christmas music.  Extremely well done christmas music even, but the show itself is amazing, telling a story from beginning to end with a narrator, huge light show, and at one point, snow falling from the ceiling of the arena.  Last year my guitar hero Alex Skolnick was touring with them, and I had originally gone just to see him, so it was completely by accident that I had even heard of this show.

  The other great "show" I saw this year was King Diamond.  Yeah, i saw you all cringe.  I've never in my life liked anything he's done, the vocals just made me cry out in anguish.  The show he puts on, however, is amazing.  And thank god he's older now and misses 90% of the high notes.  Another story-teller atmosphere with actors and props, and a ton of atmosphere, I really enjoyed it.

I was a huge King Diamond fan when I was younger. Sure, the falsetto was over the top, but his bands have always been phenomenal, his solo band and Mercyful Fate. Fate was a major influence on my band and my own guitar playing. I love hearing two good guitarists jam together.

I remember Savatage, too, though I remember them quickly jumping the shark. But one album in regular rotation was a Savatage lp...Down in the Dungeon or something.

But I'll echo what some are saying, the ticket prices have kept me away from concerts since the late 90s. I used to hit dozens a month, even with all the travelling. Now the gas is crushing that, too. Just hit $3 here today, up 30¢ from yesterday.

Charlie Daniels Band at the State Fair. Got some comp tickets, can't beat it! Ol' Chuck just isn't the same since he found Jesus, but he still puts on a kick ass show, even with his self-censorship. Played some of the solid hits, Legend of Wooly Swamp, Long-Haired Country Boy (my old theme song..now censored :(), and of course he closed with Devil Went Down to Georgia. It was a fairly short set, as he was doing two for the day. He did a great country jam, the old "train song" on the fiddle, which showcased the band with various call & responses with Chuck. Oddly, he played two Caribbean numbers, but they were very jammy and the band really stretched out, including several nice solos from Chuck on a sweet Les Paul and custom Telly. The only egg they laid was a 'gospel' song about Chuck being saved by Jesus. I didn't mind the lyrics, I mean, you should sing what means something to you...but it was just a badly written musical piece.

My boss went to see Hillary Duff with his wife and kids Saturday, heh. I'd ground my kids for asking!

Yeah, I've seen him a couple times a while back. Everyone likes him to be on the fiddle though...But that guy can jam big time on the gits. Actually, pretty much any country guitarist really. All of them blow my mind.

My girlfriend is alternately annoyed and amused by my constant "Oh man, I gotta work on my x!" x in this case meaning chicken pickin'. I really do. She's been around long enough to have good rejoinders, though: "Oh, is that before or after you work on jazz chord solos, blues fingerpicking, flamenco, yada yada?". I likes 'em smarmy, I guess.

But yeah, I gotta get me some chicken pickin solos down. Very similar to banjo, gotta get my 'jo refurbished and practice on that, too. After I get the harmonica down. Heh.

I guess this is my excuse to post a Danny Gatton video.  :-)

http://www.dannygatton.com/Video/gallaghers.mov (60 MB)

Not sure if I posted that in the Guitar Thread or not.

Not sure where to stick this (stop it), so I'll put it in this thread.

I was watching an excellent hd piece, Jethro Tull at the Isle of Wight, 1970. Some interviews with Ian and backstage/crowd footage interspersed with a great performance. Well, great excepting the guitarist, who displayed some of the most uncreative stock rock licks whenever he played a solo. Occasionally, he'd lead off with some great exotic scale....and then stock licks. You know, the 15th fret bend to the root, doubled with the root on the 12th and all the associated pentatonic licks in that area. Yawn.

But the rest was amazing stuff, including a track I hadn't heard before "My God", which totally rocked.

Then my mind melted. They showed Tull on the Rolling Stones' Rock and Roll Circus (a made for tv joint that never aired). As I watched it..something about the guitarist looked familiar (different guy from the Isle of Wight guy)...black fringe jacket, handlebar mustache...sounded like he was playing slide, but no slide....closeup of his fingers, plastic fingertips. Holy shit, it was Tony Iommi!

He briefly left Earth and played that one single appearance with Tull, then returned to Earth, nee Sabbath. Iommi is another of those unsung guitarists most people don't know, even if they know Sabbath.

The concert that had the greatest Impact on me was seeing Pearl Jam ~'91 (San Diego) just before they blew up.  There was maybe 500 people in the theater and I had never even heard 10 From 6 before.  As you know almost every song on that album was a huge instant mega-hit, now imagine hearing that for the first time, live, in a small venue, with the band hitting everything perfectly.   Eddy did the walking on the crowds hands thing.  The energy in that place was amazing.

I had a chance to see Pearl Jam's Ten release party in Hollywood at the Roxy. I thought they were just another stupid Sunset Strip band.

Woops.

Pearl Jam's great, I don't care what anyone says. As was that whole early 90's period in music (not just Seattle). The mainstream and 80's underground were almost synonomous *for a split second there*, and it was nice (and strange) while it lasted.

Pearl Jam though, keeps getting better. I like the band more with Vedder on guitars. They're a lot more garage-y, etc..

That didn't translate well. I had to chance to see them but didn't because I thought they were just another Strip band.

Woops because I really should have checked them out, eh.

Tull's guitarist from then onward was Martin Barre. He did improve, but he was more a solid guitaist than a particularly experimental one. Tony only ever did the Rock and Roll Circus thing. He actually joined Jethro Tull in 1968, recorded the guitar part for Song For Jeffrey, then phoned up Mick Abrahams (Tull's former guitarist) and told him he couldn't stand it. He went back to Earth - the band that subsequently became Black Sabbath.

I saw Black Sabbath in a number of incarnations live. I'm sad to say that the only time they didn't somewhat suck was when Ronnie Dio was fronting them. They always seemed incoherent and out of touch with one another when Ozzy fronted them, and with Ian Gillian it was truly horrible. On the huge Heaven and Hell tour Ward finally had to leave because of the drug problems. When Appice replaced him, Sabbath becmae super-tight and focussed. It was unlike anything I'd heard Iommi play before. Sadly I havent had a chane to see Sabbath in recent years, because with Ozzy and Ward both sober and rehab'd it would be nice to see the four original members together.

     Was likely 1991 or 1992, and Mudhoney was playing at our college, they kept promoting the thing as "Mudhoney WITH SPECIAL SURPRISE BAND!" I wasn't too thrilled with Mudhoney, so I never bought a ticket, I was so ticked when walking by that nigh, I heard the surprise band playing what sounded like a Pearl Jam cover. Then quickly realizing, they were not playing a cover, they were Pearl Jam. Someone leaving gave me their ticket so I got a couple good songs in.

     Used to go to live jazz nights in college too. Was good low key drinking. I can't think of any bars that have that in my area now days though.

     And I'll put in a plug for some non-live music. For an amazing look at the evolution of a sound/band I suggest getting Law and Order by the Crazy 8's (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B0002VEWPQ/qid=1126105964/sr=1-2/ref=sr_1_2/104-4464161-2963150?v=glance&s=music). I'm so ticked I missed their reunion tour.

Last night, I had the particular joy of seeing Sigur Ros perform at the Atlanta Symphony Hall. They're not particularly well-known outside of the admittedly pretentious indie scene, but they are amazing.

I've been really into their music ever since I was first introduced to it, but I went into the concert having some doubts as to how well their music would translate to live performance.

It's pretty safe for me to say that it was the most spectacular concert I've ever been to, and I'm having a tough time imagining what something better might have looked and sounded like. For some of their songs, they employed an extremely cool visual setup - they'd lower down a mildly transparent screen in front of the band, and then played all these tricks by manipulating lights placed behind the band to cast all kinds of shadows onto the screen. In addition, they'd sometimes have a projector displaying other images on the front of the screen - it was a very cool effect. Here are a couple of pics which might better illustrate the setup.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/laureskew/31947418/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/sigurros/27421185/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/sigurros/27421239/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/hooverdust/30918744/

Anyway, it was a fantastic show all around. If you're not familiar with their music, they have a fair number of songs available for free download on their site (www.sigur-ros.co.uk (http://www.sigur-ros.co.uk)) - I'd recommend checking out the songs "Untitled #4" , "Untitled #8", and "Staralfur" if you're interested in hearing what they sound like.

Sigur Ros is great. Not sure on the whole indie scene being pretentious though.

Is too! If you don't sign up to EMI or BMG Sony, you're a pretentious git! :)

Saw Buddy Guy sunday night in Poughkeepsie at the Bardavon Theater. Tiny place, seats 944 including balcony, sold out show. The only other surviving original blues master is BB King, afaik, and BB (at 80, Buddy is 70) is already in decline. Buddy's on top of his game, great vocals, great guitar. His interaction with the crowd was great, only marred by one jackoff yelling about SRV when Buddy was talking about the old bluesmen.

