That also looks like a great list, IP.

I'm jealous, John - Progject isn't coming anywhere near us, and Mike Keneally is currently part of the band. Tell him I said hey.

I think the next show for me is a return visit by Vanilla Fudge. Small theater this time.

And tix go on sale later this week for Here Come The Mummies.

John, as I'm sure you know, Steve has a bunch of "Genesis Revisited" albums out, apparently both live and studio releases. Any recommendations? (Especially the live shows.)

I would probably start with Wuthering Nights: Live In Birmingham which gets rave reviews especially if you like the Wind & Wuthering era of Genesis (my favorite era along with Selling England).

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0776981XJ/?tag=imwan-20

Or if you prefer the Selling England by The Pound era then Steve Hackett Live At Hammersmith is a good one, also has lots of music from his solo record Spectral Mornings (my favorite).

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08F6RYGN7/?tag=imwan-20

Both studio albums Genesis Revisted are very good. they feature vocals by stars like John Wetton. It’s basically where Steve got the Genesis mojo going once again after years of avoiding playing Genesis music live in concert. The response to these albums and the first tour was overwhelming and he has made quite a solo career of playing this beautiful music.

I would give one of the live albums a shot and see what you think.

John’s post has me weeping.

These Hackett shows were postponed two years ago and our show in Collingswood, NJ was the night the country shut down on 3-13-20 and that show was scrapped at the last minute.

My best friend Craig and I are massive Genesis fans and have been since high school.

We had these tix and thanks to me having interviewed Steve for my book, we were invited backstage to meet him and hang out.

The show was rescheduled several times and is now set for April 8, this Friday (one of three shows he’s doing here that are all sold-out).

Craig became ill with cancer last year and passed away this weekend.

He was so close to being able to see the concert.

I am heartbroken and this has left a void that cannot be filled.

His funeral service is Friday and ironically, it’s in Collingswood and the show is that night.

Craig gave me the tickets the next to last time I saw him and he insisted I go.

I’ve already emailed Steve about what happened and he had very kind words of sympathy.

Do I still go?

I’ll probably get a mixture of joy and sorrow and I feel I should honor his wishes.

My girlfriend will be going with me if we do go and she understands either way of what we decide.

The whole thing really sucks.

My sincerest condolences to you IP.

I have lost too many friends over the years, many of them fellow concert goers.

If you are up to it you should definitely go.
I'm sure Craig's spirit will be with you and would insist that you experience the joy of the music you both loved so much.

Whenever I hear the Grateful Dead I always think about my good friend Scottie who passed away 8 years ago last week.

Our friends are always with us. Keep their memory in your heart. They will put a smile on your face.

Condolences Pete, I would definitely go if you can and honor your friend and experience a great event.

Losing a best friend is just awful at such a young age.

Here is a stunning photo from the Beacon show from a pro photographer that evening. Nad Sylvan has been gushing about his NYC experience for days now on Facebook.





Great review of the show in Goldmine:

https://www.goldminemag.com/reviews/ste ... QNOfx75vo8

Condolences, Pete. And as the others have said, if you're physically up to it, you should absolutely go. You know what Craig wanted. It'll be a nice tribute to him.

Thank you to all you gentlemen.

It’s going to be such a sad day, but if I’m able to, I think we will attend the show.

He really wanted me to go.

It hurts my heart so bad that he couldn’t make it, but he’s at peace now.

I'm really sorry for your loss, Pete.

My position on this is ...

you have to go...

If the last few years has taught me anything, it's that the most damning words in the English language might be "maybe next time"

I really hope you feel up to going. Having lost my best friend to cancer, and who was my constant concert companion, I can tell you I still feel Paul's presence when I go to shows of artists we loved together. This show sounds extra special, so it will be a great way to connect with his energy that will always live within you.

Sometimes I love living in this city; after having a dull weekend, I decided I needed to get out, and I’ve been bombarded by ads for a show that took place last night. So on short notice, I was able to find a really good single ticket, and went and saw Billy Talent, with support from Rise Against, and Nobro

Up first was Nobro, and in the movie 300 Leonidas described the Athenians as enthusiastic amateurs. A good description for this band that’s just starting out, and showed some promise, but maybe isn’t quite ready for this level yet. Still, their mix of Ramones, early hardcore, and 90s Riot Grrrl did make for an amusing half hour.



