Ky-Fi

In Somerville, MA--the mighty Selecter!!

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K&AJones

Didn't attend but watched "Queen Rock Montreal" last night on MTV Live...and reaffirmed he was and is still the Best Rock Singer ever and the band musically and talent wise was one of the best.

Dubya

Guns N' Roses on 8/11. Was fortunate to land the exact spot in the pit I wanted to be. The show was incredible. They didn't play Patience & Whole Lotta Rosie (that they had been playing at each show) likely due to the weather delay but otherwise no complaints as it was everything I could have hoped for. My shots from the show = https://www.flickr.com/photos/223254...57685094979330

Decker

^ Those are some GREAT fucking pictures! LOVE that one with Slash right above you.

Glad you enjoyed the show. The Mrs and I are going to see them at T-Mobile Arena in November. I'm looking forward to it.

Dubya

Thank you, I appreciate it! Have a great time at the show in November!

Daytripper

Blondie & Garbage: Rage and Rapture Tour 8/3. Garbage were great as usual. Opened with their new song "Horses" (fantastic). Debbie Harry looks amazing and her voice was good. But she talked through the lyrics during most of her classics. Which irritates me to no end when artists do that. I get it, you've sang the damn song a million times and tired of doing them. But don't sleep walk through them with your audience. The best songs during their set were actually new material. They had such a great energy and she seemed excited to be singing them. And Clem Burke's still got it. One of rock's best drummers.

cdollaz

That has bugged me about Mick Jagger for many years.

Ky-Fi

Retro Futura 2017:

Katrina (of the Waves)
Paul Young
English Beat
Modern English
Men Without Hats
Howard Jones

Fun show--felt like I was watching MTV in 1983.

Well organized show, with not much time between artists, although except for Howard Jones, all the acts got just 4 or 5 songs.

Everyone sounded quite good--a highlight for me was Paul Young's Come Back and Stay. I'm not a huge fan of him otherwise, but I think that's just a perfect 80's pop song, and he nailed it.

I wasn't a big Howard Jones fan back in the day, but I must admit he's really good live.

The bands all seemed like they were having a good time, with various members popping up onstage to play in each other's bands for a song here and there. The downside of shows like this is that most of the bands don't have time to play anything other than the big hits.

Modern English did play this fairly new one, though, and I was impressed:

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Daytripper

To be fair, most of the acts on this bill were two hit wonders Save for the English Beat and Howard Jones. I bet 95% of that crowd didn't know any Katrina song other than "Walking on Sunshine". Back to Jones. He is truly an amazing musician and has always put on a great show. Criminally underrated.

Ky-Fi

Hey, I knew TWO Katrina songs--she wrote "Going Down to Liverpool" which The Bangles covered.

And actually Men Without Hats put out a really great album in 2012--vintage synthpop. But yeah, your point is taken---these were generally not artists who people went to see because of their deep catalog.

[email protected]

I went to this show as well (I assume you were in Lynn). It really was a fun show, and most of the bands surprisingly exceeded my expectations. I had no idea that Modern English would be that strong live, and even Men Without Hats were entertaining (playing 'Safety Dance' twice, to both open and close their set!).

I agree that it was great to see the bands enjoying themselves. All the acts came out and did a 'Safety Dance' congo line. They also came out to sing 'Happy Birthday' to MWH's keyboardist. Plus jamming with each other on certain songs. Definitely a feel-good vibe all night long.

Even though he was the de facto headliner, I thought Howard Jones was the weakest of the acts - he's the only one with a real production (video and special lighting effects), and he seemed to need that support in order to keep up the energy, especially compared to the previous bands. Not that he was bad, but just my least favorite of the bill.

Ky-Fi

Yes, I was at the Lynn show---never been there before. Lynn can be a little sketchy, but I liked the venue well enough. And free parking in a lot around the corner, too. Had you been there before?

The only two bands I would say I'm a major fan of are English Beat and Men Without Hats, so yeah, I would have preferred either of the them to close the show with a bigger set. And yes, it felt like Howard Jones with five opening acts, in that he had the lights, video screen and much more time. But I thought his performance was as strong or stronger than any of the other acts, even if I'm not as big a fan of his songs.

