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 Post subject: Jason Gore's Year End Concert Awards
PostPosted: Tue Dec 29, 2015 6:28 pm 
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Welcome to the First annual Jason Gore live performance awards!!!

The Entire Album Performance of the Year goes to Rancid, for ...And Out Come the Wolves. One of my personal top 10 albums of all time, an energetic crowd on a sunny Sunday afternoon, and mixing it up to avoid being too predictable. I'm not sure if the punk world understands just how much it owes Tim Armstrong.

Cover of the Year goes to The Foo Fighters, for Cinnamon Girl. Probably my second favourite Neil Young song, and they just kicked all kinds of butt doing it. I went and saw the Foo Fighters, because they're good, they're popular, Dave seems like a great guy, and I like enough of their songs well enough to pay to see them. Very glad I went, even if my favourite performance by them was a bit of a pander.

Unexpected Great Song of the Year was Breathe by The Prodigy. The Prodigy you say? From me? I know, it surprised the hell out of me, too. But as a headline set opener, it was incredible. Lights, cameras, psycho-somatic addict...

The Award for Best Song in a Hotel Ballroom - Billy Talent's performance of Red Flag at the Canadian Indie Music awards. Sure, it was a big ballroom, but it was still in the basement. And it wasn't your typical award show - it was 3 1/2 hours of music from 5 bands, where the headliner did a 75 minute set and left time to go to the bar afterwards. Good thing, because...

The How Many More Times am I Going to See This Song This Year Award goes to The Lazys, and their first single, Shake it Like You Mean it. They opened for the Rival Sons in June, they were at the bar I went to after the Indie Awards, and they opened for One Bad Son in November. Good thing I think they're so good.

The Classic Guitar Lick Intro of the Year Award was a tie - Billy Idol and Steve Steven's lead into White Wedding ("Stevie, show em what a hit record is supposed to sound like") and AC/DC's Angus Young into You Shook Me All Night Long. The song of my 1989 graduating class still works. Both songs were tightly performed, got great reactions, and sent shivers down my spine. What else do you want from 6 strings, some steel, and a piece of wood?

The He's So Big, He Gets to Have 2 Award goes to Paul McCartney, for Eleanor Rigby - which showed me that I was going to enjoy myself after all - and for Live and Let Die, which had less pyro when I saw Guns and Roses do it in a stadium. It was a really good night. It won't make me a Beatlemaniac, but even still.

The We Opened for Airborne, Now You Will Always Come See Us Award was a tie between The Glorious Sons and One Bad Son. I'd seen them together in November 2014, and then saw them again in November 2015 as separate headliners (and The Glorious Sons were at the Indie Awards, too). Both acts are great up and coming Canadian Bands. For The Glorious Sons, their title track The Union is an incredibly anthemic song. And while Retribution Blues is a very good song, on the night, I was more impressed with One Bad Son's performance of It Ain't Right. A little deeper than the usual prairie rock, and tied in nicely with the post-election atmosphere here in Canada.

The Award for Best Supporting Act on a Tuesday goes to Sabaton and their performance of Primo Victoria. They'd been through as a headliner about 6 months earlier, and I'd passed, but they came back supporting Nightwish. And on a Tuesday Night in late spring, the sold out audience blew them away with our energy. With Primo Victoria, they pushed right back, and left us in a great frame of mind for the headliners. Which leads to:

The Are We Going to Keep This One? Award goes to Nightwish for The Last Ride of the Day. It was a good enough set, but slightly disappointing. The new album didn't translate live as well as I could have hoped, and for the most part, Flor is just off enough on the older catalogue stuff to not find her footing. But Last Ride is a great song, and gave her a chance to really shine at the end.

The Opposite Ends of the Spectrum Awards goes to Against Me! for Thrash Unreal and the Cancer Bats for Lucifer's Rocking Chair. Both were on Saturday at Riot Fest, and put on great sets. They're both punk bands, I guess, but they're about as far apart as you can get. But both songs appeal to different part of my musical tastes, so they both really worked.

The You May Have Heard This One Before Award was the final tie of the year, and it was an unprecedented three way tie: Fleetwood Mac observing that "Loving you isn't the right thing to do", Rush preaching that "the men who hold high places must be the ones who start", and Robert Plant saying to half the audience "hey, hey, mama, said the way you move, gonna make you sweat, gonna make you grove". I don't look at the Billboard charts much, but I figure those three songs cover the 70's pretty much all the way through. Absolute powerhouse sets, but those 3 songs - You Can Go Your Own Way, Closer to the Heart, and Black Dog - were personal highlights.

And finally, the hands down number one lose my mind Song of the Year was Blind Guardian doing Time Stands Still (at the Iron Hills). It's my favourite song by the band, they hadn't been to Toronto in 5 years, I'd never seen them, and they weren't playing it every night. So when they started playing it, I flat our lost my mind. And then they played for another hour. And even though The Bard's Song was as just as great as I expected, it was still a step down for me. Just ecstatic when I left the theatre. Definitely my show of the year.

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 Post subject: Jason Gore's Year End Concert Awards
PostPosted: Tue Dec 29, 2015 11:05 pm 
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Puppy Monkey Alan!

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Nice list, Jason!

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 Post subject: Jason Gore's Year End Concert Awards
PostPosted: Tue Dec 29, 2015 11:24 pm 
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Great idea, and fun to read. Might have to post some personal favs of the year, if you don't mind.

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 Post subject: Jason Gore's Year End Concert Awards
PostPosted: Wed Dec 30, 2015 12:13 am 
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Jimbo wrote:
Great idea, and fun to read. Might have to post some personal favs of the year, if you don't mind.

Everyone should feel free to jump in :ohyes: I was just thinking about who I saw this year, and thought doing it a different way from the basic top 10 list was a fun way to go. And a good way to think back to all those great moments this year.

Jason

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 Post subject: Jason Gore's Year End Concert Awards
PostPosted: Tue Dec 20, 2016 5:34 pm 
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Well, my concert calendar is closed for 2016, and it was another great year of rock and roll. There were less newcomers this year, but that's to be expected - piling up bands as they come through means less new bands to see live. But seeing old friends again can be really good as well.
The thing that jumped out at me this year is that there was a lot more women playing rock and roll at my shows this year. Heart, Joan Jett, Lita Ford and The Go-Go's carried their original banners; new comers Halestorm, Dorothy Martin, and The Pretty Reckless showed they'd learned all the right lessons; and the power metal crowd continued to give great performances, with The Agonist, Atdawitzedge, Epica (twice), and Nightwish having strong female vocal performances. So it was a great year for women.

here's my 2016 Awards, some of them making a return, and some new ones, cause it's all in fun.

The Entire Album Performance of the Year (almost) goes to Guns and Roses with Appetite For Destruction. Sure, they didn't play it all, and they didn't play them in a row, but a full 2/3 of Appetite made it into their set in June, and sounded really great. Add in the fact that Fear Factory's Demanufacture was the only full album show I saw, and I feel okay granting it to an album that changed my 15 year old self for life instead of the one I heard for the first time all the way through this year.

Cover of the Year goes to The Prophets of Fear with Dave Grohl doing Kick Out the Jams. Sure it's a cheat, since it's an absolutely classic song, but having Dave Grohl come out as a surprise guest and play it with the boys from Rage was just incredible. And as I said at the time; big name guest stars are a real shock in Toronto. And hey, Dave Grohl defends the award.

Unexpected Great Song of the Year was The Kids are Alright, by the Who. Their setlist reads like a dictionary of some of the great rock songs of all time, but it was Kids that really showed me that these guys, who have officially been post-retirement for 36 years still are able to connect to and with these songs. Like the other legends of the British Invasion I've seen, seeing them live is a great reminder of why they deserve to be considered legends.

The Award for Best Song for an out of the way location goes to Ghost, with Square Hammer at the Princess of Wales Theatre (subway, streetcar, cab). This is also my pick for Single of the Year, off the Popestar EP. It's an insanely catchy pop ditty about swearing your soul to Satan, a very powerful opener, and set a really good tone for their show. Add in the fact that Ghost had the most theatrical set of the year, and they are definitely going to be worth seeing again.

