Tonight was a great night to sit back, relax and listen to one of the word’s most prophetic and spiritual song writer/musicians. I can never see or listen to Carlos Santana enough. His guitar is simply mesmerizing and his music has such a great latin percussion packed vibe that you can’t help but move…Ryan was even tapping his feet, which for him at any show means he is really enjoying it. Most of the audience (50+ age group) were out of their seats and doing what could only be described as “hippie dancing” with arms flailing eyes closed looking to the sky and swaying from side to side. What a sight to see so many folks reliving their younger days (including me, without the flaying arms).

They played tons of classic Santana including Black Magic Woman / Gypsy Queen followed by Oye Como Va, Evil Ways. They also played Hope You’re Feeling Better, Maria Maria, Batuka / No One to Depend On and Smooth. They even played a great cover the Champs song Tequila and a birthday salute to Jerry Garcia. One of my all time favorite songs is Europa (Earth’s Cry, Heaven’s Smile) which is a bit of an obscure song, but he does seem to play it at all the shows I have see over the years. It is a long and powerful instrumental which is one of those songs which makes you feel like closing your eyes and just floating away through space.

What another great show by Santana…I hope he never stops touring.

Another show at the Joint in Las Vegas this weekend, this time solo. A little lonely not having Toni or one of the kids joining me, but neither of the bands were top of their must see lists, however for me having both Boston and Cheap Trick on the same bill is a double header flash-back 70’s experience.

Boston and Cheap Trick co-headline (at least I feel they did) putting on a couple of absolutely awesome shows. Cheap Trick came on right on time at 8:00 and played an incredible set including the big hits such as Surrender, I Want You to Want Me, Ain’t That a Shame and Surrender, but they also played some somewhat rare songs like Big Eyes and Need Your Love and then my all time favorite California Man. This is probably the fourth time I have seen Cheap Trick over the years, starting with a huge festival in LA where they headlined with Journey back in 1980. Most recently, we had seen them open up for Areosmith in 2012. They always put on a great show, and this time I was sitting up in front of the stage (not the side with Rick Nielsen, but bassist Tom Petersson’s side) and was able to get a real up close experience actually having Rick Nielsen toss one of his guitar picks at me which was super special until he proceeded to throw a whole handful in the audience a few songs later…but mine was personally tossed at me :).

Boston came on about 9:15 or so, opening up Rock & Roll Band going into Smokin’ and then Feelin’ Satisfied…Great opening with awesome songs from their first two albums. I have never seen Boston before and was a little apprehensive and didn’t know what to expect with a new lead singer due to their original lead singer Brad Delp‘s untimely death in 2007. Boston has been one of my favorite bands since their debut album in 1976,. This album being the very first cassette tape I ever purchased…I still have that cassette and actually still occasionally play it on my retro car cassette stereo during those sunny summer days when I want to escape back to simple times. My apprehension was not realized when they started playing and sounded absolutely great. Tom Scholz of course played all those old iconic guitar and organ sounds which defined Boston. The band was great, with the lead singer being very close to Brad Delp‘s sound, but with a little modern twist. The only part of the show I wasn’t entirely sold on was when they had Siobhan Magnus from season nine of American Idol come out and sign to Walk On. She has a great voice and tore it up, but come-on, singing a Boston song? They played until a little after 11:00, which ended up being over a two hour set including a the song Party as their encore.

It was a great double bill and now I have seen Boston and can mark them off my list of must see bands.

Back at the White River Amphitheater after spending all day at the Van’s Warped Tour the day before…this time to see some good old 70’s and 80’s classic arena rock and the songs Toni and I know the words to.

The show started with a warm-up band who seemed a little heavy for the crowd which were filling the stands, although not for us of course. They were called Kobra and the Lotus, a Canadian band fronted by a female lead singer who could really belt out the vocals. They were very heavy and played one of the most original versions of Barracuda by Heart that I have ever heard, putting an extremely heavy metal spin on it, which worked surprisingly well. Nicki really liked them and went to go meet them after their set. (see a few picture of them below)

Def Leppard came on first, and performed in some real bright sunny weather, after a torrential downpour had just cleared…typical for this time of year in Seattle. They started out with phenomenal finish to the classic Who song Won’t Get Fooled Again which was playing in the background before the show and then immediately broken into one of their great older hits Let it Go. As always, they put on an absolutely great show playing songs spanning their career with a few very nice acoustic pieces, one of which was Bringin’ on the Heartbreak which they transitioned to electric mid-way through…awesome!. They closed the show with a two song encore of Rock of Ages and Photograph. Great to see these guys live again – one of Toni’s all time favorite bands for sure.

KISS came on a little after 9:30pm, and as usual, put on their typical, magnificently pyrotechnic, electrifying stage show complete with Gene spitting fire, Paul flying through the air to a small stage in the center of the amphitheater during the song Love Gun, Eric and his drum set raising up into the air on a scissor stage and all along with fireworks, fire bombs and air cannons going off all around the stage…they never cease to amaze me on the amount of excitement they can pack into an hour and a half. This show was a bit different as I think they played a lot of songs which they don’t typically (or at least not when I have seen them in the past) play like War Machine, Christine Sixteen and Hide Your Heart. Then of course they played the classic favorites Let Me Go Rock N’ Roll, I Love it Loud, Shout it Out Loud and Black Diamond. They finished the night with Detroit Rock City and with an enormous display of confetti cannons, fireworks and raised stages while performing Rock and Roll All Nite.