He does this great section where he talks about the old bluesmen and plays a bit of their stuff. The best part of that was the unrecorded dirty songs they used to do, I'd never heard that stuff and it was really interesting to hear because you know a lot of that shit was going on in the clubs back when. Some people brought their kids, I can hear the questions now "Mommy, what does milking the bull mean?" Ah, well.

Scored an autographed strap. Easily in the top five shows I've ever seen, maybe the best, though it's hard to compare apples and oranges. If you like the blues, get out and see Buddy! I'm going to see him again at a free outdoor show this summer, but it won't have the intimacy of the theater venue. Seeing one of my favorite guitarists play a couple feet away (when he walked through the crowd on an extended Albert King number)....priceless.

Oh yeah, just heard about this one:

http://www.memphisinmay.org/bsmf2k7/home.htm

Beale St. Music Festival in Memphis. $60 for three days with a stunning lineup.


The Allman Brothers Band
Iggy & The Stooges
Three 6 Mafia
Koko Taylor
Sum 41
Gov't Mule
Social Distortion
Richard Johnston
Sharde Thomas and The Rising
Star Fife and Drum Band
Robert "Wolfman" Belfour
The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus
Jerry Lee Lewis
Chevelle
Hubert Sumlin & Willie Big Eyes Smith
Plain White T's
The Derek Trucks Band
North Mississippi Allstars
Popa Chubby

Steely Dan
Godsmack
George Thorogood
Bobby "Blue" Bland
The Bar-Kays
Wolfmother
The Ohio Players
Walter Trout &The Radicals
Kenny Wayne Shephard
Taking Back Sunday
Taj Mahal
Ryan Shaw
Kelley Hunt
Old Crow Medicine Show
Jack's Mannequin
The John Butler Trio
Keller Williams
Alvin Youngblood Hart
Eddie Floyd
One Less Reason
The Duhks
Companyia Electrica Dharma -
(from Spain)
Daddy Mack Blues Band
Hawthorne Heights
David Honeyboy Edwards
Keller Williams



Counting Crows
John Legend
Hinder
Elvin Bishop
Barenaked Ladies
Corinne Bailey Rae
DAUGHTRY
Tab Benoit
Guster
Edwin McCain
Project Pat
Backdoor Slam
Umphrey's McGee
Ann Peebles
Papa Roach
Companyia Electrica Dharma -
(from Spain)
Watermelon Slim
Billy Lee Riley
Egypt Central
The Lee Boys
James "Super chikan" Johnson

That's a bargain for $60.  Some great acts there.

Downside: general admission and you just know it'll be filled with college assholes yelling 'show us your tits'. I hate going to music festivals these days.

Warren Haynes would probably oblige.

That's such a varied list of artists, even if you don't LIKE music, there's an artist there that has a song or two worth checking out.

San Diego does the Street Scene every year which has a variety of acts over 2 days.  It's fun despite them having added hip-hop these last few years, but I enjoy seeing the bands in their own headlining tour or in a small venue rather than an outdoor festival.  Something about not being trampled to death and the fans actually giving a damn about seeing the band, not just douchebags camping the front row waiting for the headliner that night.

Ever since moving to California, the other half and I have done our fair share of concert going, seeing bands I'd never dream of seeing in settings I never would have imagined (reaching out and touching Lemmy's boot!).  I remember having to drive for hours to Dallas or Houston to see a show and making a weekend of it, now I can go on weeknights to see some band in the local pub\club!

Last and only concert I've been to was John Mayer. One of them intimate concert deals. I think it was 100 people or so and I was 5 feet from the stage. At first I thought, ok, but then he did a 10 minute solo while playing Bold As Love. Those pants will never be the same.

John Mayer is actually a really good guitar player. No use for me to deny it.

John Mayer is a good guitarist. And a giant douche. I can't stand him or his music, his breathy singing drives me nuts. He's like a modern Clapton, without Clapton's "God" period. Modern Clapton without classic Clapton. Giant douche.

I don't like his lyrics at least. Don't mind his voice -- But he looks funny when he sings, I guess.

Main reason why I was cautious about him at first was because he was marketed as some kind of teen idol dude or something. Probably not his fault. He's a genuinely good musician.

If you don't like his normal stuff, try listening to the John Mayer Trio (http://www.johnmayertrio.com/). Nothing like his other stuff, a lot more blues based and not to mention he's playing with Pino Palladino and Steve Jordan. I prefer all of that stuff over his normal albums. I'm sure the "breathy" singing you refer to is when he used to sing really, well, awful. Any Given Thursday highlighted this fact. But, yeah, I'd say give  a listen to some of the Trio stuff.

Not to mention Mayer's blog is pretty funny sometimes. I should put up the clip of him in the bear suit. Funny stuff.

I actually thought it was less varied than a lot of modern music festivals. There's a distinctly blues-rock bias, not that that's a bad thing (I dare say that most can play live better than most of the acts at a 'pop' oriented festival).

No, I have Trio, my supervisor loves John Mayer (it's an Apple thing, I'm convinced, or a Steely Dan thing) and gave it to me. I still don't like him, though I do acknowledge his guitar skills. But there are lots of good guitarists out there who aren't quite so completely stuck on themselves in such a douchey manner. Every interview I see with the guy I just want to punch him in the face.

Really, it all goes back to the time he tried upstaging Buddy Guy, played a shitty solo and made his stupid faces. All the other stuff is just piled-on aggravation after the fact.

Well, at least you acknowledge he can play well. Most people look at me funny and say "he's a pop artist!" without ever really knowing what I mean when I say solo. Anyway, fair enough, he can be very pompous, I won't deny that and it's something I wish he'd stop doing. But, I don't have to like him as a person to enjoy the way he plays.

(http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j102/laedna/JohnMayer.jpg)
He can definitely do without those....

John Mayer is hell of ghey and lost any iota of street cred he may have had for dating Jessica Simpson. That is all.

btw, if you can see TV On The Radio, do yourself the favor.

I think he's just a snoozefest.  Sure, he can play.  Big whoop.  If the music is boring as hell to me, who cares?  I can understand him writing the songs he did specifically to be radio friendly for the laydeezz and whatnot, everyone's gotta have a day job to pay the bills and put food on the table, so I don't really hold those songs against him (they do get changed when they come on the other half's radio though).  His other stuff... it's still boring music to me.

QIBRLFT.

Speaking of bands I haven't heard of. Can someone help me out. There was this band that got a little buzz recently and they said the lead singer sounded like Gwen Stefani during the Tragic Kingdom period. Also said the band was no-doubtish. I've been trying to find them but... can't. I really have no other information to give.

Sucks, I know.

Only Gwen sound a-likes I know of are French. :)

I'm pretty sure this is an east coast band, possibly Virginia.

Sorry, can't help ya.

Here's Jennifer Ayache though  :-P

Her band is Superbus

Radio Song (live] (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qyhldZnHzLM&mode=related&search=)

Pop 'n' Gum (probably their best song) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vqz5aMgpBus)

[EDIT] Put links on youtube instead.

I prefer [to travel by] Supercar (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C55jKz8Szyg).

Edit: If you've seen Ping Pong, then you know Supercar (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wnziOjTHiE0&mode=related&search=). If you haven't seen Ping Pong, you're an asshole.

Correction: If you haven't seen Ping Pong, well, good luck finding it now (http://www.amazon.com/Ping-Pong/dp/B0002JC5JI/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2/103-0299015-9227850?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1176971100&sr=1-2). Torrent it. Goddamn I'm glad I bought that on a whim. Can't even find it on Ebay these days.

The Kevin Shields of the East. I know them. Cool pick.

Dunno, but while I was searching, I found this lass:

http://www.myspace.com/sophiaramosrocks

Scroll down to 'Black Madonna' for the one that was tagged as sounding like Gwen Stefani. Superficially perhaps. Good set of pipes tho.

Almost. Similar, but it's like she's channeling old blues singers, while Gwen channels swing and jazz.


Still gotta go with the Jennifer Ayache for uncanny Gwen-a-like though (she's a little different too, of course.... Also, she plays guitars often). I'm biased towards the French though ;).

Nope, she's not black. Definately very white. Dressed like a fashion punk.

BTW, SLACK (if you're reading this), did you ever make it to that Touch and Go party awhile back?

Big Black - Racer X (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-vmMburpMw)

Man...Or Astroman? - Inside the Atom (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgeGbcGZnMQ)


:sniff:

Would have been cool....

I'm off to see Ozzy in June, with Zakk and BLS supporting. It's a big venue though, and we're right at the back. With any luck the "special guests" will be some Black Sabbath guys, as it is the only UK show on his tour.

I have no idea what that is supposed to stand for. "Quote in bright red large font"?