The How Many More Times am I Going to See This Song This Year Award could go to a whole helluva lot of songs. Seeing the Disturbed tour the day after seeing them at Heavy Montreal meant Saint Asonia, Alter Bridge, and the last 3 songs of Disturb's set got seen twice in 36 hours - and Down with the Sickness almost made it to twice in a single day. Epica's postponement last year means I saw 4-5 songs of theirs twice this year. But I guess I'll go with Cherry Bomb, as I saw Joan Jett do it in March, and Lita Ford do it in October, and its the biggest known song I saw more than once. Lita's version was probably better, as she had help from Dorothy Martin and Lzzy Hale, which filled it out a lot, although otherwise her set left a bunch to be desired.

The Classic Guitar Lick Intro of the Year Award was a three way tie - Baba O'Reilly by Pete Townsend, Sweet Child o' Mine by Slash, and Children of the Grave by Tony Iommi. Yep, classic guitar intros. I'm pretty sure you could start those songs in Thailand, or El Salvador, or Siberia, and anyone who heard them would start singing the words at exactly the right time. And while I've now seen Slash do that intro 5 times, it did feel different this time.

The He's So Big, He Gets to Have 2 Award goes to John Fogerty with Down on the Corner and Bad Moon Risin'. Sure, John Fogerty live sounds like John Fogerty on CD, and his set list, to say the least, is well known. But he's John Fogerty, and he still has it. One of the few artists I almost never listen to on CD, and still know almost every word to every song. And a surprisly good guitarist, to boot.

The We Opened for Airborne, Now You Will Always Come See Us Award goes to The Wild! with Slow Burn. A Canadian band just getting going, but their first single is really catchy, and they bring a high energy rockabilly style to their shows. So yet again, Airborne introduces me to a band I'll likely follow for years.

The Yes, We Are Going to Keep This One Award goes to Nightwish for Last Ride of the Day. A better performance this time than last year, Flor seems to have settled into the band, and a strong 90 minute set in an outdoor festival setting meant more energy and more fun. I can't wait to see what they do next.

The Best Song about a Stripper goes to Volbeat, for Lola Montez. This category should have been obvious last year; there's a lot of songs about strippers out there. I can't wait to see these guys headline instead of play at a festival; an hour is just too short. But their breakthrough mainstream single really got the crowd moving.

My Song of the Year was Prophets of Rage, with Killing in the Name. It's not a lyrically complicated song, but in a crowd of 18,000 people, it's finale is really, really powerful. And in year where there is a whole bunch of undirected anger and confusion, the statement is as true now as it was in 1990 when it was released.

The Show of the Year award nominees were Ghost, The Go-Go's, Guns and Roses, Halestorm, and The Prophets of Rage. And since everyone keeps saying its an honour just to be nominated, I'm not going to pick one, and just say that the winner was me.

Here's to hoping for another healthy, hearty, and hearing impairing 2017!

See you in the pit,

Jason

P.S. Here's the full list of bands I saw, spoilered for length
Spoiler: show
Airborne
Alter Bridge
Alter Bridge
Atdawitzedge
Atmora
AWOLNATION
Best Coast
Billy Talent
Black Label Society
Black Sabbath
Blind Guardian
Breaking Benjamin
Breaking Benjamin
Buzzcocks
Candlemass
Carcass
Clara Venice
Coheed and Cambria
Dearly Beloved
Disturbed
Disturbed
Dorothy
Eagles of Death Metal
Epica
Epica
Fear Factory
Five Finger Death Punch
Fleshgod Apocalypse
From Ashes to New
Ghost
Guns and Roses
Halestorm
Hatebreed
Heart
Hell Yeah
Iggy Pop
In Flames
Iron Maiden
Joan Jett
John Fogerty
Lita Ford
Mastodon
Moonspell
Nightwish
Operus
Primal Fear
Prophets of Rage
Rhapsody (L.T. version)
Rival Sons
Sabaton
Sebastian Bach
Sloan
Sonata Arctica
Sovereign Council
St Asonia
St Asonia
Starkill
Tal Wilkenfeld
The Agonist
The Beaches
The Go-Go's
The Pretty Reckless
The Raven Age
The Who
The Wild!
US Girls
Vesperus
Violent Femmes
Volbeat
Whitesnake
Wolfmother

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 Post subject: Jason Gore's Year End Concert Awards
PostPosted: Tue Jan 02, 2018 5:03 pm 
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Even without seeing them live, the story this year for me in live music was the passing of Gord Downie of the Tragically Hip. From award shows, to covers, to name checks, to songs written about him – Gord was ever present this year, and is certainly going to be missed.

In terms of the shows I went to, the bands had a lot of variety, but there weren’t as many new bands about which I’m passionate about. Lots of old friends, and some great new bands discovered, but I’m running low on bands I’ve been both a fan of for a long time, and that I haven’t seen before. This does lead to a “been there, done that” vibe at certain shows. And while I didn’t have a festival line up this year, I got both a 5 hour plus show and had to get on a plane, so it’s not like I was missing out on extended memories of good music.

Here's my 2017 Awards, offered as always in the spirit of good fun:

The Entire Album Performance of the Year – There were two nominees for this award this year, as the Damned were celebrating the 40th anniversary of the first punk album ever released, and U2 was doing a 30th anniversary tour for The Joshua Tree. And while Damned, Damned, Damned has some great singles on it, it can’t compare to the depth of the Joshua Tree. The first 4 songs (Streets, Still Haven’t Found, With or Without You, and Bullet the Blue Sky) are all time classic songs, and even the second half of the album is really deep. I wasn’t on the U2 band wagon for long, but getting to see them perform this album in its entirety was great.

Cover of the Year – lots of great nominees, with Guns and Roses doing several; Blondie’s performance of My Heart Will Go On; an entire Black Sabbath set by the Cancer Bats (“Bat Sabbath”); a 4 song joint set of covers by Rancid and the Dropkick Murphys; the Scorpions playing Overkill; and Jared James Nichol’s ripping version of Stranglehold, but even so there really wasn’t a contest this year. Because at my first show of the year, Billy Talent covered The Tragically Hip’s Nautical Disaster, and this contest was over. It was a good performance of the song, but the emotional context, the crowd environment, and that golden ale timing made it just that extra special.

Unexpected Great Song of the Year – this goes to Alexisonfire for Young Cardinals. If you know the band, you’re probably asking how that song can be unexpected. Well, since they played it as part of an unannounced 3 song set to start off Billy Talent’s encore, it was pretty damn unexpected. And they nailed it.

The Award for Best Song at an Out of the Way Location – I thought about giving this to Ghost’s Square Hammer again this year (Brooklyn, NY, is pretty far out of my way), but the audience explosion that happened at the Hard Luck Bar when the Cancer Bats launched into Lucifer’s Rocking Chair is something that will stick with me for a long time. Watching multiple people start crowd surfing and diving all at the same time in a venue with 9 foot ceilings and an audience of less than 300 was a true sight to behold.

The How Many More Times am I Going to See This Song This Year – another award where there really wasn’t a contest – New Rose by first The Damned, and then later on by Guns and Roses wins over Wish You Were Here, and (sort of) UFO’s Doctor, Doctor by a wide margin. GnR’s version of New Rose on the Spaghetti Incident was a seminal song for me, as it led me away from Metal into early British Punk. So seeing it live in both its cover and original versions was really powerful. And more importantly, both of them were really well done.

The Classic Guitar Lick Intro of the Year Award – always lots to choose from here, given my musical tastes. Heck, I could limit this to just Scorpions songs, and still have lots to choose from, and Saxon is always good for intros. But this year, it goes to Nita Strauss for her guitar solo as the transition from Woman of Mass Distraction into Poison for Alice Cooper. Nita’s an incredible guitarist, and her shredding style is a perfect complement for Alice’s more melodic songs. Add in the fact that she’s drop dead gorgeous and hell on wheels, and it’s great to have her as a foil for the Master of Shock Rock.

The They’re So Big, They Get to Have 2 Award – Queen, Tom Petty and Roger Waters were considerations here, but when 2 of the most memorable performances for me come from a whole album tour by one of the biggest bands on the planet, and the songs aren’t even from the album being toured, well there you go. So the award goes to U2, for Pride (In the Name of Love), and I Will Follow. I’d never connected with Pride as a song before, but the feel of the crowd invites you into it in the live setting. And I was so stoked they played I Will Follow, which they were doing rarely on this tour (12 shows out of 54 in 2017). So all the U2 I could ever want, all wrapped up in one nice neat little bow. And my favourite song before seeing them live ended up being my 5th or 6th favourite performance of the night, so that’s a real statement on just how good the show was.

