Concerts

Best Selling RPGs - Available Now @ DriveThruRPG.com
Now that I got the ok, I'll be spending New Year's Eve in Seattle, seeing some great bands. One of my favorites from the PNW, Year of the Cobra is on the bill, which is why my friend and I decided to. Lots of other good bands on the bill as well.
 
urbwar said:
Now that I got the ok, I'll be spending New Year's Eve in Seattle, seeing some great bands. One of my favorites from the PNW, Year of the Cobra is on the bill, which is why my friend and I decided to. Lots of other good bands on the bill as well.
Click to expand...

Seattle, not surprisingly I guess, is a great town for live music.
 
urbwar said:
Yeah, it is. Portland is too, though Seattle gets more of the bigger shows
Click to expand...

Yeah but I've been spoiled from seeing too many great bands in clubs, theates and churches: almost every arena show is a disappointment. I agree with Keith Richards that arenas are for soccer games not rock 'n roll.
 
Voros said:
Yeah but I've been spoiled from seeing too many great bands in clubs, theates and churches: almost every arena show is a disappointment. I agree with Keith Richards that arenas are for soccer games not rock 'n roll.
Click to expand...
Most of my experiences with Arena shows has been pretty good. Every time I've seen Def Leppard they've been amazing (and I've seen them at least 6 or 7 times). Same with Motley Crue, Poison, Metallica, Kiss, Judas Priest & Journey. More recently Ghost blew me away on their most recent tour. Granted, Pantera and one Iron Maiden show were kind of bad.

Don't get me wrong; I prefer clubs too. I've seen many bands that are bigger now in the metal scene on small stages. And every time I've seen Blue Oyster Cult has been in a smaller venue, and I rate their gigs as good as every Def Leppard arena show I've seen. I also think some bands definitely sound better on a smaller stage than a big one.
 
Most of those bands aren't to my taste, I saw Metallica during the Black Album tour and it was okay but it wasn't until I saw a band in a smaller venue that I had a real Damascus musical experience.

Some bands are able to 'put on a show' in an arena to compensate for the substandard sound but compared to being able to see and most importantly hear and even feel the sound of a band in a proper venue there isn't much to choose from imo.

Close to every arena show I saw as an adult I got in for free because I worked in the music industry, no way I'd pay the absurdly inflated ticket prices people do today to see a band play at such a distance in an echo-ridden barn. YMMV of course, just feeling the need to rant! :grin:
 
Wednesday I'm going to an interesting double bill at the Star Theater. Dance with the Dead & Beast in Black. Dance with the Dead is an instrumental group, kind of like in the vein of Goblin (in that their albums could be horror movie soundtracks). Beast in Black is a traditional European Metal Band, whose singer can hit some pretty good high notes. It's been a few months since I went to a show (there's a couple I forgot to post about), and it's my first time seeing both bands. Star Theater also has good seating, so I'm glad the show is there (as my back can't handle standing up too long)
 
Ended up seeing clutch, but not until April. It was a great show. a very good story, but just for the music, but some of it is not for the pub.

going to see tool in a couple of weeks. I should pick up tickets for dirty honey, but it’s the day after thanksgiving and there might be consequences. Still, would be fun. Need to get that figured out.
 
Looking to catch D.R.I. next time they come through Chicago.

Last concert was when I took the female to see the Lumineers in a small club in Milwaukee 2 years back. Not my type of band but they jammed. Was really impressed. Loudest crowd I've ever been around. An interaction with one fan went like this, him- "you gotta sing along bro!", me-"I don't know the words bro!".
Kind of a fan now.
 
We haven’t seen anyone since the Foo Fighters at Fenway a couple years ago. I wanted to see Fleetwood Mac but when they fired Lindsey and Christine died, that ended that.
 
About a month ago, I saw Eilen Jewel at FitzGerald's in Berwyn, IL, and a week or two ago, I saw Rhiannon Giddens at the Athenaeum Center here in Chicago. Both shows were really good.

I have tickets to see Dropkick Murphys, The Interrupters, and Jamie Wyatt in Rockford, IL in October and tix to see Lucero at the Metro in Chicago in November. Really looking forward to both of those.
 
Tangerine Dream in Edinburgh in November. None of the original members, but what the heck. Was eyeing up Priest/Saxon in Glasgow next March but the cheapest tickets get you a seat where as far as I can see you'd need Stretching (limitation: eyes only) to see the bands - pretty much perpendicular to the stage.
 
Last week the Mrs and I saw Mitski at a fancy theater in downtown LA (one of those old restored art deco movie palaces) doing an acoustic preview of her new album. She’s an indie singer-songwriter type who we’ve been a fan of for a few years and thought (wrongly!) was kind of obscure.

