2009 Year In Review: Concerts

Reading through a lot of blogs for year end thoughts, I've seen a lot of people talk about how it was a down year in music (once again! they exclaim) but I have to say I found a whole lot to like as I usually do. It's been a great year with several great artists I've discovered and been to concerts from Vegas to the world famous Ryman Auditorium in Nashville. I've seen the full scope again from washed-up hair bands to country stars to Rock N Roll Hall of Famers. So my friend 2009, you get 2 thumbs up from me... and you will be missed.

So let's start with my favorite concerts of the year, and despite the fact that I had a lot to pick from it was still not near as many as I've been to in several recent years. Age catching up? You shut yer mouf! Well, probably. But regardless, here are my...

Top 5 Favorite Concerts of 2009

1. Metallica with Machine Head at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas (more here)

2. Gary Allen with Jack Ingram at The Ryman Auditorium in Nashville (more here)

3. KISS with Buckcherry at Verizon Arena in Little Rock (more here)

4. Keith Urban with Sugarland at Verizon Arena in Little Rock (more here)

5. Tora Tora reunion show at The New Daisy on Beale Street in Memphis (more here)

That was 5 awesome shows, but it still leaves off so many others that I loved... like Daughtry with Cavo and Theory of a Deadman just this month, Queensryche in Nashville, Black Stone Cherry and Bombay Black back in the Spring, Mudvayne and Nonpoint just before that show, Faster Pussycat with Bullet Boys at the Rev Room and finally AC/DC with The Answer way back in January. And I haven't even mentioned the big Edgefest show (because it was so brutally hot and I'm not a big fan of the festival type shows anymore I guess... see the "too old" bit above) with Korn, Static-X, Black Label Society, Mudvayne, Burn Halo and a lot of other sweaty, tattooed metal rockers. Oh it was a good show, but I stood on a paved parking lot for 8 hours in direct sunlight for most of it and 90+ degree weather chugging as much water as I could. That took away a lot of the enjoyment of some cool bands, trust me on that.

Searching back through my blogs it seems I hardly posted a mention at all one of my favorite musical moments of the year, and that's back on my March Vegas trip when I went to see Monster Circus at the Hilton, met them, got a picture and sat side stage. They are a collection of rockers from bands like Twisted Sister, Motley Crue and KISS that play a bunch of great old 80s tunes along with some acrobats, fire breathers, a ring master, an evil clown guy and sexy dancers on stage. It's a very Vegas style show with some solid tunes like “Once Bitten, Twice Shy,” “Crazy Train” and “Highway to Hell.” A bit cheesy you say? Perhaps. But a helluva great time and the packed crowd loved it as well.

Check out my picture with the guys below... Fred Coury (Cinderella), Tony Montana (Great White), John Corabi (Motley Crue, Ratt), Dee Snider (Twisted Sister), Rudy Sarzo (Ozzy Osbourne, Quiet Riot, Whitesnake, Dio) and Bruce Kulick (Kiss) .


So yeah, 2009 will be tough to top, but I'll give it a shot.

Concert Review: Daughtry

Daughtry with Cavo and Theory of a Deadman
Verizon Arena, North Little Rock, AR
Dec 18th, 2009

The first thing I noticed upon arrival to our seats was that Verizon Arena had the entire top section shut down and closed off with a big black curtain, meaning the maximum number of music fans that would be fitting in there was probably around 6,000. That's about my attendance guess as well as the lower section was pretty close to full. The 2nd thing I noticed was that the audience was about 75% female, with quite a few teen/tween kids as well. No surprise (excuse the pun).

Cue the first band right on time, Cavo, who is out of St. Louis and they've had 1 big hit on the radio, "Champagne", which they obviously played (last) but they also played about 4 other catchy, poppish little rock tunes as well. I believe they played 5 songs total and all were from the major label release "Bright Nights * Dark Days". They're pretty much post-grunge/pop rock with their look and sound and were entertaining enough to get the crowd going. I found the drummer particularly fun and energetic myself.

