Concert Thread, Summer 2009!

Nickelback was pretty good for the "Silver Side Up" album, but they've gone down hill since then. I can still listen to them, but i don't really like them anymore.

Sadly, i think i'm only going to see 5440 this year. I'm still desprately trying to win Coldplay tickets for Toronto though.

I saw Dream Theater live a few weeks ago, when they came to England. It was really awesome

Originally Posted by Misa Misa

I saw Dream Theater live a few weeks ago, when they came to England. It was really awesome

They'll be here on Friday at Graspop, along with various other talented artists like Mötley Crüe, Monster Magnet and Disturbed.

Just got back from Sonic Youth. It was effing brilliant. They played The Eternal in its entirety and Death Valley '69. DEATH VALLEY '69!. Damn. So good.

I'm only going to three shows this summer but it's
1)Warped Tour(My friend is giving me a free ticket)
2)Rise Against/Rancid Show
3)Blink-182

I'm going to Canada to see Green Day tomorrow.

{originally posted 07/02/09)
I just got back from The Offspring show.

Opening act was a guy by the name of Frank Turner. It was just him and his acoustic guitar. It sounded like Dallas Green (City and Colour), but with a less melodic voice and more songs about being drunk. And British.

Then the main opener was Pennywise (for some reason I thought it was Lagwagon before). They were alright, not as good as maybe I was hoping. The mix was pretty bad, though.

The Offspring were great though. Mix was very good (not perfect, but good). It was really nostalgic for me, since I used to love the band way back in the day. I was happy to learn I still remember most of the words to all their songs. They played a lot of stuff I dug ("Have You Ever" followed by "Staring at the Sun," "Gotta Get Away," "All I Want," "(Can't Get My Head) Around You," etc).

Best moment was when the band left the stage except for Dexter, who sat at a piano and played a bit of the Charlie Brown theme before going into a solo piano version of "Gone Away" that was really amazing.

Probably my favourite show I've seen so far this year.

UPDATE 07/06/09: Sunday was the Rock the Bells tour, a huge hip-hop deal.

It was a long and exhausting day. A ten hour shift with a more-than-a-little active crowd means that I was (and am) very tired. But I can still share some thoughts from the show.

The first four or so acts had awful sound. Apparently this is the norm for most hip-hop shows, which I guess is fine if you only care about the beat or know all the tunes already, but as an outsider for those opening acts, it was just not pleasant to listen to. M.O.P. was one of these acts, as well as the group Slaughterhouse. Now, Slaughterhouse is apparently some dream-team of sorts, a supergroup, if you will. The only people I could pick out were Royce Da 5'9" and Joe Budden, and they weren't really that impressive if you ask me. But again, crap sound, so I could have been misled by that.

Starting with K'naan the sound got better, and the show just more enjoyable. Talib Kweli did a set, as did Mos Def a little later (yet no Black Star reunion, oddly). RZA was there as well, which was sweet. Big Boi (of OutKast) did a set, consisting of a lot of my favourite tunes, so that was awesome. He also confirmed that he and Andre are going to be putting our records this year. The headliners were Nas and Damien Marley, who I guess were alright, but I was way too busy and tired to care by the time they got on.

My favourite part of the whole thing, though, was the MCs for the night. I didn't catch who the first one was, but the one who came a little later and took over towards the end was none other than legend KRS-One. Not only were both amazing hosts, captivating and charging and engaging the audience, but both did little freestyle sets that were really impressive. KRS is also one smart and inspiring dude.

So: work-wise, one of the hardest ever, but also quite enjoyable upon reflection. Hip-hop crowds always have a communal feel to them, it's nice to see literally everyone kind of on the same track loving the music being played. And hip-hop artists know how to hype a crowd. It makes work tougher, but makes the show better, so I can live with it.

Judas Priest on Thursday.

