rhpsozzy

Saw Iced Earth, Sanctuary and Kill Ritual at The House Of Blues in Anaheim. Apparently there are two venues there, the regular venue and a smaller one called The Parish. They were playing in the Parish. It was small and very crowded. I would of preferred the show in the other location, but there was some other concert there. Stood near the merch booth for most of the show since it was less crowded. As far as the show itself, it was great Iced Earth was awesome as usual. The original singer of Sanctuary (Warrel Dane) passed away in December, so their set was more of a tribute to him. They got the singer for Winterfall to do the vocals, and he sounds just like Warrel, so that was cool Kill Ritual wasn't too bad either.

Obi-Wanma

I saw "Weird Al" Yankovic last night in Ann Arbor on his "Ridiculously Self-Indulgent Ill-Advised Vanity Tour". It was a sold out show, and it was awesome. This isn't really a show for casual fans, but for a hardcore fan like me it was tremendous. He's doing shows composed almost entirely of his original material, many of which he's never played live before. No costumes or videos. The only parodies he's doing this tour are an Unplugged Medley that he does to close the main set, and either "The Saga Begins" or "Yoda" for the final song of his encore. He's also doing a different cover song every night as part of the encore.

This was last night's cover:

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The Cow

2018-03-11: Sabaton, Kreator, and CyHra at Buckhead Theater in Atlanta, GA. The Grand Rapids show I went to a couple weeks ago was great, this one was even better. Last show of the tour, so they did some messing around. Really fun time.

The Cow

2018-03-24: Nightwish at Cleveland Agora. No openers and they played a lot of songs they haven't played live in a while. Really good show and sound. The Greatest Show on Earth was awesome.

PerryD

Yeah, I just saw Nightwish in Chicago at the Aragon Ballroom. There is something to be said about a single headliner going on stage at 8pm and finishing at 10pm. That said, I wouldn't have minded a top tier opening act along with this tour.

They gave out a free copy of the Decades CD to everyone I think; I had the VIP and they also gave me a blu-ray of their live album Vehicle of Spirit.

Superman07

Okay, so frustrating update on this. We went tonight and were turned away at the door. The venue was checking tickets and IDs. Any mismatches were turned away.

They had all affected parties get in line at Will Call, although not sure why because they just said they weren’t accepting any and that they were sold out. A lot of people were in this situation and not happy.

We did talk to the person at the window, who said it was at the behest of the artist. I get the desire to protect all parties involved, but clearly the system is broken. I might not have the best perspective, but I put the onus on the venue to ensure tickets don’t get into the wild. I’d expect that to be something that more stringently binds buyer to tickets.

The artist is coming back in September, albeit at a larger venue, so we did buy tickets for that ahead of time.

Not out any money*, so I’m more disappointed than anything.

* To their credit, Stub Hub was great. They took care of me in about 10 minutes and issued a refund. Will make me do business with them again. Sounded like other people purchased from some shady places and weren’t so lucky.

Phodg

Saw Judas Priest/Saxon/Black Star Riders last night in Milwaukee. Excellent show.

Pointyskull

04/04/18
Kyle Craft
Carriers

@ Schubas - Chicago IL

Man, Craft and band were on fire. Can't recommend his music enough, and if you get a chance to see him - do so.

rhpsozzy

Gonna be seeing these guys on the 14th and I can't wait! I did see the setlist and I'm disappointed that they will be playing "Ghost Love Score" AGAIN! They could of put 2 more rarely played songs in it's place, like "Over The Hills And Far Away" (personal favorite) or something off of Dark Passion Play.

[email protected]

A few shows over the past week:

Crystal Method @ Middle East - My first ever DJ show, wasn't sure if I would even like it or not. But I enjoyed their early albums, and it was only $20, so I thought I'd check it out. Ended up staying for the complete 2 hour show; it wasn't always brilliant, but it was entertaining enough. Plus there were visuals onstage, and the crowd-watching was fun, and it all went by pretty quick. I was surprised though that the beats changed so often, nothing seemed to last more than a minute or two before changing gears, it never seemed to build into a frenetic energy at any point. (Biggest crowd responses were for classic-rock songs that were mixed in, from the likes of AC/DC, Rage Against The Machine and Beastie Boys).

Dave Davies @ Tupelo Music Hall - Better than expected. I had watched some YouTube clips of recent shows, and they really weren't all that good (I really only went because I got cheap tickets). While not brilliant, the lowered expectations helped me enjoy the show. I nice mix of Kinks classics, album cuts, and solo material. And his singing and guitar playing were pretty strong overall, especially once he got warmed up.

Justin Timberlake @ Boston Garden - Nabbed a last minute ticket from StubHub ($50 for a $275 ticket!). Enjoyable enough, and a very impressive show overall. You just have to realize that you're essentially going to see a Broadway show, not a "music" concert. It was much more about the visuals, production, choreography, etc. And that's all fine (quite well done actually), its just not an organic rock concert experience. Glad I went this once, but don't feel the need to ever seem him again.