Next up was Canada's Theory of a Deadman, who I've always thought were a bit like Nickelback, which isn't a bad thing if you want to sell some records. They've got a lot of catchy, radio-friendly tracks and were well-received by the early arriving audience. The lead singer, Tyler Connolly, might have been sick or just had some throat problem because he didn't sound so hot, often just not even trying to hit some of the high notes. They could have benefited from some of the other band members stepping up and filling out the vocals on the choruses I thought. Still, it was a good 40 minute or so set with a lot of recognizable tunes like "Hate My Life," "So Happy," "Not Meant To Be," "By The Way" and "Bad Girlfriend." The crowd helped with a lot of the singing, especially on "Hate My Life," and they didn't overstay their welcome like a lot of bands in the 2nd slot tend to do. They left people cheering and wanting more. Fortunately we didn't have to wait too long.

After a fairly quick removal of TOAD's equiptment, the light dropped and huge curtains were surrounding the stage. After a bit of a build-up as you could see the shadows of the guys taking their places on stage, the curtains dropped, explosions went off and Daughtry was on stage tearing into "Every Time You Turn Around." The band looked good, like you would expect a "rock band" to look if they walked in to a place. I'm guessing they shop for clothes at an actual store called "Rockers Inc." or something, if there is such a place. Chris Daughtry himself does seem to be one of those guys who demands attention with his looks and presence. As he plays guitar and belts out vocals, he just seems like a rock star. From the way he strangles the mic stand like he's about choke it to death, to the way connects with the audience. He's not an Idol, he's a rocker.

I was surprised they blasted through probably their biggest 2 hits early on, "It's Not Over" and "No Surprise," but there were still plenty of solid tunes left in their catalog to choose from. At one point Chris walked out on the catwalk to get more into the crowd and sat on a stool with an acoustic guitar and played "Tennessee Line" followed by a song he said was one of his favorites ever, Phil Collin's "In The Air Tonight." There were a lot of cell phone lights swaying to the music and a lot of people singing along and one thing became very evident, Chris Daughtry has serious pipes. He also seemed to really be putting his heart into it and it came across as a pretty emotional song. He wasn't just going through the motions, but was really caring about the music. Somewhere Phil Collins is smiling and nodding his head.

On the night they ripped through catchy rockin' tracks like "Feels Like Tonight," "Ghost of You," "What I Want," "Over You (my personal favorite Daughtry tune)," and a heavy version of The Beatles "Helter Skelter." They also brought it down at will with good slower tempo songs like "September" but then they pick things right back up. There are a lot of lights, explosions and fist pumping moments which all added up to a solid night of entertainment. By the time they returned for an encore of "Home" and "There And Back Again" I'd already decided I'd go see this band again in a second. They played for a good 90 minutes with a lot of energy to spare. Chris Daughtry seems pretty genuine with his love of music. He's definitely a good songwriter and after seeing him in concert I'd not be questioning his ability to nail any song vocally.

All 3 bands might be considered a bit on the generic side, as their music falls into that radio cliche' as of late that's been around since Creed, Fuel and more recently Nickelback or Puddle of Mudd, but all 3 are putting out recognizable songs and the crowd on this night enjoyed themselves it seemed. It's power-chords done well. You want a professional rock show? Here one is.

Concert Review: Metallica

Metallica
with Machine Head and Volbeat
Las Vegas @ Mandalay Bay Events Center
Dec 5th, 2009

Metallica continues to tour supporting their latest CD, Death Magnetic, and this is the 2nd time I've seen them on the tour. They've kept pretty much the same stage and all and a lot of the same lights, pyros, giant black beach balls... etc. What changes is the opening bands and the set list, so really you can go right here for a more detailed recap of the show if you want from when I saw them last year.


We timed it pretty good as we completely missed Volbeat, who I really didn't care much about, and got to our seats only about a song into Machine Head's set. This was the first time I've ever seen them and I thought they were excellent. I'm not sure in-the-round in a huge venue like this is the best place to see them, but I'll take what I can get. I screamed along to Davidian, Now I Lay Thee Down and Halo along with the rest of the crowd who was arriving and were really into them. I've got to catch these guy headlining soon.

