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Sloan (White Eagle Hall, Jersey City, NJ, September 7, 2018)

Posted in Boot & Saddle, Canadian Music, Jersey City, NJ, Sloan, White Eagle Hall on September 7, 2018| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: September 7, 2018] Sloan

Sarah and I went to see Sloan at Boot and Saddle back in May.  It was a fantastic show.  When they announced that they were swinging back around and playing White Eagle Hall, a favorite new venue in Jersey City, I knew I had to see them again.

There were a few strikes against this show for me.  It was the middle of three shows in a row (Judas Priest last night, First Aid Kit tomorrow night).  It started at 9 and I’d be missing out on some stuff at home.  I considered not going, but thought I’d be mad if I blew it off.

Well, I arrived on time and there was hardly anyone there (Boot and Saddle was packed).  Then they didn’t start for some 20 minutes.  People started to fill in at last and I was able to get a nice spot right front and center.

I probably should have realized that, since this was the same tour that they were on (promoting their latest fantastic album 12), that the setlist would be largely the same.  But the setlist was so different on the previous tour, and they made it seem like the Boot & Saddle show has some unique elements, that I was surprised that the first set was identical to the Boot & Saddle show.

I guess the surprise was that this was the second leg of the tour.  They had taken a little break and were resuming.  Our night was the first night of the new leg, so I thought maybe it would be extra special.  Maybe having a poor turnout doesn’t make you want to do anything special–although the band played great and seemed in very good form.

Not terrible, since the songs are great.  But a little disappointing to be sure. (more…)

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Deep Purple (PNC Bank Arts Center, Holmdel, NJ, September 6, 2018)

Posted in Deep Purple, Holmdel, NJ, Judas Priest, PNC Bank Center, Set in New Jersey!, The Temperance Movement on September 6, 2018| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: September 6, 2018] Deep Purple

My friend Al told me he was going to this double bill of Deep Purple and Judas Priest.  He and I went to my first ever concert back in 1985–Deep Purple at the Meadowlands.  It seemed like a fun idea to see Deep Purple again 33 years later.

Turned out he had a work thing and couldn’t go.  So that sucked.  But I scored great seats for $28 so that’s cool.

I was surprised that Deep Purple was going on after Judas Priest–I was sure that Judas Priest would be a bigger draw.  I wasn’t all that excited to see Deep Purple, but I was certainly curious.

And that’s when I realized that Ian Paice is the only person who has been with Deep Purple in all of their hundreds of lineups.  But, Ian Gillan and Roger Glover were from the first major lineup (the Mk II version of the band).  (more…)

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Judas Priest (PNC Bank Arts Center, Holmdel, NJ, September 6, 2018) [DEEP PURPLE]

Posted in Deep Purple, Happy Birthday, Holmdel, NJ, Judas Priest, PNC Bank Center, Rob Halford, Set in New Jersey!, That Metal Show, The Temperance Movement on September 6, 2018| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: September 6, 2018] Judas Priest

My friend Al told me he was going to this double bill of Deep Purple and Judas Priest.  I had just seen Judas Priest back in March and didn’t really feel like I needed to see them again (there was one song I ‘d wanted to hear which they didn’t play, but otherwise the set was great).

Then my friend Armando clarified something I’d often wondered about PNC.  He said that if you bought lawn tickets to a PNC show, you could get an upgrade to a really good seat for $20.  It didn’t happen for all shows, but any show that hadn’t sold out was fair game.  This seemed like a great opportunity to test this theory.   Then I received an email from Live Nation the next day that gave me $20 off my next concert.  Well, the lawn seats to this show were $20.  So I had to pay the stupid fees.  But that meant I bought my lawn ticket for $8.  A couple days before the show I was able to upgrade my ticket to row K (as in 11 rows from the stage) for $20.  So great seats for $28!

I realized that since both K.K. Downing and Glenn Tipton were no longer in the band and since the drummer was a revolving door for most of the band’s history, the only two “original” members were Halford and bassist Ian Hill (and technically Halford isn’t original, but he is the real thing).

Like last time, there was a large red curtain at the front of the stage. This time, I was able to catch footage of it as it was pulled away. (more…)

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The Temperance Movement (PNC Bank Arts Center, Holmdel, NJ, September 6, 2018) [DEEP PURPLE]

Posted in Deep Purple, Holmdel, NJ, Judas Priest, PNC Bank Center, Set in New Jersey!, The Temperance Movement on September 6, 2018| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: September 6, 2018] The Temperance Movement

I love that this band named themselves The Temperance Movement.

I looked them up before the show and got the gyst of their music: a British blues rock band formed in 2011.

