2025 Concert Thread

Saw Ringo and his All Starr band on Tuesday at Wolf Trap.

Such a fun show. I hope I have Ringo’s energy at his age. Obviously killer musicians all around, but Warren Ham was really killing it on the tenor and soprano sax, harmonica, flute, vocals, and the slappy thing (my wife couldn’t remember the word tambourine for a moment, henceforth the slappy thing).

Lukather is just a stellar guitarist. Bisonnette a great drummer…last saw him w/ DLR at MSG in 1986…he got a drum solo feature that he uses to play a medley of famous parts from about 10-15 classic tunes (including songs from Zeppelin, Rush, VH, Queen, etc.) often accompanied by Steve. Hamish Stuart always on point…last saw him w/ Macca at Giants Stadium in 1990. Colin Hay was most excellent, w/ his tunes being some of my favorite of the night.

I do wish they’d played more Beatles tunes though. Ringo created the drum parts and played on all but a few of them. Can’t help but assume that there was some agreement about what songs he’d play when he started this endeavor.

If you haven’t hit an All Starr show yet, I highly recommend it.

Cheers.
 
dmn23 said:
Punch Brothers last night in Santa Fe. There are musicians and then there are straight-up aliens from outer space. Chris Thile falls into the latter category.

Avant-garde-classical-not-really-bluegrass FTW.

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I've had a few conversations about this type of phenomenon lately. The most recent was how players from other MLB teams have said that Aaron Judge is ready for the next level...he's playing at a level above the rest of the league.

Chris Thile is one of those types of people as it relates to music...particularly as an instrumentalist. I've seen a decent amount of incredible musicians in my life, but there's definitely an upper echelon where Chris lives. Most of the other folks are more writers/architects, e.g.: Macca, Stevie Wonder, Paul Simon, Peter Gabriel, Neil Young, Gilmour, and similar artists. But there are also some incredibly players: McLaughlin, Trucks, SRV, Beauford, Beck, Bela, Peart, Myung, Vai, Nuno, Portnoy, Petrucci, Haynes, Lukather, and many others.

That said, I also love Chris's songwriting be it with Nickel Creek, solo, or the Punch Brothers. I'm a big fan of his voice too...kinda annoys me that he can play some amazingly, write great tunes, and sing so damned well. It's like pick a lane you sumbich! He's definitely a musician's musician. In that realm he hits me like: Ben Harper, Macca, James Taylor, Paul Simon, Hildalgo & Rosas, Sting, 3/4 of Queen, Stevie Wonder, Billy Joel, and a few others, that are excellent players, singers, and writers. Crazy talented sorts that can be inspirational and/or aspirational, or completely deflating.

Bummed that we weren't able to see Nickel Creek last time around. Had tix for Wolf Trap in 2023, but a passing in the family caused us to miss it. He's someone folks should see at least once though.
 
St. Paul & The Broken Bones tonight in Santa Fe

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Just remembered I bought tickets to Marshall Tucker band for August. I bought them in the middle of the night a few nights ago and checked my email today. Looks like I got two good tickets. I guess I’m ready to rock ‘n’ roll.

Was thinking about seeing Robin Trower but I’m not sure if I missed it. I guess I better figure the date. That was going to be a game time decision.
 
This was Phish weekend in Austin and it was amazing.

Friday first we had dinner at 1618 Asian Fusion and it was delish. The show was the second time I have seen Phish (first was in 1998) and had a great time.

Saturday we skipped dinner, went directly to the show. Had the same great seats as Friday. This time the show wasn’t really good like Friday’s was, it was astonishing. Finally saw them in full flow, nonstop perfection from the opening chords of “Punch You in the Eye.”

Mrs. Roach stayed awake for all of both shows, a rare tribute to the caliber of performance we are talking about here. :baimun:

The setlists included some really cool covers, like Cities (Talking Heads), Moonage Daydream (Bowie) and Rock n Roll (Velvet Underground).

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I took the boy to his first show tonight, Metallica. They are fucking LOUD. And the lighting…there were literally hundreds of lights flipping on and off and moving around, it was fantastic. They had 24 huge screens on top of eight big posts around the stage. Unfortunately the boy got tired so we checked out a little early and missed the pyro. Lars sounded fine but I did notice him wince now at what I assume were mistakes that only he noticed.

Oh, and Rob and Kirk did a special interlude of Rocky Mountain High. Rob played acoustic guitar and Kirk sang. It was fucking horrible. It didn’t help that the Hawaiian sun has turned Kirk a very ugly shade of yellow so he looked like he was literally dying up there.
 
Nuno and Vernon Reid were on stage together which was awesome. Then Ronnie wood and Stephen Tyler. I think Nuno has played more solos than everyone else together.
 
The usual suspects for me. Y &T, Uli Roth, and Michael Schenker are all playing close by this fall.
 
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Unexpected concert tonight, my wife got free tickets at work to see Peter Maffay, who is a HYUGE German artist and living legend type. He's 75 and has retired from touring, but does single engagements where his profit goes to his charity foundation. So we saw him at a winery, very small front stage area.

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That's where we were the whole time, there were a few hundred in the cheap seats which where literally behind the stage with a viewing screen, but they performed a lot looking down from the railing behind the drums and the folks loved it.

Very high energy and I see why this guy is a legend now. I only knew his studio works before and they never truly gripped me although I had much respect for it lyrically and musically.

I haven't seen a live band this stacked since Billy Joel. A very nice night indeed.

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Blue Oyster Cult is opening for a popular local Pink Floyd cover act called El Monstero. It's at the big outdoor venue. I might wait to buy tickets closer to the show. I'm curious if BOC will get a full slot or opener-type short set. Being outdoors in August in St Louis I'll keep my options open until I see a temp forecast.
 
Rescheduled Tom Petty tribute in town tonight with my parents and sister.

They sounded great (very much like the Gatorville recording). BVs let them down a bit but that's more, imo, Petty et al playing and arranging perfectly for whatever the song needed.

Guitarist was playing some fancy midi thing through a Bogner and sounded awesome.
 
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