Might as well start this thread with my recent 2-fer.

Last night I was afraid I'd have to make a decision. Pylon Reenactment Society at the Moroccan Lounge (on the eastern edge of downtown) or Dream Syndicate at the legendary Troubadour in West Hollywood. But the scheduling and traffic gods allowed me to do both.

PRS was an early show, scheduled to start at 7:45 and could not end past 9 due to another event at club. Dream Syndicate was 9:45, which was a little earlier than my comfort level, but gave it a go. And I'm glad I did. I was able to see the entire PRS set and then made it in time for DS with 10 minutes to spare.

PRS were good. I've seen them before, even seeing Pylon on Chain tour, and compared to these shows I was a little letdown. Mostly because Vanessa's energy has lessened (as is natural with age), and the band just couldn't maintain the frantic perfection of the original line up. But it was still great to hear the Pylon songs again, even if 3 of the songs had to be cut to make room for next event (something I probably would have been upset with if it didn't work in my favor).

Dream Syndicate were phenomenal. This lineup has been playing longer than any of the others (12 years and counting), and they have jelled into quite a beast on stage. And Jason Victor has long made me forget I missed Karl Precoda.

The set was heavy on songs that are included in the documentary How Did We Find Ourselves Here? It also ended with a couple of really fine treats in the encore (I'll add those as a spoiler, even though their are no more shows schedule for now). And the biggest treat for me may have been hearing that a boxed set for Medicine Show is forthcoming! I told Steve that was one of my favorite albums ever and he told me it was his favorite of the original 4 albums the band put out. The other two have been done so well that I'm excited at what might be included.

So thank you to the traffic and parking gods who helped me make last night a successful evening.

Last week, we caught Extreme and Living Colour. Place was pretty much sold out. I showed up just after doors opened and had to park about the furthest from this venue I've ever parked (library in a residential area). My buddy was there about 10 minutes before me and was across the street from where I ended up.

Living Colour opened - 40 minute set, pretty much totally killer. Only potential slow spot for me was the 5-6 minute medley of hip-hop songs that Doug Wimbish had played on. Other than that, killer set, I think all from the first three albums. Outstanding version of "Cult Of Personality" to close it out. Vernon Reid and Corey Glover were in top form.

Extreme played over two hours, and it was excellent. This is absolutely not a nostalgia tour - six songs from the new album, including both songs in the encore (with a touch of "Song Of Love" thrown in). That's right - two new songs in the encore. So cool to see a band take a chance like that, and it totally worked. The two big radio hits - "Hole Hearted" and "More Than Words" were mixed in the regular set. Nuno - good lord, that man can play, and he did the front man role for most of the show. With a sense of humor - at one point, he said, "I just want to say something before these next billion notes..." Vocal harmonies were dead on all night, and they worked all eras of the band. Well worth seeing if this comes near you.

Last night - John 5.

Opener was a band called Sticks N Stones. They weren't bad, but they were a little too spot-on Alter Bridge imitation. The music, and especially the vocalist's singing style, phrasing, melodic choices - it all felt like those old sound-alike commercials, where you'd get a song that sounded just like a famous band but wasn't.

This was a strange John 5 show - just John and a drummer, no Creatures. It sounded to me like there were some backing tracks because there were some bass parts, some guitar harmonies, and some vocal samples. None of it seemed to be triggered by John or the drummer (other than maybe starting it at the beginning of the song, but even then, sometimes it came in later). It wasn't bad at all, just a little different. John played one song on bass, and the medley was replaced by a Motley Crue medley w/John's guitar tech playing bass. There was one song after that, and he said, "It's too cold to go outside, do you mind if we play some more? What do you want to hear?" That led to about a 10 minute section where he played requests - Zombie's "Dragula", Manson's "Sweet Dreams", Pantera's "Walk", and it all wrapped up with "Imagine", which the drummer clearly didn't know, so John's tech was guiding him from beside the drums.

This makes me feel old; ran into it a couple years back where a band was covering Gojira tunes. I don't want to remember that AB has been around for 20 years

Sorry to hear you didn't get the full Creatures experience; I saw John a couple times with Rob, but I've never gone for the whole headlining set thing.

I still need to see Living Colour. sounds like a wicked set.

While I fully grant Nuno's ability - and even the rest of them are talented - I haven't heard anything of theirs since 3 sides to every story, and I despise their two biggest radio hits. For all it's juvenile-ness, I remember preferring their first album to their second. But that was a long, long, long time ago. So while I wouldn't mind seeing them again, it would take a strong opener to get me to see them headline. You know, like Living Colour, grumble grumble for no Toronto Date.

The full Creatures thing is pretty cool. A guy came up to me last night because I was wearing my Ace Frehley jersey and asked me how many times I'd seen John. Then said, "Please don't say 10." Not sure why. I said it was seven or eight. I think that's right, but I'm not sure (and that's not counting Manson and Zombie). This was the first two-man show. It works, but it didn't have that loose feel until towards the end of the set.

I think the review I read was six songs off the new album. They have a little less of the funk than the first two albums, but they worked for me. They did the acoustic stuff in two parts, which worked - neither one was long enough to drag the show down.

Going to see GWAR tonight with my daughter. Not my usual style of music, but should be entertaining. The last time I went to a concert with her was to see Hillary Duff (also not my style of music!).

Hope you have a good time, and get up front nice and close, Jason.

