CT Concert Blog
Monday, December 31, 2012
12.12.12 The Concert for Sandy Relief (aka The Concert of a Lifetime) MSG Wednesday, December 12, 2012
Friday, December 21, 2012
2012 Year in Review
Thursday, December 6, 2012
The Who Madison Square Garden, Wednesday December 5, 2012 New York City
I have never heard the Quadrophenia album before. While I know both of the original members are in their late 60’s, I was shocked with how good both of them sounded. Pete has been very rough the last decade or so, and Roger has been straining for quite a while, but miraculously, both were in good spirit and voice. Roger and the production team did a fine job of bringing the opus to life on stage. There were big screens so everyone could easily see the show. Quadrophenia dragged on, there were a lot of fans who loved hearing the album from start to finish, but most of us were there for the hits at the end. There were some touching tributes to dearly departed members Keith Moon and John Entwistle.
After an hour and a half, Pete thanked and introduced the band, thanked Roger and they launched into the hits. Roger’s voice was a little tired during the hits. Maybe they should start doing shorter shows to save his voice a bit. The backup singers were cutting through and holding the notes in the background for Roger. During Pinball Wizard when Roger was twirling his mic by its cable, he inadvertently tripped over Simon’s (Pete’s brother) wedge and tumbled, but didn’t miss a beat and came back in when he was supposed to. I happened to have the camera rolling at the exact moment and it is quite comical the way they kept playing. Both and Pete and Roger were cracking up and trying to finish the song with some decorum. The show took a morbid turn when Roger and Pete were talking about 2 dear friends who died in the span of the week. But after that they closed the show with Tea & Theatre. I would have rather had Substitute or something fun, but Pete asked me to stop making the set lists. A southern rambler named Stratton Lawrence who was sitting next to me during the show, asked me to send him some pictures I took, so check out his review on his website, strattonlawrence.com
Quadrophenia
Cut My Hair
The Punk And The Godfather
I'm One
The Dirty Jobs
Helpless Dancer
Is It in My Head?
I've Had Enough
5:15
Sea and Sand
Drowned
Bell Boy
Doctor Jimmy
The Rock
Love, Reign O'er Me>Band Introductions
Who Are You
Behind Blue Eyes
Pinball Wizard
Baba O'Riley
Won't Get Fooled Again
Tea & Theatre
Tuesday, October 23, 2012
Peter Gabriel So Back to Front Mohegan Sun Arena, Saturday October 13, 2012
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I am new to the Peter Gabriel game and have only been following him since early 2008 or so. I like how he is so unconventional. He’s one of the few artists who I’ve seen start the show by talking to the audience which is very unprecedented. I first saw the Scratch My Back orchestra show at Radio City in 2010, you can read the review on the concert blog. Once again, with my best friend and (now) his wife at my side, we braced for “SO” the 25th Anniversary tour, with only about 14 stops across the US, one of them was at Mohegan Sun. Before this show was announced, I got Jones Beach tickets, but sold those because it was over three hours away and I had to work the next day. After an unusually subpar meal at Margaritville, we headed to the arena. I didn’t tell my guests just how good the seats I scored were, I wanted them to be surprised. They were shocked to be less than 15 rows from the stage!
Peter came out right at 8 and introduced his opening act, the singer Jennie Abrahamson, who was replacing Ane Brun who got sick during rehearsals for the tour and had to go home. This was a surprise and bummer for us, because we had so enjoyed her voice during the 2010 gig. She is really talented, so to be replaced by this unknown woman was a bit of a shock. Jennie even said you can’t get her stuff in the US, they had to ship if over here for the tour. After about 20 minutes she ended her set. She was accompanied by a cellist. Her stuff was very good and she has a very strong voice to boot.
After the set changeover, PG came back out with the houselights on and told us about the night being broken into a few courses. He’s always reinventing himself, so he started the show with a new number, which, as he pointed out wasn’t even finished yet. He then introduced the original line up for the 1987 tour with the addition of his two new singers and launched right into a rock ballad version of Come Talk to Me. I always liked this song, and the bagpipe was being replaced by David Sancious’ accordion. David Rhodes played a simple acoustic melodic line on his guitar to Tony Levin’s amazing bass line. The one complaint I have, besides security being tools about filming and taking pictures, was that Manu Katché overused his splash cymbal, almost so that each time he struck it, I cringed. Don’t get me wrong, he is amazing at the drums but this was just overkill for me. David Sancious strapped on an acoustic guitar and helped the other David do an acoustic version of Shock the Monkey. All the pipes seemed a bit rusty for the high part on this song. But still the audience got into this song with rhythmic clapping. Austin is like a corpse at a concert, he doesn’t clap, sing along or anything, he just sits there, so Rosa and I were clapping. I always nudge him to try to get him to clap, but to no avail. After the introduction, PG and the gang sang Family Snapshot. Tony Levin really makes it look effortless and he gets such an amazing sound.