Ky-Fi

At a local theater, the filmmakers presented this documentary on the early Boston punk scene, and afterwards a couple of the reformed bands played sets. It was a fun show, and the documentary was quite interesting---the Boston punk scene was kind of unique compared to London, New York, or L.A., because NONE of the Boston bands ever hit it big, and not for want of trying. It was just a lot of bad advice and decisions, and bad luck.

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[email protected]

I was there too! (Up in the balcony - bought tickets late because I didn't even know about it until reading the Boston Globe article on Thursday.) The movie was definitely interesting, and had some pretty amusing moments, as did the post-screening Q&A ("I guess the statue of limitations has run out, so..."). My buddies and I were talking afterwards about major labels - why would they ever sign a band that's getting traction, but then make them change everything which led to that popularity in the first place? I mean, that DMZ album cover looked like it should be Nightranger!

I assume you stuck around afterwards for the Nervous Eaters and Willie Alexander sets? Both were pretty strong. But I do wish the Real Kids has played as well.

dvduser6

Over the weekend I managed to see John 5 at the Whisky. Great show and my first time seeing him. Nikki Sixx, Scott Ian, and his wife Pearl Aday joined him to open the set with a cover of "Shout at the Devil". Later in the set, Ace Frehley played a couple of tunes with him as well.

The following night, I saw The Breeders at the Observatory down in Orange County (much closer to home). I was a huge fan of a lot of that music back in the early 90's. Very nostalgic and they sounded excellent. Very good selection of material in their set. They played a couple of tracks from their "Safari" EP and totally surprised me by also playing "Gigantic" towards the end of their set.

Ky-Fi

Cool! Yep, I was in the balcony as well. I did stay for the live shows, and I thought they both sounded pretty good. I moved to the Boston area in 1990, and even then didn't really go to a lot of club shows, so I never saw any of these bands back in the day. Even in his 70's, Willie Loco is definitely a pretty wild frontman--very Iggy Pop-like. I bet he put on some insane shows in his younger days. But yeah, it was interesting with all these bands--some of their failures and mistakes were kind of Spinal Tap funny, but at the same time kind of sad, because it seems like most of those guys felt like they missed out on success that they very well could have had.

The DMZ one stuck out for me too. I think the quote from the movie from one of the guys was "When I saw that album cover, I knew we were done."

For others here, this is what they sounded like:

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Wwv-wnBLU1k" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen></iframe>


...and this is the album cover the record label used:

mndtrp

Crystal Method is just one guy now, right? Last I knew, Ken moved out of the country. I don't think I ever saw one of their DJ sets, but did see them live a few times. Used to love their albums, but the last two haven't had much that interested me.

[email protected]

Yeah, its just Scott now. He mentioned several times that there is a new album coming out this summer.

rhpsozzy

Saw Nightwish at The Grove in Anaheim. Great show. Very solid setlist until the last two songs: "The Greatest Show on Earth" and "Ghost Love Score." Wished they would of played "Wishmaster," "Over The Hills And Far Away" or something off of Dark Passion Play instead.

Pointyskull

04/17/18
The Residents

@ Old Town School of Folk Music - Chicago IL

You're either with The Residents or you hate them.
Interesting set list, and goddamn if Nolan Cook isn't one fucking amazing guitarist.

My only complaint is that for a venue that ALWAYS is known for its great acoustics (and I have been to a ton of shows there) I felt the sound mix was too loud for the space, and a bit muddy. Vocals were really tough to decipher.

The Cow

2018-04-16: Kamelot, Delain, and Battle Beast at the Mercury Ballroom in Louisville. I'm a fan of Delain and Battle Beast, they both were good. I'm not a big follower of Kamelot, but I did enjoy their performance.

It was my first time at the Mercury Ballroom. Nice smallish setting with good sound.

covenant

Black Star Riders - Saxon - Judas Priest at Vivint SLC

Decent concert. We managed to get to the front in general admission on the floor. Loud! I thought my tinnitus would be even worse after. Being right up front I was shocked...how old everyone had gotten. Poor Rob was having to pace himself and work on his breathing. The high altitude cut short Willie Nelson's show here last year.

Chrisedge

David Byrne in San Diego on April 17. As someone mentioned earlier, one of the best shows I've seen. Didn't get too much video since it was a theater and they didn't want people recording. (There was still plenty of people with phones out, just not as many as usual)

Pointyskull

I'm seeing him on 06/02 in Chicago. REALLY looking forward to it!

Pointyskull

04/21/18
Marshall Crenshaw
The Bottle Rockets

@ Old Town School of Folk Music - Chicago IL

Had free tickets to this one, and was really going to see The Bottle Rockets (who opened, and then served as Crenshaw's backup band). Their opening set (that's them in the photo) was fairly short but sounded excellent, so the brevity was kind of disappointing. Crenshaw covered the expected hits and was fine-yet-unremarkable, and his voice seemed a little strained at times.

I wish The Bottle Rockets had done a longer set with more of their stuff. Oh well, can't beat the price and the great venue....

GuessWho

Saw The Darkness here in Chicago last week. Fun show as always from them.

Geofferson

Saw Dave Davies over the weekend in Minneapolis. Great show for a 71-yo who's suffered a stroke. Met him briefly after the show and got a couple things signed - very nice guy.