A great one day trip down to L.A. to one of our favorite venues for one of our favorite bands. Bullet was awesome as ever, sounding great in this historic theater.
Deep Purple/ Judas Priest – Sacramento CA : September 30th 2018
October 1, 2018 by Leave a Comment
Another heavy metal icon band that I hadn’t seen before. Deep Purple put on a great show although the crowd had significantly decreased in size after Judas Priest left the stage. I am not sure why people decided to leave before the headline band came on, but I suppose most of them must have been Judas Priest fans…although to be a Judas Priest fan and not appreciate the music and 50 year history of Deep Purple is beyond me, but it did leave a lot of elbow room with empty seats around me.
I did the meet and greet with Deep Purple and I have to say that this was one of the most disorganized VIP experiences I have ever done. All I got was an email saying pick-up the tickets and more information at the ticket counter when I arrive. When I went to ticket counter, they had no idea about any VIP experience so I decided to do what I usually do when I can’t get good instructions, I waited to see what other folks did. Unfortunately this VIP group was very small and I wasn’t able to observe any further direction. After waiting for about an hour and asking a number of different venue staff, I was told to go inside and meet the VIP host, which of course was nowhere to be found… I was able to find other VIP guests and collectively we found out where and when to meet. Once we got organized, it was very nice meeting the members of Deep Purple, having them talk with us, sign our badges and take photos with us.
Judas Priest came on around 8:30pm I think and played for about an hour to an hour and a half. They played a lot of music off of their newest album and then saved all of their classics to a massive set at the end of their show. Rob Halford still sings and screams as he used to and the band (minus K.K. Downing and Guess Tipton) rocked as usual. Every time I have seen these guys, I am always blown away by their power and performance, last night was no exception. I enjoyed the classics like Living After Midnight, Hell Bent for Leather, You Got Another Think Comin’ and Breaking the Law, but it seemed the crowd favorite was PainKiller.
Deep Purple didn’t come on until around 9:30, but also put on a great show. This was the first time I had seen them and it started off great with them opening with my favorite sang, Highway Star. I really enjoyed the keyboard solo by Don Airey…such an amazing sound. I think one of my favorite songs of the night Lazy and Space Trucking’ although Knocking at Your Backdoor and Perfect Strangers were also awesome and then of course their all time classic Smoke on The Water was pretty incredible.
All in all, a good show…not great, but worth the trip down from Seattle.
Elton John – Washington D.C. : September 22nd 2018
September 23, 2018 by Leave a Comment
By far one of the best shows I have ever seen. I had probably the best seat in the house…third row with no seat between me and the stage, and right in front of Sir Elton John himself – Magnificent! I think I even lucked out because he and his piano were supposed to automatically move from one side of the stage to the other, but something must have gone wrong as no longer than he got over to the other side of the stage, that he came back and was right in front of me again.
The evening started with a VIP experience with horse devours, drinks and a lot of back stage discussion about the production of the show. Elton’s Piano tech spent some time talking about how the tour is managed between all of the worldwide locations, the detail of all of Elton’s pianos that he tours with…he names them all, and tonight he was playing “Nina” named after singer/ songwriter Nina Simone. We also took a good tour of the stage where the audio engineer took us around backstage, discussing alot of technical info on sound, lighting production and the instruments…we even got to have our pictures taken with Elton’s piano.
The show started promptly at 8:00pm and went for nearly three hours with only a short costume change about halfway through. He played a lot of great music, 24 total including 2 encore. I think my favorites of the night were Someone Saved My Life Tonight, Funeral For a Friend, Crocodile Rock and of course Goodbye Yellow Brick Road.
I had the opportunity to take a few videos and have posted to YouTube…
Daniel
More on my YouTube page: Bryon’s YouTube Page
Evanescence / Lindsey Stirling – Auburn WA : September 7th 2018
September 8, 2018 by Leave a Comment
What an incredible show last night at the White River Amphitheater. We started out with early entry to the venue and a very cool Evanescence sound check where we heard her and the band/ orchestra rehearse four full songs including a real beautiful version of Across the Universe by the Beatles and a awesome rendition of Ozzy Osbourne’s No More Tears. I had a pre-show, champagne toast and photo op. with Amy Lee and the band prior to the show which was also super cool.
The show itself was one of the most spectacular set of performances that I have ever seen. I hadn’t heard of Lindsey Stirling prior to the show (although Toni knew her music). All I have to say about Lindsey’s show is WOW! She was an amazing performer with so much energy…it was hard to get a good picture of her as she was all over the stage like a crazy person. Her dancing equaled her violin quality in stunning artistry. I couldn’t have been more blown away.
Amy Lee and Evanescence came on around 9:30 or so with a full orchestra backing up the band. I am so amazed by her sound and vocal style. She is just an absolutely amazing singer and with a full orchestra backing her, it was one of the most powerful shows I have ever seen. She had a great setlist, but the only song that they didn’t perform which I would have really liked to see was Call Me When You’re Sober…that is probably my favorite Evanescence song.
Rod Stewart/ Cyndi Lauper – Auburn WA : September 1st 2018
September 2, 2018 by Leave a Comment
Real good show last night at the White River Amphitheater in Auburn Washington.
We have seen Rod Stewart a couple times over the last few years but this was our first time seeing Cyndi Lauper. Rod Stewart always puts on a great show with an incredible band and stage show. Cyndi Lauper’s show was simple but in my opinion, was the highlight of the night. She played all her 80’s hits including, She Bop, All Through the Night, Time After Time, True Colors and of course Girls Just Want to Have Fun. She sounded great, engaged the audience with some interesting stories and even came out into the crowd during some of her songs…she even came into the first level which required her to climb over a fairly significant railing…amazing energy and excitement.
Rod Stewart came on about 8:45 and had a very nice stage arrangement with his band dressed in matching 50’s style outfits. The show was very similar to the other shows we have seen from him, but it works well and I guess there’s no point of changing a good thing. His set-list was also very good with songs spanning his many years of solo hits as well as when he was with Faces and Jeff Beck Group. It was a relatively short set with only 19 songs, although he did play all my favorites such as Some Guys Have all the Luck, You Wear it Well, Tonight’s the Night, Maggie May and You’re in my Heart. The only song that he didn’t play that I wanted to hear was Hot Legs, but I guess he can’t play everything. It was real cool when Cyndi Lauper came out and they did a duo of the old Marvin Gaye song, It Takes Two.
Great show and would go see Cyndi Lauper again any time…she really put on a incredible show and sounded great.
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