One last look back at 2011

Here’s my 2011 list of concerts.  A little shorter than some years, but I had a lot of work distractions in the past year, so it’s actually a pretty good tally all things considered.  There’s a lot of quality there and a few once in lifetime shows.  I’ll make a few individual notes where appropriate  (But, of course there’s a review of each if you’re so inclined to read more.

Phil Vassar – A nice little private show at the PCMA conference for people with a CMP designation.  Fun and loose show.

Robert Randolph & the Family Band

Chromeo – A bit of a letdown, but I’m still hoping to see them again and see how they evolve.

Richard Cheese & Lounge Against the Machine

Delgado Brothers

Jeff Beck & Imelda May – Once in a lifetime and one of the best shows I saw all year.

Prince – Another show that for all the hype was a bit of letdown.

Doheny Blues Fest – Tedeschi/Trucks, John Fogerty, Experience Hendrix, Mavis Staples, The Blasters, Funky Meters, Big Head Blues Club, (Plus others) – Two great days on the beach.  A couple misses, but mostly hits. Tedeschi/Trucks being the very best of day 1 and the Blasters the best of Day 2

KSBR Birthday Bash – Brenda Russell, Kieko Matsui, Brian Bromberg, Dan Siegel, (Plus others) – A really cool gift from my friend Eliott.

Eels – Confounding and complex.  It was great in some very unexplainable ways.

U2 & Lenny Kravitz (2x) – Night 2 was the better of the two nights, both were strong but night 2 has the edge (pun intended).

Weird Al

Kansas & Blue Oyster Cult – Not very good, one of the most disappointing shows of the year for me.

Rock Candy Funk Party – Going back in January, a top five evening and surprisingly it’s not once in a lifetime, looking forward to it very much.

Barenaked Ladies – Good, but not great.  More and more I miss Stephen Page.

Return to Forever & Zappa Plays Zappa – I’d say that along with Jeff Beck this were the most amazingly talented musicians I saw all year…or in many years.

Frank Turner – My best find of 2011.  Seeing him in February once again!

Fountains Of Wayne – I wanted this to be better, bit it wasn’t up to the pervious levels I’d seen them perform at.

Airborne Toxic Event – Another cool find of 2011 and this was the Filmore show in SF that was really cool.

Big Head Todd w/Ruthie Foster and Charlie Musselwhite – Again, a sort of letdown show and slightly disappointing overall.

Airborne Toxic Event, Tokyo Police Club, Built to Spill – Good headliner, the rest of the bill was hit and miss.

Bob Segar – Just reviewed, the man still has it!  Great show.

So there you have it.  My 2011 in a nutshell.

Looking ahead to 2011 I already have four shows slated.  Joe Bonamassa, Frank Turner, Social Distortion and Roger Waters.  Plus, I know Springsteen is touring.  So, lots to be excited about in the coming year.  Thanks as always for reading!  Happy New Year!

Kansas & Blue Oyster Cult, August 11, 2011

Well, first off my apologies for taking so long off from working on the blog.

Been lots of work and few concerts for me so far this summer. I did skip writing about an Eels show in June and a Weird Al show in July. I’ll try to get back to them at some point. I also had tickets to Paul Rogers and missed him due to work travel…so, a much slower couple months than a typical summer for me.

So, tonight I finally made it to the OC Fair for a show. Kansas with Blue Oyster Cult opening. I had high hopes for BOC that sadly they didn’t really meet.

The show was slated for 7:30 on the tickets, but somehow in what felt a little “diva-ish”, they didn’t hit the stage until 8:00pm.

They launched into a slightly rough version of “The Red and the Black” that sorted itself out a bit by the end. Then, “Burnin for You”, which brought the crowd to life a bit. By the third song, “Black Blade”, I had decided a few things.

The tempos were all a bit sluggish and tired feeling, the drummer was not really driving things….and the video director was horrible.

If you have three cameras, don’t waste one on a shot of pretty lights so you superimpose them and thus pretend you’re directing an art film. Oh, and the whole effect is like salt on food, use too much and you ruin things. The constant “light superimposed effect thing” got damn annoying…but worse were the horrible long shots he kept using. The whole point is to show us faces we can’t see from the back. A long shot just duplicates our view…DUH.

Oh, and it was way too quiet for a metal band which I guess is due to venue restrictions.

“Then Came the Last Days of May” also started slow and despite a nice solo never really caught fire. “Cities on Flame” really highlighted the weakness of the drums. The original song features a powerful kick sound that drives the chorus…this version was very weak in that respect and just couldn’t hold a candle to the version on the Extraterrestrial Live album.

Next up was a sluggish “Godzilla” that really was mostly highlighted by a salute to Rudy Sarzo (their current bass player) that had him playing licks from Ozzy, Whitesnake, Quiet Riot and even a verse of Weather Report’s “Birdland”, a band that I’m fairly sure he never played with….next up was a pointless drum solo with pointless slo-mo effects by the video director…at least at this point he’d realized to zoom the shots in a little.

The obligatory “Don’t Fear the Reaper” closed the just under an hour set with a crowd sing (and in some cases cowbell) along with the band. The crowd seemed mostly happy…..I was underwhelmed.

Kansas was up next. I’d seen them last year on my birthday and been very surprised at how good they sounded then. Starting with an intro that moved into “Howling at the Moon” and (I believe) “Belexes” I was struck at how much tighter than BOC they sounded. I have to assume some of this was directly due to Phil Ehart, I’ve always respected his drumming. But after the weak BOC effort as a direct contrast, I could hear a huge difference in the two bands based on that factor alone.