Judas Priest with Whitesnake opening will be here on August 19th. I'm disappointed because it's very unlikely that I'll be going. The worst part is that they aren't doing what bands usually do for Florida: Orlando, Tampa, and Miami. Instead, they're also going to a venue that's about a twenty minute drive from my house. That's at least fifty minutes less than the next closest one, Tampa. Luckily, it seems that they're the only band coming to Florida that I'd be interested in this summer.

Originally Posted by nolan

{.

Judas Priest on Thursday.

I envy you sooooo much.

I live in Panama so nobody ever comes

Ok, so Judas Priest was yesterday.

First act was this band Pop Evil. The frontman was going on about "raising kids in the spirit of Rock and Roll!" and "living life like Rock and Roll!" and "Rock and Roll Rock and Roll," but he really should have been saying "Our band is really bland and uninteresting."

Whitesnake was on out. While my game "spot the Whitesnake t-shirt" was an utter failure (total count: 0), people still seemed to get into the set. If you are into Whitesnake, then you probably would have loved it, as it sounded solid and whatnot. I find it pretty funny that the lead singer looks like Steven Coogan in Hamlet 2 if you aged him 20 years, talks like an Oxford professor, and sings like an 80s metal singer. He's also a lot more dynamic than Rob Halford.

Speaking of, Judas Priest was pretty much the same they were last year. They were celebrating the 20 year anniversary of British Steel, so they played that entire album, plus a few other fan-favourites. The set decorations and encore shtick with Halford coming out on a Harley were exactly the same. I always enjoy Priest sets anyway, though, because to me its like Rob Halford really wants to put on a musical theatre show, but can't because he's in a metal band. So he just has really intensely choreographed and set shows.

As for the crowd, pretty much everyone was drunk, which was to be expected. A few violent ejections, but not too bad. Not as crazy as Rock the Bells at all. My three favourite crowd-related things:
1) The sheer number of scuzzy-looking old metalheads with their dirty long hair with receding hairlines and worn leather vests and pants, but also sporting bluetooth earpieces.
2) The youngish guy who clearly came from the office, his suit still on with only his tie and top button undone, gleefully greeting a friend he bumps into; one of the aforementioned older scuzzy metalheads, minus earpiece.
3) The kid in the section behind mine, no more than eight years old, air guitaring the **** out of the entire show from start to finish, as his scuzzy metalhead of a dad simply sat in his seat the entire time, not quite looking bored, but not even half as excited to be there as the kid. Not since the kid at the Rush show last year who air drummed all of "Tom Sawyer" have I seen something so adorably awesome.

Two of my best friends are going to Lollapalooza in August, I am sooooo jealous. It's a music festival in the beginning of August in Chicago with some really good bands.

I watched Paul McCartney from a very far distance last night. I did see him, though he was microscopic. He sounded good. I mean.. it's Paul McCartney. Hey Jude was one of his last songs, and he had everyone sing along. He had the girls sing one part, and he liked it so much that he had us sing again.

It was a good concert. Hey. I got a number to top it off.

So glad people posted to I can gush about the Broken Social Scene concert without double posting.

Ok, so last night Broken Social Scene played a free show at the Harbourfront. Usually the band plays on the Island every summer, but there is a municipal strike going on that made that pretty much impossible, so the band decided to play at this venue for free instead. Now, this is a small outdoor venue. Maybe seats three hundred, tops. But the place was crammed. All the aisles, the outdoor patio next door, the boardwalk, all packed with people. There were probably a few in the water treading.

The band came on at about 830, and were mind-blowing for the start. For those not in the know, Broken Social Scene is a collective of Canadian musicians, mostly from the Toronto and Montreal indie scenes. They started out as a more post-rocky outfit, but evolved quickly into a more indie rock/pop outfit. Many of their members have gone on to various levels of success with other bands and solo projects. The whole concept behind the band was to create a group that could gain and lose members without compromising the sound and performance, so at times the band is like twenty people large, and sometimes as little as eight or nine members.