The We Opened for Airbourne, Now You Will Always Come See Us Award – this goes to the Glorious Sons, for Sawed Off Shotgun. I raved about the band earlier this year, and I’m going to keep raving about them. And this song, on absolute first listen, is just an incredible anthem. They may have creative issues if they get too big to sing small town white boy blues rock, but for now, I’m just going to enjoy the ride.

The Yes, We Are Going to Keep This One Award – goes to Xandria, for Cursed. Dianne van Giersbergen joined the band in 2013 after going through 3 previous vocalists in 4 years, and she’s very impressive. Sure, symphonic metal isn’t everyone’s flagon of mead in North America, but for those of us who enjoy it, they’re ones to watch going forward. And Cursed is a fun song. I suspect it was inspired by Pirates of the Caribbean.

The Best Song about a Stripper – goes to La Grange, by ZZ Top. Well, technically, it’s about a lot of nice girls, and not just one, but it still fits. And live? Well, ZZ Top takes a quick little song about a place to visit in Texas and turns it into one of those blow the doors off the bar at the end of the night 20 minute blues-rock jams that leaves the audience in a great mood as they stagger home at way too late o’clock.

Opening Act Song of the Year – since there were so many great song nominees, this is being split into two. And the Winner is – Bat Country, by Avenged Sevenfold. It’s a good thing I created this award this year, since it’s likely the last time A7X will ever be an opening act, but their opening set for Metallica was an absolute smash, anchored by one kick ass song. The Other nominees were Kobra and the Lotus’s 50 Shades of Evil; Our Truth by Lacuna Coil, Square Hammer by Ghost; and Blood Bound by Hammerfall.

Song of the Year – the nominees are: I Will Follow by U2, written about above; Epica’s Beyond the Matrix, an ode to Buddhist enlightenment, sung by an angel; Sabaton’s Swedish Pagans, as the Oz flying monkeys go to war; Iron Maiden’s Iron Maiden closing out their multi-year world tour, and Roger Waters’ Brain Damage inviting us to the dark side of the moon. And the winner is…me. Because these were some absolutely beautiful performances, and none of them stood out head and shoulders from the competition.

Show of the Year award – while U2 probably had the best single set of the year, and the Glorious Sons club set was the best bar show of the year, the Metallica show with support from Avenged Sevenfold and Volbeat for me was the best evening of music this year. More than 5 hours, 3 great bands, a sold out stadium, and a Metallica Album worth getting excited about made it for one helluva night of live music.

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 Post subject: Jason Gore's Year End Concert Awards
PostPosted: Tue Jan 02, 2018 5:10 pm 
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And since the internet and cell phones are becoming more and more common, here's some of the actual performances in question. I didn't record any of these - too busy rocking out - but a good way to find them if and when I want them again, and a way to share them with fellow music lovers.

Spoilering these for You Tube length:

Nautical Disaster - Billy Talent
Spoiler: show

I Will Follow - U2
Spoiler: show

Pride - U2
Spoiler: show

New Rose - Guns and Roses (Skip to 7:10)
Spoiler: show

Sawed Off Shotgun - Glorious Sons
Spoiler: show

Iron Maiden - Iron Maiden
Spoiler: show

Poison - Alice Cooper
Spoiler: show

Brain Damage - Roger Waters
Spoiler: show

For Whom the Bell Tolls - Metallica
Spoiler: show

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 Post subject: Jason Gore's Year End Concert Awards
PostPosted: Tue Jan 01, 2019 8:54 pm 
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Another year, and another set of Concert awards...

2018 was kind of an off year for me with concerts, as it lacked the really big exciting headliner that I hadn't seen before. So while I saw some great bands again, lots of up-and-coming bands for the first time, and some rock legends I'd never seen, I'm running out of desperately must see acts from my personal shopping list. Don't get me wrong, between really good music and some liquid encouragement, I had lots of fun. Just not as much seemed transcendent this year.

Here's my 2018 Awards, offered as always in the spirit of good fun:

Entire Album Performance of the Year – there were two nominees this year, but I'll go with the MC50 doing Kick Out the Jams over Emperor's Anthems to the Welkin at Dusk. I'm not a huge Black Metal fan, and while I could see why it was so powerful, Mr. Kramer and friends just kicked out all sorts of jam.

Cover of the Year – lots of great nominees here - I Prevail's fuck you covering of Break Stuff on Saturday before Limp Bizkit took the stage on Sunday; Limp Bizkit's fuck you cover of Killing in the Name the next night. Poison's version of Rock and Roll all Nite was right on target; The Foo Fighters did their usual cover break with some fun stuff (Under Pressure, Under My Wheels, Jump Imagine). But for sheer fun, I've got to go with The Beaches - and about 7 other local bands - doing Avril Lavigne's Sk8tr Boi mid set at a charity event. Drunk out of their gourds and belting it out with their friends. Beautiful

Unexpected Great Song of the Year - Lee Aaron's cover of Koko Taylor's I'm a Woman at Heavy Montreal. I'm a blues fan, and I liked Aaron way back in the day; showing up and doing the set she did when the day is headlined by Gojira and Limp Bizkit took some lady balls. Hence, the perfect song.

How Many More Times am I Going to See This Song This Year – I saw the Beaches 3 times this year, and caught both Alestorm and Gloryhammer twice, so I'm going to go with Alestorm's Fucked with an Anchor. Not just because they played it twice, but because the crowd was still singing it 15 minutes after the show ended on their way to the subway. Add it to the list of really catchy songs not to get caught singing in public, along with Johnny Thunders' Little Bit of Whore

The Longest Gap Between Seeing a Song Live - This goes to Montreal band Sword's songs Stoned Again and F.T.W. (Follow the Wheels). They were technically the first band I paid my own money to see in 1986, and I saw them again at Heavy Montreal. 32 years, and still out there rocking. And I thought I was old.

The Classic Guitar Lick Intro of the Year Award – ah, where to begin? Easy Livin? Living After Midnight? Jerry Cantrel doing Man in the Box? How about the aforementioned Kick Out the Jams? I was gonna go with Crazy Train, but Zakk down keyed the opening riff (boo!!) so that leaves John 5 ripping into Rob Zombie's Thunder Kiss 65. Such a driving, riffing line that is immediately recognizable. And for all you pro wrestling fans? It's even more of a cheap pop

The They’re So Big, They Get to Have 2 Award – and since they get two, I'm gonna make this a tie - one metal and one classic rock. So 30 years after first hearing the thrash metal classics that were Reign in Blood and Angel of Death - and 4 separate attempts to see Slayer - I finally got to see them and check them off the bucket list. Honestly, I prefer their "slower" stuff, but can't deny the power of that album. And on the classic rock side? Well, I finally saw one of the songs is the most request song by drunk guys in history (including me just before they played it; I had to), and the anthem to their home - Lynyrd Skynrd's double barrel punch of Sweet Home Alabama and Freebird. the emotion of the closing instrumental section of Freebird was fabulous. Band lineup be damned, it was just incredible.

The We Opened for Airbourne, Now You Will Always Come See Us Award – once again, it goes to The Glorious Sons with Sawed Off Shotgun. Mainly because I did my part for local boys and girls making good, as they and the Beaches put on a show at the home of the Maple Leafs. From a 1350 and a 300 seat bar respectively, to a 20,000 arena? That's great. But not being too small for the venue? That's kick ass rocking time, and they're on their way.

The Best Song about a Stripper – Back to Back winner!! - ZZ Top with La Grange. A bigger crowd, a longer song break, and easier to get beer. Much better than last year... Although, in thinking about it, I wonder if L7's Dispatches from Mar-a-lago or DOA's Fuck You, Donald would fit this category?

Opening Act Song of the Year – It's a two way tie, and both of them get two songs. Cheap Trick opened for Poison (seems backwards) and so I Want You to Want Me, and Surrender have to be on this list. Pretty much the definition of classic rock. And long term Slayer friends Anthrax were 3rd of 5 bands on the Slayer bill (and the one I was looking forward to most), so I'll include long time personal favourite Got the Time on the list; and Indians, just because I've never seen 3 distinct mosh pits at the Molson Amphitheatre before. Great examples of how opening acts can draw more people to a show.

