U2 – Vancouver Canada : May 14 2015

I didn’t think I was going to come to the show tonight, but I am sure glad that I did. This was U2‘s opening show for their North American Innocence + Experience Tour and it was great. Rogers Arena is always a nice place to see a show…something about the crowd/ atmosphere in Canada that is just a little bit more mellow than most places.

I got to the venue a little before 6:30 thinking that I would walk right in…nope! There were lines all around the building. I didn’t know which line was which and where to stand and no one was moving. I am not sure why they waited so long to start letting folks in, but when they finally did, things moved along pretty well. I got in around 7:15, went to the merch booth, bought a tour shirt and then a beer and went to sit down and wait for the show.

When I got to my seat, I have to admit that I was little disappointed that it was just left of the stage and I thought that I would be looking at the side of the band all night long. They actually had a real nice stage set-up with an island from the main stage all the way to the other end of the floor where there was another smaller, round stage. There really didn’t seem to be a bad seat in the entire arena, and the guys made sure they played to all the sections. In between the two stages was a huge see-through video type screen that raised and lowered and had a cat walk in it so the band could walk through from one end to the other…they really put together a very entertaining stage performance. There was a bit of a intermission at the half way mark where they played a real neat punk rock and new wave, alternative retrospective on the big center screen.

They played for just over two hours with I think four encore songs. They sounded great, with Bono still being able to belt out the vocals and of course the screeching and scratching guitar work of The Edge (who took a little spill off the end of the stage at the end of the show…kind of scary as this was the first show of the tour). Rounding out the band was Adam Clayton on bass and of course Larry Mullen on drums. Some of my favorite songs of the night were “Beautiful Day“, “With or Without You“, “Vertigo” and of course “Sunday Bloody Sunday” and “Pride (In the Name of Love)“.

I can’t wait to see them in LA on a few weeks…

All Time Low – Seattle: May 6 2015

First of all… sorry for the quality of the photos.. It is very difficult to take good shots in the ShowBox with my “non professional” camera.

We were all waiting for this show for quite a while. What a line up with Tonight Alive, Issues and All Time Low. It started fairly early around 6:30 or so, and was a real good show. Tonight Alive put on an awesome performance with songs such as Lonely GirlThe OceanListeningWasting Away, What Are You So Scared Of?  and The Edge. Issues came on next opening with the theme song to the Pokemon show… this brought back a lot of memories for Toni, myself and Ryan.. been a long time since we heard that song…they even had their amps pimped out with the Pokemon theme…real cool. They did a great job as well, performing 7 songs including, Life of a NineStingray AfflictionNever Lose Your FlamesSad GhostMad at MyselfDisappear (Remember When) and Hooligans. All Time Low came on around 8:45 or so and unfortunately we were a little worn out for a Wednesday night and only stuck around for a cruel songs…we saw them perform Satellite and The Irony of Choking on a Lifesaver with a little bit of Lost in Stereo, but then we had to bail…too bad as I am sure it was a great show.

 

Elvis Costello – Seattle : April 26 2015

 

I went to the Paramount again last night to see Elvis Costello put on a solo performance. Great show and always cool to see/ hear a solo show without the distractions of a full band.

Moody Blues – Seattle : April 22 2015

The moody Blues put on a great show Tuesday night at the Paramount in Seattle. I was a little apprehensive as their music is such that the vocals need to work right to give it the sound that is so distinctive. I was’t disappointed at all. They sounded great, and the band was just incredible. The background singers (who also seemed to play almost every instrument imaginable) did a great job of rounding out the vocals of Justin Hayward and John Lodge. All three of the guys, including Graeme Edge performed with surprising agility given they are all around 70. It is hard to believe that they are into the 51st year as being a band…how incredible is that!

Some of my favorite songs of the night were their opening “Gemini Dream” followed by “The Voice” and then of course their hugely popular “Tuesday Afternoon“, “I’m Just a Singer (In a Rock and Roll Band)” and “I Know You’re Out There Somewhere“. By far though, my absolute favorites of the night were “Nights in White Satin” and “Isn’t Life Strange”. All together they played 19 songs in two sets with one encore.

Great old sixties/seventies progressive rock music.

Def Leppard – Vancouver Canada : April 18 2015

Last night at Rogers Arena in Vancouver Canada. Toni and I had a meet and greet with Def Leppard and were able to meet all the guys and have our picture taken with them before the show. It is always fun to see super stars close up when you have been seeing them in concerts for years, watching them in videos on television and holding them in such an iconic level…we are usually surprised that they look and act just normal people and almost always are shorter than our expectations.

We got to our seats about an hour before the show and were blown away by how close our seats were to the stage. We were four rows back from the front and on the inside aisle. As there was a center extension from the main stage, our seats were actually right at stage side. These were the best seats to any concert we had ever been too. Both Toni and I were standing at the rail all night while the guys would go back and forth singing and playing…they were less than five feet from us throughout the show.

These guys always put on such a great show. They may have aged a bit over the last 30 years, they sound as good as they did in the eighties. Some of the most memorable songs they performed were, “Armageddon It“, “Rock of Ages“, “Rocket“, “Photograph“, “Bringin’ On The Heartbreak” and “let’s Get Rocked“. I think our favorites were when Joe Elliott was out solo,  standing right in front of us with his acoustic guitar playing “Two Steps Behind“, and the guys did an incredible version of the classic ’70s Dave Essex’s song, “Rock On“…awesome bass riff.

We have tickets to see Def Leppard again at the White River Amphitheater in September, but our seats are not even close to being as good as this show, so it will be very hard to top this. Both Toni and I feel this is the concert to beat this year…certainly ranks up with the top 5 concerts I have been to.