The Cow

2024-05-12: Battle Beast at the House of Blues in Cleveland. Have seen these folks a couple times, but this is their first North American headliner tour. They were very high energy, sounded great, and the crowd was realllly into them. We did the meet and great for this one, and they were all very nice. After the standard meet and greet, there was still about an hour before the show, and we got to hang out with them (us and about 10 other folks) for about a half hour near the merch tables. Had a blast at this show and talking with them.

PerryD

Seeing Battle Beast tomorrow in Chicago. Seen them many times over the years (the last few times opening for Kamelot), so it'll be fun to see a longer set from them.

PerryD

Caught this tour in Joliet last week

PerryD

Canadian rock bands Unleash the Archers and Striker a couple weeks ago at Reggie's in Chicago

PerryD

Caught Halocene and Icon for Hire a couple weeks ago. Very similar in style and sound, and both are made up of a married couple. They were opening for Citizen Soldier who are wildly popular with the outcast crowd, the tour was called Group Therapy tour, and the singer is a licensed therapist and spoke between songs about seeking help and such, and every song felt like a literal description of talking someone out of a suicidal act, it's a bit much, but it appears to be resonating with a lot of people as the tour sold out all of the dates. Not my cup of tea, but as someone near me told me "you are a lot older than everyone else in the crowd", and I replied, "I go to a lot of shows, so I don't always know what the audience mix is". I'm at 116 different bands this year.

Why So Blu?

I think Halocene started out as a cover band.

PerryD

That's how I always knew them, but they seem to be releasing a lot more original content.

And I thought that Lauren Babic was a full member of the band based on those covers. Halocene toured last year near me and I passed on it because Lauren wasn't a part of the tour, but decided this was the right time to see them. Looking at their setlist for this tour, there were 3 covers (I would have said two, but I didn't know the Sam Smith song). I would like to have gone to see Lauren's band, Red Handed Denial, who were here recently, but it sold out rather quickly while I was still thinking about it.

The Cow

Yeah, we see a lot of the same shows (especially the Euro bands) that have dates close together. And yeah, we saw Battle Beast with Kamelot three times prior, and one other time with Sabaton. My wife has pictures with her an Noora from 2 of those shows and she signed them this time when we saw her again.

Unfortunately, even as a headliner, they don't have that long of a show. Still, a few more songs is a good thing (although I would have chosen a few different ones for the set ).

darkdaze73

5/14/24 - Judas Priest & Sabaton - PNC Pavilion Charlotte

I bought these tickets last week during the $25 ticket Live Nation concert week promotion. They turned out to be pretty decent seats with a good view of everything.

My first time seeing either of these two bands. Due to the heavy rains we got yesterday, the lawn section was closed off. So anyone with lawn seats were moved into empty seats or stood under the pavilion roof. I am not familiar with Sabaton, but those that were there sure were. Most everyone stood for their set and gave them quite the reception. I thought it was especially cool when the lead singer asked the age of a kid in front of the stage(9yo) and gave the kid the sunglasses that he was wearing throughout the set. My daughter didn't go as she had been sick the past couple of days and needed the rest as we have two more shows this week. But she loved the picture I sent her of the lead singer playing a pink Hello Kitty guitar.

Priest was as good as I suspected. Rob was good with the crowd and they ate it up.

Kdogg

05/14/24 - Hozier - Live Oak Bank Pavilion, Wilmington NC

Hozier's fans are super into him. Good, solid performance but nothing speculator. It was cut short because of a weather delay and curfew on the back end.

Like ^ Wilmington was hit by lines of heavy storms like Charlotte. The different between PNC and Live Oak is that Live Oak doesn't have a lick of cover for the audience. To the venue's credit it surprising wasn't a mess. First time I've had lawn tickets in decades and remember why. The majority of the main lawn is pitched at like 12 degrees so the middle has limited visibility especially with the big ass mixing tent at the front. Lucky there is a steep hill on the side that allows for a good view. My main problem was the sound. It's not great for the lawn. A normal amphitheater would have speakers along the roof edge for the lawn. Not there because there is no roof. I was at the same place a week ago in the pit and the sound was great. It just doesn't project and the rear speakers were out of sync when they eventually tried then during the encore.

