Zac Brown Band (with OneRepublic)
Saturday, July 28 & Sunday, July 29
Citi Field


Just announced today, the Zac Brown Band w/ One Republic play Citifield!

I have two events this month before a big big February comes around with the trip to Tampa and the CTTE 2018 and other concerts.

Steve Hackett Q&A at the Cutting Room NYC
Eric Gales at the Iridium NYC.

I don't recall John ever attending a country concert in all the years I've known him.

With OneRepublic, kind of an offbeat pairing.

While awaiting the on-sale date for Elton John, I picked up tickets (second row, no less) to see Terry Bozzio in a small theater in August. This will be the third time I've seen him play live, sadly none of them with Zappa. Missing Persons and Jeff Beck.

If you don't know, Terry Bozzio is one of the best drummers around, and he's expanded out into playing melodically tuned drums. He's got a drum kit that makes Neil Peart go, "C'mon now, isn't this getting excessive?"

santana in windsor canada in march

and maybe shelby lynne in kent ohio next week, we haven't decided yet, might be one of those get in the car and just go. (tix are not selling well, lots of good seats left)

Scored free tix to the Styx/Don Felder residency tonight at the Venetian.

Saw Steve Hackett in NYC the other night (pic on the Hackett thread) and last night returned to NYC to see Eric Gales at the Iridium club. His second sold out show, he was smokin' bringing it with his Strat (he plays the guitar left handed though its an upside down right handed guitar) and making everyone present a believer. He truly is a must see!

Told us he plans on touring this Summer with Gary Clark Jr.

I've been so busy, I haven't posted about the special show I saw last week which was also my first show of theyear.

Michael Nesmith brought his recreation of The First National Band, led by his son Christian and some very fine players, back to the Troubadour after nearly 50 years. The set focused on the first few albums he recorded in the 70's, and a few stories were told. Considering how quickly the show sold out, I felt really privileged to be in this hallowed hall to hear some of the foundation of Los Angeles country rock from that stage.

A few of the highlights for me were probably the obvious ones, including Joanne, Grand Ennui, and a strong audience-supported version of the Monkees song Papa Gene's Blues.
Mickey Dolenz was in the audience, and I'm I might have spotted some other familiar faces, but the Troubadour was more packed then I have ever felt there before and I didn't even see many of my friends who I also knew were in attendance.

This was a short, five city tour. Hopefully he does more in the near future.

Not giving up yet, but it looks like Elton John isn't going to happen. Only had one sniff of tix (unless I looked at the Platinum Tickets, which must be dipped in platinum to be worth $2000 for some - although more were 'only' $1100). Tried three venues, including one I wouldn't particularly want to go to. Nuttin'.

Stubhub seems to have "cheap tickets" between $100 and $200 for most venues I'm seeing. Now those are probably nose bleeds, granted, but I wouldn't pay more than that to see him anyway.

I got in for a MSG date pretty easily via AMEX presale. A 200 section for $150 per ticket. My wife says I’ve seen Elton but i do not remember so I doubt it. So I’m pretty excited (though it’s not til October).

Btw some of the NY dates aren’t til 2019!

AMEX presale deals here, but that doesn't help me.

Got myself a single seat for Friday 11/9 at MSG. Sec. 115.

Pricy.

Is it just me, or are there more big nostalgia type tours out there this year than the last several? A lot of the bands I tend to think of as the Casino circuit are banding together, and hitting some pretty big venues here in Toronto.

We've got:
Poison with Cheap Trick and Pop Evil
Foreigner with Chiliwack
Chicago with REO Speedwagon
Def Leppard with Journey and Frampton
Beck with Rodgers and Wilson
Skynyrd with 38 Special (your opener may vary)

and that's just the start of the season. I know there are also some big names (Foo Fighters, Jack White) and a lot of country this summer, but this list seems different to me. And I'm I'm torn - none of the line ups are good from top to bottom for me, and it would fill up the calendar (not to mention empty the wallet) to go to some of these plus what I hope will be a better August calendar than is currently known. I could easily build a show or two I'd pay a lot to see, but spreading this line up across 6 shows is a bit much.

