Recent Concerts You've Enjoyed

Thought this might be a fun thread and a way to find out about acts on tour.

My wife and I saw the Smoke Fairies at the Tractor Tavern last evening as the opening act for Rasputina. The Smoke Fairies are a 'folk blues' duo from Wales and have been described as "Bob Dylan's dream." I thought that their debut release "Through Low Light and Trees" was one of last year's best. It was just the two principles singing and playing guitar. Really terrific concert with excellent acoustics and thankfully not too loud.

If you are ever in Seattle, the Tractor Tavern is a great venue in the Ballard neighborhood. Very fun people watching...I think my wife and I were the only ones without tattoos! I got to chat with them after their set and had my LP signed. I love the lilting Welsh accents!

Here's a video of "Hotel Room" from their debut LP:

[video]

 

Today in Torino (Northwest Italy)... Lingotto's auditorium, not the best sounding concert hall in my town but surely the coolest looking.
Beethoven 9th Symphony... impressive as usual...

 

Emmet Cohen Trio with Philip Norris on bass and John Lumpkin on drums at Jazz Alley was outstanding. So good for the soul…

 

Garage A Trois at the Nectar Lounge. Skerik, Charlie Hunter and Stanton Moore are a killer combo.

 

Kermit Ruffins with Herlin Riley at The Blue Nile

 

 

It was a good week for Classical music concerts at Carnegie. On Tuesday it was Dudamel and the LA Phil doing Mahler's 1st. The only annoyance was having to first suffer through some modern commissioned violin piece that tested my patience (but was played exquisitely by a 19 year old Spanish violinist, Maria Dueñas). However the wait was worth it. Dudamel excelled on M1, one of my all time favorites. This surprised me as I have not considered him a particularly strong Mahlerite. To his credit, he didn't use a score, which is noteworthy, but not particularly unusual for many of today's top conductors. I think it's safe to say that of the 2 pieces, 100 years from now, only the Mahler will be played regularly at Concert Halls (and rightly so)!

On Friday, it was Yannick and the Philadelphia Orchestra featuring one of today's female pianist "it" girls, Beatrice Rana, playing a rarely heard Concerto by Clara Schumann and doing so beautifully. They also performed 2 Ravel pieces including Bolero, which Ravel himself described as a 20 minute orchestral crescendo without music!

 

Anat Cohen’s Quarterinho featuring Vitor Goncalves, James Shipp and Tal Mashiach at Townhall was magnificent!

 

Anat Cohen’s Quarterinho featuring Vitor Goncalves, James Shipp and Tal Mashiach at Townhall was magnificent!

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Rammstein in Philadelphia Lincoln Financial Field. Quite amazing actually. And loud.

 

Rammstein in Philadelphia Lincoln Financial Field. Quite amazing actually. And loud.

I think Rammstein opened a couple dates on Anat Cohen's current tour. But I could be mistaken

 

I think Rammstein opened a couple dates on Anat Cohen's current tour. But I could be mistaken

Sure did
Actually an opening act for Rammstein were two girls playing piano

 

Again in Torino. Location changed.: Today Auditorium RAI. We had a brilliant performance with the young Aziz Shokhakimov conducting the Italians radio-tv orchestra performing Dmitri Shostakovich 7th Symphony "Leningrad".
For two or three days It will be better avoid to hear reproducted music... dynamic, tone, transparency, transient... There's no comparison....

 

the Sisters Of Mercy

 

I went to soldiers field this summer to see the Red Hot Chili Peppers
We danced all night as did most of the crowd.These guy are in their 60’s and I can’t commend them enough on their commitment to their craft and personal health. I think of all the hard rockers that die in their 20’s or make it by having their own personal dr script them along. Dance, dance, dance. Tight, loud, precise, fun with a really cool light show. My only complaint is I didn’t get front row. Maybe next time

 

I went to soldiers field this summer to see the Red Hot Chili Peppers
We danced all night as did most of the crowd.These guy are in their 60’s and I can’t commend them enough on their commitment to their craft and personal health. I think of all the hard rockers that die in their 20’s or make it by having their own personal dr script them along. Dance, dance, dance. Tight, loud, precise, fun with a really cool light show. My only complaint is I didn’t get front row. Maybe next time

Wow, that brings back great memories, caught them at Brixton Academy, London 1992 touring Blood Sugar Sex Magic, the night was a riot. Been to that venue plenty of times but it's still the only time I've experienced a front to back, side to side mosh there. Nothing you could do, just had to go with it. At one point they asked for requests then turned down the girl asking for Under the Bridge, ouch

Kind of lost my way with them after that, good to hear they're still going strong

 

I've never liked Coldplay, caught them in the early days at an Oxford Student Union gig, all just a bit ho hum. Never got them, spoke to a few music industry people over the years who also seemed to scratch their heads as to why they'd become so big.

Anyway, they played London this summer, my daughter was keen to go. When I checked there were a few tickets available in the top/back of a 90k seater stadium asking outrageous money. It was a sorry, no. Then the week before her birthday and a couple of weeks before their run of gigs a message popped from one of the ticket sites saying there were tickets available. Had a look and picked up some seated tickets close to the stage at face value. Birthday now sorted.

Very low expectations, reinforced by really poor sound from the support bands.

Utterly unprepared for what followed. While not as avid a gig goer these days I've attended plenty from headliners in a tiny venue to the biggest of stadium acts. So many great gigs. What followed here was a spectacle like no other I've experienced.

The closest example that springs to mind was Queen at Live Aid. Freddie Mercury seemed to galvanise the audience, had them in the palm of his hand. Chris Martin was Freddie incarnate, his audience, all 90000 of them sang every word of every song bar what was presumably a handful of new ones and they did so all night. Must have sounded incredible from outside. Add to that an extraordinary light show extending to the entire audience wearing LEDs handed out at the entrance. Waves of light and images rolling around the stadium.

Fair do's, like them or loath they have nailed the stadium gig. Check them out if they're in your neck of the woods, if nothing else I guarantee it'll be an experience!

(did I mention they sold out Wembley Stadium six nights running yep, just me in the dark though still no desire to buy or listen to their records)

 

Go Go Penguin in Zurich at the Jazz no Jazz Festival. Energetic but the sound was geared more like a rock concert than Jazz concert. Much prefer live Nil Baertsch shoes at Exil Club in Zurich Monday nights.

 

Maestro Charles Lloyd with Harish Raghavan and Anthony Wilson at Townhall. Magnificent!

 

Charles Lloyd at GPAC 11-4-22, wonderful sound and beautiful setting.

 

Damien Jurado’s 25th anniversary celebration at St. Mark’s Cathedral was pure magic

 

We thoroughly enjoyed the livestream on Disney + of Elton John's farewell US performance at Dodger Stadium last night. Of course, his voice isn't what it used to be, but just the consummate performer. His backing band was terrific and it was fun looking at so many attendees decked out for the occasion. Highly recommended.