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Semi-Official Concert Review Thread


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War (uhh), what is it good far?

The answer is, one heckova good time

Saw War at the Paramount in Peekskill after an excellent dinner at Division Street Grill. We got he tickets because like my friend's ex-wife, they were cheap and easy to get and not much has been coming around here lately.   

It was a rare concert for us wherein the band's music was relatively popular but I was pleasantly surprised by some of the musical chops displayed this night.

Lonnie Jordan was the only original member from 1969, but as the lead vocalist and lead showman he was an important one. Good voice and a decent keyboardist using a Roland VK-8. An aside, nice keys! Hammond good with whatever faux Leslie he was using and surprisingly good Rhodes sound. Piano was way too digital, you'd figure he could have used another unit for that.

Marcus Reyes, a first call percussionist out of LA is a first rate latin jazz and salsa player. He's been with the band about 20 years. The star for me was a bassist called Rene Camacho. Of course, this music relies on both the bass player and percussionist so they hired two very talented guys to replace the originals. The sax player and drummer were both good but not hall of fame great, but both added to the music rather than subtracted from it.

The guitar player was just OK and better on rhythm. He mostly played a Strat and had a nice Les Paul handy that he played a little but not in the manner one wishes to see this instrument used. Was sitting in the second deck so I didn't see any of what was on his pedal board, which was small (3-4 pedals, one of which was a wah). When trading licks were called for, the sax and harp player were the ones to do it and he just sat it out. OK, I admit it, I am a guitar snob :)

When one thinks of War, Lee Oskar, ace harp player comes to mind. You may know him by the brand of excellent harmonicas that carry his name (When Junior Wells died, he was buried with a bunch of Lee Oskar harps). It was Oskar that defined the sound of many of War's hits.

Well, Lee wasn't there. I believe he is with several other ex-members of War touring under the name of Low Rider or something like that. They did manage to replace him with another excellent player, Stanley Behrens, who has played on a zillion TV and movie soundtracks and was also a past member of Canned Heat and Willie Dixon's band (of course I looked him up when I got home). In any event, he was darned good playing a chromatic on a harp pickup through a Fender with the reverb cranked. His comping and solos were excellent, serving as a horn replacement and I have to say that this guy was better than Popper for me.

Crowd was, shall we say "well aged" but that didn't stop folks from getting up and dancing to the hits. Of course, they all looked ridiculous doing so but a good time was had by all.

Great Barramundi at the Division Street Grill BTW. 

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On 2/25/2018 at 9:27 AM, Panzer Division Marduk said:

Pestilence in Dublin last night, for the first time ever. They were supposed to play here on the Testimony of the Ancients tour in 92, supporting Death, but owing to Tony Choy being a lazy idiot without a visa, it never happened.

Last night was billed as the first four albums tour, and for a guy who's said time and time again he's not over enthusiastic about playing the old stuff, Patrick Mameli had a blast, as did everyone. Great night, and them playing five songs off Testimony was the icing on the cake.

 

Thats cool i remember the visa incidemt lol

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  • 3 weeks later...

Tuesday night, Epica in Dublin. Jam packed, but a very good set, surprised the bouncing going on during the last song didn't cause structural damage to the venue. Myrkur, the support act should be marketed as a cure for insomnia, though.

Last night, The Crown. Hadn't seen them since a brilliant show in L'Amour in 2002. They'd split up, reformed, and proceeded to release a couple of piss poor albums. New one came out last month, a big improvement, but the combination of the general feeling about the last couple of albums, and the fact the show was only announced a couple of weeks ago, meant an extremely small attendance, and the show being moved to a smaller venue, one which had an earlier curfew. So just over an hour, throw in the bassist having to stay in Sweden owing to a family emergency, and it had all the makings of a disaster.

It wasn't. Most of the set was from the classic late 90's - mid 2000's era, with a few off the current album, and all at breakneck speed. Just the way it should be. A great night.

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The weather was so nice Saturday that we decided to just go to the City and walk around. After a nice al fresco meal we ended up at the Iridium where "Band of Friends" was playing. They advertised themselves as a Rory Gallagher show. Tickets, not unlike a close friends ex-wife, were cheap and easy to get so we decided what the heck.

This is a trio consisting of the long time bassist, Gerald McAvoy and one of the later drummers who played with the late Rory. The guitar and vocals were handled by a kid named Davey Knowles, formerly of Back Door Slam.