The other half reminded me today... Tool on Thursday.  r0x.

I've seen Tool quite a few times, even met them once. I haven't even bought the new album yet, I'm a bad metalhead these days.

Just heard Dickey Betts is giving a free concert nearby this summer...the night after we go see Steely Dan (I'm not the SD fan, she is). Going to be a decent weekend of music, that.

This weekend there's a big city-wide shindig with a bunch of my friends playing, heading out there for some good blues. Also for some chimichangas and Negra Modelos.

You know Steely Dan had a long running feud with the Eagles? (http://www.channel101.com/shows/view.php?media_id=1766)

Heading to New Orleans this weekend to see John Mayer at the JazzFest. 

edit: Heh, just read up on some of the Mayer-hate.  I used to really really really not like him, until I heard the Try! CD with Steve Jordan and Pino Palladino.  Knocked my socks off.  I still refuse to listen to "Your body is a wonderland", but completely dig the JMT.

second edit:  Plus it's the first weekend away for the wife and me since the baby was born.

Caught Gov't Mule a couple weeks ago at Soul Kitchen (http://www.soulkitchenmobile.com/indexnew.htm), downtown Mobile.  Great, great show.

That was fun last night.  Lots of smokers toking it up and trying to draw us into the action (I don't partake and the other half is preggers so none of that for her).  For being in a 12,000 seat arena that was packed I could see quite well.  Very little crowd interaction, but that's pretty much standard Tool fare.  Review here (http://toolnavy.com/showthread.php?t=81889).

She's excited about Rush this summer and other bands that are coming to town...

Oh man, this might be cool...


Link (http://www.lse.co.uk/ShowbizNews.asp?Code=UN48660G&headline=sacha_baron_cohens_queen_role)

Saw Guy Davis Saturday night in Clinton. That man has a gift. Just Guy and a couple guitars, a banjo and a harp. He played a lot of the old pre-war blues, just amazing acoustic guitar. He came from playing banjo (a black guy playing banjo!), so his fingerpicking was amazing, though he played the jo clawhammer style. His leads and slides were so-so, but they didn't need to be, it was all about the song and storytelling.

Now, I'm crazy for blues these days, but stuff like Robert Cray or Clapton kinda leave me cold, it's too smooth. I don't mind smooth stuff like Albert King with Stax, but I don't like much modern slick stuff. I listen to a LOT of pre-war stuff, especially the Lomax recordings for Library of Congress...and Davis stands up to that tradition. It was amazing, I didn't know you could still find music like that, I thought it had died out.

Man, I wish I could play acoustic guitar like that, I have problems seperating out my bass thumb from my rhythm/melody fingers, let alone being able to sing or play harp over it! That guy is the real deal. Guydavis.com.

It was a good week for music, also had the second-best blues jam for our local blues society, everyone was on fire (tv cameras were there, heh).

Got some tickets ($20!) to see Joe Bonnamassa this summer. Thinking about a Brian Setzer Orch show and Willie will be out on the edge of the state with Ricky Scaggs opening (bluegrass).

Tonight I absolutely had my mind blown.  I was at the Florida Music Festival watching a bunch of local acts and washed up nationals (The Romantics, Loverboy and Seven Mary Three were the major ones).  After Seven Mary Three, there was only one last act on a side stage that we decided to hit up because they sounded cool.  The name of this band is the Killer Robots.  Holy shit.

It's techno-gwar.  The music is ridiculous, and they perform in gigantic silver robot costumes while one of them runs around among the audience and beats the crap out of people in theatre-quality foam monster suits.  And then they hand out foam sticks to the audience so we can beat the shit out of the monsters too.  It's possibly the single best stage show I've ever seen.  If anyone's ever in Orlando looking for something unusual, this shit can't be beat.

And as much as Schild will kill me for posting this, it's the only website I could find:

http://www.myspace.com/killerrobots (http://www.myspace.com/killerrobots)

God damn that sounds interesting. GWAR = the one show I always wanted to see and missed out on for dumb reasons. Missed them the best chance I had of seeing them when they came to the House of Blues in Chicago in 2004. But it was the night after I got back from Australia and I was so jet-lagged I could not have stayed awake long enough to even make it to the concert.

I always like seeing live music but rarely get the chance. I did go to the opening show of the Metallica and Guns 'n Roses tour at RFK Stadium in 1992. Metallica rocked, G'N'R was horrid, missed Faith No More because we got there 2 hours late.  :cry:

I want to see The Police this summer....but I am sure I would have to get a scalped ticket at this point and I can't afford even a face value one atm :(

Gwar is pretty awesome live.

I posted about this in another thread, but VNV Nation is playing with And One in Phoenix on June 22nd. I've seen those two bands play together before (at Club Nation in DC) and it's a fucking great show.

Most recently I have seen Porcupine Tree three times. Once in the UK and twice in the USA. Cambridge, England was good, NYC was fantastic, and Philly was very good, but the Electric Factory sound sucks. Only thing I have tickets for right now is Rush in Philly (Camden) but I'm sure I'll find something before that.

Tragically, I saw the Romantics play a free show last weekend.  Why are they famous?  They were so bad, we left before Loverboy went on.

Yea, the Romantics are pretty much the bottom of the barrel. Are you just going to see bands because you can? :P

All part of the Florida Music Festival!  Technically the same show as the Killer Robots, but different stage on the opposite end of the block.  Seven Mary Three and Flogging Molly were the headliners on various nights.

How could you possibly leave without seeing loverboy?

Seeing them now must be like gaping at a car accident, sad but somehow enjoyable in the sadness.

I have a ticket to go see Skinny Puppy this Saturday.  I don't know what I think about the new album, but I couldn't pass up the opportunity to see them live. 

Going this weekend to see Steely Dan with the old lady. I'm not a big fan, but it's one of her very favoritist, and I'm a good mate (bought her tickets for her birthday). I hope we can get up to see Dickey Betts on saturday, she's gotta work and it looks like rain...but he rocks and it's freeeeeee.

Might still be able to score tickets to the Allmans at SPAC. Stupid SPAC still has tickets left in blocks of four, everything else is sold out (I don't do lawn). The crappier part (in a way) is that buying four tickets for the Allmans will still be cheaper than two tickets to Tom Petty (who we went to see because Derek Trucks Band and Allmans were opening). Concert pricing/availability/noodles is insane. Too many pre-sales, auctions, and goddamned reserved private seating these days.

I'm so tempted to get tickets to see White Lion, Ratt and Poison. It's like all the bands I disliked in the 80s in one show...

No Kidding on ticket prices.

To get a decent seat for The Police at this point, you have to buy a certain number of tickets, and then they are like 200 bucks a pop. If I had 200 bucks I might think about spending it to see them, but not in Wrigley Field.

I paid 25 bucks a ticket for Metallica n Guns N Roses, and that was for seats just off the infield with an unobstructed view. It's just not sensible that ticket prices would go up as much as they have and still sell out.

I'm going to go see Dick Dale on Thursday. Yeah baby.

Oh holy shit he's still alive?

A friend told me he still puts on a pretty good show, although his singing's supposedly gotten really bad.

Lordi is playing with Hatebreed (and a bunch of other 'mehhhh' bands') at Ozzfest 2007 which is coming to Phoenix. I'm gonna get to do some violent fucking moshing at that show. I'll probably be "the old guy."

One has not truely moshed unless you had hair halfway down your back, and when the bigger guy behend you in the pit would push up behind you your hair would get caught between your back and his chest, and you'd be stuck staring at the ceiling to avoid ripping your hair out. Man, I miss those days. And my hair.

I've been in pits straight edge hardcore shows that would make metalheads run crying back to their mommies. Long Hair needs to stay the hell out of the pit. It's a death warrant.

Despite some close shaves, he is. He's survived cancer, lion attacks and a serious infection from polluted water. Thanks to a little help from the success of Pulp Fiction, he's probably been more successful in the last 15 years than he was in the 60s. Should be a good gig.

I disagree.

Our local bar was a crossover bar, metal some nights, hardcore some nights. I used to date a girl who worked there (she was punk...soo hot), so I ended up getting into a lot more hardcore stuff than I'd otherwise have been exposed to. That place had a literal pit of concrete sunk about four feet down in front of the stage and it was the most brutal place on earth. Steel railings going up another three or four feet. There were stairs, but they were kind of a 'front row', non-mosh area where people congregated and were impassible. So you got in and out by going over the railings, you literally had to climb out or dive in.

I miss that place, though I'm too old now to want to get destroyed (and destroy) like that anymore. It was always way more brutal after I was a skinhead, in my experience. When I had long hair I also had a larger group of friends at shows. It's all about who you know or who you're with (like dating the hot chick at the bar who all the punkers know).

