Trans-Siberian Orchestra at the Downtown Disney House of Blues, the day before Thanksgiving, 2010. Complete with a turkey dinner with all the trimmings. For breakfast.
That was an abbreviated show, though, that only lasted about an hour. Prior to that was the Mark and Brian Christmas Show, 2009, at the Nokia Theatre in Staples Center.
Gary Mullen and the Works-Queen tribute band.Lansing Michigan.
I took my wife to see Lady Gaga on Saturday. The two opening acts were seriously lame. Gaga put on a good show, but it was too damn loud. Seems like she tried to make up for the lousy acoustics in the arena with volume. Anyway, it was fun, but probably not something we’ll do again - our tastes have changed to enjoy smaller venues.
It’s been a while.
My husband bought me tickets to see Sting. (Annie Lennox opened.)
We were outside in the rain and it was still wonderful.
It was the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra (Mahler 5), conducted by Zubin Mehta, and yes, it was very good.
Saw Storm Large at the Hard Rock in Seattle a couple of weeks ago. Storm puts on a great show–interacts with the audience, heckles the crowd back, spanks you on stage if you tell her it’s your birthday. She did original songs and some covers. Much fun was had by my daughter and I.
A little over a year ago, I saw Moby in a small venue in Brooklyn. I enjoyed it.
Saw Galactic at the Fillmore last weekend, blew the roof off, as usual. This weekend I am seeing Trampled by Turtles Friday, EOTO on Saturday, and Black Joe Lewis on Tuesday. I live in walking distances to a few venues in Denver, and live music is a hobby. Red Rocks tickets have already gone on sale for the summer, so we already have front row for Flaming Lips covering Dark Side of the Moon w/ Primus, Avett Brothers, Bassnectar, and Disco Biscuits. General admission for Ghostland Observatory with Thievery Corporation, and then Phish shows in Detroit and Cuyohoga Falls.
All the shows I see tend to be amazing or at least decent, but last year the worst show I saw was The National. Muddled sound, singer was off, but hey, the show was sold out, so they probably aren’t crying hard.
Just before Christmas we saw the final show ever (until the comeback tour) by Simply Red at the O2 in London. A friend from Canada asked me to sort the tickets for he and his wife as an anniversary surprise and through the band’s website managed to score front row seats! Other than Holding Back the Years, I wasn’t overly familiar with their music but did enjoy the show. My friend got a copy of the set list from the stage crew so he went away happy. I was worried that even with front row seats, the stage would be too high and we wouldn’t see anything and that my friends would have come all this way for nothing but it was great. We were encouraged to crowd the stage as it was being filmed so got a very close of view of things. By the final song the women behind us kept trying to elbow my husband aside, saying the show was for the ladies. I thought Mick was kind of sleazy but the music was good.
Day after tomorrow I’m taking my girls to Taylor Swift. Small mercies, thank God they hate Justin Beiber!
Last concert was The Stray Cats/The Pretenders/ZZ Top a couple years ago. I’d seen ZZ Top before, and they were OK, but they seemed to have lost some energy from a few years ago. the Pretenders were fine, but IMO the Stray Cats (who opened) absolutely stole the show.
Rammstein, Madison Square Garden this past fall. Amazing concert.
[and my first concert ever was with my parents, Black Sabbath back in 1969]
Bonnaroo was most recent, but it was a festival, not a concert in June of last year. The last act that played was Dave Matthews Band.
The last actual concert was Ani DiFranco a few months before that.
Both were great.
Not counting the dudes set up in the student union I walked past on the way to lunch the other day? That’d probably be Celtic Woman. I enjoyed it, it was worth the money, but I think the original ensemble (the ones in all the DVDs and such) were better.
Blue Oyster Cult - Free concert in the park in the San Fernado Valley last summer.
Not very loud, but the boys can still bring it.
A little over a year ago, my brother bought one too many tickets to see Leonard Cohen, and was trying to find someone to take a ticket off of him half-price. I couldn’t afford even half-price, so I said nothing.
The day of the concert he called and asked me if I wanted the ticket for free, since nobody else had taken it. It was a school night, and besides I felt a little guilty taking it off him for free, so I declined. I hung up and told my wife, and looked at her expression and said, “That’s insane, isn’t it?” She agreed, and being the amazing wonderful wife she is said she’d take care of the baby for the night, so I called my brother back, and five hours later was at the MOST AMAZING SHOW I’VE EVER BEEN TO.
It was quite literally breathtaking; I was gaping in astonished delight through most of the concert.
The Eagles at Tokyo Dome on March 5th, a week before the earthquakes struck here. It was the “Long Road Out of Eden Tour” and we had previously attended their show for the “Hell Freezes Over Tour” in Yokohama in 1995 or 1996.
This show was great as we heard selections from their newest album and their classics. Although I’m a little on the younger side of their core audience, listening to the music reminded me of the days my father would come home after work and start the record player with the Eagles, Doobie Brothers, etc.
Glenn Frey or Don Henley would have an intro (in English) for most of the songs. The Japanese fans’ favorite “Hotel California” was played third this time. I heard there were complaints during the last tour when that song was played first. This time, I was a little disappointed they didn’t perform “Tequila Sunrise” but hearing numbers from the solo careers of each member made up for that, such as Henley’s “Boys of Summer” and “Dirty Laundry” or Frey’s “You Belong to the City”.
I believe the last one with any name recognition was when the New Pornographers rolled through town right before Lollapalooza, so I guess that would have been August of last year.
The Allman Brothers at the Beacon Theatre on Saturday. Very fun show, and it didn’t hurt any that Hubert Sumlin (Howlin’ Wolf’s old guitar player) turned up to play two songs, and then Dr. John sat it for three.
The last concert I saw was the Old 97’s back at the end of January, and had an absolute blast.
I think it was Counting Crows, Goo Goo Dolls and Augustana in Cincinnati, OH, a few years back. My wife and I have different musical tastes (hers sucks), so we’ve never been to a concert together.