The show was sold-out and by the time metal legends took the stage the place was packed and about to go off it felt like. When the lights went down and the music for Ecstacy of Gold hit to a huge laser show, the place did just that.


Still heavy on the new CD, they tore through 18 songs in the 2 1/2 hours with the energy of a much younger band. They played songs from 7 different albums: Kill ‘Em All (2 songs), Ride the Lightning (3 songs), Master of Puppets (1 song), ...And Justice for All (1 song), The Black Album (3 songs), ReLoad (1 song), Garage, Inc. (1 song), and Death Magnetic (6 songs). Since I'd already seen them on this tour and have heard them play the new songs, I was hoping they'd drop a couple and replace them with classics (how about For Whom The Bell Tolls or Battery) but since I love about 50 of their songs I could have the same complaints at every one of their shows (unless they play for about 10 hours). Set list highlights for me were Fade To Black and the massive pyro during the song One.

And I am not one of those guys who sits around and whines and moans about a band getting too old and for them to hang it up and blah blah blah. Look, if they love their music and can still get it done, bands like The Stones and Metallica and KISS should play until they're sitting in an old folks home. More power to them I say. And trust me on this, Metallica can absolutely still get it done.


Here's the full set list in order:

* That Was Just Your Life
* The End of the Line
* Ride The Lightning
* The Memory Remains
* Fade to Black
* Broken, Beat & Scarred
* Cyanide
* Sad But True
* One
* All Nightmare Long
* The Day That Never Comes
* Master Of Puppets
* Fight Fire With Fire
* Nothing Else Matters
* Enter Sandman

** Encore **

* Die Die My Darling
* Whiplash
* Seek and Destroy


Yes my photos suck but there are some great close-up photos from the show right here.

Here's a great video from the show posted on YouTube of Fade To Black:

Tora Tora @ Minglewood Hall

About 1 year ago, I drove over to Memphis and saw one of my favorite bands from my college years, Tora Tora. Here's the review of that show and below is the review of this year's reunion from this past weekend. I won't get as detailed but I'll try to hit some differences. I really hope this becomes an annual event and these guys keep doing it until it's held at an old folk's home, cause I'll still be there.

So the biggest difference is that this year it was held in the Minglewood Hall instead of the on Beale Street at the New Daisy Theater. If you're not familiar with Memphis... trust me that this is great news. Minglewood Hall is a pretty big venue and it's a very nice venue as well. Well organized, clean and the sound is great. $4 a pop for a can of beer is pretty reasonable too.

A couple of local bands, Blackberry Wednesday and Chosen View, opened the show and I thought both were really good. We used the time to hit the merch booths, check out the venue, grab some brews and scout out or locations.

Finally the lights drop about 10:30 and the music of ZZ Top blasts over the loud speakers (La Grange), followed by some weird radio transmission sounding squawk... then the guys hit the stage hopped up on energy and smiling ear-to-ear. Sure, all the hair is shorter and maybe a bit thinner and just maybe there are a few more pounds here-and-there, but everybody still looks really good. All the guys have stayed in shape and a couple of them look more fit than most guys in young bands now. Ant's voice is unmistakable and unique still, although not as high as it used to be, but every bit as soulful and bluesy. And since I've already done the comparison to younger bands, Keith Douglas can still outplay just about anybody around on guitar. This guy will be ripping effortless solos in his coffin that will still blow the mourners away.

Not too much chit-chat between songs, but Anthony addresses everybody often with a quick bit about how much he loves this stuff and how great the crowd is, both of which are pretty obvious. The set list had a couple of surprises I thought, with 3 tracks from the unreleased 3rd CD, Revolution Day, and a few tracks I'm not sure about. At one point they did a short, fun cover of Elvis' "That's Alright Mama" that jammed pretty good and got a roar. Here's the song list from the set:

* Wild America
* Amnesia
* 28 Days
* Mississippi Voodoo Child
* Shattered
* Guilty
* Cold Fever
* Lay Your Money Down
* Mary Wants Some
* Nowhere To Go But Down
* Dead Man's Hand
* Me and You
* Being There
* Revolution Day
* City of Kings
* Walkin' Shoes
** Encore Break **
* Phantom Rider
* Riverside Drive
* Love's A Bitch

The crowd was great, singing along to a good majority of the songs, but I have to say I was especially blown away by Phantom Rider. Seriously, it's the loudest I've ever heard an audience sing (me included) and every word was so loud the band was almost drowned out. It was a very cool moment.