I'm so much more peaceful now, my old self should time travel to now and kick my ass :P

So did I.  So I said "fuck it" and grew it out again.  18 months on and we're still not done yet!

Regarding moshing, I've been in both worlds.  Some pits were worse than others.  I'd say the roughest I've ever been in was a Slayer pit, but that's pretty much expected when you go to one of their shows.  Surprisingly Bad Religion was pretty nasty too.

Slayer pit was brutal. At that bar I mention above. I got bruised ribs, I don't count normal cuts and bruises as injuries (still don't, really).

My hair is actually too long for the first time in maybe 13 years. Past the halfway down my back mark, thinking about getting a chop up to shoulder length. So tough to find a place that can cut long hair right, though. Funny because I was bald and clean-shaven when I started working here, now I'm a wookie.

I saw Ozzy on Tuesday, and what a great concert it was too. He sang only one tune from the new album, the rest were greatest hits; Bark At The Moon, Mama Don't Cry, Warpigs, I Don't Know, Crazy Train and finished with Paranoid. Zakk Wylde did a 10 minute+ solo which just blew me away, as did his playing on all of Ozzy tunes. His sound and setup was just awesome, and I don't think I've seen better playing at any live event.

http://showbiz.sky.com/showbiz/picture_gallery/0,,50001-1271355,00.html

Some good pics there.

Black Label Society did the warm up and even though I was hearing most songs for the first time I still enjoyed it. Props to Zakk for playing the entire evening too.

VNV Nation with And One in just under 48 hours. Going to be frickin awesome.

They played at one of the 4th of July festivals around here a few years ago and we thought it was a fun show.  This year we are going to see Kansas and or Rick Springfield (for the girl).

Next weekend it is off to Milwaukee for Summer Fest, highlights being Shiny Toy Guns and Goo Goo Dolls.

Anyone in the crowd really into Jazz? I'm a passing fan and on a lark this year we decided to head to Chicago during the Jazz festival just to check it out.

The only artist on the list I'm really familiar with is Medeski, Martin and Wood.

Anyone have suggestions on any other must-see artists from the list?

http://www.jazzinstituteofchicago.org/Home/2007ChicagoJazzFestival/tabid/175/Default.aspx

Zakk is the Man. I saw him back in 90 at the Cow Palace in Frisco with Ozz. He's the shredtastic monster without being clinical like so many shredders. It's too bad his southern rock stuff didn't move units, it was really good, too. He's way more talented than he seems (and he seems very talented), but the metal stuff is what sells for him.

Delt, I don't like Jazz much, but MM&W should be really good with Scofield. He's a good guitar player iirc.

In my own Live Music update, we hit the box office rather than buying online and got good tickets to a few shows. George Thorogood, Big Bad Voodoo Daddy and Brian Setzer Orchestra's christmas show. Should be getting tickets to ZZ Top and Heart (not the same show) in the next week. Been a great summer for music...still a free Buddy Guy show coming up, and he's my current favorite touring artist.

It starts out with Herbie Hancock. Christ. Go see Herbie Hancock. I believe that Randy Brecker is in the Mingus Big Band at the moment. That would be worthwhile.

This weekend I am going to an "art rock" festival. Mostly progressive rock, but a rare US gig by veteran space rock madmen Hawkwind. First US performances of La Maschera Di Cera and Pure Reason Revolution too. Not sure whether I'll stay for jazz-rock-opera-fusion Frenchies Magma on Sunday... cos Hawkwind have lined up another gig just down the road.

Just got some nice grandstand seats (covered in case of rain) for Skynyrd. Big score of last week was 5th row center for Heart. Woohoo!

As mentioned above, last weekend I went to NEARfest (http://www.nearfest.com/event/lineup.asp) and saw a bunch of very cool bands. Hawkiwind, La Maschera Di Cera and Pure Reason Revolution were brilliant, Magenta, Indukti, IZZ, and Nebelnest were also very good. Robert Drake was amusing, I missed Robert Rich cos I was hungry, and skipped out on Magma to go see Hawkwind (again) in a bar six miles away.

How much was the time machine? I'm in the market.

Just got front row for ZZ Top.

Schild, maybe you can build a time machine with all those shitty synthesizers you seem to enjoy.

We just found out about this apparently awesome band Bliltzen Trapper (http://www.myspace.com/blitzentrapper) that is also apparently in Portland. We haven't seen them, but likely will if given the chance.

I did once. I ended up in 1978 at a Kraftwerk show. It smelled like stale nachos. I had to bail.

For some reason, time machines made out of Synthesizers only take you to Kraftwerk shows. The possibility of that happening was not something I had considered in my original blueprints.

I guess it beats Hill Valley.

Last minute tickets to go see Buddy Guy again next Wednesday in Albany at the Egg. Great venue for him, intimate and great acoustics.

Sorry I don't know where else to put this.

Today I have had this new song, Suburban Knights by Hard-Fi, on high rotation. AFAIK it's only on MySpace so far. I loved their first album (which was critically acclaimed and big in the UK), they are influenced by The Specials, and this is the first taste of their new material - I'd describe it as a big singalong anthem to be played in summer with the car windows down.

it should autoplay if you click here (http://www.myspace.com/hardfi)

Not in this thread, plzthx. If you go see them live, post it here.

I'd describe it as pop tripe ;) But that's just my opinion! Going from Tom Waits to that was jarring.

Got to see the Police last night at the Palace of Auburn Hills (near Detroit), the show was fuckin great. Sting is still hitting the notes and I am just thankful we got hooked up with a free Suite...

If you can catch them, do it.

A buddy of mine just got to sit in on keys and sax with the band Particle and apparently they're playing a festival headlined by Sonic Youth sometime this summer.

Here's a short clip of his band Toast (he's on keys):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XN0RT8MPMrI

I'm digging the dude about 2/3 of the way through in the full on broken neck head gear.

If anyone's in the Austin, TX area they should check em out and send me a report since I haven't had a chance to see them live yet (being in Cleveland and all.)

Can't afford to see the Police. Had a chance to get in on some Madison Square Garden tickets, but it would have been about half our concert budget for the year!

I knew guys in a band called Toast here in upstate NY in the early 90s. Your buddy's Toast is pretty good, and I noticed the neckbrace guy, too.  With the lights, it looks like a fun show if you're baked :)

hmm for those that might know em:

i saw Necrophagist and Arsis (and tons of other openers) recently in sactown.

mind blowing tech death... seeing people pull this stuff off live is simply amazing.

The Egg may be the best acoustic environment I've ever experienced, it's amazingly crystal clear. They also have very talented sound guys. I talked to Buddy's guitarist after the show and he swore I lent him a guitar at the Poughkeepsie show. I laughed and said "Sure, and now I want it back!"

This is a good week, getting to see the living legend Buddy Guy twice in one week.

If it wasn't for the $3000 suite we got for FREE I would have never made the show either! Gonna be hard to go back to the chump seats now! ;)

I caught them in Seattle,  fantastic show.  It was just fucking awesome to see those guys on stage together.

I find it more jarring watching people who've never lived in the UK discuss live music ;) But Hard-Fi do suck live.

So I'll drop some use of Tom Waits in videos by someone I think is cool:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QrDKHrDH3zM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X988EY0mjsM

And I'll get back on topic by trying to prove the spirit of live music can survive tabloid hype, Kate Moss and truckloads of illegal drugs:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3vIMYwVDf8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dtR-SmId_Fc

Oh well. This is what I really like though - I just missed them when I was in England in May:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5O9WgFEevzA

I can't stop now.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-NwqN-xj9Xs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9aG789_n_HQ

The last live gig I was at personally (two weeks ago) was Paul Kelly, something like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3mpczZfyWj4

If I could pick only one band to see live in Australia, it would be The Cat Empire:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1SmtVUbfPAo

Secret bonus track
youtube.com/watch?v=6-JfIduytVs

As far as I know, there are still plans for Porcupine Tree to play their first Australian dates this year. Probably near the end, since they are doing a second US tour in October and second UK tour in November.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2916248155071637531

Last gig I was at was Rush. Better than their last two tours even.

He'd kick your ass old man! Then laugh at you.

Eh, I deserved it, probably!

Just saw Dream Theater at the Tower in Philly - the last date of their US tour. Some of the time they were brilliant, but all to often they went off in soulless wankery, presumably forgetting that they were supposed to be playing for our benefit rather than their own. Part of it presumably comes down to their monstrous egos, part of it comes down to their audience who applauds every flash wank they do and claps through the quieter passages. High points included Scarred & Lines In The Sand... low point was a frankly embarrassing cover of Marillion's Sugar Mice which for some reason included the Gilmore guitar solo from Mother.

