Pretenders – Seattle WA : December 11 2016

December 11, 2016 by Leave a Comment

What an incredible show tonight. Chrissie Hynde and the Pretenders put on one hell of a show at Key Arena in Seattle tonight. This was the first time I have seen them and was 100% impressed by their energy, sound and Chrissie’s absolutely incredible voice. Often times with the older bands, the lead singer looses some of their vocal range, but not with Chrissie Hynde. She hit every note spot on and has such a wonderful voice. It really came through on songs like Hyme for Her and I’ll Stand by You – very powerful indeed!

They played a great set with what I think was about 15 songs including their best hits Back in the Chain Gang, My City was Gone, Don’t get me Wrong, and of course Middle of the Road and Brass in Pocket.

Had a great time and I would see the Pretenders again any time.

 

Filed Under: Alternative

Boz Scaggs – Seattle WA : November 6 2016

November 6, 2016 by Leave a Comment

Fun night listening to some soft, blues jazz rock from Boz Scaggs at the Moore Theater in Seattle. Loved watching and listening to some old 70’s tunes. He sounded just like he did back then and had a great backing band. It wasn’t a long night of music, but he played the hits and covers and even some newer music including my favorites, Lowdown and Lido Shuffle.

Filed Under: Classic Rock

Five Finger Death Punch/ Shinedown – Tacoma WA : November 5 2016

November 6, 2016 by Leave a Comment

It was a great show last night, but I have to say this was officially my last concert at the Tacoma Dome in Tacoma WA. I know I have bitched about it in the past, but this was really the last time I will put up with this cities clear disregard for the concert goers and absolute lack of concern that it takes nearly two hour to navigate their unmarked, un-directed, dark city and residential streets because they block the main entrances to the venue. Totally unacceptable! They have been putting on concerts for so long and in such a convenient location (right off the I-5 freeway) and haven’t yet figured out how to manage the the traffic. Out of all the venues I have traveled to through the US, besides Candlestick Park (which was torn down) the Tacoma Dome is the worst with respect to traffic control…or I should say LACK of control.

The show itself was great. We missed the opening band, but were able to get in to see Sixx:A.M. play the last three songs of their set. This is Nikki Sixx’s new band created after Motley Crue hung it up. Fortunately we were able to get to our seats in time for them to see them perform three of their best songs, Lies of the Beautiful People, Stars and Life is Beautiful.

Shinedown came on at 8:00 and was who Toni most wanted to see. Neither one of us had seen them before, and they are one of Toni’s favorite bands. It is always great to see a band you love so much for the first time and these guys did not disappoint. They had a ton of energy, sounded incredible, really interacted with and got the crowd going and had a great stage show with a ton of pyrotechnics. They had a great set and were spot on vocal and musically. We will definitely see them again.

Five Finger Death Punch came on about 9:45 and absolutely killed it! They had a fairly short set-list with only 13 songs, but each one was powerful and memorable. Ivan Moody (lead vocals) looks like a typical heavy metal singer with a mean look, loud voice and persona of hatred, but it was amazing how nice, down to earth friendly he was. He really has a love for what he does, he makes it a real point to show how much he appreciates the US soldiers, he genuinely loves the audience (bringing about a dozen kids up on stage during the song Burn MF). What was really touching was when he brought his own daughter on stage and sang to her solo the song Remember Everything.  What a powerful voice and very loving moment…not something you would expect to see at a Five Finger Death Punch show. Their set-list was perfect in my opinion.. They opened up with my favorite song of theirs, Lift Me Up, followed by Never Enough, Wash it All Away, Got Your Six, Bad Company (cover), Jekyll & Hyde, Wrong Side of Heaven, Coming down and then the encores (which we had to leave during) Under and Over it and the Bleeding.

All in all, even with the aggravation and disappointment I have with the city of Tacoma and the Tacoma Dome, the crowd was great, the bands performed flawlessly and we had a great time.

Filed Under: Heavy Metal

John Cleese & Eric Idol – Seattle WA : October 27 2016

November 6, 2016 by Leave a Comment

montypython-1

What a treat to see these two comedic icons. Unfortunately there was a no-photo request made prior to show so the above shot of the stage was all I could get.

The show was arranged in a chronological walk through the history of the guys from their early college days, through their first meeting up with the Monty Python group through the early BBC days and into the movies and to the current days. They told a ton of fun stories and shared many happy memories for themselves and the audience who had grown to love them throughout the years.

My favorite part of the show were the songs…Eric Idol just has an incredible way with putting lyrics together  in such a way that no matter what the song is about, you just have to bust a gut laughing. Not sure if was just because of the hour and a half of other hysterically funny material, but when they performed a song called F**K Christmas I just busted a gut laughing.. I mean, a couple of 73/77 year old men on stage singing these lyrics was just hilariously funny. They also didn’t disappoint me and played what I was really hoping they would and that was the song  Always Look on the Bright-side of Life from my favorite film of theirs Life of Brian.

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Yellowcard – Seattle WA : October 26 2016

October 29, 2016 by Leave a Comment

It’s hard to believe that Yellowcard is hanging it up after just 20 years of being a band. I understand going out while you are on top, but I do believe they could have gotten much bigger. It was clear from the size of the crowd at the Showbox in Seattle that they have a huge and dedicated fan base. I was one of over 100 people who bought special, meet and greet VIP tickets and who stood in the driving rain outside the venue for over an hour and a half waiting to meet and see the band perform one last time. I have never seen so many people in a meet and greet. They could have easily filled a much bigger venue. I was able to score a really good seat (which there were very few of in this venue) in the raised bar area at the corner rail of a handicapped walkway which acted as a buffer between the extremely crowded, standing room only floor, providing me with a direct view to the stage over the main crowd….very comfortable after standing in the rain and VIP line for nearly two hours.

I was first turned on to Yellowcard in the late nineties and attribute their music to enlightening me to a whole new genre of ‘alternative’ music. I hadn’t ventured out of my standby 60s-80’s music much (with the exception of a little bit of grunge – I’m from Seattle after all) until I heard and appreciated their distinctive, modernized punk sound. It opened me up to other bands of that genre and gave me a whole new library of music to enjoy.

The show Wednesday night was incredible. There were three opening bands, Like Torches (from Sweden), Dryjacket (from New Jersey) and as a special guest in Seattle only, Acceptance (who springily are from Seattle). All the bands were good, but I was very impressed with Acceptance. They had a great, hard rock sound to them and of course got the local crowd even more pumped up for the main event. Yellowcard came on around a little before 10:00pm if I remember correctly, which was very late for a midweek show, but the crowd was certainly ready and excited for their set. I cheated and looked on setlist.fm to see their playlist and was surprised that we were in store for a long night with more than 20 songs (24 to be exact). They opened with Believe, which is an incredibly powerful tribute to 9/11 (you should watch the video on YouTube). They followed up with Lights and Sounds (one of my all time favorite songs and albums) and then with Way Away from their Oceans Avenue album.

I unfortunately was feeling the affects of a change in timezones, a 14 hour flight from Hong Kong the day before and the thought of having to get up the next morning and I had to force myself to leave before the end of the show. Too bad as I know this will be the last chance I will ever have to enjoy the live sounds of Yellowcard. At least they provided me with 20 years and 10 albums of their music to continue to listen to for years to come.

yellowcard-meetgreet

Filed Under: Alternative Tagged With:
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