What a wonderfully funky, soulful, fun evening at the Key Arena in Seattle last night for the Stevie Wonder show. Toni and I got to the venue a little early as usual, but tonight was OK as we had early entry as part of the VIP package which allowed us in an hour before the regular “door open” time and we were able to meet some of the other fans over drinks and hors d’oeuvres. We had a great time with a lot of good conversation. We got to our seats about 20 minutes before the show started to get settled and for me to get my camera properly set-up.

Opening up the performance, Stevie was led out on stage by India Arie. Both were fabulously dressed, Stevie in an emerald green, sequined suit and India in very beautiful, bright yellow outfit. Stevie started the show off with Love’s in Need of Love Today and a duet with India of Have a Talk With God. The show was packed with great old song which included very lengthy jam sessions during one of them he even brought someone from the audience up on stage to do a little vocal jam and of course mixed in a lot of audience participation. The atmosphere in the arena was electric with just a ton of positive vibe being generated through his music and his personality. The background band for the show consisted of more than 30 other performers (hard to actually count), with 2 drum sets, 2 percussion stations, a horn section, string section, 2 guitarists, 3 other keyboardist and of course bassist Nathan Watts who has been with Stevie since the 70’s. There was a short intermission between the first and second set, with set two opening with Isn’t She Lovely which is a song inspired by his daughter Aisha Morris who is one of his background singers.

The night went well past the normal time shows usually end, not having the last song of the night (Superstition) until nearly midnight.. We unfortunately had to leave during My Cherie Amour which was the third to the last song of the night and were not able to see Superstition. This portion of the show was a real cool set of classics with Stevie putting on a persona of DJ Tick Tick Boom, as he walked the audience through snippets of all of these great hits and adding a ton of personality and humor to the show.

An absolutely delightful show.

What an absolutely incredible show tonight at the Tacoma Dome in Tacoma WA. You can’t get a better show than with Fleetwood Mac. They are (in my opinion) one of the best sounding and performing bands today and probably that I have ever seen live. Their music is as rich, bright and relevant as the day it was new. It is hard to believe that they have been around since 1967. You could’t tell by their performance or by their youthfulness up on the stage that they have been around that long. They have so much energy and an obvious love for what they are doing, and with the entire band back together again, I believe they are back in their nirvana.

Last time Toni and I saw them was last year in Las Vegas, and although they put on a fabulous show that night, having Christine McVie back with them made it much better this time around. It was definitely great to hear them perform some songs tonight that they couldn’t perform last year without Christine McVie like Little Lies and Over My Head and of course You Make Lovin’ Fun and Don’t Stop sound so much better with her singing lead on them.

They are such a great set of performers with the absolutely phenomenal guitar virtuosity of Lindsey Buckingham, the crazy personality of Mick Fleetwood making all those wacky faces while he is back behind his drums, or who can help but be mesmerized by Stevie Nicks’ mystical voice and hypnotic gypsy dancing with her flowing lace. Although John McVie does’t perform with the out-front personality as the others, he maintains the laid back mellowness that I have enjoyed about Fleetwood Mac since I started listening to them in the late seventies (when I bought the Rumours Album).

Anyone who has never seen Fleetwood Mac perform must try and see one of their shows at least once. It will be a show you will never forget.

Well it was Bob Dylan tonight at the Paramount Theater in Seattle. This was the opening night of his North American tour and the first of three nights in Seattle.

I wasn’t sure what to expect tonight with respect to the performance, audience or sound. I was told from a friend a couple years ago who had seen Dylan that if you are a true Bob Dylan fan, don’t go and see him live as you will be very disappointed in the music, so I was a bit apprehensive. I have always liked Bob Dylan’s music but I guess I don’t really consider myself a huge fan so I thought I would risk it.

There were a few things I didn’t like about the show. First and foremost, and as always with the Paramount in Seattle, they are extremely belligerent when it comes to taking photographs. The staff was out in force even before the show started telling folks who were taking selfies to put their cameras away. Again, they say it’s because of the band’s preference, but I just don’t know. Anyway, the stage was so softly lit that I could’t get too many good shots anyway. The four above are the best of what I got and I am a bit embarrassed to show them other than I had to have at least a few to remember the show. One of the other strange things about the show was Bob Dylan’s lack of personal contact with the audience. It was strange not to hear the band great the audience, or introduce his band, or even acknowledge that “it’s great to be here in Seattle”. He just came out, played his music, took a 15 minute intermission came back for about 40 minutes, played one encore and was gone…I don’t know, maybe that’s just his style.

Regarding the performance, he sounded good…he sounded like Bob Dylan with that heavy, gravely voice and his ever incoherent vocalizations where you can only understand one of every five words, but hey…that it one of the things that makes him so unique and iconic. He has a very soulful voice with a great deal of emotion in his music. Although the set list contained lots of the classics, they were arranged very differently than what myself and I think many in the audience expected. The older couple sitting next to me actually got up and left after his performance of It’s All Over No, Baby Blue as they could did not recognize it at all and didn’t want to hear anymore songs performed not the way the remembered them…too bad because even though the arrangements to most of the songs were different, they seemed fresh and at least half the audience were younger and seemed to very much enjoy the bluesy, rock folk mix.

All in all, it was a pretty good show. I am happy I was finally able to see him live and I wasn’t disappointed.