I wonder if the Amphitheatre will do a classic rock megaticket to go with their country one?

If you get a chance, check out the recordings of Gales' late brother Little Jimmy King, particularly Something Inside of Me.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Jimmy_King

Uriah Heep put on a heckuva show. Most of this line up has been together for 30 years, and next year marks Mick Box’s 50th year in the band, so the energy they brought was surprising. Live, they were everything I could have hoped for, bringing that big early 70’s hard rock keyboard sound to the Phoenix. The place wasn’t quite sold out, and I was probably in the youngest third of the crowd, but still had a good buzz to the room. After starting with Gypsy – a grand sweeping song, they continued to move through some more early 70’s classics before playing a couple of new songs. Sunrise was probably my favourite performance, and the guitar break in The Magician’s Birthday went a bit too long, but it was really welcomed by most of the audience. Another couple of rarer songs, and then they wrapped it up with Lady in Black, which had a massive singalong as the main finale before a short encore break and Easy Livin’. It was a really good way to start the year

Gypsy
Look at Yourself
Shadows of Grief
Stealin'
The Law
Sunrise
The Magician's Birthday
The Wizard
One Minute
Between Two Worlds
July Morning
Lady In Black
Easy Livin'

We saw Hannah Wicklund & The Steppin Stones Sunday night. First band was a local act, Jericho Rising. Kind of a bluesy-soul rock type of sound. The highlight for me was their cover of "Whipping Post" - it never quite reached the burning level that can take the song to its peak, but it smoldered with a really good groove.

Next up was the High Divers - Hannah's brother's band, thus the name Sibling Rivalry tour. Not bad, although the performance probably suffered a bit because Luke Mitchell (the aforementioned brother) had a cold. The harmonies between him and his wife (who plays keyboards) reminded me a lot of Fleetwood Mac. A couple of the songs were kind of derivative, but it was still good.

The main attraction was Hannah Wicklund, though. The first two times I saw her, the band was billed as The Steppin Stones. Between last July and this tour, it changed to Hannah Wicklund & The Steppin Stones, and I told my wife the next step is just Hannah Wicklund. It looks like that may have happened - the band behind her was not the band we saw last year. It was the bass player from her brother's band, and her brother on drums (he played guitar in High Divers). A very good set, if somewhat shortish for a straight headliner (about 75 minutes, but I think this is technically a co-headline deal). She played a lot of stuff from her new album, including both of the older songs she re-recorded ("Looking Glass" and "Mama Said"). The highlight was a slower finger-picked tune, "Shadow Boxes And Porcelain Faces" - such a gorgeous chord progression, and her voice really compliments it. The evening ended with the rest of the High Divers rejoining for a solid version of "Rockin' In The Free World".

The real downer for the night was the poor attendance. We bought early entrance tickets for something like an extra $10 and ended up at the table at the front left of the stage. It wasn't necessary - there probably weren't 50 people there. That was something of a disappointment because they went over very well as openers both times we saw them. I expected a bigger crowd.

Despite being exhausted from our travels to Central America, my concert schedule goes on and on and on.

Thursday night its Steve Hackett once again this time in Staten Island at the famous St Georges Theater. He continues his US tour after his appearances on the Cruise To The Edge where he was in great spirits and his band was fantastic. Lots of music from his solo album Please Don't Touch.

And then on Friday its off to NYC to see Joe Satriani and the G3 concert at the Beacon theater.

The Summer Shed tours are starting to be announced and once again we get Styx with Joan Jett and Tesla at Jones Beach NY. Now while I like these bands, it seems like groundhog day every Summer with the same acts. Anyway I always just wait for the discount tickets from Groupon for shows like these.

We are in for the BIG rockabilly show!

Stray Cats reunion plus OPENING (?) acts Duane Eddy and Jerry Lee Lewis!

All for a flat $40.

John 5 tom'w night.

I swear to god I looked at plane tickets...