I was a little disappointed with some of the minor sound issues---couldn't hear the sax for most of "Save it For Later," and couldn't hear the keyboard for "I Melt With You"--or at least up in the balcony I couldn't hear them.

[email protected]

I was on the floor towards the back. Sound seemed decent enough there, but I was also five feet from the mix position, so it should have. (Plus I wear earplugs through most of the show, so I'm not the best to judge the overall sound quality.)

I've seen a half-dozen shows in Lynn. Its a nice little auditorium and they get some decent acts. Free parking can always be found close by. And there's a couple decent restaurants within walking distance, notably the Blue Ox, which I'd highly recommended.

This could probably could be a separate topic, but its nice to see all these suburban venues doing well. The Lynn Auditorium, the Cabot and Larcam theaters in Beverly, Shalin Liu in Rockport, Cary Hall in Lexington, Portsmouth Music Hall - just a wide variety of places for various acts to play, and they all have their charms/advantages.

Ky-Fi

Yeah, I'd definitely go back to Lynn. I have not been to the Lexington or Portsmouth halls--I'll have to keep an eye out for those. I've been to several shows at the renovated Cabot--they've done a great job there. I used to live in Beverly, and went to many art-house movies there when it was very UN-renovated.

I live in Rockport now, so I've seen quite a few at the Shalin Liu. I was there for their free opening night, and they had the acoustic architect who designed the place there to speak. It's amazing--every single part of that theater, from the stage, the seats, the angles of the ceiling and walls, the material used for every part--all of it was minutely designed for the perfect acoustic environment.

I've been to several shows at the old Tupelo Music Hall in Londonderry, and I know they just moved to a bigger, nicer place in Derry this past spring. I want to check that out as well.

Neitzl

Just left the Belle and Sebastian show at the Chicago theater. They played great songs I had not heard before live. My only let down is they ended with Party Line. Other than that, great concert!

cdollaz

That is a band that I hope to catch at some point.

I like The Party Line and prefer their newer material, so I would have been OK with that.

Daytripper

Granted I don't own any Katrina and the Waves albums (album!?), but how did I not know she wrote "Going Down to Liverpool"! Shame on me. Speaking of the Waves. Just where the hell are they? She was listed as "Katrina of Katrina and the Waves". Kind of stupid. Just like like Berlin featuring Terri Nunn. Huh!? Is her ego really that big for a band no one cares about anymore? She's great live btw. But someone needs to check herself.

I saw your other post about the English Beat. Huge fan as well. But poor Dave Wakeling. I don't know if it's because he's touring too much. He plays here in D.C. at least four times a year somewhere. I've seen them a few times and he and his band just have the lowest energy. No mojo at all IMO. I saw them last open for Squeeze last year. They blew the roof off the venue. Those guys have never sounded that great live before.

Ky-Fi

I think I heard there was some legal dispute with Katrina so that she couldn't use the "the Waves" in her title. I'm not a huge fan of her songs, but yes, she brings it live.

Yep, at least around here, a few bands have been touring constantly for the last five years: English Beat, The Fixx, and Mike Peters/The Alarm. As I love all of them, I've seen them each at least 3 times during that stretch at various venues. The first time I saw English Beat in 2013 it was in a small club, and they were fantastic. Last year I saw them on an outdoor stage, and they were okay. I haven't really noticed the low energy too much, but he certainly is playing a lot of dates for an older guy.

I do get a little pissed off at old bands who don't even try to write new songs (I'm looking at you, X). The Fixx and The Alarm have recent albums, and at the show the other night the English Beat announced they have a new album coming out--so that raises my opinion of them.

Daytripper

I saw the Fixx only once about 7 years ago and they haven't been back through D.C. since. Which is odd. They were INCREDIBLE! I'm with you on older artists who don't do new music. I get it, the music industry is dead. Bands/singers from the 70's/80's (hell even the 90's) wouldn't sell that many new albums. But so what? I love to hear new music from them. I read sometime last year the English Beat were working on new material. What is the hold up? I'm very anxious to hear that. And while we're on the subject. Why can't Dave and Ranking Roger just suck it up and work together? Roger plays solo as the Beat in Europe and Dave plays the states as the English Beat. It's so sad. And what a great missed opportunity that they don't record and tour together. I still don't know why they won't be in the same room together. That last General Public album in the 90s was amazing (btw). Back to older artists still recording new music. The Pretenders still do. And once at the 930 Club in D.C., they were in the middle of a new track. Chrissie must have sensed the crowd wasn't into it and stopped the song dead in it's tracks. Addressing the audience saying "I can see you guys aren't feeling the new stuff so you know what? Fuck it. It's nothing but our old material the rest of the night". And the crowd actually cheered (!!!). I was pissed.