They did the Rory catalog and the kid was very good. He played a beat up old Strat like Gallagher's and had a few excellent but limited licks and little in the way of effects (there were two pedals I couldn't see). He handled all of the material well (it's not easy doing three piece) and had a great voice for it. He also was a good slide player (standard tuning on the same Start ... the way I like it) The Iridium is tiny and we enjoyed a nice close up view while enjoying a criminally overpriced bottle of red. 

Highlight was personal for me. They closed with Bullfrog Blues. Brought back 1972 (wipe tear from eye). 

I know the Hendrix comment and others like it elevated Gallagher to an artificially high level, but he was a damn good a blues/rock player and so is Knowles. It was not the type of music that inspires you to go home and practice all night, but it was a good show of one the types of music that is seemingly lost on the last few generations and will probably go gently into that good night when us older folk are gone. 

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Saw Modest Mouse on Sat.  It was a postponed show from their tour last year when the Hurricanes hit Florida. It was a lot of fun.  They're really a bunch of talented musicians and it's fun watching a 7 piece band play that type of music and trade instruments and add instruments and just so really cool sh*t.  Their guitar play live is sooo much better than their studio albums.  Good times!

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I saw Indigenous a couple of months back at BB Kings...Indigenous is led by Native American Mato Nanji who is the closest thing to a living SRV you can get, the guys is terrific. Anyway aside from that this terrific venus BB Kings in NYC is closing this week, a couple of great shows if you get a chance Parliment/Funkdelic and Buddy Guy are there this week on different nights, Rick Ross I think as well for those so inclined

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On 4/23/2018 at 8:48 AM, JiF said:

Saw Modest Mouse on Sat.  It was a postponed show from their tour last year when the Hurricanes hit Florida. It was a lot of fun.  They're really a bunch of talented musicians and it's fun watching a 7 piece band play that type of music and trade instruments and add instruments and just so really cool sh*t.  Their guitar play live is sooo much better than their studio albums.  Good times!

Saw them play last year in Lincoln NE - dynamite show!  Would definitely see them again!

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Attended Wanee 2018:

1. St Paul and the Broken Bones - good stuff, very different than what I expected....a lil trippy here and there

2. Pink Talking Fish - Did their usual gimmick that I love. This year they added allman Bros tunes to their floyd/phish/heads thing. "Dogs" going into "midnight Rider" was wayyy cool.

3. Pigeons Playing Ping Pong - They did a 230 to 430 slot, but should have done the midnight closer. This is one of the best young bands out there if you like jam/funk/electronica. So interesting to watch these guys have a ton of fun laughing and smiling the entire set

4. Carl Dennison - Did a midnight allman set. superb.

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23 hours ago, HighPitch said:

Attended Wanee 2018:

1. St Paul and the Broken Bones - good stuff, very different than what I expected....a lil trippy here and there

2. Pink Talking Fish - Did their usual gimmick that I love. This year they added allman Bros tunes to their floyd/phish/heads thing. "Dogs" going into "midnight Rider" was wayyy cool.

3. Pigeons Playing Ping Pong - They did a 230 to 430 slot, but should have done the midnight closer. This is one of the best young bands out there if you like jam/funk/electronica. So interesting to watch these guys have a ton of fun laughing and smiling the entire set

4. Carl Dennison - Did a midnight allman set. superb.

PPPP is high energy and fun, I saw them at the stone pony a few months and was bored out of my mind however.. Not a lot of substance 

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On ‎2‎/‎24‎/‎2018 at 5:26 PM, The Crimson King said:

 

*******************************  CONCERT ALERT *************************************

Brand X is coming back this spring. They'll be back at the Iridium on Sat 5/5 and Sun 5/6

https://www.ticketmaster.com/brand-x-iridium-new-york-ny/venueartist/337448/1408670

They'll also be at Daryl's House in Pawling, NY on Wed 5/2.

http://www.darylshouseclub.com/shows

I guarantee that our resident bassist would love Percy Jones. Also bass related, Stu Hamm will be at Daryl's on Wed Mar 21 

*******************************  CONCERT ALERT *************************************

 

Another great show by Brand X last night. Virtually the same band and review as posted last year a page or two ago, except now Goodsall used a Tele.

They are at the Iridium this weekend so if you like musicianship, you must go see these guys

What I wanted to report on this time is the venue ... Daryl's House. Can't tell you how impressed we were. Tiny place, free parking, just over the Duchess County border in Pawling. The food was so good and reasonably priced that we would go there just as restaurant. Great server and even reasonably priced wine and scotch. Poppy Chubby is coming soon but most of the lineup are vocal based musics. We will be watching for more shows here. Sure beats going to the city.  

