PerryD

I saw Babymetal for the first time last weekend at their show in Chicago. Something mesmerizing about the whole concept, definitely works better live than just listening to it. Avatar was able to get the crowd going, so ended up a decent pairing.

slop101

Any good live?
Seeing them next month. I do like their two new "reunion" albums quite a bit.

GoVegan

Ooh, I'd totally missed that. I never got to see Ride, but I did see a really odd Mark Gardner acoustic performance at a little bar in Milwaukee like 15+ years ago along with 30 other people. That was a good show.

Cusm

The Joy Formidable and Devotchka were great last night. They played at a SMALL club I have not been to in 20+ years and never realized how small it was at the time. If they are stopping by around you on the remainder of this tour check them out.

Brooklyn

They did, but according to what I could find, due to some conflict/agreement with the venue they couldn't record the performance so they sold the previous night's show from Foxwoods which had the same setlist.

The Cow

2019-09-27: Delain, Amorphis, and Anneke van Giersbergen at The Agora Theater n Cleveland.

Strange mixed bag of acts put together. I haven't really followed Anneke since her The Gathering days, but she was a treat. Pretty simple acoustic set and was very interactive with the crowd. Amorphis sounded great, but was rather wooden on stage. I was there to see Delain. I could listen to Charlotte sing all day, and they sounded great.

I was a bit disappointed that the Delain set clocked in at just about an hour, was hoping to get more since they were headlining. The Amorphis drummer is handling the drumming duties for them as their drummer is still having problems with his visa.

Michael Corvin

Saw Dream Theater on Thursday. I've seen them maybe five times, but that's the first time I've seen them since Portnoy left, and the first time IN Louisville. Mangini was a beast. A buddy hooked me up with tickets from his wife's company. I had no idea what to expect seating-wise. I just had to pick them up at will call. Dude... they were right up front.

I know there are a few DT fans here so, I gotta say, despite the bands downturn since Portnoy left this is the perfect tour to revisit them. I had no idea this was a Distance Over Time/Metropolis pt 2 20th Anniversary Tour. They did Untethered Angel, Paralized & Pale Blue Dot off DOT. A Nightmare to Remember and In the Presence of Enemies were the only pre-Mangini songs played (with the exception below), and both were killer.

Short intermission and then they came back and did ALL of SFAM in its entirety. I saw it back in 2000, but it was just as awesome as it ever was.

Encore was At Wits End from DOT, which I didn't really recognize at the time.

rhpsozzy

Saw Eluveitie, Korpiklaani and Gone in April on Friday. All three of them put on a great show, especially Korpiklaani.

Saw Everclear locally yesterday and they put on a good show. They played all the hits. It was definitely worth the free admission.

PerryD

Caught Delain and Amorphis at their Joliet show on Saturday. They do a ton of VIP business, probably what makes the tour like this possible.

Chrisedge

Saw Greta Van Fleet Monday night. I am not a big fan or anything but they were really good. Singer has a great range and they know how to jam.

Paff

The classic Irish punk band Stiff Little Fingers at the House of Blues.

Still rocking it 40+ years into their career, although I had to stifle a little laughter because every time the second guitarist really got into it, his strained face made him look like that old man puppet of ventriloquist Jeff Dunham. But I digress. They played their 1978 debut album Inflammable Material beginning to end, but unlike other artists doing this, they opened with about 7-8 other songs first. Oddly enough, for such a major venue, the sound is pretty muddy until I stood right behind the mixing console. Might have answered my own question there.

Anyway, their US tour (with fellow geriatric punk outfit The Avengers) just began, and it's highly recommended.

tonyc3742

Video Games Live with NC Symphony Orchestra.
Great show, I've seen this one once before and Play! once, and VGL is definitely more 'rocky'. Tommy Tallarico is just a tad egocentric, it seems, but it was still a very good show. My nongamer wife enjoyed it, both from the symphony perspective, and the "performance" perspective.

Next is Sara Bareilles, Tuesday night.

Decker

rhpsozzy

Saw Kamelot, Sonata Arctica and Battle Beast at The Grove in Anaheim last night. Kamelot and Battle Beast were awesome, as usual. Sonata Arctica was very meh. I saw them back in 2008 and were pretty damn good. I don't know what happened to them, but they definitely went downhill since then.

mndtrp

Amon Amarth
Arch Enemy
At the Gates
Grand Magus

Fillmore Auditorium, Denver. It was a fine show, although Grand Magus and Arch Enemy did nothing for me. At the Gates was cool seeing them for the first time. Amon Amarth is always a fun time.