Something else cool was that a company called AcoustiSonic was selling wristband with USB drives of the show about 30 minutes after it ended. It has the full show and a bunch of pics of the band through the years. $20 was more than the price of the ticket itself, but I couldn't pass it up. I'd love to see this at more shows I go to and can just imagine how much I would have spent through the years if this was always available.

Awesome set. Awesome band. Awesome night.

Here's a few now-and-then shots for you... see if you can figure out which are current:









And a few misc. shots I took this Saturday night:

Quick Concert Review

Good show last night. We got there towards the end of Flyleaf's set as I'm really not a big fan of theirs. We did catch the only song by them I know, "I'm So Sick", and also the part of their show where they have a guy dressed like Jesus carrying a little stuffed lamb and telling the audience that Flyleaf is his favorite band. Somewhere I suspect Scott Stapp of Creed wept.

Breaking Benjamin came out next and although they're not flashy and had a pretty tame stage show, they rocked pretty good. I love lead singer Benjamin Burnley's vocals and think they have a really solid catalog of great tunes. They blasted through "I Will Not Bow", "Diary of Jane", "Polyamorous" and "So Cold" and a good half-dozen other tracks in their 45 minute straight-forward set. No big fancy guitar solos or drum solos, just banging out one power chord after another. Bottom line... if you like their music you'll love 'em live. If you don't they're probably not going to win you over. I'd also heard they normally play Aerosmith's "Dream On" as a video montage of dead rockers rolls behind them, but for whatever reason we didn't get that on this night.

Three Days Grace came out to the song "Break" and showed off a lot more pyro and such as they ripped through their list of hits. They also managed a few more guitar solos and a drum solo, plus lead singer Adam Gontier sat on a small platform for "I Don't Care". They played plenty more hits and a cover of Phil Collin's "In The Air Tonight" before wrapping it up. Another band whose strength is really in their music moreso than their live show, but they were hella entertaining I thought.

This tour (this was actually the last show on it I believe) is a good fun night of modern rock.

Gettin' Closer To Nashville

We made a nice little 3-day-weekend into a road trip to Nashville this past weekend, with the center point being Keith Urban's concert at the Bridestone Arena on Saturday night with Jake Owen opening. But we arrived a day earlier and pretended we were tourists (well, we were after all) as it'd been over a year since I'd visited the country music mecca and it's a city that I love to visit.





Like any good tourists, we did a tour of the Country Music Hall of Fame, The Ryman Auditorium and famous Studio B (where Elvis recorded about 250 of his songs). A lot of bars and restaurants were also worked in, like Red Door Saloon, McGuiness Irish Pub, The Flying Saucer, Beer Sellar, Wildhorse Saloon and 12 South Taproom and Grill. And in my never ending quest to hit every brewery in America, we visited the new Jackalope Brewery and followed that up with a visit to Yazoo Brewery, just down the road. Both were fantastic. For the record, here's the new beers we tried between the 2 breweries at happy hour(s) on Friday:



* Jackalope Bearwalker Maple Brown

* Jackalope Dire Wolf IPA

* Jackalope Thunder Ann American Pale Ale

* Yazoo Nitro Stout

* Yazoo Gerst



We also stopped by Frugal MacDoogal Wine & Liquor Warehouse and dropped $100 on some bring-home bottles and cans of 12 (and 22) ounce love that we can't get here.



But enough, you want to know about Keith Urban's Nashville homecoming on his 2011 Get Closer World Tour, right? I'll start by saying it was a packed house, sold out and rowdy from the get-go.



