<p>I (and 40,000 others!) saw Paul McCartney in concert at Piedmont Park (the Central Park of Atlanta) last night. It was stupendous–his voice seems undiminished with age, and he was an incredibly generous performer–fully 2 1/2 hours of Paul! Much singing along, encouraged by Paul. Most people in the audience behaved well. Great band, wonderful video–and there were fireworks! All ages attended, including DH and our 19 year old daughter. All had a great time. We even had rain–enough to soak us, but it stopped and we dried out–it IS Atlanta in August, after all.</p>
<p>Wouldn’t have missed it, but my aching back is a reminder that standing up for close to 3 hours exacts a price these days.</p>
<p>Wanted to get in one last “daddy/daughter” activity before she left for college. Took her to see “The Saturday Night Rebel Rockers Traveling Circus and Medicine Show”. That’s the name of Counting Crows’ current tour. In addition to The Counting Crows, the concert featured Augustana & Michael Franti and Spearhead. Instead of each group performing individually, it was more of a loose jam with members of each group on stage in various configurations performing each other’s songs and covers. The show opened with all 18 musicians on stage performing Van Morrison’s “Caravan” and closed three and a half hours later with the Counting Crows’ classic “Rain King” segueing into a “This Land is Your Land” sing along. Franti almost stole the show from Adam Duritz with his high energy performance (search “Say Hey” on youtube) and Augustana provided a mellow counterbalance to the other two groups with songs like “Boston” where she’ll be attending college. </p>
<p>Definitely recommended if you’re a fan of any one of the three bands or just want to see a great rock and roll show.</p>
<p>I saw the Moody Blues a week or so ago - and they were fantastic! S1 and S2 are now fans. They sound just as good as they did years ago, and they put on a fantastic show. It was long, too - no opening act, just two sets for a total of over 2 hours.</p>
<p>Saw Paul at Fenway - agree that he was just as wonderful as ever. He did lovely tributes to both George and John as well as lots of Beatles songs.</p>
<p>D was at Kenny Chesney last weekend at Gillette. She said all the opening bands were really good. This was her second K.Chez concert and she said he is just such an amazing performer. He really interacts with the crowd and loves what he’s doing. He entered the concert on a flying chair - suspended from wires over the crowd.</p>
<p>Saw U2 at Wembley Stadium in London on Saturday…it was the first night of our last vacation with our son before he starts college (and his younger sister). We didn’t tell them we had tickets, and they didn’t know what we were going to see until we left the tube and were approaching the stadium. That was great.
The concert was pretty great too, although I thought the sound quality was pretty bad–very muddy. The concert is supposed to be in the round, but there was a definite back–I’m glad we weren’t there. The effects were great, the crowd (about 80,000 people) impressive, and the energy of the band was excellent. Two opening acts–The Hours (quite good) and Glasvegas (not very good at all).</p>
<p>Has anyone seen the James Taylor/carole King concert yet? If so, how was it? We are going in a week or 2 and wondered how the reviews were.</p>
<p>DH and DS#1 saw a private Santana concert last week. Said his chatter was silly but the concert was great! It was in Orlando- shoulda let you know, Audiophile. He could have gotten an extra ticket- and all the refreshments and drinks were free too!</p>
<p>My sister and BIL just saw James Taylor/Carole King about a week ago. They loved it. My BIL thought James Taylor was only OK (thinks his songs all sound the same), but raved about Carole King. Very high energy and great performance. </p>
<p>There is a thread on CC about their concert tour.</p>
<p>I went this week to James Taylor and Carole King. It was a last minute decision as a friend had 2 extra tickets. I went back and forth on going but I am really glad I did. I found James Taylor to have the better voice but I still loved Carole King. I went with a friend whose very first concert was James Taylor and Carole King at the Troubador. Carole King looks amazing. I was lucky that I was able to see them at a small venue where every seat is pretty good. Plus how many concerts do you get to go to where you are under the stars plus get to glaze out over the ocean at sunset. The musicians were amazing.</p>
<p>The most recent concert I attended was Jimmy Buffett a few weeks ago. I’m more of a Deadhead than a Parrothead, but I’ll admit it is special seeing Jimmy play outdoors in Florida.</p>
<p>I had the opposite experience with Carole King a couple of years ago. I saw her perform in a local theater. She seemed extremely low energy, kept referencing her age, and too much of the short 75 minute set was taken up by her back up group and Louise Goffin (her daughter, but she never identified her as such) performing without her. Perhaps touring with JT has energized her. </p>
<p>Bookiemom- no wine excuses. Just my mind, memory and spelling not being what it used to be. I did just spend an hour this morning going over new window placement with a friend this morning at her remodel. Must have had windows on my mind.</p>
<p>Audio-
They never know until they are at the concert whether the security will be picky about the ID/ticket matching or not. Sorry to tease-- not my intent–. Hey-- I didnt get to go either!</p>
<p>Saw Neil Young play solo last night in a 2000 seat hall. My favorite show of the year so far. Started off his set acoustically with “Hey, Hey, My, My”, “Tell Me Why” and “Helpless” and ended with a blistering electric “Cortez” and “Cinnamon Girl”. Next week: Crosby, Still & Nash (too bad Neil won’t be with them!), then Dylan in October and Levon Helm & Ray LaMontagne in November.</p>
<p>Last concert we went to was to see Dir en Grey who are seriously weird Japanese sorta metal band and Apocalyptica who are an endearing Finnish band who play metal on cellos. They had some new work that was not metal at all very melodic and sweet. We saw them at the Nokia theater in Times Square. It’s a great place to see music. If you are willing to stand you can get really close, but if you want to sit you aren’t too far away because it’s not that big. (capacity about 2000)</p>
<p>Not really a “concert”, but a transcendent artistic experience involving music and live performance, and some of you may get a chance to catch it: A couple weeks ago, we saw a performance of a new production of “Dance”, a 1978 collaboration among dancer/choreographer Lucinda Childs, composer Philip Glass, and visual artist Sol LeWitt. This was the only theater work LeWitt ever involved himself with. It was stunning stunning stunning; afterwards everyone in the theater just stood around gasping about how great it was. We went home, called all our friends to tell them to try to see one of the remaining performances, and then spent the following evenings hearing back from them about how bowled over they were by it. Everything – dance, music, and the film LeWitt made to accompany them – was superb.</p>
<p>This reconstruction has already been performed at Bard College, Williams College, the MCA in Chicago, and Lincoln Center. I’m pretty sure there are other performances scheduled, but I couldn’t find a handy-dandy tour itinerary. In any event, if you have a chance to see it, take it!</p>
<p>Next week: Crosby, Still & Nash (too bad Neil won’t be with them!)</p>
<p>I dont suppose Neil was in Hawaii long enough to get tan ( he was at Eddie Vedders wedding last weekend)
Buffalo Springfield ( Young & Stills) is reuniting for Bridge School benefit this October- plus Pearl Jam both nights- however not going- I need more PJ than I can get at a benefit concert.</p>
<p>We saw Neil in 08 in Seattle- it was a smallish setting but folding chairs and a car show building
Neil was great however.</p>
<p>The most recent concert I saw was
‘Hootenanny for Healthy Gulf’ with my guitar teacher on stage at the historic Moore theatre with other local musicians including Alan White ( Yes & White), Duff McKagan ( Guns & Roses, Velvet Revolver) & Mike McCready ( Pearl Jam, Mad Season) .
Nice to get hugs from the musicians after the show :D</p>
Maybe 2011…</p>