Great review Jason, I follow Burton on Facebook and he is an engaging fella, full of old stories especially the great story of the first time he went to LA. with the band.

I’ve seen shows this summer, but my health issues are getting the better of me and I don’t have many left.

Coldplay (June 7 at Lincoln Financial Field)-A colorful, uplifting show and all 65,000 were in good spirits. The light show was breathtaking and Chris Martin knows how to work a crowd.

When the band played the Philadelphia Eagles fight song all the way through (it was the Eagles stadium after all), that was a stroke of genius.

Don’t know why so many people hate this band, but whatever.


Tears For Fears/Garbage (June 25 at Mann Music Center)-My third TFF show (her first) and it was the best I’ve seen. The sound, visuals and light show were top notch and the band was incredible.

The new songs were played to perfection and flowed with the set well and hot just as much applause as the classics.

They were ridiculously good.

Garbage killed it as well and really went down well.

The Mann is my favorite venue and it was a beautiful night. I’d say it was 90% filled at around 9,000.



Midnight Oil (June 26 Franklin Music Hall)--My third Oils show and it was the best.

An exhausting 2 hours 15 minutes and old, classic, rare and new songs were all present.

The set changes every night this tour and we got some rarely played songs.

Peter Garrett is 69 (!) and owned the stage and his vocals were dead-on!

The crowd was deafening all night and it was sold out with 3,500.



Doobie Brothers (June 27 Freedom Mortgage Pavilion)-So glad to finally see the Doobies with Michael McDonald.

Great set list and a good two hour set.

The guitars and vocals harmonies were marvelous.

McDonald struggled to reach certain notes and ad-libbed some phrasing, but he was mostly damn good.

Out of the 20,000 capacity I’d say there was around 13,000-14,000 which is very good.

I hope I can make more shows, but I’m not so sure.

I'm hoping that Bachman-Cummings tour makes it to the USA (and Vegas).
I saw the Bachman-Turner reunion tour some years back and it was fantastic.

Looks like you've been real busy, IP. A bit of a disconnect from my musical tastes, but looks like they were all great shows, which is all you can hope for.

DanO, this was a leftover Canadian tour from pre-Covid, so I have no idea what they are planning to do afterwards. But I definitely recommend checking it out.

i am shocked they did not play 'guns guns guns' at this juncture in time.

are they still on to tour canada in the fall?

john,

so sorry to read about your dad, and also so sorry it took me so long to find out about it. i just read this thread.

renny

Indeed, John, sorry to hear about your dad, and for not commenting sooner.

J.

Yes, they had a Vegas show booked before Covid hit so I'm hoping they will eventually come.

well they were also scheduled to play windsor, and supposedly they were going to re-book for november.

Thursday night was another long-awaited pre-Covid show, as Rage Against the Machine made their first appearance in the fair city of Toronto in more than 20 years. The last time they were here, they were headlining Maple Leaf Gardens it was so long ago. 3/4 of them were here as the incredibly good Prophets of Rage a few years ago, but this was the total package, and everyone's turning out.

To be honest, the music was very good, but it didn’t feel like the revolutionary firebrand show that made Rage famous. One issue was physical, as Zack De La Rocha broke his foot in Chicago 10 days ago, and so was doing the whole show sitting on monitors at the front of the stage. But the other thing was political; maybe it was because he was in another country, but no one in the band had anything to say. Sure, they let the music speak, but we got none of their antics; no preaching, no screeching, no raging. Very little recognition of what's happening in the world at all.

Now, to be fair, the set list is its own polemic; listen to the music and want change the world; listen to the music, and realize 30 years on, the same things need changing. And they sounded great playing it; Morello is a gift to music he’s so creative on the guitar. And unlike my show earlier this week, Zack’s vocals were still spotless. But I honestly didn’t think we would be exempt from their political testifying. And as a result, it really felt like when you are walking down the stairs and miss the bottom step. Something was obviously missing, and it was jarring. Still, the music alone makes this a solid B show; Bulls on Parade and Bullet in the Head up front, a good mix of the singles through the rest, and the non-encore and finisher was of course, Killing in the Name, before that said thanks and they carried Zack off.

The opener was more of disappointment; turns out Run the Jewels is a true ATL hip hop act; I know who Killer Mike is, and he’s now officially the second biggest name in hip hop I’ve ever seen live. But it’s just not my music.