Jake Owen opened and I thought was fantastic. I can see why Keith Urban and he are paired together as he's loaded with energy, really works the crowd and is never dull during his set. I'm not familiar with all his songs but he played quite a few that I did know like "Anywhere With You", "Yee Haw", "Startin' with Me", "Eight Second Ride", "Don't Think I Can't Love You", "Trip To Heaven" and of course the wildly crowd-pleasing song-of-the-Summer "Barefoot Blue Jean Night". During "Don't Think I Can't Love You" he let a couple out of the audience, who was celebrating their anniversary (at least their sign said they were), come on stage and slow dance, then they shared a group hug.



A quick set change and it's time for Mr. Urban. They reveal the stage and there are also several secondary stages with two offshoots of the main stage and two platforms stationed in the audience, which are so low to the ground that fans could grab his legs while he played. He ventures into the audience a few times as well, making his album name, "Get Closer", a bit prophetic. He even said "There really is no me and you. Tonight it’s us, Nashville."



He plays a bit over 2 hours and it's pretty intense at times and even emotional as he talks about his parents, his wife and daughter and his love of Nashville. He's very passionate and it resonates throughout the night in not only his voice but his guitar. The guy can really solo like he means it. He tells stories with his guitar as often as he does with his vocals.



He comes out and kicks it off with the poppy, melodic triple-punch of "Put You in a Song", "Days Go By" and "I Told You So" and the place was already on it's collective feet in total party mode. When he hit the big ballads and radio numbers the entire crowd sang along with every word it seemed. You couldn't even hear him during "Raining on Sunday" it was so loud of a singalong.



He went into the crowd and back to a small platform with just a mic set up and said "Who has the good seats now?" before playing a couple of songs then plopping down on a stool with his acoustic guitar for "You’ll Think of Me" before the platform rises into the air like a KISS drum solo is powering it.





Back on the main stage, he reads through the fan's signs and gets people on stage... this time some ladies to take a picture and also 3 fans to sing "Kiss A Girl" with him and the band in sort of a singing contest. There's a huge screen also that shows close-ups live but also allowed Little Big Town to do a duet of "Boondocks" via video and later Waylon Jennings singing "Are You Sure Hank Done it This Way."



And as usual (at least when I've seen him) he let several members have the mic during their introduction to belt out their own short tune. This tour, bassist Jerry Flowers did some of U2’s "With or Without You", Danny Radar did a portion of Tom Petty’s "American Girl" and Brian Nutter knocked out a killer section of AC/DC’s "It’s a Long Way to the Top (If You Wanna Rock ‘n Roll)" which really fired up the crowd, although I got a feeling a lot of people didn't know it was an AC/DC song, but did know it was a bally rocker.



Finally he went back into the audience, ending up at the back of the arena, for "You Look Good in My Shirt" as he signed his guitar and gave it to a screaming fan (who may or may not have had an orgasm) before heading back to the stage to finish the song with another guitar and laying flat on his back.



To start the encore he had Jake Owen come back out to assist in a cover of John Mellencamp’s "Jack and Diane" before finishing the awesome night with "Tonight I Wanna Cry" and "Better Life" as the confetti fell from the rafters on the still partyin' crowd.



It's the 3rd time I've seen Keith Urban live and it was also the best. The added adrenaline of being in Nashville really pushed this show over the top. A classic. I've posted some pictures that I took, plus 3 really good ones from the show that were on Keith's Facebook. I think you can tell which are which.



