Heart/ Cheap Trick/ Joan Jett – Auburn WA : August 26th 2016

Great line-up tonight at the White River Amphitheater with Cheap Trick opening the show, followed by Joan Jett and the Blackhearts and the closing the night was Heart.

Although I have seen all of these bands many times, it was a real treat to see them all at the same time, and they all had fairly decent sets, playing over an hour each.

They all sounded great and put on stellar performances, although I think if I had to rank them tonight, I would have to say that Joan Jett was the best, followed by Cheap Trick…It seemed as though Heart just wasn’t with it tonight with both Ann and Nancy sounding a little tired.

Alice In Chains / Guns N’ Roses – Seattle WA : August 12 2016

Tonights show at CenturyLink Field in Seattle has to go down as one of the best of the year. Both Toni and I agree that this was just an absolutely EPIC show.

I have neven see Alice In Chains and I guess I have forgotten how many songs I remembered and how many. There was such a great energy they had with the hometown crowd who of course knew and sang along with every song. They played a great set of 11 songs including Man in the Box, Down in Would, No Excuses and wrapped their show up with Rooster.

Guns N’ Roses came on around a quarter till nine and absolutely killed it. Toni and I have seen GNR in Vegas with Axl’s new band and we have seen Slash a few times (all were great shows in themselves) but we were so looking forward to this reunion show with Axl, Slash and Duff together again. Slash puts on such a great show and of course Slash and his guitar work is just heaven. One of my favorite parts of the show was the guitar solo with Slash and Richard Fortus performing Pink Floyd’s Wish You Were Here and then transitioning into the final half of Derek and the Dominos song Layla with Slash on the piano. What a masterpiece! And then Slash’s solo of the theme from Godfather transitioning into Sweet Child O’ Mine, simply perfect. All in all I think they played about 25 songs hitting every hit you could ever want to hear. Some of the other memorable songs were Welcome to the Jungle, Live and Let Die, You Could be Mine, Civil War, November Rain and Paradise City.

I am not sure how many people filled the stadium last night, but I know they were all on their feet pretty much all night for this show.

You will notice that I am only posting a few shots of the show….well that’s because I made the mistake of charging my camera on a game console which happened to go into sleep mode 15 minutes after starting charging, so my battery was dead after the first 4-5 pictures…Too bad, but the good thing is I was able to watch the whole show with my eyes instead of through my camera.

Steven Tyler – McCaw Hall – Seattle WA : July 8 2016

Had an absolutely fabulous time at the Steven Tyler show at McCaw Hall in Seattle last night. As I am a big Aerosmith fan and admire Steven Tyler as a great entertainer, I decided to do the meet and greet to get up close and personal, and to get a photo taken with him…he didn’t disappoint. Although I didn’t have a whole lot of time to ‘chat’, I was able to exchange a few words, shake his had and get my pic with him (to be sent in 5-7 days…what?). It’s always fun to do the VIP to get in early, meet new people, enjoy some snacks and drinks and just have a good time before the show. I met a few other “solo” fans and we all had a great time sharing stories of our past concerts and musical interests.

The show itself was incredible. The band was energetic and all genuinely looked to be having a great time. Steven Tyler puts on such a great show. He always has a smile on his face, is engaging with the women (and men) in the crowd and just puts everything he has into making the show something special for everyone.

The selection of songs were perfect..just the right mix of his new music, Aerosmith tunes and even a couple of covers. They did a great rendition of Janis Joplin’sPiece of my Heart“. Of course one of the favorites of the night and all Aerosmith shows was “Dream On”.

Can’t wait for the upcoming Aerosmith tour!

Steven Tyler MG2

Billy Joel – Safeco Field – Seattle WA : May 20 2016

Made it to the Billy Joel show at Safeco Field in Seattle last night. He performed incredibly and played all of the old favorites that I haven’t heard since decades ago…makes me want to dust off all my old cassette tapes and albums and give them a good listen. He can still sing beautifully, hitting all the low and high notes nailing every song. Some of Toni and my favorite songs of the night were, Vienna, New York State of Mind, Say Goodbye to Hollywood, Pressure and of course his signature song Piano Man.

Joe Walsh / Bad Company – Concord Pavilion – Concord CA : May 17 2016

Great double headline show at the very beautiful Concord Pavilion in Concord California on Tuesday May 17th, 2016.

Joe Walsh opened up the night with the songs, I Can Play That Rock and Roll and an old James Gang song Walk Away. He had a great set with a few other James Gang songs and of course a few Eagles songs, but the songs I enjoyed the most in his set were his solo stuff In the City, Life’s Been Good and his encore song Rocky Mountain Way..

Bad Company came up around 9:30 headed up by Paul Rogers and Simon Kirke from the original line-up and with the great guitarist Howard Leese from Heart. They put on an incredible show as well with tons of the classic rock songs such as Feel Like Makin’ Love, Rock ‘N’ Roll Fantasy, Shooting Star and the great acoustic song Seagull. My favorite song of the night was one of their encores and they namesake song Bad Company.. What a great show and an incredible night with two of the greatest classic rock bands of the 70’s.