Concerts thread: Best/Worst/Next/Last one you attended?

Took a little road trip to see childhood friend Andy McKee play in Springfield, Mo. on Friday. That guy does things with a guitar that I had never considered. Pretty cool show. Then got to catch up with him a little afterwards.

 

I'm seeing Big Country tomorrow night. I was a huge fan back in the day, and saw (I believe) their second-ever show in the U-S. They are now fronted by Mike Peters of The Alarm, another favorite of mine.

But... I'm sort of partially dreading the show, because I can see online that they've sold maybe 40 tickets at a venue that holds at least 400. The place hasn't done a bit of promotion. I keep waiting for it to be canceled, but it hasn't happened yet.

 

Never saw Big Country but saw The Alarm a couple of times in Toronto. Let me know if they can still make the guitars sound like bagpipes.

 

My wife and I attended the Josh Rouse concert in Louisville last week. It was a tremendous show, he sounded great and his band was tight. It was the third time I had seen him, and probably his best sounding show, probably because it was in a theater at the Kentucky Center for the Arts.

 

Fleetwood Mac last week in Detroit. Outstanding. Not as good as when Christine McVie was in the band but still very, very good. Buckingham is still a great guitar player. They played for two-plus hours. Did about 6-7 songs off Rumors.

 

Reason No. 1,001 I hate the city of Columbus, Ohio. The Arena District must have some idiotic ordinance that bands have to stop playing at 11 p.m. at an outdoor venue. The National had to cut three songs from their fantastic set.

Lead singer Matt Berninger: "Everybody be quiet! The people over in the Nationwide Building are trying to sleep!"

 

It's the same way in better cities than Columbus. I'm going to a Hold Steady/Gaslight Anthem concert in NYC at the end of July, and it starts at 6 p.m. because it's outdoors. I saw a Friday night show on the water in Brooklyn a few years ago, and it ended around 10 p.m.

 

Saw They Might Be Giants at the House of Blues in Anaheim on Saturday. My wife bought the tickets as a Father's Day present for me. It's the fourth time I've seen them live, and they are outstanding every time. Really enjoyed the stuff from their new album mixed with plenty of old favorites they didn't play last time through (Oct. 2011).

Opening band was a three-piece trio from New York called Moon Hooch -- two guys playing a variety of saxophones and a guy on drums. Very cool stuff. They called it "cave" music, similar to house music.

 

Led Zeppelin/Rick Derringer/Judas Priest - Oakland Coliseum 6/23/77

 

Fascinating. Both Big Country and The Alarm were huge in my circle back in the mid-80s. (RIP Stuart Adamson.) Along with pre-breakout U2.

I saw The Alarm once, at a festival in Europe 1991-ish when they were at the end of their run.

 

I saw Elton John in April. He's still got it.

 

Saw Alabama Shakes last night. Brittany Howard is a goddess.