Upcoming/Recent Shows

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Bastille was really fun last night. Wasn’t sure how their music would translate to a live show, but Dan Smith’s voice sounded gorgeous and he had an amazing vocalist singing the harmonies on every song with him. Also had multiple drummers and keyboardists/guitarists. The huge screen above the stage made it kind of a cinematic experience with lots of interludes with an overall theme that the show was a computer simulation (so you got, for example, the loading time pop-up windows between songs and other error messages and warnings - Glass Animals did something similar at their show). For the song “Plug In…” (which, on the album, came off to me as a cringey half-hearted attempt at social consciousness), the screen showed all of the lyrics and some of the lines hit a little too close to home these days and went over really well with the crowd in a live setting as a cathartic moment. He came out into the crowd for “Happier” and worked his way all the way to the back of the venue (which was kind of wild to see since there were no barricades clearing a path for him and I feel like I haven’t seen anyone do something like that since since 2020). But yeah, overall, the crowd was dancing quite a bit and really into the music and I’m really glad I went and will definitely go see them again when they tour in the future. It’s weird because their shows and music just sit right in this sweet spot between between slickly produced and polished and also exuding natural, soulful good vibes that never feel forced. It comes off so effortlessly live that it’s hard not to have a blast.
 
Little road trip tonight to Pittsburgh to see Lord Huron. Man, I was super super impressed with everything about their set. The stage was perfectly decorated for them, with desert elements blocking the stage risers. The band was also incredibly tight and sounded great. The concert started earlier than I thought it was, with Lord Huron going on a little after 8. We got there a little before 8 so completely missed the opening set from Erin Rae who I guess started at 7? Maybe 7:15?

Well it turns out it was a good thing it all started early because storms rumbled in and they almost had to cut the set short because of lightning. Actually, they probably SHOULD have cut it short because it was quite the light show during the 3 song encore. Luckily I brought ponchos.

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Rochelle Jordan was a fun night in Portland, though not one of my faves from this year.

Blossom

R&B artist based in Portland. Backed by a producer also from Portland.
She performed a few originals and also a trio of freestyles, asking a few audience members in the front for topics to mention in each freestyle. The first two of these were cute and well-performed given the impromptu nature. The third was fairly gross; she went into this pop-punk style reminiscent of the early 2000s and it sounded awful with her voice not blending well with the GarageBand quality instrumental paired with cringy impromptu lyrics. It honestly soured my feelings on her set significantly.
Decent overall if I were to erase that last bit from my memory.

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Rochelle Jordan

Pretty fun, although likely the shortest headliner I've attended ever since I started going to shows by myself in '19. Duration couldn't have been more than ~50min with encore.
She performed about half of the newest, Play With the Changes, and a few bangers from way back. She had a couple of interactions with holding hands of a few of the upfront peeps in the audience and pointing at a few of those that were feverishly grooving to the songs. Little to no in between chit-chat, probably the reason for the very short concert time.
Fun show, though nothing too overly exciting. One suggestion for next time would be to include at least three more songs to push her set to the hourlong mark. She easily could've included more cuts from the new record.

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Post-show

No pressure of needing to leave Holocene early for this show; no immediate events planned on the same night. So predictably, a good 20 or so hung around near the front to get hugs and photos with Rochelle after she took a few minutes to unwind. No merch where the merch table would normally be, although I saw three dudes ahead of me getting vinyl and CDs brought from home to be signed.
Got my brought from home copy of Play With the Changes signed and a few hugs from her as well. Forgot to request a photo together...darn. Wished her safe travels for the rest of the tour and headed out.

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Caught Tori Amos on Saturday at the Balboa Theater in San Diego. 2nd time seeing her, first time with backing musicians. Plus was that the backing musicians (Bass / Drum) were amazing, and added a lot to the show. Cons was that she was much less interactive with the audience. Regardless, good mix of known songs & b-sides, and she was in great voice. And watching her play multiple keyboards at once never gets tiring.

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felt really conscious about my age at the Phoebe Bridgers show last night, but at least there was a surprise opening set by Lucy Dacus

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Caught Bob Dylan on Saturday. Phone free show, they were locked up on entry. Was familiar with the setlist he's been running with, but not the arrangements. Everything fit his current "Rough & Rowdy Ways" sound, which I thought made for a cohesive performance and fits his current vocal 'limitations'. Highlights of the rearranged songs were When I Paint My Masterpiece, Slow Train, and Every Grain of Sand. The real stars of the night though were the songs from Rough & Rowdy Ways, especially I Contain Multitudes. Bob even played a little guitar at the beginning, which I've never seen him do - been seeing him since 2005 which is right about when he stopped playing guitar.

The performance obviously confused people who were expecting a greatest hits set - they guys left to me payed $250/ea for scalped tickets, and then left halfway through. I get it in some respects, but at this point if you don't know what you are getting yourself into when going to a Dylan concert, you really aren't paying attention, that's been a common complaint for years now.
 
imtheocean said:
The performance obviously confused people who were expecting a greatest hits set - they guys left to me payed $250/ea for scalped tickets, and then left halfway through. I get it in some respects, but at this point if you don't know what you are getting yourself into when going to a Dylan concert, you really aren't paying attention, that's been a common complaint for years now.
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I don't get that attitude because IMO his post-"time out of mind" material is generally pretty fucking great (christmas in the heart was kinda trash and I wasn't a huge fan of the sinatra albums but whatever, they're not bad). complaining about dylan only playing pretty good jams is like complaining that a kurosawa film is just great instead of note-perfect.
 