Here's Keith's setlist for the show (I think?):



* Put You In A Song

* Days Go By

* I Told You So

* Raining On Sunday

* Long Hot Summer

* Stupid Boy

* Making Memories Of Us



--- back on the small platform in the middle of the arena ---

* I'm In

* Jeans On

* You'll Think Of Me



--- back to main stage ---

* You Gonna Fly

* Boondocks (Little Big Town cover... snippet)

* Georgia Woods

* Til Summer Comes Around

* Sweet Thing

* Kiss A Girl (Fans sang on stage with him)

* Without You

* Raining On Sunday

* Somebody Like You

* Are You Sure Hank Done It This Way (Waylon Jennings cover... snippet)

* Who Wouldn't Wanna Be Me

* You Look Good In My Shirt



-- Encore ---

* Jack and Diane (John Mellencamp cover... with Jake Owen)

* Tonight I Wanna Cry

* Better Life

Foos In Little Rock

Well, I finally got to see the Foo Fighters in concert and it was well worth the wait. They don't make regular stops in Little Rock and in fact I couldn't tell you the last time they played here, but dragging along Biffy Clyro and Motorhead they did just that last night at Verizon Arena, and we were in the front row of the risers to see the spectacle and arena show goodness that is Dave Grohl and company.

Biffy Clyro opened the triple-bill but we skipped their set and got our beers full and bladders empty while checking out the merch table and such. Nothing against the band, but I'm really not a fan and I'd heard the Foos play a near 2 1/2 hour long set, so we figured that was plenty of rock for an evening really.

But there was no way I was going to miss Motorhead. All these years and I'd never seen them live, despite once meeting and sharing some beers with frontman Lenny Kilmister at The Rainbow in Hollywood. The band is legendary and you know what you're going to get from them every show. They blasted through (quite loudly) "Ace of Spades," "Iron Fist," "Killed by Death," "Metropolis," and "Eat The Rich" plus a few others from the latest CD. All the guys in the band look like they could be tearing up a nursing home any day now really, but once they start playing I sort of got the feeling they may never really get old. Loud, solid set from a real metal god.

So then it's time for Foo Fighters and Dave screams "These are my famous last words!!" as they blast into their first song, also the first song on the new CD. In fact, 4 of the first 7 songs are from the new CD and the set was heavy on it. Here's a bit of a set rundown with notes, as far as I can remember (and read from the entries on my Blackberry)...

* Bridge Burning
* Rope
* The Pretender
* My Hero
* Learn to Fly
* White Limo
* Arlandria
* Breakout
* Cold Day in the Sun (with Taylor Hawkins on lead vocals)
* I'll Stick Around
* Stacked Actors

* Taylor Drum solo *

* Hey, Johnny Park!
* Monkey Wrench
* Let It Die
* Generator
* Walk
* Shake Your Blood (Probot cover with Lemmy on vocals)
* This is a Call
* All My Life

* Encore break *

* Long Road to Ruin (only Dave acoustic back at soundboard on a small stage)
* Best of You (see above)
* Times Like These (see above, then Daves joins the band on stage and rocks)
* Young Man Blues (The Who cover)
* Miss The Misery
* Schools Out (Alice Cooper)
* For All The Cows
* Skin and Bones
* Tie Your Mother Down (Queen cover, Taylor vocals)
* Everlong

Whew! Hell yeah, they play a LONG set, but the thing is I can still think of some tracks I'd have liked to have heard... like "DOA," "Resolve," and "Cheer Up Boys (Your Make-up Is Running)" plus others. These guys have such a catalog of songs to pick from and yet they still throw some fun covers. Lemmy did come out with them for the Probot cover, which was awesome and heavy as hell, and they do the covers by The Who, Queen and Alice Cooper. That's a rock n roll show my friend.

No big fancy stage show to speak of either, missing the huge TV screen you see usually now and just a modest light show. The star is Dave Grohl far and away. The guy is just limitless energy as he screams, bangs his head, chews his gum, shreds his guitar and runs back and forth down a catwalk that leads to a stage by the soundboard. The only time he chills out is for the songs right after the encore break that he performs solo on acoustic guitar, and actually it wasn't as much solo as him and 8,000 or so people singing back-up with him. Pretty awesome. Dave Grohl craps more rock n roll than most so called "rock stars" will see in their entire careers. The guy sneezes rock n roll riffs.

The bottom line is this... the Foo Fighters give you your hard earned money's worth. All the attitude, music and energy you could ask for in an evening from one of the best bands of the last decade plus.

Here's 3 awesome pictures of the show from Verizon Arena's Facebook page: