2009 Concert review
Those of you on my Facebook might have seen my concert schedule for the year, which was probably the most extensive for me in at least 20 years, quite possible ever. Short listing with 1-5 * ratings:
April
Pink at 02 in Dublin (*** 1/2)
It was a last minute call to go to this show and I was glad I did. Always liked her music but was very impressed with her showmanship and playing to the crowd. It was a bit of a more Madonna-ish show, with trapezes and the like, but all in all very enjoyable. Would have been rated higher, but the sound was unfortunately horrible.
May
Blue Man Group at MEN in Manchester (***)
Having seen BMG many times in Vegas and owning the DVD of their tourning show, I wasn't expecting to have too many surprises for this show, and I didn't. It was a nice change of pace from the Vegas show in having more vocal musical numbers, but the strength of BMG is really the performance art and humor and in this setting the show really suffers.
June
Talon at Gaity Theatre in Douglas, IOM (*)
More for amusement purposes (and some slight foreshadowing). This is an Eagles cover band. Even though tickets were relatively inexpensive, I overpaid. I left at the intermission.
Dave Matthews Band at Brixton Academy in London (****)
I don't think I could ever give a DMB show less than 4 stars, so this is probably at the lower end of my scale for them, even though it was seeing them in a relatively intimate venue (probably 2000 people). Sound was decent but not great and the setlist was very disappointing, with too much emphasis on the new album, approximately 40%. Apparently this was being filmed along with the previous night for a future DVD, so we will see.
Hard Rock Calling at Hyde Park in London Day 2 (** - ****1/2)
Having missed the first day of HRC to see DMB, this was my first music festival in probably 25 years. Got there early in order to see the Pretenders and Chrissy was in fine form. ***1/2 for her show which includes a 1/2 deduction for brevity but 1/2 increase for the girl in the crowd hula-hooping in a bikini during the entire set. Went to sit in the beer garden until Ben Harper came on and he was somewhat disappointing, really not getting into the crowd at all clocking in the ** rating. Wasn't really familiar with Fleet Foxes but did enjoy the show and the came in a solid ***. Then Neil Young. Wow. The man can Rock. He had it all and really ramped up the performance, until finally bringing on Sir Paul at the end. ****1/2 as befits the headliner for the day.
Hard Rock Calling at Hyde Park in London Day 3 (**1/2 - ****)
After a late night previously, didn't get the festival quite as early as also my back was starting to act up. Age is definitely starting to get the better of me. Got there in time for James Morrison who was similar to Ben Harper the day before in that he really didn't seem to pull the crowd into his groove, although it could just be that his style of music doesn't work for a big festival crowd, resulting in a **1/2 rating. DMB was good but not great, not helped by the fact that they only got to play for 60 minutes instead of their normal 2.5 hours. Some decent rarieties and the crowd was definitely into them bringing it up to a **** performance. Finally Springsteen took the stage. He usual highly energetic performance had a crowd that was clearly overwhelmingly there to see him going wild. Unfortunately by this point my back was killing me and I had to miss the last several songs of his (long) set which clocked in at a solid **** performance. After these two days, festivals have taken a back seat in priority for me.
July
Kaiser Chiefs/U2 at Croke park in Dublin (****)
Got there around midway through the Kaiser Chiefs performance which was quite simply awesome. I would give them **** which I think it pretty high for an opening act, especially one having to perform in broad daylight. Definitely got the crowd going. U2 was amazing for a few reasons. The stage itself is pretty incredible. And seeing U2 in Dublin is something that should just be experienced. That said, it was still a pretty mundane set that seemed overly polished, but still ****.
Eagles at MEN in Manchester (***1/2)
Didn't expect to be going to this one and was pretty jazzed about going. As expected, the Eagles put on a polished show that reflected well their extensive catalogue of hits. Formulaic in spots, but still a rare thrill to see some true legends in concert. I do worry about Joe Walsh though, as it does seem as though he is permanently brain damaged at this point.