I have to catch up commenting on several recent concerts I had gone to. I start with a concert I had won free admission to about two weeks ago, it was a concert of indie rock/ post punk band Geese, who are from New York. It was hosted in a very small club in Cologne called MTC that only could hold up to 300 people, I went there with my boyfriend, and to our astonishment only very few people did come, I think it had been less than 40. I felt a bit sorry for the band as they said they had been in Cologne for the first time, and I guess maybe in Europe. There also was no support band. I've liked the Geese set very much, they definetely deserve a broader audience. I've bought the vinyl of their album as some support from the merch and it sounds fabulous. One of the best sounding vinyl records I got this year. Though the band was still rather young, they had some great energy and it was a great evening for us.

Here are some pictures

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Another concert I've recently been to is the Pet Shop Boys. It was held in a nearby town called Oberhausen, in an arena that can hold about 13.000 people. It was postponed twice I think due to Covid, and was sold out. The inner field was seated, so I had opted for a seat in the lower ranks. Thus my pictures aren't too sharp. They basically played their Greatest Hits and some songs from their recent album. Having listened to their music since I was a 11yo kid, it was a pleasure to see them live for the 3rd time in my life. Neil Tennant's voice did sound superb and also the music sounded really good. They played for around 2 hours. Their video screen did show really artful color shemes, also many very colorful ones, though I wasn't able to catch them in good quality for the photos. Their show was a pleasure for both eyes and ears, and I can recommend going to see them if they play somewhere near.

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I mentioned it in the challenge thread, but I checked off a "way too long a time coming" artist last night. Jack Johnson opened up his Meet The Moonlight Tour in Gilford, NH last night to a sold out Tuesday crowd. This was his first true touring year since 2018 and given he is a Hawaii resident, the opportunity to see him is a lot less frequent than it is for other artist in the U.S. He's played a good number of shows in Massachusetts, but this was his first ever New Hampshire show which I think drew a lot of people from the region (he's played one non-festival show in New England in the past 11 years that wasn't in Bangor Maine, which is a haul and a half).

I'll stick to the music mostly but I do have to say...holy crap do the expenses add up really quickly if you do anything but go to the show and leave now. So, the cheapest "get in" tickets for the show was about $120 for a pair after fees for a severely oversold lawn (I took a peek after the opener and good luck finding space there without bumping elbows). You have to park on site or carpool in, and parking on site starts at $15 a car. Jack's merch was all over the board pricing wise but even a poster and water bottle combo would run you $50. $16 hard seltzer, $10 pizza slices. And people were spending. Normally when my GF and I go to shows we really go frugally but decided to spend this time...next week I'll be eating some sandwiches I make beforehand.

Anyway the music. Durand Jones and the Indications were the opener. I know folks here love them, I never really got into it from the recorded music but they were quite a good live group. Good energy and vibes from the stage, great soul opening group. I don't think I need to promote DJatI much here so I won't but they were great to listen to get excited for some live music.

Jack Johnson was really interesting. In many ways, he's exactly what a lot of people think he is - chill dude strumming a guitar singing low key catchy songs to a crowd full of drunk people. OK, very much what it was. With that said, there were a lot of nice treats in there I didn't expect. I've heard this on his life recordings, but his production folks have his right sound profile down. It was very full sounding at appropriate volume with some oomph for the right moments. Second, I was a bit afraid that with it being a new album tour and the album not being out that he was gonna spend a lot of time on new songs - maybe for later shows he will but he only played four or five new tracks and stuck mostly to his bigger songs. A lot of spread over his albums, a couple deep cuts. He also brought out DJatI to cover Stevie Wonder and, out of nowhere, Zac Brown to cover Petty, Steve Miller, and Sublime. Really a lot of fun - I feel like he's his generation's Jimmy Buffett in terms of live atmosphere and vibes.
 
Kenny Chesney last month in Huntsville, AL.
Carly Pearce opened. She did not sound good at all considering she was 2021 vocalist of the year. She needs a new sound engineer.
Kenny totally played his ass off. Covered in sweat by the end of the show. This is a brand new amphitheater and one of the first shows to play. His sound was on point.

I am not the biggest Chesney fan but it was fun to get out with friends for dinner a concert.

We are off to a Bourbon, Brews and BBQ show at another new amphitheater this Friday night. BLACKBERRY SMOKE, DRAKE WHITE, AND READ SOUTHALL BAND

Saw Drake at a small venue a few years ago and the violinist was incredible. Not even sure if he's still with the band. Fingers crossed 🤞

It's great to be out there again!

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I saw Sigur Ros on 6/6. It was great, but I only recorded a few videos on my phone and forgot to take photos. There was no opener, so they just took the stage around 8 pm (glad I got there on time!). They played two sets that felt like they were like 90 mins each with like a twenty min intermission. It was nice and sounded good - the staging was pretty minimal, as you’d expect. It did feel kind of exhausting and repetitive though towards the end. It felt like there was more than one song where he just sings “youuuuuu sighhhhhh” over and over. But it was beautiful each time. One thing that also kinda sucked the energy out of the show for me was that it was a seated show with assigned seats, so it was pretty disruptive when people in the first few rows showed up late and needed to step over a bunch of people in their row to get to their seats, or if people got up to get a drink or use the restroom in the middle of a song - their music is so frequently quiet and meditative that any disruptions really take you out of it. They did have a few louder moments that were cool. It did feel a little stiff overall though - the audience sometimes would start clapping when the music died down (thinking that the song was over) and they just waited for everyone to stop clapping and for the whole place to be completely silent before finishing the song. At one point, security went over to a guy that was standing up and dancing and told him to sit down. Definitely a different vibe than most concerts.
 
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