Starting soon with Sydney, they’ll be kicking off Live Earth, the latest in these multicity concerts. I can get all of it with XM, but I don’t know if I’ll listen. The lineups seem pretty weak compared to a few years ago with Live 8. Though I might listen to some of the one in New York and I don’t know who’s scheduled for Washington.
I want to see if the artist formerly known as Cat Stevens plays “Peace Train”.
Just saw my Genesis reunion. It was worth it. For a band that I’ve loved for over 20 years, it was well worth the early morning wakeup.
I have to really want to see a band to endure all the crap that I don’t want to see.
That’s not to say that I don’t think it’s a good cause. I know lots of people are comparing carbon footprints, etc., but I think they’re making an effort to reduce that and I think that consciousness raising to the problem of global warming, regardless of whose fault it is, is a good end in itself. I’m all for it. Rock on, Big Al!
If you’ve got XM, try channel 39. That is perhaps the weirdest thing ever to be played.
Metallica just kicked ass. Tap is up next!
I’ve been watching most of the acts all day. Shakira amazed me. She’s so much more talented than the hip hop stuff that gets played of hers on the radio.
Just watched The Police do “Message in a Bottle” on NBC. Two questions. Who was the non-Police-man playing lead guitar? And why the hell didn’t security drag that black guy who was yelling crap into a live microphone off the stage during the song? It looked like Sting grabbed him by the arm after the song was over, but he had already ruined it by then. Too bad.
I think it was ruined before Kanye hit the stage. I wasn’t impressed by Sting and his cronies at all.
Did my girl tear it up, or what? I have the chance to go see Gogol Bordello in Ottawa next week, and this tears it - I am so going to that show.
That was Kanye West rapping and John Mayer playing guitar on “Message in a Bottle”. Kanye’s set earlier was most impressive, and the whole Police set was good (except that they were using canned backup vocals.) “Driven to Tears” was especially rockin’.
I was watching the web feed on and off all day as I attempted to have a productive Saturday. The Beastie Boys set in London was incredible. Macy Gray was really good, too. She did a weird mashup of “Give Peace a Chance” and “Manic Depression”. Alicia Keys was really gutsy and great. I saw some African stuff that I had no idea who it was but was really groovy. I was impressed with Bloc Party, too. Metallica were OK, but Spinal Tap was monumentally awesome. They did “Stonehenge” complete with dancing midgets, and during “Big Bottom” they had all of the bass players from all of the bands come out and play with them, which was (appropirately enough) a sound nightmare. It was also surprisingly cool to watch Lenny Kravitz play “Let Love Rule” to about 600,000 people on Copacabana beach.
The web was definitely the way to go, because you could watch entire sets of people you wanted to watch, see some of the weird stuff they naturally won’t show on American TV, and generally avoid the preachifying if you want to.
I cannot believe I missed the Police, damnit. Gonna try and catch clips of them elsewhere. But the person I was surprised to have enjoyed most was, incredibly, Kelly Clarkson. I wasn’t a huge fan of hers during AI, although I did like the single “Miss Independent.” But girlfriend knows how to rock and wail! Plus I have a bit of a girlcrush on her now. What a cute figure.
Overall I think it was both fun and interesting and more than a bit inspirational. Seeing soooo many people gathered in so many different places all for the same purpose … wow. Musically there seemed to be something for everyone, too.
It’s now VOD at www.liveearth.msn.com. Good luck with the streaming, I’m having problems at times. Not sure if it’s my connection or their servers not being as bulletproof as they were yesterday.
Where was David Bowie and Depeche Mode ? Not invited?
I didn’t like the Police set. They dragged out all the songs into these extended extended extended remixes to the point that in the middle of the song, I forgot what song they were playing in the first place. Also, Kanye West ruined what salvage value was left in the performance.
I listened.
It was pretty, er, dull. I really only watched it for Spinal Tap though but when the cameras cut to audience halfway through their set the look was mainly “Ok we got it, can we have real music now?”