Side note. Another great live band is the Human League. They headlined one of these 80's shows many years ago called the Regeneration Tour. Also on that bill were Naked Eyes, A Flock of Seagulls, Belinda Carlisle and ABC. Now that was a great line-up. Belinda, ABC and the Human League all could do an hour or more set on their own. So it felt very rushed. But at least the Human League got to play at least 10 songs. They play about a 75 minute show when they tour their own. I know that most Americans probably only know about 5 of their songs. But they have at least 15 or more singles that were huge elsewhere in the world. ABC were also very good live. Did you know Martin Frye released "The Lexicon of Love II" last year? New album.

Rex Fenestrarum

I also went to the Retro Futura tour here in Charlotte on July 28 (I think?). Instead of Paul Young, we got Annabella of Bow Wow Wow... but she didn't even play "C·30 C·60 C·90 Go", which is a crime. It was a fun show, though: $15 lawn seats in an intimate ampitheatre. It wasn't too crowded and it wasn't too hot. It was nice to take my boots off and rub my feet against the grass while enjoying the English Beat perform during a beautiful sunset. Like others have said, it was just a good time: the crowd, the musicians, even the staff seemed to be enjoying themselves. I'd actually seen Modern English before, back in the 90s, and they weren't as good... but then I'm not as good as I was in 1994, either!

Since we're talking about Berlin and other "bands that only have one original member left"... does anyone know whatever happened to A Flock of Seagulls? They still tour, but it's really just "Mike Score and bunch of session musicians who weren't born until 1995". But the original Seagulls also had Ali Score - Mike's brother - on the drums. Are they estranged or something? Or did Ali just give up music for good? Seems odd that his own brother isn't in the band any more.

Semi-Related: my GF and I are going to NYC to see Saint Etienne in late September, and I just found out this week that Heaven 17 is playing their first ever US show a few hours after we leave to come home. I don't care for Heaven 17 enough to rearrange my flight and hotel plans, but I thought it was interesting nevertheless. I also found out this week that although Heaven 17 was founded in 1980 they didn't do a live show (at all, anywhere, in any capacity) until 1997. So... that's something.

Daytripper

I just read two days ago about Heaven 17. I'd head up to NYC to see them if it weren't during the week. They did two songs with Claudia Brucken during her one off show a few years ago in London (clip below), and sounded great. I'm a huge fan of Brucken's work, especially Propaganda. So I bought this DVD as an import. The entire show is now available on YouTube. Heaven 17 are only playing two U.S. cities. NYC and LA. It truly sucks that both seem to only get these rare concerts. NYC also got Alphaville and China Crisis recently.

Rex Fenestrarum

Cool! Nice to find another Claudia Brücken fan! There are TENS of us! TENS of us, I tell you!

Daytripper

Well, it looks like YouTube took down the full concert. You can still rent it there for $3.99. Highly recommend it. Had I known about this show in advance, I would have flown to London to see it. And would have paid just about whatever for a ticket.

Rex Fenestrarum

That's exactly how I feel about the Saint Etienne show. I knew they had a new album coming out in June, and knew they were going on tour... in the US, even! The morning the album came out, I woke up and checked my phone... to see an email from them saying "the new album's out... and here are the tour dates!". I ran to my desktop, pulled up the site, selected and bought tickets to the Bowery Ballroom show in less than 3 minutes. No fuckin' way was I missing this show, not this time! I then had to get on my GF's company's private instant messenger to inform her that we're going to NYC at the end of September!

Paff

Well, the problem there is that "Bow Wow Wow" still tours...with the bassist as the only original member. I'm sure there's a limit somewhere on which and how many BWW songs Annabella can perform with her outfit, especially since she did not do a lot of the writing of the music.