Elton John – Las Vegas : March 21 2015

March 29, 2015 by Leave a Comment

 

Finally getting around to posting on the show last weekend in Vegas. This was an absolutely wonderful performance and show by Elton John and his band. This was his “Million Dollar Piano” show which he has been performing for a while now at the Colosseum at Caesar’s Palace. When we got into the venue, we were just in awe with the opulence and the size of the set. There were huge golden structures on either side of the stage that soared about 30+ feet above the percussion riser and on either side of these structures were beautiful red velvet floor to ceiling curtains, held back by rocket shaped tie backs. Our seats were pretty good just a few rows from the stage, with the only problem being that our view was straight on to Elton playing his piano, which normally you would think this would be a good thing, but we were only really able to see his head above the top of the piano…still a great view.

He came on just after 7:30pm and played for a little more than 2 hours. Some of our favorite songs of the night were; “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road”, “Crocodile Rock”, “Mona Lisa”, “Levon” and “Empty Garden” which was a great memorial to John Lennon. After the show, with all of the lighting and projections we knew why they called it the “Million Dollar Piano”, simply amazing show.

It was a quick trip down for the show, and we wished we could have stayed another day to see the performance again, but alas…we both had our day jobs and reality to get back to.

Filed Under: Classic Rock Tagged With: ,

Motionless in White – Seattle WA : March 9 2015

March 20, 2015 by Leave a Comment
Ryan and Nicki with Motionless in White

Ryan and Nicki with Motionless in White

Well, another VIP, this time a meet and greet, Q&A and soundcheck with Motionless in White. What a great group of guys. Chris has such a great personality and way of communicating with the fans. The soundcheck was very cool watching the guys jamming to portions of many great songs… what a treat!

At the show we also saw ICE NINE KILLS and New Years Day, who we have seen before and just love. The only problem with this show was that the venue was just way too small and way over sold. We scored a great spot on the upper level riser away from the front of the stage, but along a railing, but the problem was we were pushed against the rail by all the jammed in people that it was just as crowded as being at the stage rail with the exception of the mosh…it was just too much for us and we had to leave before Motionless actually came on stage…At least we were able to meet and talk with them, and we have seen them perform a bunch of times before…we knew what we were missing, but could not deal with the crowd.

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Pierce the Veil/ Sleeping with Sirens – Seattle WA : January 28 2015

January 29, 2015 by Leave a Comment

SleepingWithSirens2015 PierceTheVeil2015

Well, I missed the first show on the calendar for 2015 due to my stupid day job! At least Toni, Nick and Ryan were able to go and meet the guys from Pierce the Veil and Sleeping with Sirens.

Filed Under: Uncategorized

Stevie Wonder – Seattle WA : December 3 2014

December 4, 2014 by Leave a Comment

What a wonderfully funky, soulful, fun evening at the Key Arena in Seattle last night for the Stevie Wonder show. Toni and I got to the venue a little early as usual, but tonight was OK as we had early entry as part of the VIP package which allowed us in an hour before the regular “door open” time and we were able to meet some of the other fans over drinks and hors d’oeuvres. We had a great time with a lot of good conversation. We got to our seats about 20 minutes before the show started to get settled and for me to get my camera properly set-up.

Opening up the performance, Stevie was led out on stage by India Arie. Both were fabulously dressed, Stevie in an emerald green, sequined suit and India in very beautiful, bright yellow outfit. Stevie started the show off with Love’s in Need of Love Today and a duet with India of Have a Talk With God. The show was packed with great old song which included very lengthy jam sessions during one of them he even brought someone from the audience up on stage to do a little vocal jam and of course mixed in a lot of audience participation. The atmosphere in the arena was electric with just a ton of positive vibe being generated through his music and his personality. The background band for the show consisted of more than 30 other performers (hard to actually count), with 2 drum sets, 2 percussion stations, a horn section, string section, 2 guitarists, 3 other keyboardist and of course bassist Nathan Watts who has been with Stevie since the 70’s. There was a short intermission between the first and second set, with set two opening with Isn’t She Lovely which is a song inspired by his daughter Aisha Morris who is one of his background singers.

The night went well past the normal time shows usually end, not having the last song of the night (Superstition) until nearly midnight.. We unfortunately had to leave during My Cherie Amour which was the third to the last song of the night and were not able to see Superstition. This portion of the show was a real cool set of classics with Stevie putting on a persona of DJ Tick Tick Boom, as he walked the audience through snippets of all of these great hits and adding a ton of personality and humor to the show.

An absolutely delightful show.

Filed Under: Classic Rock

Judas Priest – Tacoma WA : November 22 2014

November 23, 2014 by 1 Comment

What a change from the Fleetwood Mac show in the Tacoma Dome just 2 nights ago. Tonight it was Steel Panther opening up for Judas Priest. The crowd was definitely different. I think the ratio of men to women was about 180:1. There were also quite a collection of personalities at the show…we saw a guy wearing ass-less chaps, a woman with some sort of leather thong outfit that really just covered about 5% of her body….we saw a guy(?) with bright pink hair, no shirt with a brightly colored fur vest and bike shorts and then of course all the large hairy, leather clad men with wallet chains and beards. I am not sure what we enjoyed more, the music or the people.

Steel Panther opened up the show and we weren’t sure what to expect. They actually had a pretty good, solid 80’s hair band sound and defiantly looked the part with spandex, scarves and LOTS of hair. I think the bass player even had a small vanity set up on stage where he would keep checking his make-up and hair to make sure he stayed pretty. Although their music was decent, they had very raunchy lyrics and actually talked just a little too much.we actually weren’t (and still aren’t) sure if they were for real or kind of a stand-up comedy joke band…anyway, they did their job in getting the crowd stirred up and ready for Judas Priest.

Judas Priest with Rob Halford came on just after 9:00pm opening up with Dragonaut followed by Metal Gods. They played a few songs from their new album Redeemer or Souls including the title track and March of the Damned. They tore it up when they played Love Bites and Turbo Lover and of course Breakin’ the Law and one of my all time favorites, Beyond the Realms of Death. It also just would’t be a Priest show without Rob Halford riding out on his Harley Davidson for Hell Bent for Leather.

I have to admit and shamefully so, that we bailed before the encores which would have been great to hear You’ve Got Another Thing Comin’ and Livin’ After Midnight, but with the alcohol intake (not ours) and level of rowdiness in the crowd, we thought it was best to get out while the getting’ was good.

Filed Under: Classic Metal Tagged With: , ,
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