tonyc3742

Clownvis Presley and The Blasters last night.
I saw the Blasters with the Holiday tour last year. They kept it going non stop.
Clownvis was really fun and seemed like a nice guy (contrary to his appearance on the tv talent show).
He

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Styx, Joan Jett & the Blackhearts and Tesla @ Pavilion in Boston. Odd triple bill (a fair amount of people left after Joan Jett), but I enjoyed all three acts. Tesla sounds exactly like they did 30 years ago. Joan Jett was probably the highlight, sounded (and looked) great. Styx was a bit overblown and Spinal Tap-ish at times, but I still enjoyed their set of mostly hits. Hadn't seen them since Paradise Theater tour, so it was fun to relive my high school years.

Daytripper

I saw the Pretenders at the Fillmore in Silver Spring MD this past Friday night. Worst set list they've ever done. She didn't play: "Mystery Achievement", "Stop Your Sobbing", "Brass in Pocket", "Human", "Message of Love", "Talk of the Town", "My Baby" or "Night in My Veins".

Ky-Fi

I'm definitely noticing that more as I get older and my favorite artists now have several decades of songs to choose from--their choice of set list can really make or break the show.

dex14

Damn. The sucks.

I saw them open for Stevie Nicks last year and they were good.

Daytripper

So true. Take Depeche Mode for example. They pretty much play the same songs now tour after tour. I literally left their last show right in the middle I was so bored.

I did too. Great show AND set. And I believe she played most of the songs I listed above save for "Human".

Paff

It's a double edged sword though, isn't it? If they just "play the old hits", they're pretty much their own tribute band. And you can't blame them for being tired of playing songs they've played literally hundreds if not thousands of times. But then if they try to "stay relevant" with new songs they've written, it's a boring show of new material you're not familiar with. For example, in the early 90s I was a huge fan of the Mighty Mighty Bosstones and thought their first 2 albums were friggin' amazing. Still do. Third and fourth albums were OK, but stopped buying records after that. The material is just not as groundbreaking. They're touring now, even played my city last week. I checked online to see what the setlists were, and it's about 2-3 songs total from that early period. Saved myself a little money by skipping that show.

E Unit

Or they can go the other way and be like The Cure and play a 4 hour show and put in a mix of old, B sides, and newer stuff. But damn does that hurt my 40 year old ass after the first couple of hours.

Ky-Fi

Yep, you're right--it is a balancing act. On the flip side, I won't go see X any more, even though I think they're the greatest American band ever. They've been doing an oldies tour for about 15 years now with no new songs. That's lame, IMO.

And I saw U2 a couple weeks ago, and they played 8 songs off the new one, and zero off Joshua Tree (although they had toured that album recently.)--which was fine with me. I want to hear the hits but I also want to hear new stuff from bands, and I respect bands that are still "in the game" rather than just being a nostalgia act.

So for me, I'm not really blaming bands for not playing the songs I want to hear--some of those songs might be oldies and some might be newer ones. I guess I'm just saying that when a band gets up there and has SO many songs to choose from, it's more of a crap shoot as to what the set list might be on a tour.

Like you, I've been checking out Setlist to see what songs I'm likely to get, and that does influence my ticket-buying.

cdollaz

Caught the Mighty Mighty Bosstones a couple of nights back. I used the see them every time they rolled thru town, but I hadn't seen them since they returned from hiatus. Probably over 15 years. It was a good show as always.

Mikael79

Weezer and Pixies last night near Chicago.

alexkevin

Can you believe that I have never attended a single concert in my life

Pointyskull

Fun fact:
if you were at Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre that means you were just down the street from me

dex14

Yes.

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Saw 'I'm With Her' last night up in Portsmouth NH (they have a really nice, free concert series at Prescott Park every summer, right on the water). They're a minor supergroup of Americana, made up of Sara Watkins, Sarah Jarosz and Aoife O'Donovan. Show was very pleasant, if slightly forgettable. They have wonderful harmonies, and did a couple nice covers of Adele and Vampire Weekend.

majorjoe23

Last night I saw Lou Barlow from Sebadoh/Dinosaur JR./Folk Implosion play in the backyard of Bob Nastanovich from Pavement. It was a pretty awesome show.

bd007h

Wow you're missing out!

