I've seen them several times -- yes, you do. There is something about that music, multi-percussionists, and silly bald very blue men that just add up to something greater than the sum of the greatness of the parts.

Sugarland opened up for Kieth Urban at the Garden.

I have to tell you it was a great concert,the Garden was jumpin.

The Dead Weather, last weekend in New Orleans. Awesome show. Jack definitely put his White Stripes money into this one. All custom instruments, gloss white with gold trim, except the gorgeous drum set which was silver trim. Most of the cables were coiled, like old telephone cords. The whole band was great, and switched up instruments pretty regularly. The real star was Alison Bonhart (sp?) the lead vocalist, who was out of this world. She was cool and sexy, and also had that your friends divorced mom who drinks and smokes all the time thing going on? Like "so what are you boys up to tonight" kind of thing. The way she walked across the monitors in her high heels was intriguing.

Last night, Allman Brothers and Widespread Panic at the BJCC in Birmingham, AL, where I'm sitting at a friends house right now. Music started at 7:10, and ended around 12:20am. Long ass night of music. Brothers opened, a smoking set which included a Little Martha > Mountain Jam > Smokestack Lightening (with Col. Bruce Hampton on vocals!) > drums > Mountain Jam, and an encore of Blackhearted Woman > The Other One jam.

And Panic certainly rose to the occasion; its Panic in Bham and we knew they wouldn't disappoint. Opener of The Take Out > Diner > Rock let the crowd know we were in for some vintage Panic, no screwing around. Later a massive Slippin' Into Darkness with Warren and Quinones. Greg Allman came out for a Dylan cover, Just Like a Woman. Encored with Expiration Day, a Vic Chesnutt tune that is really special to me, and a perfectly executed Goin' Out West.

A great time was had by all. The crowd was partying its ass off but with a minimum of drama, at least from my perspective. About to hop in the car and head back to Mobile. This macbook is nice!

This friday, I went and saw Ane Brun, a Norwegian artist. Her performance totally blew me away! Simply fantastic, she has an amazing voice, and are just as good live as her studio recordings, not often to come across.

Bought her album "Ane Brun - Live At Stockholm Concert Hall", which I urge you to listen to/watch if you are into this kind of music.

This double album also contains a DVD of the concert. The recording is really great sound wise, and I was surprised how real it sounds through my headphones, compared to the live show. Very, very good. While the sound quality is excellent, I really wish the image was in high-def.

A couple of her videos:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4AmkD0xnp4&feature=related

Leonard Cohen. At intermission now. Most excellent so far. It's the show that's on the Live in London record.

That sounds great, Carl. I hope the second half was at least as good. That is a good concert.

Indeed it was. It got off to a bit of a slow start. I think everybody, probably including Cohen himself, was a little nervous after the unpleasantness in Spain. But once some momentum was achieved, it was a truly awesome show. Best sound I've ever heard in an arena show ever, as well. It sounded like well done sound for a rock or pop act in a concert hall if that makes any sense. Bank Atlantic Center is a hockey arena. That's an accomplishment. People were going to the sound booth and congratulating the sound men after the show.

Trampled by Turtles

My first time seeing them. Amazing show.

A bit of the ol' Ludwig Van. SF Symphony conducted by Osmo V

Moving Colors, A cover band at the Glass Cactus nightclub in grapevine TX.

The Dead Weather, last weekend in New Orleans. Awesome show. Jack definitely put his White Stripes money into this one. All custom instruments, gloss white with gold trim, except the gorgeous drum set which was silver trim. Most of the cables were coiled, like old telephone cords. The whole band was great, and switched up instruments pretty regularly. The real star was Alison Bonhart (sp?) the lead vocalist, who was out of this world. She was cool and sexy, and also had that your friends divorced mom who drinks and smokes all the time thing going on? Like "so what are you boys up to tonight" kind of thing. The way she walked across the monitors in her high heels was intriguing.<snip>

Alison Mosshart. Check out The Kills as well.

My wife, JP#s and I had the life-force drained out of us at a concert last night that should have been a miracle but was instead a sin. Don Byron and Nicholas Payton at the amazing Grace Cathedral with its soaring space and 7-second delay front to back was expected to be wonderful. It wasn't.

Byron playing solo at first actually was pretty cool. Mostly he played clarinet, some tenor sax, and some bass clarinet. Cool stuff. Then, the female vocal part of the original Star Trek theme song (as JP characterized it) broke out from the back of the church. It slowly moved forward and was complemented by some trippy violin playing. That was Iva Bittov

Edited October 31, 200916 yr by Voltron

Payton's performance may have been the singular worst moment in my jazz concert going experience

Attended the Terre Haute Symphony Orchestra's 'Music of the Night' concert on saturday evening.

Night on Bald Mountain (1867) Modest Mussorgsky

Danse Macabre, op. 14 (1874) Camille Saint-Sa

Really nice selection, there. (Symphonie Fantastique, in particular, is a recent discovery for me.)