“Point of No Return” was good, although Steve Walsh has a weird sort of vibrato sound to his voice that is somewhat an acquired taste. His upper register is shot, bur he covers as best he can (much like Roger Daltry does these days).

“Hold On” and “Dust in the Wind” followed and both sounded good. One thing I noted was the lighting was better for Kansas too. Not sure why, but using the same rig the LD was much more effective for Kansas. The band was musically spot on too. A weak vocal here and there aside, they demonstrated some serious chops.

They mentioned it’s been 35 years since “Leftoverture” and played a couple deeper cuts. “The Wall” and “Miracles out of Nowhere”, which I really loved hearing, (I played that LP to death back when it was new).

(I have to mention at some point how an older Steve Walsh with his receding hairline and grey beard is a bit of a look-alike for the old guy on the cover now.)

“Portrait(he knew)” had a bit of a train-wreck moment mid-song, but they plowed on and got back on track. A mark of a seasoned and talented band I suppose.

Somewhat surprisingly, that closed the set after a scant 50 minutes. The encores of “Fight Fire with Fire” and “Carry on Wayward Son” finished the night with the band clocking in at 63 minutes.

It seemed an oddly short set from a headliner with 38 years of material to pick from. I mean, a year ago I saw Rush do 3 hours alone including all of Moving Pictures! (THAT is how to do classic rock the right way…)

Overall, a pleasant and technically skilled (but short) night of classic rock from Kansas and a weaker set from a sluggish BOC. Seen far better, but endured far worse too, so a decent (but brief) night out at the Fair hearing some classic rock. There are worse ways to spend an evening….

Wrapping up 2010

Wow, where do I start….

As evidenced by the previous posts I had a pretty amazing year of concert-going.  A near lifelong quest completed, an epic show I’d missed 30 years ago revisited.  A music oriented couple weeks in London.  Countless HOF members of the Rock Hall of Fame….heck a ton of them in just a single week.  Shows with good friends old and new.  Hard to even wrap my head around the whole thing.

Here’s the list:

Keb’ Mo’ – Coach House – Jan 14

The Blasters, John Doe, Rumble King – Coach House – Feb 20

Peter Gabriel – Hollywood Bowl – May 7

Styx, Kansas, Foreigner – Citizens Bank Arena – May 19

Richard Thompson – Royal Festival Hall – June 19

Green Day, Joan Jett – Wembley Stadium – June 19

Elvis Costello – Royal Festival Hall – June 20

Glastonbury – June 23-27

Jackson Browne – Albert Hall – June 29

Jack Johnson – O2 Arena – June 30

Laura Marling, Fanfarlo, Peggy Sue, Smoke Fairies – Hyde Park – July 1

Hop Farm – July 2-3

Jools Holland – Kew Gardens – July 6

Barenaked Ladies, Kris Allen, Angel Taylor – Greek Theatre – July 22

Blondie, Gorevette – Pacific Amphitheatre – August 8

Rush – Irvine Meadows – August 13

Al Yankovic – Pacific Amphitheatre – August 14

Scissor Sisters – DAR Consitiution Hall – August 23

Neil Finn – Largo – September 11

Muse, Passion Pit – Staples Center – September 25

Gorillaz, N.E.R.D. – Gibson – October 27

Bonobo – Music Box – November 26

Roger Waters – Staples Center – November 29

Roger Waters – Honda Center – December 13

Roger Waters – Honda Center – December 14

Twenty three shows and two festivals in all.  I don’t think I could even pick a “best”.  However a few things to note do occur to me.

Worst sound, Scissor Sisters.  Horrible mix that completely left the vocals out, and it’s not like I had a crappy seat, I was in the 5th row.  Really guys?  Totally detracted from an interesting performance.

Only show I left early, Jack Johnson.  It was okay, but very one-note.  I like his studio stuff, but in a huge arena it was lost.  Put the same show in an intimate venue and I might have loved it.  Add to the experience that I was a bit sick that night and it was just not a compelling show.

Most disappointing, Muse/Passion Pit.  Passion Pit left me cold and Muse after all the hype just didn’t live up to expectations.  Lot’s of copped riffs and wasted technology that didn’t go anywhere.  If you want to use technology look to Gabriel, Waters or even the Pet Shop Boys.  This was “sound and fury that signified nothing”…

Most intimate, Neil Finn.  The Largo is magic when Neil plays there and the September show was no exception.  An obscure setlist that actually added to the special feeling of the evening.  You knew even while watching this was the sort of thing that would never be duplicated.  Jackson Browne in the acoustic tent at Glastonbury was a close second.  While the masses grooved to Stevie Wonder….Jackson held court for a few hundred lucky folks and spun magic with his sidekick David Lindley.  Moving and unique almost sell short just how very special a way it was to end my Glastonbury experience.

Surprises…How awesome Gorillaz were in LA after disappointing in Glastonbury.

Bonobo, Midlake, Hot Chip, Fanfarlo, Laura Marling, Mumford & Sons, Two Door Cinema Club, Magic Numbers, The Bees….none of whom I knew before 2010 and who all get extensive spins regularly on my ipod now.

How great Rush could be at doing “Moving Pictures” after being somewhat average the other time I’d seen them previously….this show made up for that one in spades.

Disappointment….U2 having to cancel in Anaheim and Glastonbury…(of course it does give me a couple shows to look forward to in 2011 already…)

Well, that’s it…another year in the books, and an amazing one at that.  Curious to see what 2011 (and beyond) will bring?  But, it’ll be hard for any year to reach the heights of 2010 for me.