Concert reviews

I don't have quite as much time for Coldplay as I used to but I remeraber how impressed I was when I got to them see promote Rush of Blood to the Head after listening to it pretty much non stop over a 6 month period or so, so I think I can relate.
 
Yeah, that one song was pretty damn good. The two songs after it were pretty lack luster though, and yes, maybe if the crowd was a little more into we would have thought to stay for the rest of the show. I've not written them off though. In fact, if you could recommend an album to start with (I've only heard Alaska) I'd appreciate it. :)
 
B.B. King, Arena Theatre, Houston TX May 29, 2009

B.B. King always puts on a great show, though I have to say he wasn't quite as on point as when I saw him 11 years ago...but the man is 83 years old for Christ sake, so I gotta cut him some slack. The beginning of the show was a bit scary because the band came out and played for a while, which isn't uncommon except that they played for about 40 minutes! I just had this horrible feeling something was wrong with B.B...but he eventually came out and of course everyone went nuts. He came out in a wheel chair surrounded by about 6 HPD officers. Once he got to the stage he got up and walked to the middle where there was a chair waiting, sat down, shook his head, flashed us that big, sweet smile and told us that he’d had a long day with the mayor, and when you get to be as old as he is, sometimes you just need to get that extra hour of sleep. You know, if it were anyone else the crowd would have been pissed. But of course we were all just glad he was there and once he got started it was all good and worth every minute we waited.

The venue itself is a great place to see shows. It’s fairly small, with a circular rotating stage in the center of the building and arena seating all around. I have a picture I took with my crappy cell phone camera, but it kind of gives you some idea of what it looks like.
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His set list didn’t consist of very many songs, as he did quite a bit of talking in between songs. While B.B. King himself if from the Mississippi delta, it turns out he has some family in Houston, in fact his granddaughter lives here and was in the audience. He reminisced about the first performance he did here and spent quite a while introducing his band, half of whom are also from Houston. And he went on and on about how lovely the ladies are in Texas, which is obviously so true. :love:

Among the songs he performed were ‘The Letter’, ‘See That My Grave is Kept Clean’, ‘Let The Good Times Roll’, ‘When Love Comes to Town’, and of course ‘The Thrill is Gone’. Also, after going on a long spiel about how he is ashamed of modern blues and hip hop artists and how they objectify women with their misogynistic lyrics, he dedicated “You Are My Sunshine” to all the ladies in the house. It was fun; he and his band jazzed up a cutesy song and gave it some real soul.

After the show he slowly stood up out of his chair and walked around the small circular stage, shaking people’s hanRAB, signing autographs and handing out guitar picks and what have you.

Now that I think back, he really did talk way too much and he wasn’t really on his game of far as working Lucille. A lot of time he didn’t even make it through an entire song before he stopped to talk some more. But believe me when I tell you, and I think I can safely speak for many other people who were at the show that night, it was still a great experience and I’m so grateful I had the chance to see him again before the inevitable happens. Plus, his band was cracking, on top of their game and helped make the set that much better. I’ve recently been getting into music with horns lately, and his horn section was spot on…simply amazing.
I’d urge anyone who has the chance to see him perform to do it now. You won’t regret it, and it would be a shame to miss out on seeing him live, because who knows how much longer he’s going to be able to keep touring. He’s still the King of Blues in my book!
 
BYH looked like canny. I've always wanted to go to some of the forgeign metal festivals, a lot of them seem to have much more "extreme" metal banRAB on the bill than the likes of Download are gonna get but no one ever really seems up for it but me. Luckily Download don't do a bad job on the smaller stages most of the time.

Voivod covering Floyd? Christ. Were you tempted to just go home after that?

I've tried numerous, numerous times to get into their Nothingface album (a few people have told me I don't stand a chance if i cant get into that one) and it's just never worked. One of their tracks came on the other day when I had my iPod on shuffle and I quite enjoyed it, so I shall be revisiting them again I think.

Anyway, great idea for a thread!
 
Very rarely am I envious but I have to say that I am completely jealous that you got to see hi. His most recent album is damn good and 'See that my grave is kept clean' from said album is a great tune. You can forgive a guy who's 83 for not being on top his game but know that you saw him live. I did plan to see John Martyn when he next toured but obviously that cannot happen know which is devastating personally so you have tp grab those opportunities when you can.
 
Yeah, both times I've seen those guys, the crowd was totally amped. But they're actually from my area of the country, so people around here have been seeing those guys before they were even signed.

Well, I was going to recommend Alaska as a starting point. After that, I would recommend Colors. And their cover album, The Anatomy of Between the Buried and Me, definitely tells you a little bit more about their personal influences. And there's some surprising shit on there.
 
Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band- Giants Staduim, MeadowlanRAB New Jersey, October 9, 2009
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OK...so I went to this concert with no expectations, and only because I'd been given a free ticket. I'm not a huge Springsteen fan at all, and in fact the only songs I know of his are the big ones like Born in the USA, Born to Run, Dancing in the Dark, etc etc.

This concert was a big deal for New Jersey because it is the very last concert to be played in Giants Stadium before they knock it down (they have a new sports arena there now), and because NJ is Springsteen's stompin' grounRAB. Also, there were rumors that Bon Jovi and Paul McCartney were going to show up for some reason (don't know how that got started). And no, they never showed. But Springsteen played a 3.5 hour set that I have to say was pretty damn amazing.