Also:

************************************* CONCERT ALERT ************************************************

Al DiMeola doing electric at Ridgefield  

https://ridgefieldplayhouse.org/events/al-di-meola/?mc=reload

He'll also be at Town Hall in the City on 6/30 and the Egg in Albany on 6/29 

************************************* CONCERT ALERT ************************************************

One more thing if you excuse the indulgence:

A moment of silence for my beloved JV-1000, which finally looks kaput after almost a quarter century. After the appropriate mourning period, the FA-08 might look good where the JV has lived all this time :)

 

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On 5/3/2018 at 1:31 PM, The Crimson King said:

Another great show by Brand X last night. Virtually the same band and review as posted last year a page or two ago, except now Goodsall used a Tele.

They are at the Iridium this weekend so if you like musicianship, you must go see these guys

What I wanted to report on this time is the venue ... Daryl's House. Can't tell you how impressed we were. Tiny place, free parking, just over the Duchess County border in Pawling. The food was so good and reasonably priced that we would go there just as restaurant. Great server and even reasonably priced wine and scotch. Poppy Chubby is coming soon but most of the lineup are vocal based musics. We will be watching for more shows here. Sure beats going to the city.  

Also:

************************************* CONCERT ALERT ************************************************

Al DiMeola doing electric at Ridgefield  

https://ridgefieldplayhouse.org/events/al-di-meola/?mc=reload

He'll also be at Town Hall in the City on 6/30 and the Egg in Albany on 6/29 

************************************* CONCERT ALERT ************************************************

One more thing if you excuse the indulgence:

A moment of silence for my beloved JV-1000, which finally looks kaput after almost a quarter century. After the appropriate mourning period, the FA-08 might look good where the JV has lived all this time :)

 

Poor jv..... 

I have a jv90 with the keyboards of the 60s 70s card. Lotsa sounds still hold up today

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On ‎5‎/‎8‎/‎2018 at 1:54 PM, HighPitch said:

Poor jv..... 

I have a jv90 with the keyboards of the 60s 70s card. Lotsa sounds still hold up today

ordered an FA-08 to replace the JV a couple of hours ago. Started watching You Tube videos of how to use it. I'm now in a corner curled up in a fetal position sucking my thumb and muttering "damn I thought the ARP Axxe was hard to run ... "

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14 hours ago, HighPitch said:

I just got one of these.....real easy to use. Its got a touch screen and you drag and drop effects boxes, amps, and cabs into your chain then double tap an effects and analog knobs tweek parameters. Real nice

F66D0784-F394-45CF-80B1-FE8C32E9D0FD.jpeg

Nice. Costs a bit though. You should start a gear thread and repost this so folks can discuss or ask questions (or what little of us there here). I have a bunch of course :)

Love that patch name ... searing lead ... drive 100% ... that's for me !

 

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  • 1 month later...

Great show last night at the Florida Theater.  Pixies!!!!

They ******* killed it.  Absolutely fire set.  The bass player who replaced Kim Deal has a very similar vibe and has just as enchanting of a voice.

Highlights: Hey, Gigantic, Monkey's Gone to Heaven, Crackity Jones, Velouria.

Whole show was sick. I swear they got like 30+ songs in.  Those just stick out the most in my head. 

 

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On 6/25/2018 at 1:25 PM, JiF said:

Great show last night at the Florida Theater.  Pixies!!!!

They ******* killed it.  Absolutely fire set.  The bass player who replaced Kim Deal has a very similar vibe and has just as enchanting of a voice.

Highlights: Hey, Gigantic, Monkey's Gone to Heaven, Crackity Jones, Velouria.

Whole show was sick. I swear they got like 30+ songs in.  Those just stick out the most in my head. 

 

Lo e pixies. Saw em in tampa a few years back. 

HEY

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I saw the Smashing Pumpkins last night here in Phoenix, AZ.  I was a pretty big fan in the early 90's thru 2000's and then slipped away a bit when Billy Corgan started experimenting with different styles, electronica, solo stuff, etc.  But I have to say that for anyone who likes hardcore Pumpkins from the early days (Gish, Siamese Dream, MCIS, etc) this show absolutely kicked ass!  They played almost 3 hours and 31 songs.  Played more than half the Siamese Dream album, touched on some of the later stuff but just enough to appease those who have liked the last two albums or so.  And, covers of David Bowie and Led Zeppelin!