August
Glasvegas/U2 at Millenium Stadium in Cardiff, Wales (**1/2)
Actually arrived at the stadium too late to see the opener due to traffic delays and parking difficulties. Wasn't too disappointed as I only knew a couple songs from them. I chose to go to this show for a couple reasons. First, it was the closer on the European leg and I was hoping for some surprises. More importantly, I was able to get decent seats for this show (we had floor for Dublin), albeit behind the stage. However I wasn't too worried as the stage is a 360 view (it is called the U2 260 tour after all) which we didn't really get a chance to experience in Dublin as due to the stadium there they only utilized 3 sides. Well it turned out to be a bad decision. In fact, reflecting upon the show, I've just downgraded my rating from 3 to 2.5 stars. Only about 1 in 4 songs had any attention directed toward our end of the staging and only 2 songs in the whole set had any sort of presence throughout the song. In addition they played the exact same set as Dublin, which you would hope would have at least some changes. Apparently U2 are bringing the tour back over again in 2010. I won't be going.
September
Kaiser Chiefs at Villa Marina in Douglas, IOM (****1/2)
Rare chance to see a fairly decent name in a small veneue (<2000 seats). Also was lucky and got ahold of VIP passes which included an after-party with the band. All in all an amazing show. The intimacy of the venue combined with the incredible high energy of the band made it my show of the year. Including some neat tricks such as singing one of the songs from the back of the hall (which was about 10 ft. from me) was just icing on the cake. I would not turn down the chance to see this highly entertaining band again.
October
Davy Knowles and Back Door Slam at Gaity Theatre in Douglas, IOM (****1/2)
Davy is a local legend and, if there is justice, may someday become a worldwide one. I first saw Back Door Slam open for the Who 2 years ago here in IOM. Back then it was Davy performing with 3 other local lads, but it was immediately clear that he was the star with his amazing guitar skills and great sense of rock 'n blues. Not long after Davy traveled to the US to promote his first album, along the way opening for the likes of Chickenfoot and Peter Frampton, who has also produced his most recent album. He also traded in his old bandmates for 3 Seattle musicians and his name has been promoted to the marquee.
This was Davy's first trip back to IOM in a couple years and I was again fortunate enough to score VIP passes (which included box seats, and I'm talking REAL box seats, up in the air about 10 ft from the stage) and the aforementioned after party. Well, the concert was simply amazing. Davy is a quality musician and the only thing keeping this from being my top concert of the year and a 5 star rating was the sound engineer's choice to keep the vocals turned down so low.
So that is my year in concerts (so far). I still have one more weekend scheduled to see Eddie Izzard in Manchester and Green Day in Liverpool over Halloween weekend and I may follow-up with a report on those as well.
April
Pink at 02 in Dublin (*** 1/2)
It was a last minute call to go to this show and I was glad I did. Always liked her music but was very impressed with her showmanship and playing to the crowd. It was a bit of a more Madonna-ish show, with trapezes and the like, but all in all very enjoyable. Would have been rated higher, but the sound was unfortunately horrible.
May
Blue Man Group at MEN in Manchester (***)
Having seen BMG many times in Vegas and owning the DVD of their tourning show, I wasn't expecting to have too many surprises for this show, and I didn't. It was a nice change of pace from the Vegas show in having more vocal musical numbers, but the strength of BMG is really the performance art and humor and in this setting the show really suffers.
June
Talon at Gaity Theatre in Douglas, IOM (*)
More for amusement purposes (and some slight foreshadowing). This is an Eagles cover band. Even though tickets were relatively inexpensive, I overpaid. I left at the intermission.
Dave Matthews Band at Brixton Academy in London (****)
I don't think I could ever give a DMB show less than 4 stars, so this is probably at the lower end of my scale for them, even though it was seeing them in a relatively intimate venue (probably 2000 people). Sound was decent but not great and the setlist was very disappointing, with too much emphasis on the new album, approximately 40%. Apparently this was being filmed along with the previous night for a future DVD, so we will see.
Hard Rock Calling at Hyde Park in London Day 2 (** - ****1/2)
Having missed the first day of HRC to see DMB, this was my first music festival in probably 25 years. Got there early in order to see the Pretenders and Chrissy was in fine form. ***1/2 for her show which includes a 1/2 deduction for brevity but 1/2 increase for the girl in the crowd hula-hooping in a bikini during the entire set. Went to sit in the beer garden until Ben Harper came on and he was somewhat disappointing, really not getting into the crowd at all clocking in the ** rating. Wasn't really familiar with Fleet Foxes but did enjoy the show and the came in a solid ***. Then Neil Young. Wow. The man can Rock. He had it all and really ramped up the performance, until finally bringing on Sir Paul at the end. ****1/2 as befits the headliner for the day.
Hard Rock Calling at Hyde Park in London Day 3 (**1/2 - ****)
After a late night previously, didn't get the festival quite as early as also my back was starting to act up. Age is definitely starting to get the better of me. Got there in time for James Morrison who was similar to Ben Harper the day before in that he really didn't seem to pull the crowd into his groove, although it could just be that his style of music doesn't work for a big festival crowd, resulting in a **1/2 rating. DMB was good but not great, not helped by the fact that they only got to play for 60 minutes instead of their normal 2.5 hours. Some decent rarieties and the crowd was definitely into them bringing it up to a **** performance. Finally Springsteen took the stage. He usual highly energetic performance had a crowd that was clearly overwhelmingly there to see him going wild. Unfortunately by this point my back was killing me and I had to miss the last several songs of his (long) set which clocked in at a solid **** performance. After these two days, festivals have taken a back seat in priority for me.
July
Kaiser Chiefs/U2 at Croke park in Dublin (****)
Got there around midway through the Kaiser Chiefs performance which was quite simply awesome. I would give them **** which I think it pretty high for an opening act, especially one having to perform in broad daylight. Definitely got the crowd going. U2 was amazing for a few reasons. The stage itself is pretty incredible. And seeing U2 in Dublin is something that should just be experienced. That said, it was still a pretty mundane set that seemed overly polished, but still ****.
Eagles at MEN in Manchester (***1/2)
Didn't expect to be going to this one and was pretty jazzed about going. As expected, the Eagles put on a polished show that reflected well their extensive catalogue of hits. Formulaic in spots, but still a rare thrill to see some true legends in concert. I do worry about Joe Walsh though, as it does seem as though he is permanently brain damaged at this point.
August
Glasvegas/U2 at Millenium Stadium in Cardiff, Wales (**1/2)
Actually arrived at the stadium too late to see the opener due to traffic delays and parking difficulties. Wasn't too disappointed as I only knew a couple songs from them. I chose to go to this show for a couple reasons. First, it was the closer on the European leg and I was hoping for some surprises. More importantly, I was able to get decent seats for this show (we had floor for Dublin), albeit behind the stage. However I wasn't too worried as the stage is a 360 view (it is called the U2 260 tour after all) which we didn't really get a chance to experience in Dublin as due to the stadium there they only utilized 3 sides. Well it turned out to be a bad decision. In fact, reflecting upon the show, I've just downgraded my rating from 3 to 2.5 stars. Only about 1 in 4 songs had any attention directed toward our end of the staging and only 2 songs in the whole set had any sort of presence throughout the song. In addition they played the exact same set as Dublin, which you would hope would have at least some changes. Apparently U2 are bringing the tour back over again in 2010. I won't be going.
September
Kaiser Chiefs at Villa Marina in Douglas, IOM (****1/2)
Rare chance to see a fairly decent name in a small veneue (<2000 seats). Also was lucky and got ahold of VIP passes which included an after-party with the band. All in all an amazing show. The intimacy of the venue combined with the incredible high energy of the band made it my show of the year. Including some neat tricks such as singing one of the songs from the back of the hall (which was about 10 ft. from me) was just icing on the cake. I would not turn down the chance to see this highly entertaining band again.
October
Davy Knowles and Back Door Slam at Gaity Theatre in Douglas, IOM (****1/2)
Davy is a local legend and, if there is justice, may someday become a worldwide one. I first saw Back Door Slam open for the Who 2 years ago here in IOM. Back then it was Davy performing with 3 other local lads, but it was immediately clear that he was the star with his amazing guitar skills and great sense of rock 'n blues. Not long after Davy traveled to the US to promote his first album, along the way opening for the likes of Chickenfoot and Peter Frampton, who has also produced his most recent album. He also traded in his old bandmates for 3 Seattle musicians and his name has been promoted to the marquee.
This was Davy's first trip back to IOM in a couple years and I was again fortunate enough to score VIP passes (which included box seats, and I'm talking REAL box seats, up in the air about 10 ft from the stage) and the aforementioned after party. Well, the concert was simply amazing. Davy is a quality musician and the only thing keeping this from being my top concert of the year and a 5 star rating was the sound engineer's choice to keep the vocals turned down so low.
So that is my year in concerts (so far). I still have one more weekend scheduled to see Eddie Izzard in Manchester and Green Day in Liverpool over Halloween weekend and I may follow-up with a report on those as well.