First off, there was not an empty seat in the place. I've never seen a venue that large, be that full of people. Not only were all the seats filled, but the majority of the floor in front of the stage was covered with people as well. And they were all totally into the show. Everyone knew all the worRAB to all the songs. There was a kid in the row in front of me who couldn't have been more than 7 years old jumping on his chair, playing air guitar, and belting out worRAB to songs I'd never even heard. From kiRAB his age to the 60 year old guys trying to pull off their old ripped jeans and flannel shirts with the sleeves cut off, one thing was apparent...these Jersey folks take their love of Bruce Springsteen very seriously. Almost every song found the stadium quaking with the booming sound of thousanRAB of peoples voices joined in singing. It was amazing and impressive.

I was also impressed with the amount of audience interaction that he pulled off, which you don't see much at concerts that huge. At one point near the end of the show, he ran around the front part of the crowd grabbing different signs people had made and taking them back up to the stage. Most of them were song requests or said stupid things like "It's not over till the BOSS sings". One of them was a marriage proposal from some guy in the crowd to his girlfriend. (She said yes...of course!). He also found the cutest little girl in the audience (couldn't have been more than 4 years old) and had her sing a couple lines from one of this songs (I can't for the life of my remeraber which one now). And all this before he ran to the back of the audience and crowd-surfed his way back to the stage. And can I just say, he looks damn good for being 60 years old.

Unfortunately I can't remeraber alot of the song titles (as I said before, I've never been a Springsteen fan), but I have to say I have a new found respect for the man. He sounded fantastic, he had the crowd eating from his hand and made sure everyone knew the Band. It made me a little sad that I wasn't more in tune with what was being played. But despite that, I would still say that it was one of the top five concerts I've ever been to. The energy and vibe from the crowd and the band was enough to put it over the top.
 
Matisyahu - Houston Texas, House of Blues, July 27, 2010

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Yes...this is one of the best shows I've been to in a long while now. Doors opened at 7:30, and by the time Matisyahu came on stage at 9:00 we were all pressed together and against the stage barrier, the smell of weed and cigarettes and beer already wafting through the air, totally energized and ready to get our reggae on.

The mood was set well before hand with the deep bass thump of some dub pounding in our ears while everyone mingled and drank. At around 8:15 the band backing Matisyahu, Dub Trio, came out and played a few songs to get us pumped up, lights out, and then we hear the beginning strains of "Youth" start up. The crowd went crazy and as the song progressed, everyone sang the chorus in unison. I've got to say, Matisyahu was not what I was expected looks wise. Really, he looked haggard and had huge bags under his eyes, and alot more gray hair than we see in pictures online, but man, can he move. He's the poppin' and lockin'-ist Jew I've ever seen in my life.

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Other songs from the setlist were
 
oh man, I've never seen this thread but before so I'm a bit late reviewing this but I'm gonna do the Pixies show I went to like two months ago since it's pretty much my favourite ever show to date. So yeah.

Pixies @ The Troxy, London, 03/06/2010

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So.. managed to get a ticket for this which I was completely stoked by. I lost my shit when I found out they were doing a couple of shows down south, cos over the past few months I've been at my absolute prime with this band. So yeah, they couldn't have announced a tour at a better time for me.

Got into London, sat on a park down the street from the venue and got wasted with my friend so we ended up missing the support band. Though from what I'm told and from what I've heard, that really isn't a big deal. Amaaazing venue, sometimes the sound could be a bit off if you were under the balcony but as a whole the venue was great. Looked quite like a theatre, pretty Manchester Apollo-esque, which is such a plus for me as it's pretty much my favourite venue. Aaaanyway, I'd never been so restless in all my life, the 20-30 minutes we were at the show before the band came on felt like 30 years. I just needed to see Kim Deal and the other guys walk on that stage for me to begin feeling like this was happening, it was such a big deal for me that it didn't feel real just yet. That moment came, and something inside me just ****ing EXPLODED. That night was the first time in a very long time where I'd felt true, ****ing non-artificial happiness. It was happening and I'd just completely reached a state of euphoria.

They burst into Cecilia Ann, with SO much energy. Every person was absoribing it. They've got bags of charisma, and they know how to work a crowd without having to be all "YEAH YEAH RAISE YOUR HANRAB, SING ALONG TO THIS ONE". People just done it. Frank had people eating out the palm of his hand, and it was just so ****ing good to watch and be a part of that. Kim looked real happy, which is a massive deal for me. Seeing Kim happy and hearing her sweet voice felt like somebody was feeding me a unicorn wrapped in a rainbow. And they had that absolutely perfect balance of crowd interaction and straight up performing. Some banRAB find it hard to find some middle ground with the two, nobody wants to to a music concert and listen to somebody talk all the way through about politics and the like. I saw REM once and Michael done that a helluva lot (although I dont know what else I was expecting).

Back to this though, they just stormed through a completely killer setlist. The concert was one where the fans got to request songs. We got an e-mail asking us which songs we wanted to hear, so there were a couple of tunes on there that they weren't expecting to play like The Holiday Song. Kim even said we picked the weirdest of tunes, but by the looks of things they done their best to accomodate it, there's really nothing I'd change about the set 'cos it worked so well. Sure one or two of my much preferred songs weren't played but it was sublime how it was. They encored with Where Is My Mind? into Here Comes Your Man. The friend I went with wasn't a Pixies fan beforehand but her jaw was touching the floor by the end of it. Everyone in the room was singing in unison to Where Is My Mind? which, admittedly, got me pretty emotional.. and one or two tears were shed :p:. Everything about this show just oozed brilliance, and I'd be very shocked if I ever see a band better Pixies. Even really small things down the the e-mails we got, they sent us one giving us the opportunity to request the songs, one on the day telling us they were really looking forward to seeing everyone later that night, and one a couple of days after with a video recording in
 
Glad you enjoyed Matisyahu NSW. Nothing like a healthy dose of deep bassy dub making the earth trerable. Even if it's not peoples favourite music, a dub/reggae band live should be seen sometime.
 
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