Jippy2

Managed to make it to the Cruel World Festival in Pasadena last Saturday. My third year in a row. I go with a few friends, so it isn't always about the line-up of bands as much as it's a fun time to hang. I was pleasantly surprised this year. The bands I saw were:

Patriarchy
Nuevo Testamento
Lol Tolhurst & Budgie (former drummers of the Cure and Siouxsie, respectively)
The Mission UK
Dreamcar
Simple Minds
Placebo
Interpol
Tones on Tail

All in all, a great day of music. I think no matter what combination of acts you want to see, you won't be disappointed. I always do regular GA tickets as the VIP and clubhouse areas don't really seem to be worth the extra money.

darkdaze73

5/15/24 - The Ritz Raleigh, NC

Wage War, Nothing More, Veil of Maya & Sleep Theory

Packed house last night for this show. I wasn't overly impressed with the sound here as all the vocals were somewhat muffled. I remember it being like that when we saw Skillet there a couple of years ago. The crowd was definitely hot for all four bands as everyone seemed to show up early.

This was our third time seeing Nothing More in 14 months. They were great as usual. We saw Wage War open for Disturbed late Aug./early Sept last year. They were just as good this time around also.

darkdaze73

Red Hat in Raleigh is like that. Lamb of God is coming there of all places later this year. I wanted tickets but passed mainly because of the venue. I considered it once again during the $25 ticket deal lat week but still couldn't bring myself to buy tickets. Like Live Oak, I'm not sure how much I would be able to see from the lawn. Plus their lawn section is not all that big.

I wanted tickets for Dwight Yoakam as he'll be there next month, but it's on my daughter's birthday.

Kdogg

Having gone to school up the road in Durham that place was a favored haunt. We saw so many up and coming and mid-tier artists there. Sound aside, I’m glad to hear it’s still around. Might have to checkout the schedule and make a trip.

Kdogg

I originally had tickets to see Queens of the Stone Age there last fall. That show got postponed and rescheduled. They then added the show at Live Oak. I was able to sell the Red Hat tickets at the back of the seated section to pit at Live Oak and still make a few bucks. I wouldn’t mind checking out Red Hat though. Walnut Creek was the place during my time in the triangle. Now I learned that there’s an amphitheater in Cary too. Might try to see Crowded House or Slash there.

darkdaze73

It's a drive for me regardless as I'm 40+ minutes to Greensboro, hour+ to Raleigh and 2 hours to Charlotte. I have heard about the one in Cary but haven't been to a show there yet.

Also wanted to mention, Carowinds is (finally)opening back up their pavilion and offering a bunch of free summer shows to park guests. It's a pretty decent lineup so far as an added bonus, depending on each individuals taste of course. I might go check out the Bret Michaels' Parti-Gras show.

https://www.carowinds.com/events/summer-music-fest

PerryD

a couple photos from the Battle Beast show at the House of Blues Chicago.

bchbdaddy

Not what i was expecting them to look like. I was hoping each band member dressed like an animal warrior and had a big rubsign sticker on their chest to show what element they were.

Nesbit

Caught opening night of Dead and Company at the sphere last night. I had high expectations going in and they were easily exceeded. I’m not a deadhead at all, only knew 3 of the songs they played in the nearly four hours and 2 of those were non Dead songs, but it didn’t matter.

I can’t recommend seeing a show here enough.

Decker

Some tickets are really cheap on the secondary market (at least they were yesterday). I might take my daughter next week.

Nesbit

If I didn’t have tickets for Love tonight I might have gone back. Will definitely check out any future acts i like of even ones i’m neutral on if I feel like they’d put the venue to good use.

Decker

As of now there's literally no other concerts scheduled at the venue after Dead & Co. Which is really weird.

TheGuy

Norah Jones at the new Brooklyn Paramount, what a wonderful new venue.

Decker

Cool. I was considering seeing St Vincent there.

darkdaze73

5/17/24 - Coastal Credit Union Pavilion at Walnut Creek in Raleigh

Hank Williams Jr.
The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band(apparently their farewell to road tours)
Tyler Halverson

My daughter and me received these tickets as a Christmas gift as Hank is one of the very few country artists my daughter will listen to. Outside of one or two songs, I don't know anything by TNGDB. The first part of their set was okay, but the last few songs I really enjoyed. And Hank was Hank. If you have ever been to one of his shows you know what to expect. I was a little disappointed with the length of his set(1 hour 15min). He did melodies of quite a few songs in order to get them in the set.

And while I am hoping this isn't my last concert(next currently planned show isn't until Aug 31), it would be a full circle moment for me if it was as my mom took me to my first concert and that was to see Hank in Greensboro. That show was back in 1988.