Favourite Song of the Year – I'm not going to cop out this year - I actually have a choice for favourite song of the year. But first, the nominees: Lynryd Skynrd's Simple Man for being pretty much the only song in the set where Donnie seemed to emote the lyrics, and it was beautiful, especially with the home movies; The Beaches with Gold (the second time) - the baseball stadium was too big for them, but they learned, and knocked it out of the park in the arena with this song's attitude; Marilyn Manson flying into the Beautiful People just as a micro cloud cell burst and the audience drowned in the deluge; Hollywood Undead's eponymous song Undead, which I'd never heard before and made a great impression; Ghost's majestic sing a long for Satan - Year Zero; and the surprise winner - The Interrupter's with She's Kerosene, an insanely catchy Ska Punk tune that turned into an ear worm for me the first time I heard it in July and stayed with me for the rest of the year.

Concert Day of the Year - the hands down winner for this category this year has to be 77 Montreal, the one day punk festival adjunct to Heavy Montreal. Not only did it take 3 long-standing bands off my bucket list (L7, Suicidal Tendencies, and DOA), and have my Song of the Year (The Interrupters), but it also had sets from Rise Against, AFI, The Planet Smashers and Anti-Flag on it as well. That's 8 bands who put on kick ass sets in the course of a single day. Plus it had the added benefit of being the Friday of the 3 days, so I had lots of energy

Show of the Year – It's a tough one for me this year, but I think I have to go with Ghost. Seeing them headline a show without an opener, getting more than 2 1/2 hours of great music is just hard to turn down. Runners up would include Uriah Heep, Anthrax, the Glorious Sons, and Nick Cave

Have a great 2019, and I'll see you around the pit...

Bands seen in 2019 (in alphabetical order, and spoiled for length)
Spoiler: show
38 Special
AFI
Alestorm
Alestorm
Alice In Chains
Anthrax
Anti-Flag
Baroness
Battle Beast
Behemoth
Bif Naked
Birds of Bellwoods
Blackfoot
Blurred Vision
Born of Osiris
Brave Shore
British Lion
Brutal Youth
Cheap Trick
Cigarettes After Sex
Coney Hatch
Delain
Emperor
Foo Fighters
Ghost
Glorious Sons
Gloryhammer
Gojira
Havok
Hollywood Undead
I Prevail
Iced Earth
Judas Priest
Kamelot
L7
Lamb of God
Lawless Sons
Lee Aaron
Limp Bizkit
Lynyrd Skynrd
Marilyn Manson
MC5
Nick Cave
Nightwish
Ozzy Osbourne
Penske Files
Planet Smashers
Poison
Pop Evil
Public Animal
Rise Against
Rob Zombie
Robert Plant
Sanctuary
Sebastian Bach
Seth Lakeman
Slayer
Sleep
Stiff Little Fingers
Stone Sour
Suicidal Tendencies
Testament
The Beaches
The Beaches
The Beaches
The Creepshow
The Darcys
The Elwins
The Interrupters
The Mahones
The Struts
Trivium
UIC
Uriah Heep
Voivod
Walking Papers
ZZ Top

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 Post subject: Jason Gore's Year End Concert Awards
PostPosted: Tue Jan 01, 2019 9:00 pm 
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And 2019's You tubage….and this time, the list is all from the actual performances in question...

The Interrupters - She's Kerosene
Spoiler: show

Lynryd Skynyrd - Simple Man
Spoiler: show

Anthrax - Got The Time
Spoiler: show

Ghost - Year Zero
Spoiler: show

Poison - Talk Dirty to Me
Spoiler: show

Uriah Heep - Easy Livin
Spoiler: show

Rob Zombie - Thunder Kiss 65
Spoiler: show

Alice in Chains - Man in the Box
Spoiler: show

Slayer - Angel of Death
Spoiler: show

ZZ Top - La Grange
Spoiler: show

Glorious Sons - Sawed Off Shotgun
Spoiler: show

Nick Cave - From Her to Eternity
Spoiler: show

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 Post subject: Jason Gore's Year End Concert Awards
PostPosted: Thu Jan 02, 2020 2:43 pm 
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Location: Toronto
Happy New Year, everyone. Once again, here's my annual live performance awards for 2019. See you all in the pit in 2020

2019 was about the bucket list. Not only was it about the amount of time I spent looking at which rock and metal bands have played here in Toronto in the last 15 years; but it was also about seeing some of the biggest missing names off that list. While I did get to see some of my favourite all time bands this year - Iron Maiden, Rancid, Sabaton, Metric, Kiss - it was really about bands I've wanted to see for years, and never gotten to - Slipknot with a massive supporting bill; Mark Knopfler with himself and 12 backing musicians; Danko Jones in the bar they started in; Tool on their first album in a decade. Bob Seger as part of his 3rd to last show ever. It was a great year for bands I've always wanted to see.

Here's my 2019 Awards, offered as always in the spirit of good fun:

Entire Album Performance of the Year - not really applicable; no band I saw did a full album. Although, just because it was their Canadian good-bye, I'll go with Slayer's Reign in Blood, since Raining Blood and Angel of Death were probably the biggest songs in metal I saw this year.

Cover of the Year - the winner is an old song; Pipeline, originally by the Chantays, it was covered by The Tiger Army. and it perfectly fit into the Psychobilly band's vibe; other nominees included a partial cover of Summer of '69 and all of Billie Eilish's Bad Guy by the Interrupters; Atreyu doing You Give Love a Bad Name; and War Pigs by the Cancer Bats. Oh, and for this category, I don't think Cum on Feel the Noize by Quiet Riot really counts anymore.

Unexpected Great Song of the Year - Steel Panther, with Glory Hole. Damn, what a fun song. and for someone who was a huge fan of the Glam Metal scene, to admit that a parody band put on this kind of fun time is kind of hard. But they showed me that to parody something this well, they had to love it.

How Many More Times am I Going to See This Song This Year - I did see three bands twice this year; The Interrupters headlined two different shows in Toronto, and partially thanks to their performances at Heavy Montreal, I also went to see Skillet open for Alter Bridge, and Pennywise open for Rancid. But thanks to Rancid, the winner, with 2 1/8 songs, is Pennywise, with Bro Hymn. Sure, it was the only the opening 24 bars, but thanks to Rancid's encouragement, Pennywise's anthem for those lost too soon was my most seen song of the year.

The Longest Gap Between Seeing a Song Live - Iron Maiden, with The Trooper. A Grand total of 31 years, and some months. Iron Maiden ties Metallica for the most times I've seen them, with 6 shows. And unlike Metallica, they show no interest in slowing down. Up the Irons!

The Classic Guitar Lick Intro of the Year Award - This year, because of the emotion in the set, I'l go with Raining Blood, with Gary Holt on Lead; Slayer's last show in Montreal - a massive metal city - had a lot of emotion, and the place went nuts as this song started. Other nominees also included Kiss's Deuce, by Tommy Thayer; The Scorpions' Holiday, by Michael Schenker; and Jerry Cantrell's intro to Man in the Box

The They’re So Big, They Get to Have 2 Award - Pretty much has to go to Bob Seger, for Old Time Rock and Roll, and Turn the Page. The emotion of Turn the Page is so powerful in the live setting, and for people of a certain age, OId Time Rock and Roll is just impossible to ignore. Mark Knopfler was also good, but creative enough that he didn't hit us with a double barrel of classics. And I didn't have enough of an attachment to King Crimson's performances going in to be blown away, but damn, what a band

The We Opened for Airbourne, Now You Will Always Come See Us Award - For the first time in 4 years I've been doing this, we don't have a winner. Thankfully, I'll be seeing The Glorious Sons in February to correct that fact. Oh, and I'll be seeing Airbourne themselves in May. So there. It'll be back next year.

The Best Song about a Stripper - While Lola Montez by Volbeat is technically the only song about a stripper that I saw this year - I don't think Black Diamond was a stripper - I have to give this award a tie, because a long gone friend made me a fan of the 2 winning songs. So for this year, let's call this an Echo of things past. Coming Undone by Korn, and Aenima by Tool were songs I fell in love with because of a girl; and for that, if nothing else, they deserve this award

Opening Act Song of the Year - Monster, by Skillet I knew next to nothing about this band going into Heavy Montreal, and it was an insane experience. Who knew Christian Rock could be that much fun. And then for them to open for Alter Bridge, making them a fit for this category? It all worked out well. I also want to shout out two up and coming bands - Dirty Honey and Kate Clover - for their impressive sets and rocking attitude.

Favourite Song of the Year - a Very tough category this year; but based on how many times I've listened to the songs since I saw them live, I think I'll go with Whore, by In This Moment; infectious and angry, timely and timeless, it was quite the spectacle. There were lots of great performances this year, though, including the Flight Of Icarus (Iron Maiden) ; Mark Knopfler doing Brothers in Arms; Slipknot's Surfacing. Cry of Achilles by Alter Bridge, Turn the Page by Bob Seger, Gave You Everything by The Interrupters, and Slayer's Angel of Death. How's that for variety?