It was a great end of the weekend show although I think the previous day at Warped, Ryan and Nicki got pretty wiped out as they didn’t stand up much during the show, but they enjoyed the music.

Shots of Kobra and the Lotus

Good show at the Emerald Queen Casino last night. I arrived about a half an hour late as we were rushing from the Van’s Warped Tour show about 20 miles away. I hate showing up late for concerts, but I think I only missed the first could song.

The stage show for Blue Oyster Cult wasn’t much to speak of, but they totally rocked. I forgot how much I love their spooky, poetic, mystical power rock, which sometimes results in a melodic celestial song such as The Vigil, or a journey through the medieval world of Black Blade.

These guys brought back a ton of memories for me, not the least of which was remembering how I used to draw their band’s, hook-and-cross logo on the inside of my Pee-Chee folder in junior high school hoping that my mom wouldn’t find it and think I was becoming part of some creepy, dark, demonic cult or something. Mostly, I also remember cruising around late at night in my car with friends listening to my cassette tapes of their albums Agent of Fortune, Mirrors and of course one of the best live albums ever made (in my opinion), Some Enchanted Evening.

They played a great set and mix of their whole career going all the way back to their first album. They played a song that wasn’t part of their typical set-list (I Love the Night) which of course the crowd loved. Lead guitarist and vocal Donald “Buck Dharma” Roeser showed his incredible guitar prowess in the song Buck’s Boogie (which must have been) a ten plus minute instrumental rock fest. They of course played one of their most popular songs, Godzilla in which they inserted a short tribute to bass player Kasim Sulton where they all jammed out medley of songs from his career such as I Love Rock ‘N Roll while with Joan Jett, Bang the Drum All Day when with Todd Rundgren and Paradise by the Dashboard Light when with Meat Loaf…what a set. The last song of their set was the most iconic and of course one of their most popular songs Don’t Fear the Reaper. They came back and performed a three song encore consisting of Career of Evil, Hot Rails to Hell and closing out the night with, Cities on Flame with Rock and Roll, a song from their first album from 1972,

Toni and I took a quick trip to Las Vegas to see Guns N’ Roses on their last night of their extended Vegas stay at the Joint at the Hard Rock Hotel. It was a bit of a whirlwind trip that had us in town for less than 24 hours, but we were so impressed with GNR at the Golden Gods Awards that we had to see them again for their full set.

This show was a little different than any other show we have been to as the start time of the show wasn’t scheduled until 10:00pm, which meant that it likely wouldn’t start until 11:00pm which is when most shows are wrapping up. This would have been fine if GNR would have come on without an opening act, but unfortunately they had two. The first was a three-piece metal band from New York (who’s name I never heard), which had promise, but at 10:30 when everyone really just wanted the main show to start, they didn’t really have a chance. After this band, we had the unfortunate displeasure of being subjected to about a half an hour of rambling, offensive and very crude crap from Andrew Dice Clay. His stuff wasn’t funny in the 80’s and is certainly not funny now. I guess because he was performing in the venue next door, and maybe Axl wasn’t ready so they needed some filler. He was actually getting quite a few “boos” from the audience. He wasn’t off stage soon enough for us… I couldn’t imagine seeing a full hour and a half show of his stuff..

At a little past midnight, Nick Cage came out sporting a tank top and his tattoos and introduced Axl and the guys (finally). Kicking off the show was DJ Ashba up on a raised platform, silhouetted against a red background of light jamming out the opening riffs of Chinese Democracy. The rest of the show absolutely did not disappoint. From the powerful solos of all three outrageous guitar players, to a number of jam sessions ( including Led Zeppelin’s Babe I’m Gonna Leave You) spread throughout the show, to Dizzy Reed’s piano solo and bass player Tommy Stinson’s vocals on the classic Rolling Stones tune You Can’t Always Get What You Want. They of course played nearly every hit in the library playing for over three hours. Some of the most memorable songs of the night in my opinion were November Rain where they wrapped around it an absolutely incredible version of Derek and the Dominos Layla. Axl was playing the grand piano on a stage which lifted about 20 feet into the air, with pyrotechnic explosions and showers of sparks flowing down behind him…INCREDIBLE!. We of course enjoyed Sweet Child O’ Mine, Welcome to the Jungle, Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door, Don’t Cry and You Could Be Mine.

The show ended with a five-song encore following about 28 songs in their main set, culminating with Paradise City, which they actually had to start over from the middle as I think Axl lost his place in the song… but nobody cared, it is such an awesome song it was great to hear it more than once.

The show finally ended a little after 3:00am and we were beat and not looking forward to only 3 ½ hours of sleep before we had to get up and get to the airport.. But we had a great time.