tonyc3742

So it was a good show. I had only listened to the new album once so I don't know her material that well, but I recognized some songs. She interacted with the crowd, told stories, gave some history on some songs, seemed very energetic, and has quite a range. Her band contained a couple guitars, upright bass, cello, viola (or violin), keyboard, drums, and of course piano. It was an outdoor show at an amphitheatre and seemed to be mixed well, although there's also a "different" sound at some outdoor shows where it's more expensive. It rained (misted) a little bit, but not much, and she commented on it but didn't let it slow her down. She went on about 830, left the stage briefly around 10, then back for an encore of a couple of songs.
The lighting and fog machine work were pretty cool.
The opener was Emily King, who Sara has apparently collaborated with a little bit, and they are friends/neighbors. She wasn't really my kind of thing and her show was definitely smaller in scope and band. The one annoying thing, and I don't know whose fault this was, but some places said the show started at 730, others said 8. We got there at about 732 and Emily was already singing, so I'm wondering if she started right on time or if it was actually supposed to be 7. Minor hiccup and probably the venue or Ticketmaster's fault.
But it was a very good show. The seated area looked to be >90%, but I didn't see how full the lawn was. (The venue seats just under 6,000, so it's not huge, which was nice.) We were 10th row pretty much in the middle.

Regarding VGL, here's some stuff performed at the Raleigh show:

rhpsozzy

Saw Delain, Amorphis, Anneke Van Giersbergen and The Spider's Accomplice over in Anaheim on Friday. Missed most of Spider's Accomplice. due to being in the line for merch, but they sounded good. Anneke was great. At one point she gave the audience an option to play a KISS song or a Dolly Parton song, the audience surprising picked Dolly. You would think a metal audience would want to hear a KISS over Dolly, but I guess not. Amorphis was good, especially when they had Anneke come out for "Amongst Stars." Delain was awesome as usual, they seem to get better every time I see them. Only nitpick was their set seemed kinda short, but they made the best of it. Really looking forward to their new album next year.

I then saw Godsmack, Halestorm and Monster Truck last night in Bakersfield. Monster Truck were not too bad, Halestorm was awesome. It was my first time seeing them live and I'm looking forward to seeing them again whenever they have a nearby headline show. Godsmack kicked ass, as usual. They played a cover of "Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting," which was cool to hear.

VHS?

Just got back from Godsmack, Halestorm and .....fucking amazing! Seen Godsmack for 5th time and Halestorm for a 2nd
Opener wasn't bad either. Monster Truck. Sounded pretty good.

Man do I love Lzzy Hale

The Cow

2019-10-15: Lacuna Coil and All That Remains at Riverfront Live in Cincinnati.

Both were good, but I was there for Lacuna Coil. I've been wanting to see them for a long time (Cristina Scabbia in particular) and they did not disappoint. Very small indoor club but sounded great.

Cusm

Going to see GnR again tonight, saw them a couple of years ago when they were in Tulsa. Not too much on the horizon for shows locally.

mphtrilogy

Kacey Musgraves at Radio City with two of my daughters.. solid show

PerryD

Megacruise was giving away cabins the week before the cruise, so I went ahead and jump on board :P

Dave Mustaine could not attend since boarding a cruise ship while undergoing chemo is a ridiculous idea. Devildriver also dropped out at the last minute due to the singer's wife getting diagnosed with cancer. Other than that the cruise went very well, they had an excellent sounding outside pool stage and a very large traditional stage inside the ship that both could hold around 1000+ people.

Highlights for me were seeing Death Angel play a headlining set, Overkill, Suicidal Tendencies, Testament, Anthrax, Queensryche all put on great sets. Lamb of God was a replacement for Megadeth, but each show they put on had very weak attendance. The bands also got together to put on a "Kiss Jam" with various mixes of band members throughout the night.

AfiLai

It's been quite a while since I last attended a concert. Probably about 5+ years. Been meaning to go but just haven't found the time to do so yet.
I think the last concert I went to was a Kpop one back when I was in uni. Accompanied my friend since she had extra tickets.

jpcamb

went to see Bob Seeger in Boston last night. Great show, was like seeing "Nine Tonight" updated and in person. He played 24 songs over a couple of hours including 2 encores.
He looked pretty good for 74 and played guitar and piano on some of the songs. It was kind of funny as he did Rock and Roll never forgets as the finale and instead of "Sweet sixteen has turned 31" he sang "Sweet sixteen has turned 74" and he mock collapsed after that. I've not seen him live before and imagine he has slowed down some over the last decade or so, some of the set was played seated with a guitar in lap but for the most part he roamed the stage.

I think the band was a total of 13 people and I knew all but a couple of songs from his later albums. If you are a fan and have a chance to catch him his voice and band were great. Some of the people have been with him since the 70s and the newest additions seemed to be 15 years back.

https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/bob-s...-439ddf1b.html

Paff

I wouldn't go to a Bob Seeger concert if you paid me, but man I gotta respect someone who still puts on a show and makes an effort like that.

I see bands that are not as old, but certainly not kids anymore, and it's a little disheartening when the between-song stage patter is the exact same as the last tour, two years ago. The music is good, but you can always tell when they're doing it more as their job than for the enjoyment of playing the music. Like I said, I don't dig Bob's music, but it looks like he still does, and that's pretty damn cool.