Concert Day of the Year - Heavy Montreal Day 2. While Knotfest had a great line up with Slipknot, Volbeat and Gojira, the day headlined by Slayer's final Canadian date was hard to top. Old favorites Slash, Clutch and Anthrax; new to me Skillet and In This Moment; wish list bands Corrosion of Conformity and Gamma Ray. 7 Hours of straight back to back music, where I really wished I could be in two places at once. All topped off by Slayer's 90 minute spectacular, and Tom Araya's tears. A perfect day of music.

Show of the Year - Slipknot narrowly beats out Michael Schenker. While Schenker had more songs, a longer set, and blew me away with his artistry, Slipknot's entire presentation, when mixed with their classic metal songs and a much more energetic fan base made for a great night of music

Here's the full list of 70 bands I saw this year
Spoiler: show
Alice In Chains
Alter Bridge
Angel Du$t
Anthrax
Atreyu
Bad Religion
Battle Beast
Beartooth
Behemoth
Bob Seger
Clutch
Corrosion of Conformity
Cro-Mags
Danko Jones
Demons and Wizards
Devin Townsend
Dirty Honey
Doghouse Rose
Evanescence
Fever 333
Gamma Ray
Ghost
Godsmack
Gojira
Gutter Demons
H099o9
Hammerfall
Hatebreed
In This Moment
Iron Maiden
July Talk
Kamelot
Kate Clover
Killing Joke
King Crimson
Kiss
Korn
Lizzy Borden
Mark Knopfler
Masked Intruder
Metric
Michael Schenker
Pennywise
Pennywise
Quiet Riot
Rancid
Rat Boy
Sabaton
Sharp / Shock
Skillet
Skillet
Skinny Lister
Slash
Slayer
Slipknot
Sonata Arctica
Steel Panther
Television
The Enchanters
The English Beat
The Exploited
The Interrupters
The Interrupters
The Raven Age
Tiger Army
Tool
Tyr
Underoath
Volbeat
Wavves

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 Post subject: Jason Gore's Year End Concert Awards
PostPosted: Thu Jan 02, 2020 2:48 pm 
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Location: Toronto
And, for posterity, here's some helpful youtube videos that other people posted.

Whore - In This Moment
Spoiler: show


Sufacing - Slipknot
Spoiler: show


Gave You Everything - The Interrupters
Spoiler: show


Monster - Skillet
Spoiler: show


Raining Blood - Slayer
Spoiler: show


Aenima - Tool
Spoiler: show

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 Post subject: Jason Gore's Year End Concert Awards
PostPosted: Mon Jan 16, 2023 12:00 pm 
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2022 saw the return of a full concert schedule, with 21 shows on the calendar. And while most of the bands made it through the year without Covid related troubles, I didn’t, my tickets to Primus got wiped out when I tested positive 2 days before the show. But even with that, I was very glad to get back to live music.

IMO, the biggest trend from 2022 was for relatively strong acts to serve as opening acts for big names. Of the 21 shows I saw, 6 of them had opening acts I’d previously seen headline in 2,500+ seat venues. It’s one way to get people over their fears – load the bill up with great talent and go to town. And I’m thankful for the return of the music. Which led to some great nights

Without further ado, here’s my 2022 awards…

The We Opened for Airbourne, Now You Will Always Come See Us Award – Technically, I saw two bands who fit this category this year – The Glorious Sons, and The Native Howl. And while the Native Howl was good, The Glorious Sons might just be the best Canadian Rock band going today. I also saw Airbourne again this year but nominating them in this category might be a bit disingenuous, since they were headlining, evening if technically, their early material did open for stuff later in the set.

The Longest Gap Between Seeing a Song Live – The return to live after Covid saw a lot of legends who’d taken 2021 off hit the road, and that meant a lot of acts I’d seen in my youth were on the road again. Iron Maiden clocked in at over 33 years with The Trooper (beer plug!) Def Leppard was almost 30 with Foolin’ (among other songs). But since Alice Cooper is a creature of the Damned, until Vince calls it a day, he’s likely going to win this category every time I see him. No More Mister Nice Guy clocks in at 35 ½ years between live performances. And not a thing lost in his show.

Entire Album Performance of the Year – this was such a strange category this year, as 3 bands I saw did the full album performance thing. And they were diverse in terms of my musical taste. One was an album I bought after hearing the first single in 1992, and that I’ve loved ever since (L7’s Bricks are Heavy); one might be the most influential album in a niche sub-genre that I’d always known about, but didn’t buy until 5 years ago (DOA’s Hardcore ’81), and one is routinely listed in the top 20 rock albums of all time, but that I spent most of my life hating (Hotel California by the Eagles). And while objectively, The Eagles put on the best concert, L7’s performance of Bricks are Heavy was the best performance of the 3. The other two had some filler, but Bricks is just incredible, end to end.

Cover of the Year – It wasn’t even close; my favourite Neil Young song, covered lived by his spiritual sons Pearl Jam? Rockin’ in the Free World blasted live in Toronto, Ontario, Canada easily takes this one. There were some other strong performances, with Apocalyptica’s version of Halls of the Mountain King, DOA’s up tempo versions of The Hockey Song and Takin’ Care of Business, and L7’s Suffragette City called back some classic songs of the past, but Rockin’ in the Free World, with all of the geopolitical BS out there makes it a no brainer choice for 2022.

Unexpected Great Song of the Year – a tough category this year, since there were two big shows I went to where I wasn’t expecting to enjoy myself as much as I did – The Eagles, and Elton John. And there were maybe 3-4 songs at each show that could fit here. Vince Gill did a wonderful job on the Glenn Frey parts of the Eagles’ set – especially Tequila Sunrise. But in a live setting, Elton’s performance of Your Song just packed a lot of emotional heft than I was not expecting some 50 years after it’s release.

How Many More Times am I Going to See This Song This Year – While I did see one band twice this year (Korrosive, a local neo thrash band), when I see maybe the biggest song in the history of Canadian rock and roll twice, including by the original artist, there’s no contest. Thanks to DOA, and Randy Bachman, not only are they Takin’ Care of Business, they’re takin’ this award.

The Classic Guitar Lick Intro of the Year Award – I’m a riff kind of guy; if a band has written one good riff in their life, chances are I’ve seen them live. Buckcherry’s Lit Up, Alice’s School’s Out, the Crue’s Kickstart my Heart. Morello doing strange things on Killing in the Name. Greta Van Fleet didn’t make it 12 bars before the crowd went nuts on Highway Tune. But for 16 year old me, the choice this year pretty much has to be Poison’s intro to Talk Dirty to Me. To hear 50,000 screaming fans feel the same way to that intro as I did was awfully redeeming for someone who remembers when liking bands in lipstick was just not healthy.

The They’re So Big, They Get to Have 2 Award – This was another massive category this year; Elton John played Crocodile Rock and Saturday Night’s Alright for Fighting back-to-back. I got all 3 singles off Pearl Jam’s seminal Ten. The Eagles played all of Hotel California live. The Guess Who are the fathers of Canadian rock and roll and played a greatest hits set. I saw Cooper, and the Crue, and Iron Maiden, all of whom could easily fit. But given how much my memory keeps going back to two songs, the winner is clear - Def Leppard wins for two songs off the High N’ Dry album - Let It Go and Bringin’ On The Heartbreak. When I saw them in 1993, I didn’t get these songs, but some 30 years on, they still stand out as examples of who this band truly was. And I wasn’t a bandwagon jumper – I loved these songs long before Hysteria was released.

The Best Song about a Stripper – There’s only one nominee this year, but thanks to their familiarity with the subject and extensive US touring, Motley’s Crue’s Girls, Girls, Girls references a dozen clubs, and they probably employ 1,000 dancers. So, here’s to another round of drinks at the Dollhouse.

Disappointment of the Year – Thanks to health issues, 2022 wasn’t without it’s share of disappointments. Not only did I miss the Primus concert due to my bout with Covid, but unknown issues kept Beast In Black’s keyboardist from crossing the border. Which was bad. But Accept’s vocalist being shut down for health reasons was worse. It made for an interesting greatest hits set from the other members of Accept, but it wasn’t quite the full concert experience I was hoping for. I’d also mention American Woman by Bachman / Cummings, which was the one song in their set where they really couldn’t hide their age.