A sad waste of talent, that band. I really don't like them at all, it's the kind of music I've rebelled against most of my guitar playing life. I'll take a simple John Lee Hooker song that never wavers from E and uses every blues cliche in the book, but boogie woogies like a mofo over that kind of artsy fartsy stuff. And musicians with egos? Fuck that shit. I've got a friend who's been trying to get a jam together for ages...but he's from the dream theater set and I'm pretty sure it'll never work out. At least he doesn't have the ego.

We saw Skynyrd on thursday, what a great show. Good crowd, singing along, lots of drunken rednecks though apparently they're having some kind of comeback and lots of younger kids (well, teens and twenties, heh) were there getting into it. Not a huge fan of the hollywood mercenary they've got at third guitar, but the core is still there and kicking ass. Really, it's worth the price of admission just to see the collosal chops of Billy Powell live, maybe the best rock pianist evar.

I saw Bowling For Soup do an acoustic show after getting hosed out of a rock show at the House of Blues.  It was fun to see musicians just like me screwing around onstage and chatting with the 45 or so fans who bothered to show up.  They haven't changed at all since their bar-house days in Texas when I first saw them before they "made it big."

All the shows I've been to recently have all been my friend's bands... mostly LA music scene stuff.

Two of them have managed to get themselves signed, though, so good for them. That show I went to was an Escape The Fate/Lovehatehero show.

Also, I'm now seeing that my elementary/junior high friends are getting record deal - my friend Allison was the iTunes pick of the week with her band A Fine Frenzy a week or two back.

Ahh...first row for ZZ Top. We were a bit to the left side, but there were a bunch of PGA goofballs (boat shoes, no socks) that left early so we took their seats. Then the other four left before the end of the show so we were center for the last four or five songs. Wicked deal.

Good mix of fan favorites and crowd favorites. Only one weak song in the entire set, a ballad. They opened with some early stuff and then took a few requests. Me and another guy were both shouting for songs. He yelled Just Got Paid, they played it. I yelled Blue Jean Blues, and everyone was yelling songs because he just played the last one. He looked at me and said "What?", I repeated and they played that. Billy forgot the lyrics halfway through and did a nice improv, which is really what the blues is about anyway. Covered Foxy Lady in the middle of the set. Closed out the set with the big crowd favorites, Legs, Sharp Dressed Man, Cheap Sunglasses. So overplayed when I was younger, but still great songs and of course the crowd went nuts for them. Then they encored with La Grange and Tush.

Got to see a bunch of solos right in front of me which was amazing. Billy's not a technical player, but he exudes groove and has a lot of fun playing. Seeing a couple folks right in front interested he got a little back and forth going with us, doing silly guitar stuff and laughing like we had some kind of injoke going. Probably gets that going at each show, but it's cool to be the couple of people out of thousands that he does it with. The other guy near me was a bass player and early on remarked to his girlfriend how good Dusty was...the cool thing about being that close is if you say something in a lull...they hear it. Dusty came over, pointed at the guy, and started doing more fills for us. Like I said, having folks interested in your playing beyond just hearing a few songs from the radio twenty years ago can light a fire. And the Top was on fire.

I figured being up front, I was a cinch for a pick. I haven't gotten a pick in so long (I did get one from the guy playing guitar in Buddy Guy's band, who was cool). No pick. Earlier, during a guitar change, Billy announced his tech, Elwood. The crowd went nuts, yelling "Elwood". During the next guitar change we started chanting "El-Wood-El-Wood!", became a fun little riff. So everyone clears out and I sees ol' Elwood cleaning up the gear..."Hey Elwood!" No good. Move over to the side of the stage and yell again when he comes out "Hey Elwood, can I get a pick?" He comes over and tosses one, and of course I miss it. Three young guys come over, he tosses them one, then tosses me one, which I catch. I thank him and ask another roadie to pick up the one I dropped, he does and says "Man, you lucked out...Billy /never/ throws picks!" So I got two picks from the guy who doesn't throw them! Nice cap to a great night. ZZ Top is as good now as they've ever been, and they're playing a solid set.

I'm seeing Killswitch Engage next week and Machine Head, Arch Enemy, Dragonforce, Trivium and Shadows Fall in Nov. Only problem is it's at the Brixton Academy and the sound levels when I saw LOG, COB and Slayer sucked. It was all drum and bass, and I could barely make out some of the guitars.

There's also a one a million chance I'll be going (or gouging at) the Led Zep reunion too. The odds are incredibly low though.

I went to Endfest in Seattle over the weekend. It's a day long festival of mostly crappy commercial alt rock bands, but i was excited this year, because Social Distortion was playing. They are one of my most favorite punk bands ever, and I've never gotten to see them live. Smashing Pumpkins was headlining. I was more curious to see them, than anything. I'll probably get flamed for this but-- I was a fan of theirs in the '90s, but after Mellon Collie, they just got weird. But I was stoked to see them play.

Social D was just awesome, definitely the highlight of the 10 hours i was there. (had to go by myself, the wife is...well...short. So she doesn't do so well in festival-type situations where she can't see very well.) They played for about an hour, and just ripped through their hits, which was fun. I'd like to have heard some really early Social D, but awesome nonetheless.

The Pumpkins were....interesting. They played 11 songs in the hour they played. 2 of the songs were 10+ minutes. They played Bullet w/ Butterfly Wings, Tonight Tonight, and closed with Today. I wish they would have played more old stuff, but they were mostly playing songs from the new album. And btw: Billy Corgan is freakishly tall in person. He opened by playing the Star Spangled Banner--Jimi-style, obv--I think the significance of playing it in Jimi's hometown was lost on the mostly 16-20 year olds in attendance.

I'd mention some of the other bands that played, but they were largely unremarkable. The only exception was Satellite Party (Perry Farrell's new band) which played, I think, one SP song and the rest were all Jane's Addiction songs. That was really cool, and the crowd really got into it. Although I could have done without Perry being almost naked by the end of their set.

All in all a great day, the beer garden helped get through the shittier bands! As a side note, it was rather funny the eclectic mix of people there. Mostly teenagers and then all these middle aged punkers there to see SD, i was laughing all day. And a nice selection of boobies found their way out of some shirts, so that was a definite upside.

No flaming here.  I was a big Pumpkins fan back when Mellon Collie came out, but once I heard "Eye" and Billy talking about how it would be their new direction, all I could think of was "oh shit, they're going to suck from here on out" and I was pretty much right.  Adore just... sucked.  The only reason I know Machina didn't completely blow is because of the handful of tracks they put on their Greatest Hits album that didn't actually suck (the limited second disc was pretty nice to have 18 different B-sides on it too).  They were one band that I enjoyed hunting their B-sides to more than the albums.  They really did record some great music, even if most of it was almost impossible to find once it had been out for a year or so (the Siamese Dream box set, the Aeroplane Flies High box set, etc).

If you see them again chances are they will play early stuff.  They tour so often they change the setlist all the time.  The first time I saw them in 2004 they played 1945 and Another State of Mind.  The second time they played Mass Hysteria (at a festival too!).  Most recently I saw them they played all of the Mommy's Little Monster album from start to finish and THEN played for another hour.  Definitely one of the more fun bands to go see.  I've seen them 4 times in 3 years and it's been a great show with different crowd banter and songlists each time.  Sure, the hits get played but they always throw in at least 1-2 more obscure songs.  Maybe it's a SoCal thing since they are local.

Heart, 5th row. Good lord Ann has some of the greatest pipes ever gifted to humanity. And sexy little Nancy kicking and jumping through the entire set, both of them laughing and having a great time like a couple of kids. Fun show.

They only played two of the big 80s songs, which I knew I was going to have to endure, but surprisingly, they made it enjoyable by changing up instrumentation (Nancy on mandolin, stand-up bass) and Ann's voice is just so much better live. And when they get into their rocking 70s stuff, it's simply amazing. They had some friends in the audience and Nancy was really belting, at a few points Nancy just looked at her, eyes wide after some particularly amazing passage, and smiled. Always love it when the band is having a good time and letting it all hang out.

They ran through a small set of Zep covers, as usual. Ann has the voice Plant wishes he still had. No effort at all, no buildup, she can just hit every note she wants to. I'd rather see Page and Jones play with her singing at that big Zep concert coming up. Double encore.

Security were being pricks and trying to get everyone out literally minutes after the show, before the roadies even hit the stage. A few of us lingered in hopes of getting a pick, and it was looking grim...I started trying to get the attention of the roadies off to the side of the stage, and that was ably taken up by a few women that had been in the front row, one guy turned and came over, so I got a pick from Nancy now, too. Good couple weeks for that!

Just went to the GWAR show last night, i'm biased as they are my favorite band, but it was a most excellent show. If you have never seen them, i highly recommended it.. You will never look at other shows the same way again, in fact, you will be bored at any other show.

GWAR. Obey.