Paff

Hey, some people just don't know a lot about music and concerts. I could never live life like that, but some people do. One time, I was watching the first Decline of Western Civilization movie, and a friend came over. He saw the slam-dancing punks and asked "Oh, so is this what they call a 'rave'"? I just didn't know how to answer that.

LiquidSky

Joan Jett. She is still kicking rock n roll ass.

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I was in Chicago this past weekend and caught a couple shows.

Barenaked Ladies/Better Than Ezra: sadly, I missed the opener KT Tunstall. BTE were great, just a lot of fun and a couple fun covers ("Tiny Dancer"). BNL were their usual fun selves; they're a bit like vanilla ice cream - nothing amazing, but enjoyable by all. And, as per usual, they had a couple fun improv songs, the funniest being about traffic in Chicago, which somehow morphed briefly into Iron Maiden's "Run To The Hills". 8^)

Def Leppard/Journey/The Pretenders - Got a cheap ticket a couple days before the show when prices dropped ($65 for 16th row center on the field). Pretenders were great as always. Journey was better than I expected, as was singer Arnel (I watched them on the HOF induction, and wasn't overly impressed by him, but he was so much better at this show). Def Leppard was okay, but I remember when they were considered "hard rock", and now there is nothing edgy about them in the least. And Joe Elliot's voice isn't that strong, nor is he a great front man. Still, it was five hours of music, and you knew every single song, which is pretty impressive overall!

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Del McCoury Band last night up in Portsmouth NH. Another beautiful night by the water, and the band sounded great. Just an ocean of talent among them, but they also melded perfectly as a unit.

Daytripper

Yeesh. The Pretenders were on the same bill as those guys!? Chrissie, time for a new agent And I'm assuming the Pretenders were the opening act. Which truly sucks. They have just as many hits as those other bands. But whatever. Just glad she's still touring.

dex14

I saw Beck last night. It was a good show. I got side swiped on the way to The Garden so my night was a little ruined from that.

I feel a little gipped on the setlist compared to other shows recently (no Debra or Sexx Crimes). Brit Daniel from Spoon came out and played a few songs. Jenny Lewis was the opener. Originally, it was supposed to be Glass Animals, but their drummer got hit by a truck and they had to cancel dates. I was a fan of Rilo Kiley back in the day, so seeing Lewis was cool. She's cute. A little boring for an arena though. The only other time I saw her was when she toured with The Postal Service.

I was thinking of going to see Weezer / Pixies / Sleigh Bells tonight. I thought I'd be able to get some cheap tickets last minute (which is typical for amphitheatre venues), but it looks like it is almost sold out. I guess those Toto covers helped with ticket sales! No big deal, I've seen Weezer more times than I can remember, Pixies twice, Sleigh Bells once.

Upcoming - David Byrne w/ Sylvan Esso, The Smashing Pumpkins w/ Metric, Franz Ferdinand, Cold War Kids, The Gaslight Anthem (2), Interpol.

Daytripper

What the what? Metric is opening for the Smashing Pumpkins!? What an odd double bill. But cool. I saw Metric for the first time about three years ago and they were awesome. Can't for the life of me remember who they opened for. Maybe Imagine Dragons (?) Anyway, has Weezer jumped the shark doing Toto or what? I finally heard their version of "Africa" this week (SMH). What was the reaction from their fans like? Because damn that was just sad.

My upcoming concerts: Arctic Monkeys, New Order, The Fixx, ELO, Simple Minds, NIN, Johnny Marr.

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The Eagles @ Boston Garden last night. I think the best adjective to describe it is "impressive". The sound was near-perfect, as was their recreation of their substantial list of hits. (They had as many as seven guitar players on stage one point, perfectly replicating the album sounds.) But at times it seemed almost robotic, and they didn't look like they were having a ton of fun, more like going to work and doing a great job. Thank God for Joe Walsh - even though I've never been his biggest fan, he livened up the second half of the set, and helped humanize the proceedings.