First surprise was how young the crowd was. We were expecting mostly people like us (aging hipster-types) but instead there were a ton of Gen Zers in their teens and early 20s (even though the tickets weren’t cheap).

She had a very minimalist setup, just her, a seated guitar player, and an acoustic double bass. She played through her new album top to bottom with minimal between-song banter (only really at the mid-album “side flip”) followed by a short set of older favorites. And the crowd went fucking NUTS! In-between each song they screamed like she was the Beatles; during the songs there was reverent silence and you could hear people audibly sobbing, overcome with emotion. After she finished the album and was doing the hits she invited people to sing along if they wanted to and they sure wanted to - almost every song saw a few hundred people loudly singing every word and note in perfect unison, exactly matching all of her quirky phrasing and melodies.

It was pretty surreal. I had no idea she had such a young and devoted fanbase and no idea when or how it happened, but good for her! After the show my wife posted a couple photos on social media and heard from two of her friends that their teenage daughters were very jealous - wanting to know how we got tickets and telling their moms that their friend has very good taste lol

Next show up for us is Nick Cave at the theater across the street from where we saw this one. Expecting a quite different crowd at that show (but at this point who fucking knows!).

Edit: okay, so some further digging uncovered that in 2016 one of her songs was used on the show Adventure Time, which I didn’t know (I’ve seen some episodes of that show but apparently not that one). Someone who’s 21 now would’ve been 14 then, which is a very impressionable age (and of course the show is still popular so kids are continuing to discover her through it). I’m guessing that must be where a lot of it started.
 
Last edited:
Just saw that Cattle Decapitation is playing at the House of Blues Chicago in December! Might have to check that out! I don't think I've seen live extreme metal since the pre-pandemic era.
 
Dance with the Dead & Beast in Black was pretty damn good. The show was sold out, so it was hard to find seating (as they had less chairs out than they do for other shows). I didn't go upstairs right away like I should have. I had trouble seeing Dance with the Dead as the floor was packed, but they put on a great set.

Beast in Black started off kind of the same; it felt like first 3 or 4 songs just blended together. After that it picked up. I mostly know their first album, so many songs were new to me. Towards the end of the set, they did my two favorite songs back to back (Born Again and Blind & Frozen) from their first album, which made me very happy. Definitely had a great time, even if my body was sore AF when I left to catch the bus. I put some alleve rub on, but I probably need to bust out the cold gel pack lol. Ah, the things old metalheads go through just to see bands :hehe:
 
I was back at Star Theater last night, to see a triple dose of "Occult Rock" bands. The lineup was Early Moods, Coven and Lucifer. I've seen Lucifer before (at the same venue) a few years back, and loved them. Early Moods was a great opener, full of energy and great tunes. Coven was interesting. Their music had more of a 60's-early 70's psychedelic vibe, but there were times when I heard early prog rock, funk and even some go-go parts in their music. The singer doesn't sound like rock vocalist. They also had some theatrics (the singer was in a coffin that was covered in a sheet, and she was on stage about 10 minutes or so before the set started. They also did a "ritual", where someone from the audience was "baptized" in the name of Satan. They used some audio from an old movie for the parts where they ask the person questions, because it picked up again while she was responding to one questions). I liked them, but not as much as the other two bands.

Lucifer has more of a hard rock/heavy metal vibe to their music, and just put on a great live show. I had to cut out during the encore to catch transit heading home, but I definitely had a good time.
 
Just back from the Tangerine Dream gig I posted above. Very good. Last show of the tour (not counting the wrap up in Poland), and last minute change to a smaller venue. Reckon there was about 200 there but the atmosphere was decent. They played an encore where they were joined on stage by a local guitarist who was apparently down to be the support act at the original venue.
 
The local fair had some eighties acts pass through so I've seen Platinum Blonde, Honeymoon Suite, Loverboy, and Kim Mitchel. Of those, Honeymoon suite didn't have any original members but that was probably for the best as they were the least old and tired of the batch.

That, said I have an interesting story about the Platinum Blonde show. They were on the free, outdoor stage in the beer garden and people were just kinda laid back and quiet and at one point the lead singer got off the stage to look at the sign in front of it, wondering out loud what it said. Doing so broke the surface tension or something because the crowd went wild after that with middle aged women rushing the stage and being dragged back by security. I'm not sure what the psychological theory is behind it but I didn't see that sign at any of the other shows on that same stage and I can't help but wonder if they bring it with them and it's part of the act. If so, that's brilliant.
 