Did you get jizzed on by the giant phallus at your GWAR show? ;-)

I have paid my dues ,Having said that, no, i did not this time. (unless your talking about the cuddle fish, they didn't have the giant Phallus they used to have)

The nights casualties were, "Jitler"( Jesus and Hitler combined), "Jewsafier" (SP?, Jewish Lucifer), The Demon of metal, George bush (Who came out to monkey noises), Nazi pope (Crosstaka pope), Uncle veto (Thats his name right?) from "viva la bam".

I have seen everything from the OG "gor gor", to the Regionator and the worlrd maggot. I never miss a show i can reach. Even hang out with them from time to time... was once dubbed by odurus urungus himself as "Little odurus" due to my ability to recant the lore of GWAR.

I love the music, i love the social and political commentary, and i love the slapstick audacity of it, And they are local to me...

Well, since Percy is the only former Led Zep member actually saying no to the idea of a reunion tour after the London concert, I suppose it could happen. She probably wouldn't be their first choice though.

I would concur. It would reflect the ex-Zeps complete inability to make any good musical decisions since Bonham died. They burned out AND faded away...except they won't go away.

Sortof live...Rev Horton Heat is going to be on HDNet sunday, check your local listings etc. DVR ftw.

The Plant and Page albums from several years back weren't bad at all.

Tiger Army is on tour. Check em out :) Not shredders like the Rev, but their singer kicks ass.

I saw Damo Suzuki (formerly singer with Can, the greatest rock band of all time) at two concerts last night. His thing these days is to invite musicians to give them their details over the Internet, and then he arranges unrehearsed concerts with them the next time he plays in their cities. He played concerts last night with two Philly area bands - Bardo Pond at The Rotunda in the early evening, and Stinking Lizaveta in a bar down the road later in the evening. Bardo Pond played one long psych jam, while Stinking Lizaveta were entirely different with shorter numbers - quite an innovative sound. Damo was superb fronting both bands with his improvised and passionate vocals. The bands were great too.

The last couple of weekends I saw Porcupine Tree in NYC & Atlantic City. They're on the last few nights of their US tour now - if you feel like seeing their live show, the set they're playing this evening at New Orleans' Voodoo Music Festival is being streamed:

http://www.iclips.net/

They're on in around an hour after Black Rebel Motorcycle Club. Not all the bands are being streamed (I suppose Rage Against The Machine & Spoon among others declined based on label wishes) - but many of the bands are. So there's some good music for free on the net this weekend.

Brian Setzer is the greatest guitarist alive.

Saw him at a sold-out show Sat night. I'm still nearly speechless, processing what I saw.

MC Frontalot is playing in Portland on Friday, and Buck 65 is playing the following Friday. Busy month!

Tickets for next year starting to crop up. Got decent seats to see Taj Mahal at the Egg, and just now scored front row tickets to see Dickey Betts and Great Southern at the Bardavon. I hope Andy Aledort is still playing with him, that will be an amazing show.

Still, Brian Setzer has kinda set the bar. That cat is beyond words, pure entertainment and living guitar legend.

Also got a couple alerts for Buddy Guy, who I will go see every time he's within a couple hundred miles and BB King, who is one of the last blues legends left on the list to see. Going to be another amazing year.

Brian Setzer is so cool, would love to see him play. Was it the Big Band thing he does?

I saw "The Black Crusade" a few weeks ago. After a huge queue, I walked in to Shadows Fall playing the last few bars of their last song. Oh well. Arch Enemy were on next, one of my favourite bands and I wasn't disappointed. Michael and Chris Amott were flawless and they played a mix of songs from the new album and the previous two (Nemesis!), and this great extended slower piece with a great melodic arpeggio I've not heard before.

Next up were Dragonforce. I've seen some youtube clips of some really ropey performances but this time they were spot on. That South African dude can actually sing, despite him leaping round the stage whilst looking just like Captain Jack Sparrow. Herman and Sam were on top form, with a particulary crazy extended sweep-tapping riff (it even stood out from their million BPM playing and more tricks than a cheap Vegas hooker) and continual use of the trem bar guitar raise thingy from Herman. Excellent trampoline use and synchronised leaps to.

Trivium were on next, and another good set from them. Mix of songs from the latest album, with a couple from their first. Coreys taken over growling duties now, with Mat concentrating on singing. Musically they were tight, excellent performance from the lads.

Machine Head headlined. They played their usual crowd pleasers and my fave from The Blackening, Halo. Imperium, Take My Scars,  Descend The Shades of Night and Davidian also went down well. It was the first time I saw them and I wasn't disappointed although by the time they were on I was drunk and could have done with a seat. I guess it's confirmed I'm old. The venue went crazy for them too, it was obvious who everyone was there to see.

This weekend I took my girlfriend to see Crowded House. Apparently it was really good. I kinda dug the professionalism of the band though, and the production values and video setup were of high standard and I recognised 2 songs. 

It's just called the Brian Setzer Orchestra

Yeah, it was the Orchestra doing the christmas set. I went in thinking it was going to be all xmas tunes (which would be ok), but he put on an amazing show. I was almost speechless at how amazing he is. They did a bunch of Orchestra regulars (Gene & Eddie, Route 66, etc) in addition to the xmas stuff. In the middle of the show he brought the drummer, bassist, tromboner and a backup singer playing fiddle out to the front of the stage and played some gypsy jazz (Django style) as a smaller band. Then the tromboner and fiddler left and they did some Stray Cats as a three piece (though the Orchestra guys aren't as good as the Cats), throwing the Grinch song into the middle of Stray Cat Strut segueing back into the full band and more standards + xmas tunes.

He did a cool set of classical tunes in a boogie style. The way he can arrange for the orchestra is amazing, he weaves in and out of being true to the original and swinging rockabilly style.

If you are anywhere near Raleigh, North Carolina, please check this band out for me live: The Secret Theatre (http://www.myspace.com/thesecrettheatre) (demos on that link, crappy mobile phone video here (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MPZTqmujDq4))

Um, how to describe it ... Radiohead meets GLaDOS? The singer/songwriter has a unique voice and a lot of talent, and I hope he goes far. The demos on MySpace can be downloaded but the cymbals are a bit tinny.

They're unsigned but jumped to 4000 MySpace friends after a few gigs. I know him as the roommate of someone I watch on YouTube, appearing in some of her videos: 1 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9-AeT3Gm8xw), 2 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ry8w4L6JJQE).

Not close.

Also, scored front row center tickets for BB King in May. Very excited.  :drill:

BB was the first live show I ever got to see  :-) Unless you count the city symphony.

Kinda blows my mind that that was like 15 years ago -- and he seemed ancient then!

He'll be 82 this year. Buddy Guy will be 72.

My first show was Judas Priest on the Defenders of the Faith tour. \m/

Now that must have been a good show (before the TurboSuperchargedRamItDown era of overproduction and generic riffing).  I saw them with Ripper Owens and they are still one hell of an entertaining band for having been around as long as they have.

I was 13. Seeing a stadium-sized Metallion (the critter on the cover of the album) was face-melting. When they did Electric Eye and lasers came out of its eyes, when it lifted it's leg/paw/ramp and Rob came riding out on his Harley....I was already on the path to metaldom at the time, but that show sealed the deal. Got a guitar that summer, and always been a fan of dual guitar bands (Maiden, Priest, Fate, Slayer).

These days I like seated shows, so tired of general admish, which used to be my favorite because I was a mosher, before it got all fucked up mainstream nonsense. I also dig the old blues guys because they will give you a little history and some lessons, too. How cool is that? Buddy Guy has a section of his show where he talks about old-time guitarists and he'll play little sections from their stuff to demonstrate their styles, it's wicked!

I hate seated shows. Surefire way to turn me into a grump. Even if someone else is paying.


You're getting too old Sky!

Gladly so. I did my share of hell-raising, I'm more than happy where I am now in life.

Well, I'm not necessarily talking about hellraising... It's just much nicer being able to move closer to the act no matter what you pay, wandering around meeting people (and getting fondled by them), sticking your head next to the PA speaker, whatever. Seated venues always feel so stuffy and constrained. People standing in place to dance -- not fun. And half of the time, no one wants to do that, so they just sit. And the people who do dance look like morons, realize it, and just sit eventually. And even worse, they're hundreds of feet away and pretty much getting most of the action through a jumbotron. Might as well stay at home then.

Really man, the whole "splendid" thing? That was bad enough! Now you're advocating seated venues. Totally not rock 'n' roll dude.  :-P

I do not want to be fondled by strangers. I do not want my head by a PA speaker. I don't go to concerts to wander around and meet people. I do not mind standing in place and dancing with my fiancee, people who think I look like a moron can go fuck themselves, I really don't give a shit what people think.

I'll give you the point that getting shitty seats sucks, but if it's a good live band like the Allmans, it's still worth it, because you get to see a different show every time. And there's still the vibe of the show. But I usually get good tickets these days.