Old friends Rise Against – for the 4th time – were up next and played for 75 minutes. Their set was very familiar – only 3 new songs, but they always put on a good energetic show. I do sometimes get the sense that they’re getting tired of what I think of as the core of their set – Savior, Re-education, Give It All. But given what’s happening in the world, Prayer for the Refugee took on a special meaning. And getting Swing Life Away life was cool.

The thought that occurred to me about the headliners is that Billy Talent might now be the 2nd biggest active Canadian Rock band, behind Bryan Adams. With Rush and the Hip gone, Nickelback AWOL, and Blue Rodeo as an alt-country act, it kind of leaves BT as the next in line. And they delivered as always. Touring for their new album, they played a bunch of new material from it. And it was well received by the capacity crowd at the home of the Maple Leafs. And we got most of the classics as well. Fallen Leaves was especially poignant due to developments in Canada recently. And the encore? A great way to finish – Try Honesty, Viking Death March, and Red Flag. Got everyone hyped as they headed for the door.

I’m moving slow today, but it was worth it.

Here, spoiled for length, are the set lists:

John, I saw Hackett at the Carolina Theater Of Durham last night, a great venue about 20 minutes from my house. As you mentioned, the band is "tight as f*ck" and Blundell (who I saw with Steven Wilson at a tiny venue a few years ago) was a monster on the drums. This gig was supposed to happen in March 2020 but for obvious reasons that didn't happen. It was worth the wait.

I'll be seeing Joe Jackson at the same venue in May, but next up is Del Amitri at an awesome small performing arts center next Wednesday.

Big big show tonight in NJ, the prog supergroup Transatlantic made a very rare appearance on a stage at thé Wellmont Theater in beautiful downtown Montclair NJ. 3 hrs of PROG heaven for me and everyone there. These shows are always a reunion of old friends. The band was on fire tonight, played their entire new album The Absolute Universe and then the entire Whirlwind Suite. Finished with one of my favs SMPTE (We All Need Some Light) followed by the epic (My New World).

Transatlantic is Neal Morse/ Mike Portnoy/ Roine Stolt (Flower Kings)/ Ted Leonard (Enchant/ Spock’s Beard) and Pete Trewavas (Marillion).

Stunning sound and visuals! The don’t miss show of the season.

Bought a souvenir shirt from Neal’s wife and very pretty daughter.

As if I didn't hate Ticketmaster/Live Nation enough, today they provided a nice reeducation.

Garbage is coming here in the summer, one of seven headlining dates in the eastern US. Artist presale was today. Signed on to the Live Nation site early, was sitting on the page when the clock ticked over to 10 AM. A pop up came up saying tickets would be available shortly. After about two minutes, I opened a new browser window there, and the seat map popped up right away. Small club, to be sure, and the floor is standing general admission for the show. But only about 20-30% of the seats in the balcony were showing as available. Seemed awful fast to sell all of those. And lookie there, all the seats in the front part of the balcony are Official Premium seats. Translation - "We're going to charge you scalper prices without making you go to a scalper." Seriously, front row balcony seats, face value $63, a bargain at a mere $163 (later in the morning they were $173). I got two tickets for my wife and I, in one-seat rows, one in front of the other, and at face value. With the usual 40% in fees (for pretty much nothing). But I kept the page open, and realized later that while the seat map showed no seats available, clicking on Best Available showed a slew of Official Premium seats and some actual face value tix where you could pick the row, but not your actual seat. Need an aisle? Hate the aisle? Too bad - you pays your money and you takes your chances.

God I hate Ticketmaster/Live Nation. Seriously thinking this might be my last show at that venue, which would be a shame - it's a nice place, they've done a nice job renovating it (even got written up in a national music industry publication). But I hate how they do this.

I saw Del Amitri last night at a small 250-capacity venue about 4 miles from my house. They were fantastic and somehow Justin Currie's voice is as strong as it's ever been. I think they're only doing a few more US shows on this tour, but with plans for another album in the not too distant future, hopefully they make their way back here in the next few years.