Concert Day of the Year – As mentioned, there were a lot of strong 2 band cards, with club headliners opening for arena acts, and stadium acts on the road. Of the 42 bands I saw this year, I could probably put 10 of them comfortably in the top 100 rock and roll bands of all time. But on only one of those days did 3 of them take the same stage. So, it’s going to be hard to top a bill with Motley Crue, Def Leppard, Poison, and Joan Jett. Festivals still weren’t running, because of the complexity, but this line up is almost impossible to beat – for nostalgia reasons, if nothing else.

Favourite Song of the Year – since this year included a lot of familiar songs that I’ve seen before, it took some of the emotion away from them, leaving rarer material to be nominated. Nominees this year include Nightwish’s anthemic Ghost Love Score, up-and-comers Greta Van Fleet’s massive Highway Tune, Pearl Jam’s even bigger Alive, Vince Gill’s vocals on the Eagles’ Tequila Sunrise, JJ Wilde’s live version of Mercy, and Alice’s performance of Roses on White Lace. But based on memories so far, Def Leppard’s performance of Let It Go seems to be the song that stuck with me the most from 2022. So Let It Rock, Let it Roll….

Opening Act of the Year – Kind of a tough category this year, since so many acts I’ve seen headline were in the opening slot this year. Buckcherry, The Pretty Reckless, Within Temptation, Rise Against all opened for other acts. The Blue Stones did a wonderful job opening for the Beaches in their home venue. I caught up and comers Spiritbox opening for Ghost, and they’re on a rocket. Year of the Cobra was a kind of cool sludge two piece but lacking in melody.So this year, the award goes to JJ Wilde, for her opening set for The Glorious Sons. Energetic, sexy, take no prisoners. Just how I like my rock and roll.

Show of the Year – Well, here we go. Rock legends in The Eagles, Elton John, and Bachman / Cummings (aka The Guess Who). Favourite bands since childhood like Motley Crue, Def Leppard, and Iron Maiden. Leaders in their genres like Nightwish, Billy Talent. And Rage Against the Machine. Rammstein gave me the most spectacular show of the year, with a 10-storey stage set up, and enough pyro for a war zone. And Greta Van Fleet showed that rock can still draw a pop crowd reaction. But this year, mainly because of the encore of their set, the award for Show of the Year goes to Pearl Jam. I dare any band to pack together a setlist that ends with Do the Evolution, Last Kiss, Jeremy, Alive, and Rockin’ in the Free World and sell it as well as Pearl Jam did. They have their principles, and talent, and good taste. Everything you’d want in a show of the year winner

Here's the full list of bands I saw, spoiled for length:

Spoiler: show
Airbourne
Alice Cooper
Apocalyptica
Bachman Cummings
Beast in Black
Billy Talent
Buckcherry
Classless Act
Def Leppard
DOA
Elton John
Ghost
Glorious Sons
Greta Van Fleet
Hannah Wicklund
Iron Maiden
JJ Wilde
Joan Jett
L7
Lacuna Coil
Mastodon
Motley Crue
Native Howl
Nightwish
Nobro
Pearl Jam
Pkew Pkew Pkew
Pluralone
Poison
Rage Against the Machine
Rammstein
Rise Against
Run the Jewels
Spiritbox
The Beaches
The Black Halos
The Blue Stones
The Eagles
The Pretty Reckless
Voivod
Within Temptation
Year of the Cobra

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 Post subject: Jason Gore's Year End Concert Awards
PostPosted: Mon Jan 16, 2023 12:14 pm 
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Location: Toronto
And thanks to the power of cell phone technology, here's some of the performances in question

Pearl Jam Rockin in the Free World
Spoiler: show


JJ Wilde - Mercy
Spoiler: show


Rammstein - Du Hast
Spoiler: show


Def Leppard - Let It Go
Spoiler: show


Nightwish - Ghost Love Score
Spoiler: show


Poison - Talk Dirty to Me
Spoiler: show

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 Post subject: Jason Gore's Year End Concert Awards
PostPosted: Tue Jan 09, 2024 4:51 pm 
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Location: Toronto
For me, 2023 was a year about cancellations. And not the basic, we don’t like our ticket sales, so we’re not coming – Blackie Lawless needed spinal fusion; Steven Tyler blew his vocal cords; the Boss had peptic ulcers; and thanks to a bad case of the flu, I lost one of the last dozen shows in the history of KISS. Add in a pissant little thunderstorm costing me The Damned, and a lot of money, and a way too many concerts got wiped out for reasons beyond the artists’ control.

The other thing that jumped out at me is there was a lot of early 80s New Wave mixed into my traditional rock, metal and punk. Sting and Depeche Mode were big 80s acts I’d never seen within critical songs in my personal catalogue. But Cruel World’s line up was really dependent on the early new wave sound, even though the drawing headliners for me were first wave punks (Iggy, Idol, Siouxsie)

And even though there were disappointments, this year still crossed off a lot of artists I’d waited decades to see – Siouxsie Sue in her first North American show in 15 years; Eric Clapton in Toronto for the first time since 2010; my first show from former Policeman Sting; a two-fer of AoR legends Foreigner and Loverboy. And love ‘em or hate ‘em, a free show from one of Canada’s largest rock acts of the last 30 years let me cross Nickelback off my shopping list. Sure, there were lots of bands I’d seen before, but this year was in a lot of ways about people I’d waited forever to see, even if they were never at the top of the wish list.

Without further ado, here’s my 2023 concert awards:

The We Opened for Airbourne, Now You Will Always Come See Us Award – for the first time since I started doing this in 2016, this category is empty; I didn’t see an act that opened for Airbourne; even the Covid years had them. In its absence, I would recommend Mammoth WVH, the Lazys, One Bad Son, Dirty Honey, Halestorm and many other up and coming acts. Not that I saw them all this year, but they’re all great bar rock bands.

The Longest Gap Between Seeing a Song Live – Once again, I haven’t seen the Beach Boys for a second time, so the award is going to the Prince of Darkness, Alice Cooper. Guns and Roses fell a year short, and it’s hard to say which specific song created the biggest gap, but this year, it’s been 36 years between the first time I saw Billion Dollar Babies (among many others) and Alice’s set this year.

Cover of the Year – Using Bluesman Eric Clapton would be a cheat for this, so would using Depeche Mode’s cover of blues standard John the Revelator. so the competition came down to recorded covers from 2 of my favourite bands of all time – Metallica doing Thin Lizzy’s version of Whiskey in the Jar, and Guns and Roses covering the UK Subs’ song Down on the Farm. And while I prefer Metallica’s recorded version, the live vibe for GnR’s Down on the Farm was a lot better than it was for Whiskey in Montreal

Unexpected Great Song of the Year – this year suffered a lot from a lack of the unexpected, at least when it comes to metal. But thankfully, I’d expanded out, and a couple of legitimately legendary bands still managed to surprise me. Depeche Mode’s Enjoy the Silence, and Echo and the Bunnymen’s Killing Moon were both way more impactful than I was expecting. But my choice for Unexpected Great Song of the Year is So Alive by Bauhaus survivor’s Love and Rockets. Not because seeing them play it live is unexpected, but me getting to see them play it certainly was.

How Many More Times am I Going to See This Song This Year – A heavily competed category this year; I saw Wolfgang Van Halen ride his Mammoth a couple of times, and Nita Strauss shred many songs both by herself, and with Alice. But thanks to a Thunderstorm, I got to see Gary Numan and Iggy Pop on back to back days, with major set overlaps. Iggy Pop officially became the first “name” artist I saw twice in a single 24 hour period. When I saw the line up for Cruel World, I thought there was a small chance I’d get The Passenger twice in 3 hours; it took less than 24, but I did see it twice, even if Siouxsie didn’t play her second biggest song. But in September, Duff McKagan stepped up to the mic for GnR, and the Stooges’ song T.V. Eye took the lead with its third appearance the year. I wonder if Duff was in that crowd in Pasadena…

The Classic Guitar Lick Intro of the Year Award – ha ha ha. This is funny. This year, I saw Helloween – the godfathers’ of Power Metal – play 4 or 5 songs that laid the foundation for an entire sub-genre. And Slash shred his way through Welcome to the Jungle and Sweet Child O’Mine; Metallica do Master of Puppets and Enter Sandman where you couldn’t hear the guitars for the audience. But this year, I saw Eric Clapton play Layla, and witnessed 20,000 people stand in silence as he picked his way through the intro to one of the greatest songs in rock and roll history.