Like I said, I know I'm getting old, and I'm a-o-fucking-k with it. I did all the things you think are cool when I was younger. I so don't give a shit about being rock'n'roll now. Let's not fag up the thread any more with this bullshit, eh?

You can't be that much older than me, can you? [edit] I'm 30 by the way... Although I really don't think actual age should matter.

Anyways, don't get too pissed. Be old, fine -- but don't be THAT old to start calling this "thread fagging"! This is not politics. Talking about the merits of seated or general admission in a Live Music thread doesn't have to be so taboo. These are light, friendly jabs, sir. Not trying to offend you....Too much.  :-)

I'm older than both of you. I like standing shows more than seated ones because when the audience is responding to the music, the band tends to play better. That is all. My legs would prefer it if the shows were seated venues, but its not my legs that listen to music, so fuck them.

I first saw Judas Priest on the Point of Entry tour. The album wasn't up to their standard, but they were great live. I did also see them on the next few tours, including Defenders of the Faith. Saxon were another great double guitar metal band from that period.You should run out and buy a copy of Wheels of Steel.

I saw BB King as the support on U2's Rattle n Hum tour in Sydney in 1989. That's 19 years ago and he seemed ancient then, too.

Saw Social Distortion last night to a packed house of 600 people or so.  Always an interesting time, especially with the Hank Williams covers and the acoustic renditions of several songs.  The obligatory setlist was:

Reach For The Sky (acoustic)
Ball And Chain (acoustic)
Cold Feelings (acoustic)
Six More Miles (To The Graveyard)
Alone And Forsaken
Under My Thumb
Born To Lose
Can't Take It With You
Coulda Been Me (with blues intro)
Drug Train
This Time Darlin'
Highway 101
Mommy's Little Monster
Sick Boys
Winners And Losers
(encore)
Far Behind
Prison Bound
Ring Of Fire

Social D is one of my favorite bands (hence the avatar). Who'd they play with?

They played with the Tone Junkies, who were actually VERY good compared to most opening acts I've seen.  They had a good audio mix and weren't afraid to do a variety of things with the guitar as opposed to just playing power chords over and over again.  Very energetic group.

For some reason I've almost never seen a good opening act at a metal show.  They usually are just some local band that "plays heavy" by downtuning and trying their best to imitate Korn and other 1 finger chord bands.

I haven't seen that many metal acts to remember actually. Though I did play in one (and yeah, it was crappy).

I haven't seen many metal shows since that shit got popular. Kinda funny, when I jammed with a metal drummer out of Syracuse, he loved my 'old school' style. Hah. Goddamned kids.

Alright, we'll get off our lawn if you promise to stop blaring your Styx records.

The band I jammed with weren't downtuners, but death metalers.. Which is just as bad, in my opinion. Death metal drummers kick ass and all, but I can do without the rest.

There's a lot of older type of metalheads in my city though (I suspect like what you're mentioning, Sky). Not my thing either, but I have more in common with them at least.

Does a long time ago count? Diamond Head were one of the best support bands I ever saw, as were Metallica, who later covered them. Not metal, but Nirvana and Pixies were pretty good support bands too. :)

Saw Queensryche open for Kiss, Metallica open for Ozzy, Melvins open for Tool, off the top of my head.

Melvins should never qualify as an opening act! Especially for a band younger than them.

Must've been a cool show though.

It was. At the Poughkeepsie civic center or something, the size of a high school gym, not a large one. Got to meet tool after, so it was all good.

Finally the Aussies get a chance to see one of the best live bands around:

Really? At the metro? Ugh.

Well sure.  But nowadays it seems every metal opener I've seen is basically subscribing to the "scream unintelligibly into the microphone" and the whole "rapid start, rapid stop" chord progression, usually played with 1 finger up and down the fretboard.  Slayer seems to suffer the most.  Every opening band for Slayer I've ever seen has completely sucked (except for Hatebreed, but I just wasn't that into them).  The only time I do recall a "good" metal band opening was when Angel Dust opened for Opeth back in 2001.

ANZAC Day. Sorry, too busy waving flags, beating Muslims and raping Aborigines.

Not music, but just grabbed a couple tickets to see Carlin. Never seen him live before, and he's not getting any younger. He is one of my heroes.

He's getting kind of scary. The last hbo special he had was just bleak, even by his standards.

Yeah, that's our fear. Last thing we saw of him he was a bit less pessimistic (at least for Carlin), but even at his most pessimistic, it's still some cutting wit. It's a life list thing, anyway. Like seeing Bo Diddley even though he was barely coherent and months away from his debilitating stroke.

Interesting - an Eric Bogle connection. His anti-war song "And The Band Played Waltzing Matilda" was based on Gallipoli and refers to ANZAC Day, and he's also well known for another anti-war song "No Man's Land" ,,, which happens to be the name of Steven Wilson's (of Porcupine Tree) recording studio.

Saw Bad Religion tonight on the first of their 4 day tour.  They decided that rather than play the same setlist with 1-2 modifications that this time they were going to progress through their catalog beginning back at the first EP forward.  Tonight they played 75% of the first album and 1st EP, which was great.  Lots of complaints from various people who weren't digging it, but they could get bent as far as I am concerned as they put on one hell of a show.  They threw some other hits in as well so it wasn't a complete bore to the fairweather fan.  For some reason people still like to toss shoes at Jay who then puts them on the microphone stand or on the amps (tonight was a set of Rockports and a sneaker).  They even acknowledged the Into The Unknown album, which Greg just groaned over.

Setlist for those that care...

Bad Religion
03/07/2008

Fuck Armageddon
New Dark Ages
Damned To Be Free
Doing Time
I Want To Conquer The World
LA Is Burning
We're Only Gonna Die
Part III
Slaves
Do What You Want
Stranger Than Fiction
Faith In God
In The Night
Suffer
Punk Rock Song
No Control
Latch Key Kids
Pity
Generator
Politics
Drastic Actions
Infected

That's a hell of set list from those guys.  Fuck Armageddon is one of my favorites and is in several of my specialty playlists.

I'm bummed I'm in Vegas the week before they play there.

My favorite Bad Religion song is still.... Bad Religion. Heh.

Did they play with Mike V by the way (i.e. Revolution Mother)? Cool band, in a Rollins Band sort of way. I know they had some dates on the same tour.

My favorite band, now broken up for 10 years, will reunite for a show in their hometown (http://m7x.blogspot.com/) on May 25.

I'm going to fly to Illinois just for this. Not counting Video Games live, it will be the first live show I've attended since... I think Curve's Boston show on the "Come Clean" tour, 1998.

Saw Dickey Betts (http://youtube.com/watch?v=0WGVW7byRCA) and Great Southern (http://youtube.com/watch?v=9RsdWnhxXjM) in Poughkeepsie sunday night. Another great Betts show, though it started out really rocky. The monitors were all fucked up, Dickey got pissed and walked off stage, I was thinking 'Uh-oh'. I've heard he's real hit-or-miss, and we finally got a 'miss' show. Band comes back out, bass player's amp develops a massive buzzing. Dickey yells at the roadie and monitor guy again...another roadie runs out to give him a Bud :). I think that roadie saved the show, Dickey pounded some beer, lit a smoke, turned up his amp, and cranked out the best version of Blue Sky (http://youtube.com/watch?v=G1jpQu6qR1E) I've ever heard, a ten minute jam. Then went on to play two sets totaling three hours.

We were in the front, right in front of Andy Aledort (http://youtube.com/watch?v=jn-3fVTVhgY), who is a phenomenal guitarist. It was like every solo was a private lesson for me :) He put on a clinic for playing slide in standard tuning. If he could sing, the guy would be Warren Haynes II. Duane Betts (http://youtube.com/watch?v=ReL9qZI3-e8) (Dickey's son) is still touring with Great Southern, what a great thing: tour with your legendary guitarist dad and one of the best guitar teachers (Aledort) on the planet. We've seen him several times over the past few years and the kid is coming into his own. Great three guitar jams, not to mention Pedro the bassist who is a pure monster (and I'm very critical of bassists).

Met a few of the guys after the show, got to shake Dickey's hand and talk with him for a minute. Amazing night. Another pick in the collection, too :)

ZOMG. Front row, center, BB King at the newly remodeled Stanley Theater.

Opening act was great, a solo acoustic slide player named Papa Mali. Roots blues with a heavy slathering of N'Orleans.

BB's band opened the show, phenomenal musicianship. So tight. They run through some horn section solos. Then BB comes out, first thing he does is smile and say "How ya doin'?" to me and throw me a pick. He then proceeds to rip through a sick guitar solo. Played most of the classics, interlaced with lots of great (and often funny) commentary. I love seeing the old blues guys, you'll get all kinds of great stories and goofing around between band members that have toured together over twenty plus years.