It seemed like they might sound a lot like the band that opened for Judas Priest the last time I saw them.  I wasn’t all that interested in them because I assumed it would be very loud and sound very bad (the opening bands are never hooked up to the sound system correctly and they always sound ear-piercing).  Plus they were going on at 7PM, so I just assumed I’d never make it there in time to see them.

Well traffic was light and it turned out they started playing more or less as I arrived at the arena. (more…)

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Pearl Jam (Wrigley Field, Chicago, IL, August 20, 2018)

Posted in Chicago Blackhawks, Chicago, IL, Neil Young, Pearl Jam, Phish, The Beatles, The White Stripes, The Who, Wrigley Field on August 20, 2018| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: August 18, 2018] Pearl Jam

After four days of touring Chicago, we were beat.  Even though we were both looking forward to tonight’s show, we were a little wiped out by the thought of staying out, catching the EL, etc.  Especially because of the weather.

The weather was not promising: rain all day and then thunderstorms right around showtime.  The Chicago weather seems to change a lot, but that forecast never wavered all week.

Our friend Kaylo and her family (who live in Minnesota but whom we met in Boston–they were staying at the same hotel for Pearl Jam) could only make this one show.  They had gotten general admission spots (again).  And so it was part of her family hazing ritual to make her kids wait outside in the rain all day to get as close as possible the front of the stadium.

Meanwhile we were in a museum across town, learning stuff and staying dry.

The weather let up a bit as we got off of the El and headed to Wrigley.  There were a lot fewer people milling about and we even got on line for merch (and got two of the notoriously hard to get posters–but not the awesome ones that immediately sell out).

And then Sarah pointed to the monitors which had a green sign which read:

When I saw Phish at BB&T Pavilion, there was lightning right overhead but nothing happened. However, back in 2013, Pearl Jam played Wrigley and there was a storm which delayed the show for hours. (more…)

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Pearl Jam (Wrigley Field, Chicago, IL, August 18, 2018)

Posted in Chicago Cubs, Chicago, IL, Chris Cornell, David Bowie, Neil Young, Pearl Jam, Sleater-Kinney, The Clash, Tom Petty, Wrigley Field on August 18, 2018| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: August 18, 2018] Pearl Jam

Two summers ago Sarah and I took the kids to Boston.  It was a vacation that was centered around we adults seeing Pearl Jam at Fenway Park.  When Pearl Jam announced that they were doing a short summer tour, I thought it would be fun to try to get tickets to the Wrigley Field Shows.

I’m not a huge baseball fan, but I used to enjoy baseball and always wanted to see Wrigley Field.  So when the tickets were announced I took a chance and scored two tickets to each night of their dates.  And so we built another vacation out of travelling to see Pearl Jam.

Ironically we’ve never seen them in our home state.

Sarah wrote a great post about all we did in Chicago (a city I had never been to before).  But in sum, in the five days we were there, we went to Navy Pier, The Art Institute of Chicago, Millennium Park (and saw The Bean), Portillos, The Sears Tower, an architecture cruise, Shedd Aquarium, The Museum of Science and Industry, a wade into Lake Michigan (that’s 4 of 5 Great Lakes for me), and Nuts on Clark.  And of course, Wrigley Field. (more…)

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Phish (BB&T Pavilion, Camden, NJ, August 8, 2018)

Posted in BB&T Pavillion, Camden, NJ, Frank Zappa, Jon Fishman, Madison Square Garden, Mike Gordon, New York City, Page McConnell, Phish, Trey Anastasio on August 8, 2018| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: August 8, 2018] Phish

I have never seen a band two nights in a row in the same place before (I have seen Tori Amos three times in four days but that was at different locations).  I knew that Phish always mixed up their sets so that two nights in the same place never contained the same songs.  This was a great way to hear even more different stuff.

Tonight’s show was very different for me though.  My daughter was in the 4H Fair play before the show (she was a wicked stepsister in Cinderella).  I certainly wanted to see that.  It was super fun, although pro-tip…she needs to exaggerate her on-stage behavior more.

I was afraid I’d be late for the show (4H traffic is shocking!), but traffic was light and I made it to Camden in okay  time.  I had to park over a mile away (and still pay $30).  It was a 15-minute brisk walk to the stadium during which time I was feeling kind of down about the whole event.  There were lots of drunk people and scalpers and hawkers and ugly sights abounded.  Plus it was hot and I was in a hurry and then I got to the gates and the line was huge.

I also knew that I was much later than the night before so I wouldn’t get a choice spot at the railing like the night before.

