07 Concerts Summary
I don't really know why it is, but we have been in the mood to see shows this year. Including some which we went to on a whim. Since I didn't blog them at the time, I will provide a grade and short overview of these shows.
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TheShins: A
In what will likely be our last show that we will ever see at Pipe ... for obvious reasons to anyone who has ever been to a show there -- TheShins put on quite the show, they have a really great energy, and they are really creative with their song arrangements ... successfully rockifying some of their songs and giving them new life. Really enjoyed the show a lot, too bad this band gets no push here because WincingTheNightAway may be the album of the year thus far -- great pop sensibility about this band, great lyrics, great songs
SweetSensation: C- / Expose: A+ / LisaLisa: D-
This was one of our whim shows. Pipe and the promoters really f-dup this show big time by overselling the venue by a good 500. The room was so hot and crowded, and the show came off one hour+ late because the venue didn't have a good plan to let in all these people.
In sum, LisaLisa is a caricature of herself in the 80s. There were two really CREEPY things about the night. The crowd singalong of EndlessLove on the PA while waiting for Expose to come on ... totally creepy stuff. The other creep-out moment was the 100% audience participation on "AllCriedOut", there was real pain out there ... a real possibility of a riot of emotional 30something Jpnse women ... palpable, scary
The surprise of the show was Expose. They truly brought the house down, they have really amazing harmonies ... and the crowd was totally into them. Unfortunately, they were the middle act -- I think many, including myself, would have liked to see an extended set of Expose rather than LL and her 2 odd dancers
SweetSensation never really got into sync that night, mic probs, probs with songs. Their vocals totally got lost in the mix, like listening to them mixed way too low. Too bad, I was hoping for a better showing. They were trying, though, and that means something to me.
HueyLewis&theNews: C+
Another whim show, and overall it was okay. Very solid performance all around. I thought the sound really needed some help, it was really muddy. The other strange thing that I found odd was that HLN burned their crowd pleasers at odd times ... where you go, what more can they do, where can they go from here ... now that they've played everything. Time to go home, no?
RogerWaters (DarkSideoftheMoonTour07), Vegas: A++
The night after the Police debacle, we went to see RogerWaters and band perform the classic Floyd album live, plus other Floyd classics. This show was so technically excellent, visuals were amazing, music was amazing, and Roger was like, HAPPY, happy to be performing this classic music to an appreciative crowd. I mean, talk about the good/bad of nostalgia shows illustrated so starkly in a 2 night period in the desert. It was so affecting that SD said she wanted to cry when it was over, and we had to leave ... because it was the most amazing show she had ever seen. For me, it rates with seeing a hungry Metallica pre-Black album live, GunsNRoses nearly stealing a Stones gig as an opener, PJ's 3 hour marathon show last Nov ... amazing stuff from RogerWaters, I think he acquitted the classic PinkFloyd music exceptionally well. Too bad there will be no reunion with Dave
ThePolice, Vegas: D+
I have so many issues with this show. From the lame crowd, to the really flat performance, to the going through the motions - boring bland show. The music sounded technically perfect, but the emotion, punch, familiarity was all sucked out of it -- bleah. This really ruined my 20+ year old memories of seeing them during SynchTour, sometimes I need to see cash grabs for what they are
Heaven&Hell (aka Sabbath w/ Dio), NewYorkCity: A-
Knuckleheads will be knuckleheads, no matter what age you may be in 2007. This was a pretty solid show by the 1980 version of the Sabbs, where my enjoyment of the show was tempered a bit by the knuckleheads we were by at RadioCityMusicHall. Unfortunately, that colored my read of the show. I am looking forward to next month when the DVD comes out, so I can hopefully enjoy the show better this time. There was a real joy to the show, that came across from Geez and Tony -- that they didn't have to play the same Oz set, like they have been for the past 10 years straight. The music from the Dio era is so epic and rocking, it was just great to see this version in what likely will be their last time on the road together, as a one shot tour.
And of course, we saw Foreigner on the evening of the day when we got married, and that was a great show that I blogged about earlier this year. To my thinking, I think the Waters show and the 4NR show were the shows of the year, from what we have seen so far.