The They’re So Big, They Get to Have 2 Award – the songs from Foreigner’s 4 album might form 2 different entries; Metallica’s about finding the right two songs. Clapton is about picking from the covers – Johnson, JJ Cale, Marley – and Pantera’s about the anthems. And Cancon requires me to include Loverboy. But honestly, in the history of rock and roll, it’s just hard to beat the pairing of Crossroad Blues and Cocaine. Sure, they’re both covers, but Clapton is God, or so I’ve been told…

The Best Song about a Stripper – Berlin’s cover of She Sells Sanctuary was painful; Volbeat’s Lola Montez was overly familiar; I’m not sure Siouxsie’s Christine or Happy House are about strippers, per se; so I’m going to go with maybe the most famous of the songs about sex workers in the last 34 years – specifically one where a man tries to convince a woman that it’s okay not to turn on the red light. Sting’s performance of Roxanne was note perfect, and evocative of a feeling long lost for people walking the streets.

Disappointment of the Year – As I said in my intro, I lost a lot of shows due to very real health issues. Of the bands I actually saw, Rob Zombie was probably the most “disappointing” set of the year, and that’s relative, and just because he backloaded his set with his hits. And while I was able to adjust, Siouxsie having to reschedule from Saturday to Sunday was crushing for 12 hours or so, and permanently for many other people; it looked like only about 2/3 of the crowd made it back to the venue. And I’m torn on WASP – while it’s a major disappointment, I also look forward to that particular show with a great deal of trepidation

Concert Day of the Year – There are really only three nominees – Cruel World Fest Day 1, Metallica Day 1, and the Gruesome Twosome redux. Cruel World gave me Iggy Pop, Gary Numan, Love and Rockets, Billy Idol and many others, but ended with a thunderstorm and 12 hours of “WTF, I spent $3,000 to not see Siouxsie?!!” where Metallica night one gave us their better bet, but their opening acts were the Pantera tribute (which definitely wasn’t Pantera) and Mammoth WVH for the second time. The gruesome twosome gave me Ministry and Filter, and old friends Alice Cooper and Rob Zombie. So ultimately, I think I’ll go with Cruel World Fest – if you had told me I’d get to see all those songs from bands I still love, as well as the Vapors play Turning Japanese, and the Gang of Four play a I Love a Man in Uniform, I wouldn’t have believed you…and many thanks to many people for making the unscheduled day 2 come off to make Siouxsie happen.

Favourite Song of the Year - a tough category this year, since so many of the songs that are imprinted in my soul were seen live this year – School’s Out, Creeping Death, Welcome to the Jungle, Juke Box Hero, Future World, Layla. Visions of Atlantis introduced me to their Melancholy Angel. Depeche Mode went farther and gave me their Personal Jesus. But in an amazing turn of events, a song from a man I thought of as a one hit wonder stuck a song I’d never heard before in my head all year, and My Name is Ruin by Gary Numan is still the hands down winner for Song of the Year. Even if his daughter Persia was on backing track when I saw him perform it twice that weekend.

Opening Act of the Year – I had the rare occurrence of going to shows for the opening acts (Visions of Atlantis, The Interrupters) bands I preferred to the headliners (Alice Cooper), and a bill where Halestorm opened for Volbeat in what I think of as a split bill. Metallica brought legit headliners in Pantera to night 1, and Five Finger Death Punch to night 2. Ministry was the loudest band I saw all year, and Dwarf Metal band Wind Rose was an experience, as Bilbo’s visitors played a rollicking set about mining and holes, and metal. But Guns and Roses cheated and brought a legitimate hall of fame band as an opening fucking act. So, without knowing who the opening act was going to be when I bought the ticket, I got to see long term wish list band The Pretenders play an hour-long, greatest hits set before one of my favourite bands of all time.

Show of the Year – I spent a lot of money to see Siouxsie Sue in California, and it was a really good day, including thunder and lightning and 4 bands I’ve never had an opportunity to see before; I travelled to Montreal to see Metallica’s 4 hour, two night, no repeat weekend extravaganza, including the Pantera tribute experience, and it was everything I hoped for. I saw 80s legends that easily qualified as once in a lifetime acts – Sting, Love and Rockets, Depeche Mode. And I finally saw the man most rock fans proclaimed as God in the 70s. But ultimately, for me, the best single night that in front of a live band was Helloween, with support from Hammerfall. Hammerfall was what you’d expect from Hammer based Viking metal, but The Pumpkins United line up of Hellloween gave me 2 hours of an epic career spanning journey. It was more than I could have hoped for from a unified version of the band that formally marked the birth of one of my favourite subgenres of heavy metal.


Last edited by Jason Gore on Wed Jan 10, 2024 8:15 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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 Post subject: Jason Gore's Year End Concert Awards
PostPosted: Tue Jan 09, 2024 6:27 pm 
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Joined: 22 Aug 2004
Posts: 4636
Location: Toronto
Here's some of the related performances - none of them are mine, and a couple aren't from the shows in question, but you get the idea...spoilered for loading time

The 80's stuff
Spoiler: show
The Killing Moon – Echo and the Bunnymen


So Alive – Love and Rockets


Spellbound – Siouxsie Sue


Turning Japanese – The Vapors


Roxanne - Sting


Personal Jesus – Depeche Mode


Back on the Chain Gang – The Pretenders


Everything that wasn’t the 80s
Spoiler: show
TV Eye – Iggy Pop


I Want Out - Helloween


Melancholy Angel – Visions of Atlantis


Layla – Eric Clapton


How You Remind Me – Nickelback


Whiskey in the Jar – Metallica


Down on the Farm – Guns and Roses


My Name Is Ruin – Gary Numan


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 Post subject: Jason Gore's Year End Concert Awards
PostPosted: Sun Jan 05, 2025 2:07 am 
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Joined: 22 Aug 2004
Posts: 4636
Location: Toronto
2024 struck me as a year of first time bands. While I got to see 3 of my 5 favourite bands – Iron Maiden, Blind Guardian, and Rancid – many other I’ve seen before, it felt like this year was really about bands I’d never seen before. Some I’ve waited for more than 40 years to see, some I didn’t know exist a couple of years ago, and some I didn’t think I’d ever spend money to see. So the awards are dominated by new winners;

The fact that they were first time bands doesn’t mean they were bands I didn’t care about – WASP, Platinum Blonde and Exodus have been on my shopping list for 30 years or more – but the ability to cross off a huge number of first time acts was a big draw. I was also able to remove 3 songs off the shopping list of Sick Boy, the personal 80 song soundtrack of my own life; and I’ve waited a long time for these.

It wasn’t all good, as I had to fight through multiple headlining sets just to cross some things off the list, and lost some big names to cancellation, but on the whole, it was another very good year for concerts, covering 59 bands across 24 shows.

The We Opened for Airbourne, Now You Will Always Come See Us Award – unawarded for the second year in a row. It seems that The Glorious Sons are really afraid of the reputational hit they took from internet smash Blame Brett by The Beaches, dedicated to the Sons’ lead singer.

The Longest Gap Between Seeing a Song Live –This was a slam dunk this year, as I saw only 2 bands that I’d seen prior to moving to Toronto in 1995, and one of them are probably my favourite band, Iron Maiden. They might also be unique, in the fact that they can create sets that exclude their most popular songs, in favour of rarely played deep cuts, and base entire tours around doing so. I know other select artists keep their set lists completely random, but Maiden picks an era, or an album, or a theme, and tells the fans “We’re going to do this” so we can choose if they want to go. And we do. So, the longest gap belongs to The Prisoner, which was earlier in the 1989 set than Can I Play With Madness. I’d also seen The Black Crowes lo those many years ago, but they didn’t have the impact of Iron Maiden, even if their first two albums were like an oasis in the desert of popular music at the time.

Oldest Song of the Year – A new category, but damn, this one should have been obvious from the time I started doing this. This year, I saw 2 acts who released and played songs from the 1960s, but only one of them played at Woodstock. The winner of the category is Deep Purple Mark IX (X? XI? ) playing Hush. But since I’ve seen it before, special shout goes to Carlos Santana for Soul Sacrifice. Not my favourite song of his that night, but his bigger hits were slightly younger, as was Yes’s Roundabout. And Soul Sacrifice was played at Woodstock. So there.