They will be playing NY and NJ later this Summer.  If you are (or were) a fan I'd highly suggest getting to see them.  I'll post the set list and some pics/videos when I get a chance.

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On 7/13/2018 at 1:41 PM, jetstream23 said:

I saw the Smashing Pumpkins last night here in Phoenix, AZ.  I was a pretty big fan in the early 90's thru 2000's and then slipped away a bit when Billy Corgan started experimenting with different styles, electronica, solo stuff, etc.  But I have to say that for anyone who likes hardcore Pumpkins from the early days (Gish, Siamese Dream, MCIS, etc) this show absolutely kicked ass!  They played almost 3 hours and 31 songs.  Played more than half the Siamese Dream album, touched on some of the later stuff but just enough to appease those who have liked the last two albums or so.  And, covers of David Bowie and Led Zeppelin!

They will be playing NY and NJ later this Summer.  If you are (or were) a fan I'd highly suggest getting to see them.  I'll post the set list and some pics/videos when I get a chance.

How was "Rocket" live.  Always loved that tune, especially the buzz saw guitars and Billy's spacey vocal.  Also, was the Stairway cover decent? 

 

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1 hour ago, munchmemory said:

How was "Rocket" live.  Always loved that tune, especially the buzz saw guitars and Billy's spacey vocal.  Also, was the Stairway cover decent? 

 

Rocket was great.  I heard several songs I'd never heard them do live before.  Mayonnaise, Drown and Porcelina of the Vast Oceans are 3 of my all-time faves.

The cover of Stairway to Heaven was very good.  It's ambitious to try to cover such an epic rock tune, no matter who you are, and they did it well.

In terms of the overall show it was setup like a journey.  Billy walked on stage by himself with a guitar and played Disarm to a backdrop of historical pictures from when he was kid ("...I used to be a little boy....") through his teen years and early days with the band.  Then it just launched into songs from every album.  They did about 7 from Siamese Dream alone with less of an emphasis on the more recent / less popular stuff, although there were a few of those.  A great show.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Saw dokken last night. Not by choice, i was in vegas and they  were playing a free concert on fremont. 

They sucked. Don cant come remotely close to hitting any high notes. Plus they did all the usual 80s rock gimmicks. Plus hes fat. Its kinda sad really

They sucked in  the 80s and are worse than that now. Carry on.... 

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Foo Fighters last night at Wrigley Field.

image.png

High energy, a lot of fun, pretentious and over the top at times, but never boring.  Pretty much what you would expect from the Foo Fighters in a stadium venue.  Good, fun show.

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13 hours ago, Lith said:

Foo Fighters last night at Wrigley Field.

image.png

High energy, a lot of fun, pretentious and over the top at times, but never boring.  Pretty much what you would expect from the Foo Fighters in a stadium venue.  Good, fun show.

I  was there last night as well -- very loud but was a fun night out.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Good show at The Space in Westbury tonight … Jean-Luc Ponty. 

The tour is a visitation of the Atlantic years, including Enigmatic Ocean, Cosmic Messenger and Imaginary Voyage.

Band was the actual late 70's- early 80's band, a rare thing these days when the band consists of one old original dude with a bunch of unheard of young bucks or some hack musicians and a cousin of one of the original members. This means Jamie Glaser on guitar who replaced Allan Holdsworth after most of the albums in question were recorded. Glaser, another Berklee guy is a great player but just a tad degree below the late great Holdsworth (this is no slight, the description fits many excellent players). Played some sort of custom job through a MB cab. Couldn't get the FX or the head though. Sounded Nice.  Similar chair replacements were also there tonight, Wally Minko in for Alan Zavod (also great, also a degree below), Keith Jones in for the major league talent of Ralphe Armstrong (one of the best and surprisingly unheard of bassists ever) and Rayford Griffin on drums (forgot the original drummer but this one was about even).  Jean Luc himself was also a tad below the Ponty of ages ago but given that he is now 75 yrs old it is pretty much understandable. Still has a lot of the speed and precision of the days when Ford was President and disco hadn't poisoned music yet.