Peter now began the electric set of the “hits.” During Digging in the Dirt his crew, that was dressed like escaped mental patients (one tour had them dressed in orange jumpsuits), came out with little cameras on a pole. These cameras got close up in the action with a fisheye lens and projected all the action onto the big screen. I was so impressed with the quality of the video they were feeding to the screens. All cameras matched color wise, were properly exposed and looked to be 24p HD quality. He has a really talented director running the screens. Usually the cuts are not seamless and angles and action isn’t very good. Secret World got a big rousing response from the crowd. The drunk ladies behind me really seemed to enjoy this song. They even narrated the whole concert for us which trust me, was welcomed. And what was even nicer was that during the songs they didn’t like, they played the video of previous songs they had recorded on their iPhone blasting and narrating about loving Solisbury Hill!
Speaking of Solisbury Hill, that is one of my favorites and I wasn’t really impressed with the version they played that night, maybe it was the splash cymbal or the drunkards behind me? After Solisbury Hill, PG said that he got a lot of requests for this song, Humdrum from the first solo album (the car).
Now it was time to start the SO album from start to finish! PG made the disclaimer that they were going to try and do the entire album in the order it was originally intended. Red Rain started the ball off. PG sounded good for not performing the full version of this song (as it was recorded) for many years while he was doing the orchestra thing. Tony’s bass was there for the whole night, but it seemed to have more punch during this song. As expected, the entire stage was bathed in red light while the master sang the song to an adoring audience.
The band started Sledgehammer right away, not with the usual minute or more of teasing the audience. PG genuinely seemed to enjoy singing this song. Let’s face it, Sledgehammer has always been his “You Can Call Me Al” meaning that he really can’t do a show without doing this song, can he? It is one his best well known songs and is still one of the most played music videos in MTV history. The audience was right there with him during the whole song while he strut along the stage.
Peter then announced that there would be a special guest, they sang with Feist during a Witness benefit, and she agreed to come sing the song with him tonight. I guess we were lucky, but I later gave up when she attempted to sing the song Don’t Give Up. Kate Bush left big shoes to fill and to be honest, Feist fell flat and really ruined Don’t Give Up, one of my favorites from PG. I heard that Jennie A. has done a great job on the song during the tour, it’s a shame we couldn’t hear it.
I never heard I Hear that Voice Again in concert, so this was a treat for me. It’s such a great 80’s progressive rock song. Mercy Street was sung with PG laying down on the stage while the track lighting rigs were telescoping over him. One misstep by someone and they could have taken out the star with those lights! And there were also, unbeknownst to the audience a lot of tracks for them on the stage. It seemed like the stage was a deathtrap!
Big Time was a big number. PG has always been ahead of his time and this song proves it. The next two songs the drunk ladies behind me didn’t know, because they are affectionately called album tracks, meaning they are not singles or hits, just songs on the album. I thought maybe the band had slipped back into Solisbury Hill, but finally realized the drunk ladies behind me were blasting Solisbury Hill on their iPhone and commenting on how that song is so great.
Good thing In Your Eyes Came up, because they finally shut up and let me enjoy the show. Tony Levin helped with the low rumble part which got a rise from the audience. I heard that in LA, John Cusack came out before this song and presented PG with a boom box! How cool is that, I’m sure there is a YouTube video of it for you creative Googlers out there. During the breakdown of this song, PG introduced David Sancious who played a brief piano solo with a few bum notes. After this song, Peter then thanked the band and the people in the backline crew. He seems like a genuine guy who appreciates everyone. He also thanked the audience and gave us the ‘traditional Gabriel band salute’ (they mooned us).
After leaving the stage for a few minutes, they came back with The Tower that Ate People. Peter ended the show with the always moving Biko for Stephen Biko. I should also mention that before the show during the pre-show music, I heard Paul Simon’s cover of Biko from the ill-fated reciprocal cover album that will probably never be released, thanks David Bowie! This show was a highlight of the 20+ I have attended this year. The arena wasn’t sold out, but it was more than 75% so there was a decent crowd. After a quick Starbucks we were on the road for our ride home.
Tuesday, October 16, 2012
Back to Front- oS leirbaG reteP @ Mohegan Sun
Tony Levin master of the sticks has a great blog page with pictures that he takes from the stage and during the show. He has posted his pics from this show that I took Austin and Rosa to and we make an appearance a few times in the page in the crowd shots. In fact, if anyone reads this and bothers to go to the link below and can find me and and contact me, that person will recieve a nice prize.
Check it out!
http://www.papabear.com/tours/pg12/pg12_24.htm
Wednesday, August 22, 2012
Paul Simon Live in NYC in stores Sept. 18th!
Dazzling Blue
50 Ways To Leave Your Lover
So Beautiful Or So What
Mother And Child Reunion
That Was Your Mother
Hearts And Bones
Crazy Love, Vol. II
Slip Slidin' Away
Rewrite
The Boy In The Bubble
The Only Living Boy In New York
The Afterlife
Diamonds On The Soles Of Her Shoes
Gumboots
The Sound Of Silence
Kodachrome
Gone At Last
Late In The Evening
Still Crazy After All These Years
Tuesday, July 31, 2012
Ringo Starr Rewind...9 Years ago today, Thursday, July 31, 2003 Mohegan Sun Arena
Stock photo from the 2003 tour |