Now it’s nothing for a couple of weeks, which will give me a chance to continue to recover.

As always, here's the setlist, spoiled for length

July has turned out to be a no concert zone for me, nothing was planned and it’s nice to take a break, first time in decades. June had 4 shows which included Ringo (before the cancel of that tour due to COVID once again), The Gilmour Project, Tears for Fears and Todd Rundgren & Friends doing The Beatles.

August my birthday month (the wife too) has a few shows. A trip to Mexico in a week (to celebrate her 62nd year and retirement) and then the Aristocrats, Styx with REO Speedwagon and Loverboy and finally the very long delayed Roger Waters concert at the Garden (since 2020).

It’s been the Summer of Sharon.

Um, 2020?

It's somewhat of a slow stretch for me. Roger Waters at the beginning of the month, two shows this weekend (Skynyrd Friday, Adrian Belew tonight). So far, only one show in August (Aristocrats).

But in September? Somehow, I've hit a stretch of five shows in 11 days.

Saw Roger Waters in Albany this past Wednesday, great show, great visuals and a killer version of the Powers That Be!

The next Cruise To The Edge was announced today and it won't sail till March 2024 so we have a lot of time to save up. But considering all that has happened in the past 2 years, that one will be epic.

Two shows this past weekend.

First up was Lynyrd Skynyrd with Marshall Tucker Band. I'm not a huge Skynyrd fan, mostly because the stuff gets terribly overplayed here, but I like them well enough. Good set list, kept the energy high for the most part. It was somewhat weird in that the first time I saw Skynyrd, the closest thing to a Skynyrd member was Rickey Medlocke. No Gary Rossington. And fortunately, no "Ballad Of Curtis Lowe" - that song is so overplayed here, I never need to hear again in my lifetime. Marshall Tucker was as big a draw for me as Skynyrd, but frankly, it was the most disappointing performance I've seen from them. The sound was not great, the energy wasn't particularly there, and they turned "Can't You See" (the set-closer) into a mostly-audience sung performance. The opener was a guy named Walker Montgomery - solo acoustic performance. We missed most of his first song because of traffic issues getting into the place (they're doing major road construction on the main road outside the Covelli Center - and they had no one directing traffic until 30 minutes before showtime, and they put them at the intersection that arguably needed it least). Dude didn't leave a huge impression on me, but his is not my style of music.

Last night was Adrian Belew. What a great performance. The first set was heavy on Adrian solo stuff, with a few covers and band things thrown in, like "And Your Bird Can Sing" (Beatles), "117 Valley Drive" (Bears), and a couple others. The first set ended with a nice acoustic section. The second set was pretty much all Crimson, with some solo stuff thrown in. When they finished the main set, Adrian said they were going to play one more song, and kind of threw out the "what do you want to hear?" thing. Someone right in front yelled "Frame By Frame", to which Adrian replied, "Really?" He looked at Julie Slick, she seemed up for it, and he said, "Okay, maybe we'll play two more then" and tore up "Frame By Frame" before ending w/the scheduled closer, "e". There was a bit of a chuckle during the acoustic segment when he said he'd take questions while he retuned. Someone yelled, "What's your favorite Talking Heads album?" and he immediately replied, "'Remain In Light'. I don't know why. Great guitar playing on that album, though."

But WTAF is up with people who won't shut up during shows? We had four guys behind us at Skynyrd who talked through a large portion of the show, and last night, there were three guys in front of us, two of whom talked virtually non-stop. At one point in the second set, one of them yelled, "You guys are great!" and I said, "How would you know?" I finally had enough at one point and leaned forward and said, "Please shut up." Seriously - my head was right between theirs. No response - like seriously nothing. Totally unaware of what was going on around them. It didn't elicit a look - not even a scowl. It didn't even interrupt their sentence. So my buddy ended up moving to the back and I moved across the aisle into an empty row. I just don't get it - I mean, it's not like tix were $200 or anything, but I think that row was more than our tix (we were fourth row), and ours were $50. Why would you pay to go to something like that and not pay any attention through the whole show?