Still, all in all some skilled playing, it's just that the original band after Ponty's Zappa and Mahavishnu stints was manned by some of the best who ever played. Pieces were mostly true to Ponty's excellent original compositions. I always felt that his best skill was composing and was always overshadowed by Jerry Goodman and John Blair as a pure soloist. They did blow one of my favs, The Struggle of the Turtle to the Sea by replacing the synth-guitar-violin tradeoffs at the end with an overly long drum solo (and Griffin just isn't Cobham) and Jones totally missing on Armstrong's amazing bass solo 

The real thrill was the venue. I recognized the building right away as the old Westbury Movie theater. Having grown up on the other side of that town, I spent a lot of time in that theater before the albums described above were even recorded but escaped from LI to go to school and never returned. Very nostalgic as that theater was where the first time I ... uh ... never mind.

The crowd was mostly appreciative but we noticed a lot of folks leaving before it was over. Probably because it was past their bedtimes and they needed to get home to take their medications. There were no one there who looked to be not collecting Medicare. Yet another important slice of musicianship destined to fade into the history of virtuosity among the mediocrity of embarrassingly talentless pop downloaded on i phones.

Still some good musicianship coming up in the next couple of months. Paul Gilbert (Racer X, G3 tour) at the Iridium, Eric Johnson at Ridgefield and Keaggy, Levin & Marotta at Daryl's Place. Some excellent choices for all you musical snobs out there

 

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15 hours ago, The Crimson King said:

Good show at The Space in Westbury tonight … Jean-Luc Ponty. 

 

The crowd was mostly appreciative but we noticed a lot of folks leaving before it was over. Probably because it was past their bedtimes and they needed to get home to take their medications. There were no one there who looked to be not collecting Medicare. Yet another important slice of musicianship destined to fade into the history of virtuosity among the mediocrity of embarrassingly talentless pop downloaded on i phones.

Still some good musicianship coming up in the next couple of months. Paul Gilbert (Racer X, G3 tour) at the Iridium, Eric Johnson at Ridgefield and Keaggy, Levin & Marotta at Daryl's Place. Some excellent choices for all you musical snobs out there

 

If you get a chance, there's a documentary on Netflix on Coltrane.  Describes how he went from good session player, to Miles band and then his own gig and how he wanted to "express himself".   It didn't go well and audiences would walk out halfway.   Im a HUGE fan but simply don't enjoy his "Love Supreme" work although it is critically acclaimed.

Makes me more impressed with bands like RUSH, Eagles etc who can stay together, play the old stuff and recognize what the audience wants.  At the same time, makes me SMH that guys like Keith Emerson (Im a HUGE ELP fan) many times  put the audience second and HIS desire first.  For that, I am quite certain his net worth was a shell of what it could have been.  Instead of "Works or Works II and Love Beach" imagine more work like Tarkus and BSS.

 

 

 

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4 hours ago, southparkcpa said:

If you get a chance, there's a documentary on Netflix on Coltrane.  Describes how he went from good session player, to Miles band and then his own gig and how he wanted to "express himself".   It didn't go well and audiences would walk out halfway.   Im a HUGE fan but simply don't enjoy his "Love Supreme" work although it is critically acclaimed.

Makes me more impressed with bands like RUSH, Eagles etc who can stay together, play the old stuff and recognize what the audience wants.  At the same time, makes me SMH that guys like Keith Emerson (Ima HUGE fan) many times  put the audience second and HIS desire first.  For that, I am quite certain his new worth was a shell of what it could have been.  Instead of "Works or Works II and Love Beach" imagine more work like Tarkus and BSS.

 

 

 

Ya just read an article on slash. Says his band may never do any gnr. Thats just stupid! Fans wanna hear some classics. A guy like him should play 1 gnr tune ar least every third or fourth song. All bands shoul

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50 minutes ago, HighPitch said:

Ya just read an article on slash. Says his band may never do any gnr. Thats just stupid! Fans wanna hear some classics. A guy like him should play 1 gnr tune ar least every third or fourth song. All bands shoul

For them... the difference may be they are FU rich.   I agree that they are a PERFECT example.  Just play a tour together for 1 year, 120 shows, bank 10 mil or more each.  They wouldn't appear together at R and R HOF???  

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5 hours ago, southparkcpa said:

stay together, play the old stuff and recognize what the audience wants.  At the same time, makes me SMH that guys like Keith Emerson (Im a HUGE ELP fan) many times  put the audience second and HIS desire first.  For that, I am quite certain his net worth was a shell of what it could have been.  Instead of "Works or Works II and Love Beach" imagine more work like Tarkus and BSS.

 

 

 

The art won't be as good if they are playing things they aren't interested in. I think it's a good thing that it's not all about money for some people

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