Last night a little bit of PROG royalty at the Iridium for the second Progject show. Eddie Jobson (UK), Micheal Sadler (Saga), Jonathan Mover (GTR) and Derek Schulman (Gentle Giant).

Progject is a great tribute band manned by some of the best prog musicians in the world today. Selections from Yes/ Genesis/ ELP/ UK/ Gentle Giant/ RUSH/ Pink Floyd and many others. Progject is Micheal Sadler, Mike Keneally (Satriani/ ZAPPA) on guitar, Jonathan Mover on drums, Roy Okomuto on synths and Matt Dorsey (Sound Of Contact) on bass.



Got to meet Eddie back in 2017 at BB Kings and have met Mike Sadler at PROGSTOCK and on the Cruise To The Edge. Still haven’t run into Derek Schulman though.

And want to add that this was my first time back at the Iridium since Feb 2020 when I saw Ana Popovic. Great to see the old club and even older friends once again!

NIGHT 1

In heavy metal, one of the most common discussion points is who are the greatest vocalists; once you move beyond the memorable voices who are distinctly themselves (Ozzy, Lemmy), the list of vocalists in the top 5 are pretty consistent – the Godfather Ronnie James Dio, the Metal God Rob Halford and the Human Air Raid siren, Bruce Dickenson make everyone’s list. Depending on a person’s continent of birth, either Geoff Tate (of Queensryche) or Michael Kiske (of Helloween) - or both – generally make the list. So the debate rages, and lots of people have their favourites.

On Wednesday, I once again saw a person who doesn’t get enough credit for being one of the greatest metal vocalists of all time and deserves to be on that list – Flor Jansen of Nightwish. Her range, control, emotional connection, and personality make her more than the sum of her parts, and her ability to match the different tones that Tuomas creates for the band makes it a special gift for all of them. She is the equal of all of those mentioned before, and easily the best of the modern metal vocalists to emerge in the last 20 years.

This was the first North American date of the long-awaited Human Nature tour, but the band was still locked in note perfect; it was the same set they did across Europe, and it was a great mix of new and old. Opening with lead single Noise got the crowd jumping, and then Planet Hell got them going even more quickly. Jumping from album to album and era to era, Flor showed he ability to adapt, even seeming to take on some of the movement ticks of the other singers from Nightwish’s past. And as good as the entire set was, the two closers back to back are maybe the most epic pieces of music recently composed in any genre - Ghost Love Score, which shows Flor off, and The Greatest Show on Earth shows them all off. But there are so orchestrally lush, I’m not sure I’d end with them both; it's like chugging 18 year old scotch. It’ll get you really drunk in a hurry, but it’s hard to savour that way.

I will say, though, that Marko was missed; Troy is a folk singer at heart and can’t really fill Marko’s gravelly delivery or the Beauty and Beast motif. I get why he left, but it’s a gap. And in the nittiest of nitpicks, Nightwish sometimes strike me as too polished. It is amazing to watch, but it lacks the spontaneity of the greatest rock shows. But as it stands, this was yet another tour de force performance by the biggest Symphonic Metal band in history.

If Marko was missed on a couple of songs, though, the lead guitarist / keyboardist missing from Beast In Black’s opening set was a bigger issue. I don’t know if it was Covid, Visa, or band politics issues, but in any event, the band’s entire keyboard line got shifted to a backing track – for a Gamma Ray inspired Power Metal band, this is really bad - and the rhythm guitarist had to pay both parts, and it hurt the depth of the music. Which is a shame – they did put on a good show otherwise, and I am a fan, but it was a disappointing experience none of the less. Maybe next time.

And the final part of the review – this was my first show at Toronto’s new 2,500 person club, History. And I will say it’s an amazing venue. Open, spacious, with a large and broad sunken area in front of the stage, an open mezzanine at ground level for the bars (100 feet of bars, and 2 dozen servers!!), and two VIP / balcony levels. Designed by the 6ix God, Drake, for the modern music fan, it certainly has everything someone could want from a venue. On first blush, it is a better venue than the Phoenix or the Opera House. Shame about the permanent metal detectors, though.