Anyway, this band knows how to put on a show. The two core members of the band, who started it up, Kevin Drew and Brendan Canning, really know how to perform, as does pretty much everyone else in the band.

Perhaps the best part was the fact that all the notable members from the past (who have almost entirely moved on to other projects) all came back to perform with the band. Feist, Amy Millan (from Stars), Emily Haines and James Shaw (from Metric) and Jason Collett all made appearances and played some of their own songs (Feist played "I Feel it All" and Haines and Shaw played "Gimme Sympathy"), and most stayed on stage for the entire show. The band played right from 8:30 straight to 11:00 (and if it weren't for sound laws, they probably would have kept going). They played "7/4 (Shoreline)." They played "Bandwitch." They played "Gimme Sympathy." They played "Meet Me in the Basement." They played "Major Label Debut."

I see a lot of concerts. I've seen a lot of amazing ones, and I've seen some pretty bad ones. This was, thus far, the best concert of the summer by about a hundred miles, and probably one of my favourites of all time.

Double post for BEYONCE.

I was really excited for this show. I see so many concerts that I really end up looking forwards to the ones that I think are going to be the most entertaining, and that pretty much defines what I was expecting from Beyonce.

I was not let down. She's an incredible entertainer. Despite the fact that the show is probably really tightly choreographed to the point that even her reactions are probably rehearsed, she sells it all like it really is spontaneous and unique every night. From singing brief covers of "Angel" by Sarah McLachlan and "You Oughta Know" by Alanis Morissette to the compilation of video of fans and others doing their own takes of the "Single Ladies" dance before launching into her own to closing by singing "Happy Birthday" to those celebrating in the audience. Her dancing, singing, and overall performance were all hugely entertaining.

Plus, her voice was strong, her body was rockin', and perhaps most impressively, her backing band was holy-hell phenomenal. They even got to showcase themselves a bit during a wardrobe change, and damn does she tour with a talented group of people.

9/10, easily. Points off for the forty-minute delay and one really bad opening act.

let's see...
was supposed to be going to see taking back sunday, but my mother's broken her foot & can't take us.
& besides that the tickets are sold out anyway. although my friend & i are thinking about getting a couple of tickets off ebay & going halfers on them. but i doubt that.
but i am going to see calvin harris on the 10th of august. and again, i suffered for being a lazy ***** & not getting money together in time to buy tickets for biffy clyro. cry
also whatever's on at the edinburgh fringe,
all time low w/ the audition in september.
and beyond the summer i've got tim minchin in october which should be interesting - i'm getting a train to newcastle with like 7 people i barely know, but seeing the genius minchin should make up for that. xD
and bring me the horizon w/ a day to remember in november. which should be rather awesome.

It's not summer here (Australia), but I saw Pink.

WOW! She is amazing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wAe2_2bFjwk

^She's still singing while doing that. She doesn't lip sync.

Im seeing Head East at the IA State Fair.

I might see Incubus in a couple of weeks. Not my first choice of bands to see, but certainly not bad.

My next concert is going to be either K.O.L. or Snow Patrol, I am leaning more towards Snow Patrol because I have been following their music alot longer than the kings but both shows would be great, but I can only go to one or the other.

Just got back from Katy Perry.

Opening bands were New Cities and Stereos. Both we pretty terrible, especially Stereos. Not bad sounding, as in a bad mix, but just not good music. I'm not one to really hate on music at all, I either keep quiet or pretty plainly state why I don't like something, but Stereos was just bad.

Perry herself was probably awesome if you are a Katy Perry fan. I love pop music, but her particular brand of it does nothing for me. The whole concert was really...bizarre. And not in a hilarious way, in a 'this is kind of weird and creepy' way. Also, I don't know how people can complain about how bad a role model Miley Cyrus is when you have someone like Katy Perry running around appealing to pretty much the same demographic, or just slightly above it. There were some pretty uncomfortable moments when you know just how many young kids are in the crowd.