BB shows you how one slightly overdriven note with just the right vibrato is worth a thousand scales.

Going to check out Ernie Hawkins (http://allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:wcfrxqqkld6e~T1) this weekend. Very excited.

Metal Masters - Judas Priest, Heaven and Hell, Motörhead, Testament. It was the first night of the tour and only Priest got a good PA mix. Testament got the worst sound, started first and only had a half hour set. The three stage changes were half an hour. Motörhead were next with a far too short 45 minute set. Being a three piece with a fairly basic sound, the muddy mix didn't really work against them too much. I'd like to have heard more of the upcoming album, but that's not what this sort of multi-band tour is about. Black Sabbath stuck to songs from the Dio albums, as their pseudonym suggests. It takes Dio a couple of songs to warm up these days (or maybe that was just last night) but once he has, its nothing short of remarkable that he can still hit and hold those high notes. We got a good selection of songs from the three and a bit albums and again 75 minutes was just too short so some great songs were missed out. Ending with the full version of Heaven and Hell even on the short set was cool though. Priest as so much better live than on record - the guitars have more presence - they just sound great. They started off with new track Prophecy, and Halford came out in a fucking ridiculous gold lame hooded cape carrying a gold trident. Pretty Spinal Tap if you ask me. Again, mostly a retrospective set despite them having a new album out.

All in all, it was good fun - a neat nostalgia trip for somebody like me who saw all these bands in pretty much these forms in the 80s. Toying with the idea of going to see Motörhead on their own tour next month if they're going to play more recent songs.

I would go see them.  I've seen them several times - at festivals and on their own headlining tour.  MUCH better when they have a 90-120 minute set to work with so they can fit 20-25 songs in rather than the usually 9-11 (with all the "hits" they are expected to perform).  They played Killers, Whorehouse Blues, In The Name Of Tragedy, We Are Motörhead, etc.  All songs off their last 2-3 albums at the time.  They even played songs from Another Perfect Day and commented on how no one liked them when the album came out but now the younger fans wanted to hear it, so they figured it would be worth a try and the response had been huge (which Lemmy said he was amazed by).  I saw them at a festival with Iron Maiden and Dio and they opened, which stunk for them since no one was there to give a shit.  A 30 minute set for Motörhead is hardly getting warmed up.

That's why I don't like most of the 4-5 bands on a festival type tour.  You get 2-3 bands that give a greatest hits live package which is fine if that is all they have to work with like Trixter or some other bands, but Testament and Motörhead have MUCH more material than you could think of fitting in in that little timeframe.  And then you have the headliner who may or may not give a reduced greatest hits live package.  Sounds like Priest played some new material but mostly stuck to the hits, which is to be expected since everyone wants to hear Living After Midnight and Breaking The Law but no one cares to hear Tyrant or The Sentinel anymore.  And don't get me started on 30 minute band setlists and 45-60 minute stage change times.  Fuckdiculous is what that is.

Beale St. Music Festival in Memphis

i actually went to that show.  was reading this thread and getting ready to talk about Allman brothers (since that's what you started this with)...saw them at the Beale St. fest...not their best show.  However, North Mississippi Allstarts absolutely rocked that whole festival.  Knocked its socks off.  

Oh yeah.  if you've never seen Tom Petty & the Heartbreaks.  AMAZING FUCKING SHOW.  saw them a few years back in LA and was highly impressed.

Edit: man, i am fulling of all sorts of fail this morning...i thought there was only 1 page to this thread.  going back to read and see how unnecessary my post really is.

In what way? I like the band and their music, but their live show wasn't impressive at all. Then again, the two opening bands were Derek Trucks Band and the Allman Brothers Band, and I like improvisational bands (not jam bands!).

We're seeing the ABB again this year at SPAC in a week and a half. Missed 'em last year. Never get good seats for their shows. Just scored front row for Susan Tedeschi at the Bardavon. Woohoo! I  :heart: Susie.

Nice!  i always love front row.  or lawn (fun stuff happens in the lawn, but you can't see anything).

We saw petty when he was touring with black crows.  i went in expecting to love the crows show, but was disapointed (their sound system was all off and was all muddy/unhearable).   Petty and his group put on a really good show, especially their version of Gloria.  Had me cracking up.  He just had good stage presence and good raport(sp?) with the audience.  told some jokes, some funny stories.  They don't improvise much (only a bit on Gloria), which is always a little bit of a downer for me.   But i would still call it a great show (1 part stage presence, 1 part solid songs, 1 part crowd response/reaction).

But i've only seen them once. maybe it was a fluke.

As far as music + presence + improve, i'd have to say some of the best people i've seen in the last few years were James Brown, Robert Randalf, Keb' Mo', and Olu Dara.

It was a good album, but it followed on the heels of the Iron Fist tour. Iron Fist may have been a low point for the Lemmy/Clarke/Taylor band, but on tour they were still flying high, still growing - it was only a couple of years after they had broken out with Ace Of Spaces and the colossal No Sleep Til Hammersmith album. To go from that to having Robbo's more complex but also restrained playing was a shock to the fans, most of whom were new to the band due to their surge of popularity. They wanted Fast Eddie, or failing that, somebody who could churn out loose fast and raw riffs in the same way that he did. Unfortunately for them that wasn't Robbo, despite him being a great guitarist. I've been fortunate enough to have seen every touring line-up besides the original with Larry Wallis and Lucas Fox, and I think that their current one is the best they've had. I've seen the band over 30 times, however I haven't had many chances to see them in the last decade, which is part of the reason I'd like to see them play newer songs. That and any band that is playing their current music is always more interesting than one cranking out fan favorites due to a sense of obligation.

Just saw the Holmes Brothers, third time we've seen them. They are such an amazing act; blues, gospel, rockabilly, funk, r&b, country, rock. Trio with three-part harmony. Real small venue, I'm surprised they didn't fill it, I blame our blues society for fucking up marketing. Sat right in front of the guitarist who is mind-blowing, probably 70 or so, just rips out leads and his rhythm playing is reminiscent of Hendrix with even more fills. Stacks up chords amazingly, which was blowing my mind until he sat down at the piano for a few songs, piano players tend to play much better chords than guitarists :) Their progressions were amazing, too. Just a real mature and confident mixture of styles, one of their specialties is rewriting songs into different genres.

Telecaster into a Fender Super Reverb, love watching a guy who uses nothing but the guitar and amp and sounds amazing. Scored a pick from him on the cd signing line, they don't have custom picks, it's the one he used for the entire show, and a lot before that. A standard fender pick with the printing almost worn entirely off, in a way that means more than a custom pick imo.
One reason I love seeing the Allmans is that their current lineup is so smoking and with the younger guys there is a lot of energy renewed in the original guys. And their new music is just as good as the old stuff, and they also reinvent the old stuff. We always buy the Instant Live CD (though it's a new vendor now, I forget the name) after the show because they rework so much material. We have one version of Liz Reed that was almost unrecognizable outside the signature riffs.

Also why I love more jammy bands (NOT JAM BANDS), because they are guys who love to explore the music and have fun playing each night. Watching a band play just like the recording is boring as hell. I like watching the creativity on the fly, and the thought process unfold, the interaction between everyone, the nuances and little stage gestures and looks. Love that stuff.

Saw Iron & Wine & Gogol Bordello @ Golden Gate Park yesterday, good sets, good hippie festival but with lots of various hot alternachicks and BYOB + free = 4tw.

I'm convinced if you've only heard his stuff off The Shepard's Dog that you should listen to his earlier work.  I personally didn't like that album at all, but my dad has been talking him up so I figured I'd check it out since it was a short walk from my house to the stage.  Since it was Beam, no backup instruments, I don't think he played a single song from that album and it was very cool.

seeing Clutch this thursday, they are playing across the street from me in their only Nor Cal date  :awesome_for_real:

Iron and Wine is chill. Sounds fun.

I got into them by way of Calexico (I guess they're similar, but I prefer Calexico much more.. more on the dark side of things, I guess)...

Gogol Bordello is hit and miss with me... I like the idea, but they're a little too kitschy for me. I want so much to hear a gypsy like rock band that isn't kitschy, but that may be asking too much. Kind of like native american bands.

Going to try and catch the Experience Hendrix tour when it swings into Albany. Way short notice and we're broke...but Buddy Guy, Hubert Sumlin, Mitch Mitchell, Kenny Wayne Shepard, Andy Aledort, some great talent on stage. Eric Johnson, though he doesn't do anything for me, really, and Billy Cox who is no Noel Redding. Thursday night without any time off is rough, need to find at least an hour to make curtain. I'd really like to catch Sumlin, who was Howlin' Wolf's guitarist.

I get to go see Boris in November.  I'm happy.  They are opening up for NiN.