Cover of the Year – In one way, this was a simple category this year, because I didn’t see many good covers. But in another way, it was really tough. When I saw Styx, they did an incredible version of Larry Gowan’s A Criminal Mind…but it was actually Gowan doing the song, with Styx backing him up. In the same way, KK’s Priest did a bunch of kick ass Judas Priest “covers”, but if you’ve got KK Downing and Tim Owens, do they really count as covers? Breaking the Law? Sinner? The Ripper? Always and forever, these are Judas Priest songs, but damnit, KK and Ripper are entitled to them. And while they played Diamonds and Rust (Joan Baez) and The Green Manalishi (Green era Mac) Priest made these their own long ago. Slash’s night of blues standards were full of covers of songs I like, but the performances weren’t great. And so, I’m left with a song that Patti Smith made famous but was written by the man who performed it – Bruce Springsteen’s take on Because the Night.

Unexpected Great Song of the Year – This one actually had some nominees; Avril Lavigne’s Losing Grip was surprisingly powerful, even if over time, the iconic Sk8tr Boi has taken it’s place in memory; Elvis Costello’s (What’s So Funny ‘Bout) Peace Love and Understanding was the standout song from a night of classic hits; John Waite’s When I See You Smile brought back memories I didn’t know I had. The Warning had me cheering for songs in both English and Spanish. But any way you slice it, the Styx set gave me many great songs I thought I barely remember but enjoyed immensely – Lady and Lorelei – but ultimately, it was Too Much Time on My Hands that made the biggest impact as a “Oh Wow, this is great” kind of song

How Many More Times am I Going to See This Song This Year – Lord I wish I could break the calendar; I saw Gary Numan 3 times in 8 months, going back to last spring, and any of the 3 songs he played in all 3 sets – Metal, Cars, and My Name is Ruin – would easily win this category. But by the letter of law, the winner of this category this year is “Scooby Doo, Where Are You?” by Simple Plan. They played it once, and Jules is Dead played it when they opened for The Warning. And it’s literally the only song I saw twice this year. Oof.

The Classic Guitar Lick Intro of the Year Award – Slash’s Blues Revue played some of the most iconic songs in blues history – Killing Floor, Papa was a Rolling Stone, Crossroads Blues, Born Free. Deep Purple owns the trademark on the most famous guitar intro of all time. Billy Idol and Steve Stevens combine for a couple of the greatest intros as well. But given that it was the first time I ever got to see the winner live, I’m going to give it to Joe Satriani’s intro into Sammy Hagar performance of Panama. It wasn’t just about how iconic the intro is, but also about the fact that they were able to let the fans celebrate the legacy of Eddie Van Halen, without compromising everything they are as artists. Also of special note were the piano intro to A Criminal Mind, the Keyboard intro to Jump, and the Drum intro into Renegade, but those weren’t guitars, so…

The They’re So Big, They Get to Have 2 Award – I wish I could give this to Blind Guardian, but they’re not big enough. And for all that I love them, Iron Maiden left most of their heavy hitters at home for this tour. Bruce’s live versions of Born to Run and Thunder Road are probably iconic enough to count, as is Billy Idol with Rebel Yell and White Wedding. Deep Purple is a “shrug, of course, they’re iconic”, and Styx was keyboard heavy. So I’m going to give this to Sammy Hagar, who was able to draw from both eras of Van Halen, his own solo career, and Montrose, to give us a magical night of rock and roll, which – IMO – were anchored by his signature songs There’s Only One Way to Rock and Heavy Metal.

Entire Album Performance of the Year – There were 4 and 7/8 nominees this year, and similar to previous years, there was a mix of albums that were critical to me, critical to their genres, and critical to the history of popular music included in the nominees. WASP’s first album was probably one of the first 10 albums I ever bought, anchored by I Wanna Be Somebody and L.O.V.E. Machine. Green Day were at the forefront of punk revivals with Dookie and American Idiot; Sloan put an entire region of the continent on the map with Smeared. And Springsteen’s Born to Run routinely ends up in the list of top 20 rock albums of all time. But of the Albums played, separated from their release by the passage of time, it’s easily American Idiot that stands above the competition as both the best performance, and the best single album of the bunch. Which really surprised me.

The Best Song about a Stripper – I guess I’ll blame Only Fans – there wasn’t a single song about a stripper, hooker, or harlot this year. Maybe on Maiden’s next tour…

Disappointment of the Year – The Noah’s Ark Deluge of the NOFX weekend here in Toronto deserved strong consideration, but the reality is I wasn’t a huge fan of the Saturday line up, so it wasn’t as painful as expected. Daryl Hall’s poor vocal performance was a possibility, as was losing The Hu from Iron Maiden’s opening slot. Neil Young cancelling was kind of meh, But, ultimately, losing Aerosmith’s retirement tour in its entirety was surprisingly harsh. I’ll always have the memories of seeing them in 1990 (before the dark times, before the pop turn), but even so, I was really looking forward to seeing them again before they called it quits.

Concert Day of the Year – A tough decision, made tougher by the weather. If it weren’t for the storms, the second day of NOFXs retirement tour with longer sets from the Descendents, The Subhumans, and the Flatliners probably would have won, but thanks to the roof, Green Day’s double album playthrough show, supported by 2 of the best bands of the 90s (Smashing Pumpkins, Rancid) and an up and coming act in the Linda Lindas deserve the win. Those were the only two days were I got to enjoy 3 or more bands that I saw under a single ticket.

Favourite Song of the Year –Blind Guardian’s set was full of great songs, Maiden played half a set I’d never seen before, including Alexander the Great. Billy Idol had me Dancin With Myself, while WASP reminded me that I Wanna Be Somebody. Styx played multiple songs that showed why they deserved to dominate the rock charts of the 1970s. But this year, this award came down to two songs - one I always kind of liked, and one I remember expanding my musical tastes so many years ago. So, while I think Michael Anthony did a wonderful job on Van Halen’s “Ain’t Talking ‘Bout Love”, this year, this award goes to Platinum Blonde’s “It Doesn’t Really Matter” which 40 years on, still holds up, at least for me. So, are you sitting comfortably? Then we’ll begin.

Opening Act of the Year – Not really a tough category of this year, as most of the opening acts that made an impact I’d seen before – Numan at Cruelfest, Rancid as a headliner; Accept without their singer; Visions of Atlantis as both a previous opening act, and an upcoming headliner. The Descendents were good, but I don’t own an album; crossing Yes off the list was great, but they were the least favourite of the big prog acts. But Platinum Blonde? I owned multiple cassettes, and they made a great impression when I saw them this year. Nostalgia’s a helluva drug…

Show of the Year –this is tough; familiarity with Iron Maiden and Blind Guardian is punishing them; you get tired of voting for the same MVP every year. While Styx’s set was incredibly good, the encore didn’t meet my lofty expectations. So, this year, I have to give set of the year to Sammy Hagar (and friends). Not only did we get a cross section of Sammy’s career in and out of Van Halen, we got a respectful selection of DLR Van Halen songs for the fans, including Panama, Ain’t Talking ‘Bout Love, and Jump – which Sammy has generally refused to play. They maintained their integrity, played what they wanted to, and gave the fans what they wanted – an opportunity to appreciate Eddie Van Halen – without trampling over his or Dave’s most obvious moments. An incredibly fine line to walk, by a man with a 50 year catalogue of his own, but one who still knows what it means to be a fan. So Mas Tequila, por favor.


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 Post subject: Jason Gore's Year End Concert Awards
PostPosted: Sun Jan 05, 2025 2:29 am 
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Joined: 22 Aug 2004
Posts: 4636
Location: Toronto
Videos, spoiled for length:
Spoiler: show
Ain’t talking ‘bout Love / Panama – Sammy Hagar




Platinum Blonde – It Doesn’t Really Matter


Styx - Too Much Time on My Hands


Iron Maiden – Alexander the Great


Carlos Santana – Black Magic Woman


The Warning - Narcisista


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 Post subject: Jason Gore's Year End Concert Awards
PostPosted: Sun Jan 05, 2025 12:03 pm 
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Boney Fingers Jones

Joined: 03 Aug 2006
Posts: 40801
Location: Sunny Massapequa Park, NY
Great review Jason!

My 2 biggest disappointments this past year was the cancellation of the Aerosmith Tour (was supposed to see them this February at MSG) and missing the Sammy Hagar/ Joe Satriani Tour doing VH. They for some reason didn’t play Jones Beach but only appeared in NJ and up in CT.

For me of course the shows of the year were the BEAT shows, all 3 in NYC/ NJ/ and Brooklyn all unique.

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