The Musical Box - A Trick Of The Tail tour

It was my fifth time seeing these guys and they sure as hell didn't disappoint. For those who don't know, TMB are a Genesis cover band, but it's as far as it gets from your local bar cover band. They reproduce Genesis shows exactly the way they were played in the 70s, with the clothes/costumes, projections, instruments, speeches, etc. They spent the last 10 years or so doing tours from the Peter Gabriel era all over the world and it's the first time they venture in the Phil Collins period.

So far, I had seen 3 times doing the Selling England by the Pound tour and one time The Lamb. Singer Denis Gagne's voice is exactly like Gabriel, and I thought he didn't pull Collins quite as well yesterday night, but the rest of the band made up for it. I have to say, if you consider yourself a Genesis fan and haven't seen TMB yet, do yourself a favor and grab tickets as fast as you can. For those interested the setlist (same as the original 1976 setlist) was:

Dance on a Volcano

Lamb Lies Down On Broadway

Fly on a Windshield

Carpet Crawlers

Cinema Show

Robbery Assault and Battery

White Mountain

Firth of Fifth

Entangled

Squonk

Supper's Ready

I Know What I Like

Los Endos

It / Watcher of the Skies

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Is1oTQj5gRk

Alasdair Neale, conductor

Elizabeth Pitcairn, violin

VIVALDI The Four Seasons

MOZART Symphony No. 40 in G minor, K. 550

Nice populist stuff, give the punters what they want, and they'll leave, thoroughly entertained, and humming the good bits.

Having a "celeb" Elizabeth Pitcairn - The Red Violin , with a book/movie tie-in doesn't hurt

Enjoyable, could have done with some more volume, but then it was a Historically informed performance - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Beats experimental Jazz,I'd guess.

Beats experimental Jazz,I'd guess.

It wouldn't beat good experimental jazz, but if you are referring to the Friday Night Massacre then paint drying would have been more enjoyable.

GPH Re: The Musical Box -- I've of course heard of them (being a huge progger, myself) and intend on seeing them some day (although I keep forgetting to look to see if they're ever coming to my area), but I still have a question: do they do the whole drum duet thing that Phil Collins and Chester Thompson do? That started with the Trick of the Tail tour, didn't it?

GPH Re: The Musical Box -- I've of course heard of them (being a huge progger, myself) and intend on seeing them some day (although I keep forgetting to look to see if they're ever coming to my area), but I still have a question: do they do the whole drum duet thing that Phil Collins and Chester Thompson do? That started with the Trick of the Tail tour, didn't it?

Yes, they started the duet thing on the Trick tour, but it was Bill Bruford drumming then, Thompson first appeard on the Wind & Wuthering tour. The Musical Box reproduce all of that of course and let me say, hearing The Cinema Show instrumental part live with two drummers is an out of this world experience.

About a month ago I had the chance to go see the Australian Pink Floyd concert. I've never seen the original Pink Floyd but this Australian band kicked some major buteeeee. Great lightshow, had a kangaroo walking around his living room turning on his stereo and reaching into his shelving unit to pick out certain Pink Floyd albums and then he would put them on his turntable and the band would play that side of the album. It was really very cute animation. The band was marvelous.

About a month before that we had a chance to go see Tracy Chapman in a little club venue called the Park West here in Chicago. I had really high expectations for this as I love her albums. Tracy did not dissapoint. She exceeded all expectations. What was really special though was her personality. Just a lovely demeanor and her joyful Spirit shined while interacting with the audience. It was just delightful.Beautiful voice,great musician, love her dreads. I'm sure many after meeting her would just say she is one cool person.She seemed very at peace with herself. Highly recommend seeing her if you get a chance. Ifyour lucky enough to see both groups , you have just won the perfecta.

I accidentally saw Tracy at Humphrey's Half Moon -- it was rather delightful. (Accidentally == I checked into the hotel for the first time, not realizing that (a) she was playing there, ( that there were concerts there at all, © that I'd have a magnificent view of the show from where I was staying, (d) so it was effectively free.)

Very popular with the five-year-old crowd

I saw Phish last weekend at Festival 8, a three day Halloween Festival in Indio, CA. It was awesome. 8 sets, including their first all acoustic set, and the obligatory "musical costume" set. This Halloween, they covered the Rolling Stones "Exile on Main Street" in its entirety, with a tight horn section and two amazing female backup singers (one was Sharon Jones, the other I can't remember). It was outrageous.

The Coachella grounds are gorgeous, and the comfort level of the festival was higher then any I've been to, partly because of the professionalism of the staff (except a couple of instances where vendor friends of mine were shook down), partly because of the efforts of the band to maximize comfort (tons of couches and shade all over the place), and partly because there were maybe only 35,000 people at what was supposed to be a 60,000 person festival.

I had a blast!

iPhone pics on my facebook.

Also, I finally had my first In N Out burger. Delicious!