One of my all time favorite bands that I have never had a chance to see when they had toured in the past. Lynryd Skynyrd is one of those bands that just takes you back to the summers when you were a kid with out a care in the world. Even thought the band has gone through many changes throughout the year from a line-up perspective, their music is still as solid and powerful as ever.

Bad Company opened for Skynyrd and I have to say, their performance was short of stellar. They seemed flat and without feeling. Paul Rogers was good enough, but it just seemed the band was missing something. I saw them a few years ago and they were great…not sure what happened tonight.

Lynryd Skynyrd came on around 9:00pm and opened up with Workin’ for MCA. The didn’t;t have a very long set, with only 14 songs, but they definitely played all of the great songs that made them the band they are. It was a little sad to know that this was their Farewell tour and we would never be able to see them play song like What’s Your Name, I know a Little, Needle and the Spoon, Saturday Night Special, Call Me the Breeze and Sweet Home Alabama again. My favorites of the night were Simple Man, Gimme Three Steps, Tuesday’s Gone and my all time favorite Skynyrd song That Smell.

They closed the night with the encore song being Free Bird of course. This was a great tribute to all the past members of the band and especially Ronnie Van Zant who they had singing the last half of the song in all his glory on the back drop. Perfect ending to the show!

Sad to see these guys go, but very glad I was able to finally see them live and to even meet them back stage.

Aerosmith is probably one of the best live rockin’ bands in the world. They have been going at it for nearly 50 years and the guys are getting up there in age, but they completely brought the house down tonight at the Park Theater in Las Vegas.

The show started with about a 30 minute video of the beginnings of the band and how they all met and how everything came together…kind of fate and like it was meant that these guys got together just to make the best damn music of their generation and for generations to come. They came on around 8:30 or so and opened with Train Kept a-Rollin’ followed by Draw the Line and Rag Doll. The setlist was full of massive hits, but of course with a library as extensive as theirs, there is no way they could play them all. My Favorites of the night were Toys in the Attic, where all the giant inflatable, scary toys came down from the ceiling above the crowd…very cool. And then all three of their encore songs were my very favorite with Dream On, Chip Away at the Stone and Walk this way, where a huge walkway came down from the rafters which allowed Steven Tyler and Joe Perry to walk all the way to the second level of the theater and perform the song. During the end of show they released a ton of huge balloons, and a ton of confetti…it was spectacular. There were even two points in the show where (at different times) Steven Tyler and Tom Hamilton both walked out into the crowd and sang and played right in front of me…how cool is that!

An absolutely incredible show at an amazing venue with awesome sound. So very glad we made the trip down to see them at this residency.

An incredible evening last Monday night with Toni for dinner and the show. We got downtown a little early to make sure we could find good parking and decided to have dinner at an Italian restaurant nearby the theater. The Assaggio Ristorante was simply amazing. We have eaten there before and they are always good, but the food this time seemed exceptionally fantastic and the service was of equal quality. Definitely a must for anyone prior to a show at the Moore with only a block or so walk to the theater.

The Cult was awesome performing their 1989 album Sonic Temple in its entirety…what an incredible album it is with all ten songs being number one’s in my mind. With the first two songs being Sun King and Fire Woman, I mean what an amazing start to a night full of powerful, late 80’s hard rock music. Both Ian Astbury and Billy Duffy put on a great show and both exuded that vintage vibe that personifies that era which spawned the sound of the grung scene to come.

A show not soon forgotten.

I have been wanting to see Robin Trower for a number of years and haven’t been able to align my schedule to one of his appearances in Seattle up until last night. I have always enjoyed his unique and almost celestial guitar sound. His hypnotic solos are amazing to listen to on an album or radio, but they are a whole new level live…truly amazing. He played a great set of songs with a ton of songs from the Bridge of Sighs album, all just beautifully done.

I certainly was not disappointed and seeing him live was worth the wait for sure.