They've announce Angel for a show here in November. Very small club - about 600 people. Confirmed last night that my buddy will go if I go. I remember to check tix last night - they went on sale Friday. I don't think they've sold 20 seats yet. There are still three in the front row. But I've never seen Angel, so I'm seriously considering it. I know there are several fans here, including John. I have at least one Angel album that I really like, so I'm leaning towards it.

I would say definitely go if you can, Angel is a lot of fun live and have more great songs that you may realize. Frank can still sing and you have to see Punky Meadows in the flesh with his strat. Many times they tour with Starz but members of that band have had health problems lately.

Adrian is always a lot of fun live, first artist I met on the CTTE 2017 at the pool bar as the ship began to leave Tampa, he walked up and I couldn’t resist and great him “Hey Adrian!”. He laughed and I bought him a drink, really nice guy. I love Julie Slick too.

Maybe all this talking is the pent up covid thing where everyone was isolated for a year. The talking thing almost happened to us at the Tears For Fears show, when Garbage was playing, two guys sat behind us and began yakking with annoying voices. My wife was giving them a glance. Luckily many people were seat jumping that evening and they got kicked out of that row and a quieter couple replaced them.
I’m with you Alan, I am there for the music.

I wish it was from the isolation, but it was happening before. The last time I saw Dweezil, there were three guys talking over the band. And they were at least 10 feet away from me. When we saw Greg Allman several years ago, two women were talking over the opening act, who we were really enjoying. I finally turned around and said, "Will you please shut up? We're trying to listen to this guy." One of the women came up to me during the intermission and said, "That was really rude. You could have asked nicely. We thought we were whispering." Really? You're at least 40 years old, and you can't tell when you're whispering? My buddy said, "You shouldn't have had to say anything in the first place. How do you not know you're talking over the music?"

There are also the clowns who see an act for the one or two hit singles that they know. They talk through everything else while occasionally yelling out the name of the hit they want to hear.
When the hit finally comes, they stand, sing along loudly, and point at everyone around them.

Who immediately head for the exit after the song, no matter what part of the set it was in.

Most of the shows I go to aren't dependent on fine musicianship, so I almost never get stuck listening to two people yell a conversation mid set. It's too loud. But yeah, I don't have a good solution for scenarios where theatre seating acts are stuck by people who aren't paying attention to the bands on stage. And the more singer-songwriter-y the band is, the worse it gets.

Even if we were 3 miles from their parent’s house, I’m not sure the Beaches qualify as a local band anymore. I mean, sure, they’re from Toronto and all, but they’ve opened for the Stones, and played the Rogers Centre with the Foo Fighters, and the halftime show at the Grey Cup. So, the girls are much more than your local bar band. And last night was the last night of their Future Lovers tour; thanks to Covid, something that saw most of another album written and took 2 years to complete.

It was a last minute sell out scalp job, but I got my ticket under face value, no doubt thanks to Drake re-booking his OVO fest to last night. I’m not quite their target audience – if Bachman Cummings was my oldest audience, this might have been my youngest. They were hard carding everyone and needed to. And there was also a much more alternative lifestyle component to the audience compared to my usual shows. But I like where they are at, with a good mix of Power Pop and light guitar rock, with hints of psychedelic and some tongue-in-cheek teen angst type stuff. They’re leaving the noise rock stuff of their early career behind, and that’s a good thing.

They opened with Late Show, had a solid singles block in the middle with Fascination, Moment, and T-Shirt and closed with new single Blow Up and Money. And did an okay cover of Nelly Furtado's Maneater. But the really interesting songs for me were My People – a ballad that Kylie sang – and Good for a While, a new piano ballad that Leandra did lead vocals on. Not having Jordan do vocals on everything can really expand the mood of the band, and it really worked.

The openers also deserve a mention – The Blue Stones out of Windsor have been getting a lot of airplay here in Canada for their first album. Singles Be My Fire, Black Holes (Solid Ground) and Shakin’ off the Rust are all strong songs. But yet again, the lack of a bass player in this drum / guitar duo hurts some of the depths of the music in a live setting.

The biggest downside of the night? It was 30 degrees Celsius. When I left the venue at 11 o’clock. Damn it was hot out. And based on the weather report, I expect the roof to be closed at the Dome for Def Leppard tomorrow night.


here's a sample of both bands, since I'm not sure you yanks are familiar