Since my sons got a little older, I've been able to take them to live music, which I haven't done in 15 years. We've seen a lot of metal shows in the last 18 months. The last one was Gojira, Mastodon, Lorna Shore.

We just got tickets for the "Very Lorna Shore Christmas" in December.
 
And I just got my ticket to see Blind Guardian at Roseland next April. Only seen them once before, so I'm happy to be able to see them again (especially since it's one of my nights off, so I don't need to waste PTO)
 
went ot see dirty honey at the knitting factory in spokane last week. good stuff. walked away with a flag that says "howdy fuckers" for the opener (austin meade).
 
Tix for Social Distortion & Bad Religion in Chicago were sold out by the time I thought to look for them. Fortunately, I remembered that it's not very far to Milwaukee, and I was able to score a ticket for the Milwaukee show! I've seen Social D a few times before; never seen Bad Religion.
 
E-Rocker said:
Tix for Social Distortion & Bad Religion in Chicago were sold out by the time I thought to look for them. Fortunately, I remembered that it's not very far to Milwaukee, and I was able to score a ticket for the Milwaukee show! I've seen Social D a few times before; never seen Bad Religion.
Click to expand...
I find it incredible how a lot of the grunge stuff that came after Social Distortion can sound so desperately dated yet SD never seem to.
 
Billy Bones said:
I find it incredible how a lot of the grunge stuff that came after Social Distortion can sound so desperately dated yet SD never seem to.
Click to expand...

I think that's music in a nutshell: there's Innovators, and then there's (lots and lots of) Imitators...
 
Right now, 46-year-old E-Rocker is acting like teenage E-Rocker and going to 3 concerts within a 9-day span. Saw Sarah Jarosz last night at Thalia Hall, going to see Mia x Ally at Park West on Friday, and going to see Jill Andrews next Wednesday at SPACE.

Also have tix for a bunch of other shows later in the year. Mostly music, but a couple comedy acts, also.
 
Seeing Ween in August. That’s the only one planned right now. I should have gone to the silver sun pickups but did not. If my wife takes my son to Arizona, I will absolutely being going to concerts at night and working during the day until I collapse
 
My sister is staying at my place to see P!NK this weekend, who's on tour in Australia at present. Brisbane concerts Friday and Saturday nights.
I'm not going. I don't mind P!NK, but she's not my scene as far as actually spending money and going to a stadium to see.
Speaking of touring American artists, bloody Taylor Swift just arrived down here, and every teenage girl is going absolutely batshit crazy.
It's like the USA just nuked Sydney & Melbourne, heh heh
 
Last edited:
Finally got out of the house to see Plaid, the Warp-records electronic group, play one of the few remaining clubs that book out-of-town, or for that matter any, live music.

It was trippy and fun, never really regretted when I drag my ass out to a show.

 
Last edited:
Five days before I see Blind Guardian, Visions of Atlantis & Illumishade are coming to town, opening for Korpiklanni. I don't care for Korpiklanni, but I'm excited to see the other two bands so I suspect I'll leave after they play
 
AC/DC touring for the last time this summer. So tempted, but some of these recent nostalgia tours have left me disappointed (Jethro Tull, Simple Minds..)
 
Godfather Punk said:
AC/DC touring for the last time this summer. So tempted, but some of these recent nostalgia tours have left me disappointed (Jethro Tull, Simple Minds..)
Click to expand...

Plus, its probably going to be stupidly expensive :sad:

And its a show that my son would like to see, so I'll have to check prices and see how bad it will be...
 
bleys21 said:
stupidly expensive
Click to expand...
159€*. Comparable to The Rolling Stones 2 years ago. But, like the Stones, probably the last chance for me to see them perform live. Yeah, The The in September are a lot cheaper.

Edit: Aaand Sold Out! :sad:

*) that's like a Battleforce for the new Solar Auxilia, or a small repair by my plumber, or a nice dinner for two...
 
Last edited:
Godfather Punk said:
AC/DC touring for the last time this summer. So tempted, but some of these recent nostalgia tours have left me disappointed (Jethro Tull, Simple Minds..)
Click to expand...
Saw AC/DC in Nuremberg in 1984 at Monsters of Rock. Was an excellent concert as was the French girl I was there with. Heh, man... I miss my youth. Saw Jethro Tull at a winery in Washington state outside of Seattle in the mid 00's, they were really good then. Sounds like you didn't have as much luck.
 
Ian Anderson had some health problems around his throat. His voice is completely gone, so while his flute was still going strong, listening to a wheezing broken song... he should have hired someone to replace him for the vocals.

Like AC-DC actually did with Axl Rose for a while.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Banner: The best cosmic horror & Cthulhu Mythos @ DriveThruRPG.com
Back
Top