All Time Low – Seattle: May 6 2015

May 14, 2015 by Leave a Comment

First of all… sorry for the quality of the photos.. It is very difficult to take good shots in the ShowBox with my “non professional” camera.

We were all waiting for this show for quite a while. What a line up with Tonight Alive, Issues and All Time Low. It started fairly early around 6:30 or so, and was a real good show. Tonight Alive put on an awesome performance with songs such as Lonely Girl, The Ocean, Listening, Wasting Away, What Are You So Scared Of?  and The Edge. Issues came on next opening with the theme song to the Pokemon show… this brought back a lot of memories for Toni, myself and Ryan.. been a long time since we heard that song…they even had their amps pimped out with the Pokemon theme…real cool. They did a great job as well, performing 7 songs including, Life of a Nine, Stingray Affliction, Never Lose Your Flames, Sad Ghost, Mad at Myself, Disappear (Remember When) and Hooligans. All Time Low came on around 8:45 or so and unfortunately we were a little worn out for a Wednesday night and only stuck around for a cruel songs…we saw them perform Satellite and The Irony of Choking on a Lifesaver with a little bit of Lost in Stereo, but then we had to bail…too bad as I am sure it was a great show.

 

Filed Under: Alternative Tagged With: , ,

Elvis Costello – Seattle : April 26 2015

April 30, 2015 by Leave a Comment

 

I went to the Paramount again last night to see Elvis Costello put on a solo performance. Great show and always cool to see/ hear a solo show without the distractions of a full band.

Filed Under: Alternative

NIN/ Soundgarden – Auburn WA: August 30 2014

August 31, 2014 by Leave a Comment

 

The month of concerts ended with a bang last night at the White River Amphitheater in Auburn with Soundgarden and Nine Inch Nails. It was a night of horrible and torrential rain…the start of our great Seattle fall season.

I was there really to see Soundgarden as they are one of my favorite nineties grunge bands and are still very much relevant with their music and sound. I had to see them again as the first time I saw them back in February of 2013 was a horrible show due to the sound quality at the Paramount in Seattle…it was hardly bearable, but tonight was completely different. The sound was awesome and they played incredibly. They had an awesome set-list, including Spoonman, Outshined, Rusty Cage and Mailman. Overall they played for about an hour and 13 songs.

I was aware of Nine Inch Nails and have heard a few of their more popular songs like Closer and Head Like a Hole (which sounded awesome live) on the radio, but after seeing them live I don’t think those two songs really represent their music all that well…they are great songs, but I was exposed to a whole new set of songs which made me a real NIN fan. Songs like 1,000,000 with the driving rock guitar and pounding drums and then the heavy techno rock vide of Came Back Haunted… what an incredible diversity of sound. They also had an unimaginable light and stage show with mobile instruments (drums & Keyboards), light/video panels which they moved around the stage throughout the show and more colored lights, strobes and fog than I have seen in a very long time. It was also very cool to see that the guys were able to change up instruments with all of them proficient on Bass, Keyboard and guitar.

This was the tours last stop and both bands pulled out all the stops and performed unbelievably. What an awesome level of energy and enthusiasm they both put into this show. A great end to a month of memorable shows.

Filed Under: Alternative Tagged With: , ,

Vans Warped Tour 2014 – Auburn: June 28 2014

June 29, 2014 by Leave a Comment

 

The Warped Tour 2014 – 20 years of Warped!

What a day at the show yesterday at the White River Amphitheater in Auburn Wa. It was a hell of a drive in over a hour and a half of traffic through Auburn Washington causing us to be about 40 minutes late to the concert making us miss one of the bands we were really looking forward to seeing, Ghost Town who of course opened the show on the main stage…We weren’t sure why traffic was so bad, but it seemed like all of Seattle and Tacoma were heading into Auburn for some reason.

We got into the concert around 11:45. We went perusing the merchandise tents and located the reader board to find out when all the bands were on and then Toni, Ryan and Nicki went to forage for food while I hung out and caught a few of the bands. I was able to catch a band called Young & Reckless who were pretty good for a band who weren’t even listed as performing. I then went to the main stage to see Mayday Parade, Finch and Bowling for Soup. Up next was a band I have wanted to see for a while named Yellowcard who are an alternative rock band with a cool southern California vibe. I first started listing to them when I discovered their album Ocean Avenue back in 2005 I believe. That is still one of my favorite albums of all time with the entire album consisting of great songs – no duds. It was really cool, because I was able to buy a Band logo’d Hooligans skateboard at their merch. tent and had the band sign it for me…pretty cool.

Toni and the kids met up with me back at the main stage at the end of the Bowling for Soup set, and shortly there after it began (which ended up a theme for the day) pouring down rain…I swear the raindrops were the size of nickels! We sort of came prepared with some of those funky, clear pull over rain ponchos, but when the rain would stop the sun would come out and we would roast, so they didn’t stay on long. By the end of the day, we (and everyone else at the show) were soaked to the bone and sunburned at the same time.

After the Yellowcard set, we went to stand in the lines for meeting some of the bands. Nicki and Toni went to meet Falling in Reverse (and even got a hug from Jacky Vincent) and then Nicki and I went to meet the guys from Motionless in White – pretty cool bunch of guys.

Ryan decided he didn’t want to wait in the lines, so opted to go out and enjoy the show on his own for a while. He went and watched a few bands including Icon for Hire, who we later met, bought their CD and Ryan got a shirt and a signed poster.

Fortunately, the next band we wanted to see (Issues) was playing on the split stage in the main covered area, so we were able to get out of the rain and dry out a bit. With Issues, we also saw We are the In Crowd.

The sun finally came out to stay just in time for us to head back over to the main stage and see the last part of the Devil Wears Prada set.  We also caught a pretty heavy Christian metal band called For Today and then finally Motionless in White. This was the last band we stayed for, missing Falling in Reverse as we had to leave so Toni and the kids could drop me off to see the Blue Oyster Cult show across town.

This was our second Warped Tour, and we hope we can keep coming back every year…

Filed Under: Alternative

Kings of Leon – Seattle: March 28 2014

March 29, 2014 by Leave a Comment

Went to a great show tonight at the Key Arena in Seattle. I thought I would try some new music for a change and found that the Kings of Leon were playing downtown. All I know about these guys was from the documentary “Talihina Sky” which I caught on Netflix the other night. Interesting show about their roots in the south, their extended family and ultimately their rise to fame. The band is made of of three brothers and one cousin, I was surprised, but it actually received a Grammy nomination in 2011.

I was very strange seeming to be the the only one in the crowd who wasn’t able to recognize each song from the first note or shout out the entire lyrics throughout the songs, but it was easy to get caught up in the music and all the energy in the arena and I found myself  getting into it and really enjoying the music. It wasn’t until their final song before the encore that I finally heard a song I knew, Use Somebody off their Only By The Night album. I was surprised that they were quite good and had a great melodic sound with a mix of The Killers, The Foo Fighters, Snow Patrol and a hint of Oasis.

Good show to see after a long week and a great way to start a fun weekend downtown.

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