Live Music

[Sky]

I  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 :(

[stray]

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.

[voodoolily]

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?

[Sauced]

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!

[voodoolily]

Meh, they all sound the same anyway.

[Cheddar]

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.

[voodoolily]

I 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?

[Cheddar]

You live in Virginia?

Si.

[voodoolily]

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.

[Cheddar]

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.

[Llava]

I'm dying to catch the Mars Volta, but it's not happening in upstate ny :(

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.

[Strazos]

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.

[Cheddar]

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!

[Strazos]

I had part of a blog entry about it. Password is ASRoma.

[Arnold]

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!

[stray]

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.

[Ralence]

  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.

[Sky]

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.

[Sky]

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!

[stray]

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.

[Sky]

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.

[stray]

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.

[Sky]

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.

[Murgos]

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.

[Sky]

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.

[stray]

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..

[Sky]

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.

[Righ]

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.

[Furiously]

     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. I'm so ticked I missed their reunion tour.

[Gong]

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) - I'd recommend checking out the songs "Untitled #4" , "Untitled #8", and "Staralfur" if you're interested in hearing what they sound like.

[stray]

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

[Righ]

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! :)

[Sky]

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.

[Sky]

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

[Nebu]

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