NIGHT 2:
Now I know things are getting back to normal – back to back concerts on school nights. I’ve had my ticket to see Apocalyptica with support from Lacuna Coil for more than two years, another victim of Covid lockdown. But this time, everyone made it across the border in good health, and they closed out their tour with a wonderful performance.

Apocalyptica is a unique act – a drummer, and three Cellists playing Power Metal with a Classical feel. And they do have a guest vocalist on tour who has recorded albums with them, so it’s not all instrumental. On CD, I thought they had backing bands, because there were so many traditional metal sounds coming from their instruments, but seeing them live, I realized it’s all coming from the cellos – one tuned up in the register for the treble, and one tuned down towards bass. Close your eyes, and in a lot of cases, you’d swear they were guitars. And really well played ones at that.
Instrumentally, opener Ashes of the Modern World, and Scream for the Silent were both really strong, but it was the closing trio of covers – Nothing Else Matters, Sepultura’s Inquisition Symphony, and Seek and Destroy – that really brought it home. I was glad they brought the vocalist, though; 2 hours of instrumental music – even well played – would have been a bit much. But having Franky Perez to sing 5-6 songs really helped. I’m not Jesus was a highlight, as was I Don’t Care. Also amazing was their performance of Anything But Love with Christina Scabbia – more on her in a bit.

The encore got a bit goofy – last night of the tour – but after playing Farewell and O Canada (bet they didn’t do that in Montreal )– they ripped in Hall of the Mountain King to close out the night. Good show.

Openers Lacuna Coil put on a strong set as well; their beauty and Beast structure between the two vocalists (Christina as the clear power, and Andrea as the Death Metal vocalist) giving them a sound that was unique in metal, but has become much more common thanks to their success. I didn’t get Our Truth this time, but Die and Rise, and Heaven’s a Lie were both standouts of another good set. And the thing that really jumped out at me – outside the context of Lacuna Coil, player a softer song with Apocalyptica, Christina Scabbia really reminded me of Celine Dion in terms of quality. She is that good.

So now today, I drift through the end of my work week, thankful that Mill Street Organic seems to be a less dangerous beer than more commercial brands.

Setists, spoiled for length :

I saw opening night of Joe Jackson's 2022 US tour last night in Durham, NC. He and the band kicked ass and it was a nice diverse set list. This was my 11th JJ show since 1984, but first since 2003. Highly recommended if he comes to your town.

A bit to my surprise, I bought a ticket for Lynyrd Skynyrd today. Don't get me wrong, I like them well enough, but they're not near the top of my list. But I know my buddy wants to go, and I told him I'd get his ticket. He said to get one if I wasn't going, and he's gone to a few shows w/me when he didn't know the band, so why not? Saves him from driving an hour by himself. Never saw them before. Marshall Tucker being the opener made it a lot easier to buy the ticket. I like them a good bit - we've seen them a few times the last few years.

I also bought my buddy his Ted Nugent tix, but I'm not going to that one. But I had access to the presale and I'm better on a computer than he is, so I told him I'd buy them for him. Gets him good seats.

Big night last night as we finally got back to the Garden and saw The Who (the last band I saw at the Garden back in May 2019).
I attended the show with long time pal Chris Sannella who I met years go via Jimbo. The three of us would see many a show over the years (also known as the Tres Amigos). He also hadn’t been back to MSG since 2019. COVID interrupted our plans in 2020 and 2021. So it was nice to finally meet him at a show.

And the band sounded great! Because they use an orchestra, the sound was impeccable and not too loud. One could hear all the instruments. Roger was in fine form and Pete did his bit to perfection. Starting with the Tommy Overture they played some of the hits of Tommy, Who Are You, some band stuff like The Seeker and Relay, did Wont Get Fooled Again and then the orchestra came back to finish with selections from Quad. The night ended with a rousing Baba.

Pete says they will return to the US in the Fall and may play NYC again so stay tuned.



Of course the evening had a sad aspect to it as Jimbo would have joined in on the fun. And it was the anniversary of his accident down in Penn Station (the Thursday before Memorial Day weekend 4 years ago). So we had a drink in his honor and thought of him during the show.

It was nice to reconnect with Chris, we are seeing Ringo on June 7th at the Beacon!