I'll also be curious to see what you think of the Cancer Bats; they're local kids for me, and lots of fun.

We saw Awaken last night.

I’m not much for tribute bands, but these guys are really good and completely dedicated to the music.

They are a Yes tribute from Long Island who have a very good reputation, so we checked them out and it was excellent.

Thankfully they don’t dress like the members-it’s just the music.

They played the setlist from the 1984-85 9012Live tour for the 40th anniversary (that makes feel old) and it was very cool to hear that era represented.

Lots of these songs haven’t been played by Yes in 40 years.

They did:

Cinema
Leave It
Our Song
Yours Is No Disgrace
Hold On
And You and I
Changes
I've Seen All Good People
It Can Happen
Owner of A Lonely Heart
Long Distance Runaround
City of Love
Hearts
Starship Trooper
Roundabout
Gimme Some Lovin'

Saw Hannah Wicklund again last night. This young woman just keeps getting better and better. I'd recommend the tour, but there's only one more show. But if you get a chance, you should check her out. She did do a video blog during the tour.

So I've been out of the concert-going game for a few years, since Covid hit. The last show I went to before that was The Jim Cuddy Band (co-frontman of Blue Rodeo) back on Jan 3rd, 2020. Since then, we'd been concentrating on keeping my elderly father-in-law, who had dementia and we moved in with back in 2017, safe from catching Covid.

Last fall, we dipped our toes in the water, while Jack was in a respite facility while we were having his bathroom & floors redone to make the house safer for him. We went up to Vancouver and saw Blue Rodeo, for something like the 11th or 12th time. They played the day after my wife's birthday, so it seemed like a good time to try it.

Jack passed away last month at the age of 91, and we're kind of trying to figure out how to resume our previously scheduled life.

We're starting out with tickets to the Totally Tubular Festival (Thomas Dolby, Tom Bailey of Thompson Twins, Tommy Tutone, and a few acts not named Tom - The Romantics, Modern English, Bow Wow Wow, The Plimsouls, and Men Without Hats) on June 25th, followed by Blondie on August 23rd. We'll probably also do Elvis Costello & Daryl Hall on June 6th (my birthday).

Condolences, sir.

My condolences to you & your wife on your loss.

10cc in july

graham nash in august

both at the 462 seat kent stage.in kent, ohio.

Seeing Zepparella tomorrow night in Milwaukee!

Saturday night was my first show of the year, and it was 3 different flavours of Industrial, inspired by my experiences last year. Openers Frontline Assembly were more dance oriented, and while it was industrial, it was more something I would envision in certain kinds of dance clubs in the early 90s. Not my thing, but the place was packed for them, and I think there were people there just to see them.

Up next, I got the pop industrial variety from Gary Numan. Blown away by his sets at Cruel World, I was happy to go see him again. And again, he put on a great set. 7 of the 12 songs overlapped in all 3 sets, but I got a couple of new (to me) ones that were good. And the pure catchiness of his songs stood out even more book ended by the different flavours. My Name is Ruin was again great, but the drive behind Love Hurt Bleed (a NIN circular reference if there was one) and the rhythms of Metal were both great. I broke down and bought me some Numan as a result.

The headliners were the aggro industrial of Ministry, and as I said in my review last year, the decision to exclude Hot Rod meant people would be tempted to go see them. Since they did, I did. But I did move back from the stage – another foretelling was that they would be incredibly loud in an enclosed space. They have a new album out, Hopiumforthemasses to support as well. Al is once again pissed off at Republicans, giving no doubt where he stands. He also made the strange decision to organize his set very distinctly. We got 5 straight songs off the new album (Goddamn White Trash is the best of those), a couple from Moral Hygiene and then the 3 heavy hitters from Psalm, plus Stigmata and Thieves. Closer Jesus Built My Hot Rod was not as good live as I’d hoped. The mic effect that works so well on the studio renders it less impactful live. We did get two encores (Burning Inside and So What), and they closed with Ricky’s Hand, just to show he hasn’t completely lost track of his dark dance roots.

Overall, I preferred Numan to Ministry; I think Gary’s songwriting and ability to create different kinds of soundscapes in his songs are just a better experience than Al’s full bore rage. And I do think it’s good he’s still this angry, but I’m not anymore. It’s been a long time since I was given that mix tape with Ministry, NIN and the Offspring on it. I realized at the show that a long time is 30 years ago. And Cars turns 45 this year. At least they’re both still making solid new music.

Just announced a final tour for ELO. They are coming here and I'm planning to be there. Saw them on the last tour, and it was a great show. The only issue was that we saw Queen the night before, and nobody was going to follow that - it was probably in the top five shows I've ever seen. Top ten for sure.

I saw that, didn't know it was a final tour. That will increase the likelihood I'll go.

Also in the realm of early 80s nostalgia that I'll give some thought to - Daryl Hall is going out with Elvis Costello as an opener. Haven't seen either one of them.

i would love to see daryl hall solo, but not with declan mcmanus, no way no how.

I’m glad I saw Ministry when I did back in the early 90s, when Paul Barker was still in the group, in a club. Talk about an assault on the senses. I swear there were about 10 people on the stage, including 2 drummers, surrounded by a 6 foot fence, which the stage divers took advantage of. It was pretty glorious.

you could show up fashionably late, and just skip him; it's not like they're doing Hall and Costello