My Concert List

I've been to quite a few shows since last December and thought I'd share some of my memories with you...if you went to any of these shows I'd love to hear what you thought!

Brian Setzer...I've seen him several times over the years, both with his big band orchestra and his rockabilly trio. The show back in December of 2011 at The Rialto was with his rockabilly band and I remember saying the next day that Setzer had saved my soul. The guy puts on an amazing show and always seems to enjoy himself. And it's never a Brian Setzer show without a performance of Stray Cat Strut!

The week after that had me catching the legendary X at the Fox Theatre. I went through an X phase my freshman year of college and had always wondered what it would be like to see the band live. To be honest, I was blown away by their opening band, The Black Tibetans. They're similar to the White Stripes but I'd say they have more of a rock n roll party vibe going on. Their bass player was one cool looking red-headed chick. I couldn't take my eyes off of her, and the lead singer wasn't too bad either! Musically, these guys ROCKED!

In March, I saw Henry Rollins. This was not a concert but a spoken word performance. Rollins spoke for two hours and forty minutes straight, talking about his various travels and a looooong story about a trip to Costco with one of his office assistants. I'm not sure if he even took a sip of water!

April had me seeing Garbage, one of my all time favorite bands. I've always felt like they haven't gotten the recognition they deserve. Their first two albums were on heavy rotation in my life for several years. After their third album they took a seven year hiatus and I honestly thought they would never record again. A friend of mine alerted me to their show at the Rialto in April and we all had a fabulous time. As I was dancing away, I thought, "You know, if the world ended right at this moment it would be OK, because I'm so freaking happy right now!" Garbage released a new album in May titled Not Your Kind Of People.

In May, I saw the one and only Morrissey, also known as the former lead singer of the legendary 80's band The Smiths. To hear How Soon Is Now? was great, but the show ended on a sour note. Security had been fairly rough the whole night with fans jumping up on stage to hug Morrissey, and when he announced the last song of the night, Still Ill, the fans became even more exuberant. One fan got roughly tossed back into the crowd at least twice and security couldn't keep up with the number of fans jumping on stage. Morrissey and the band abruptly ended the song and walked off the stage.

In June, I was invited to see Scorpions at AVA. (And yes, it's Scorpions, not The Scorpions). I wasn't a huge fan back in the day, but I thought, "Why not?" I didn't regret my decision. They put on a great show and did all of their big hits. We have a greatest hits collection of theirs in our catalog that also includes the band doing some covers, among them Soft Cell's Tainted Love!

For you 80's hair metal rockers, I also saw LA Guns, Warrant, and Skid Row in July. I was never much of a metal chick so I feel like I can't offer objective or knowledegable commentary about this show. The one memory I will share is that a woman was ahead of us in line and kept talking about how much she loooved Sebastian Bach (that would be the FORMER lead singer of Skid Row, who hasn't been with the band for something like 15 years). My friends and I didn't have the heart to break it to her that she was about to be hugely disappointed.

In August, I caught Coheed and Cambria at the Rialto. Great show and I was also impressed with one of their opening acts, Silver Snakes. And then of course, there was the one and only Duran Duran at AVA. I blogged previously about their latest cd, All You Need Is Now. They did a number of songs off of that cd and of course their big hits, EXCEPT for Girls On Film. The crowd was chanting for that song as an encore, and the band didn't do it! (They have a tradition of leaving out one or two big songs at each show.) I was kind of shocked about that but I'm glad they did Union of The Snake. It's been years since I literally jumped up and down at a show out of sheer excitement, and I spent most of the night dancing. Easily the best show I've been to this year, and it was fun to arrive at AVA early and hear the band doing Hungry Like The Wolf at soundcheck.

That's it for now, until Bryan Adams plays the Fox Theatre on October 16. I saw him when he played there a few years back and was so impressed. It was just him and an acoustic guitar with a little piano accompaniment. The guy didn't even really need a microphone and he kept us laughing with his stage banter. My friend who prefers Ozzy Osbourne and Ronnie James Dio was so impressed with Adams' show he's going again too, and that should tell you something! I can't wait.

Until next time....


GingerMusicKid