I bought a corn dog (yum) and walked up to the lawn.  I decided to purposely pick a different part of the lawn tonight (Page’s side).  And just as I climbed the stairs I saw Armando, my friend from the night before.  I was hoping to see him and was kicking myself for not coordinating with him.  But I love the serendipity of running into him like that.  He was talking to a woman who turned out to be his mom!  She lives closer to the venue than he does so he was staying with her for the night and he invited her along. She had been to many concerts with him (how cool is that) but had never seen Phish so she was excited for something new.  She was great to hang with.

He had a spot along the railing again and got ready for Night #2. (more…)

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Phish (BB&T Pavilion, Camden, NJ, August 7, 2018)

Posted in BB&T Pavillion, Camden, NJ, David Bowie, Donuts, Jon Fishman, Madison Square Garden, Mike Gordon, New York City, Page McConnell, Phish, Trey Anastasio on August 7, 2018| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: August 7, 2018] Phish

Having enjoyed two Phish shows at Madison Square Garden, and really seeing what it’s like to go to multiple shows by the same band when they mix up the setlists so much, I was pretty psyched to hear that Phish were coming back to NJ for two shows on a short summer tour.

After the immense spectacle of the Baker’s Dozen, in which they repeated no over thirteen shows (thereby messing up every statistic-driven fan who likes to recount the last time a song was played, this tour was shaping up to be a more traditional fan favorites (or not) package.  This was actually perfect for me because as I start keeping tracks of the songs I need to see live, I realize that I need a lot of the staples to fill out my chart. (more…)

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Radiohead (Wells Fargo Center, Philadelphia, PA, August 1, 2018)

Posted in Full show video, Jonny Greenwood, Junun, Madison Square Garden, New York City, Philadelphia, PA, Phish, Radiohead, Shye Ben Tzur, The Rajasthan Express, Wells Fargo Center on August 1, 2018| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: August 1, 2018] Radiohead

I have never really seen a band two times close together.  Sometimes with smaller bands if they are playing two clubs, but never a stadium show.

But I had already gotten my Radiohead ticket for WellsFargo, so I was sure as heck not giving it up.

I saw Phish twice on the Baker’s Dozen run–two shows 16 days apart.  Now here was Radiohead 21 days apart.  For some reason their tour didn’t go NY to Philly, it went NY to Canada, to Ohio to Boston and then to Philly.  This was a cool way to see the band twice with some decompression time in between gigs.

Strangely enough, these tickets which were literally at the side of the stage–I was parallel with the gap between the stage and the crowd and 23 rows back–and they actually cost more than the General Admission floor seats at Madison Square Garden (although the fees at MSG were more, so these tickets were technically cheaper when all was said and done).

Since I had trouble getting to the arena for Pearl Jam, I decided to leave work a bit early, drive in and beat the inevitable traffic.  Which meant I arrived 45 minutes before the gates opened.  Duh.  So I sat in the car and continued my book.

Then I went in and got some merch that hadn’t been available at MSG and found my seat.  As with the MSG show I was surprised at how uncrowded it was.  I guess many people didn’t care about Junun.  But when the lights went down for Radiohead, my section (and everywhere else) seemed full.

I had a pretty great view of the stage (except for one lighting pole which was directly in my view of whomever was up front (usually Thom).  I also couldn’t really see the screen in the back (which was ok) and the lights are obviously very different from off to the side instead of head on.

But what was most important was the music.  And despite what I thought was a terrible sound for Junun, Radiohead sounded amazing once more   The music was crystal clear and powerful without being too loud. (more…)

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Junun (Wells Fargo Center, Philadelphia, PA, August 1, 2018) [RADIOHEAD]

Posted in Jonny Greenwood, Junun, Madison Square Garden, New York City, Radiohead, Shye Ben Tzur, The Rajasthan Express on August 1, 2018| Leave a Comment »

[ATTENDED: July 11, 2018] Junun

I thought traffic might be out of hand getting to the Wells Fargo Center (I had a bad experience parking when we saw Pearl Jam there).  Plus the show started at 7:30, which is pretty much heart of rush hour if you’re trying to get there at a reasonable hour.

So I left straight from work and wound up an hour earlier than when the doors opened.  I thought here was a chance I’d miss Junun if I got there late, but here I was super early again.  So I had a nice parking lot chat with Sarah while I waited.  Then I continued with my book (same book as the previous show–it’s a pocket-sized paperback (Terry Pratchett), perfect for this sort of thing).

I had a seat this time, so I wasn’t in a hurry.  I bought some small merch (socks!) and took my seat.

Unlike last time when I was on the floor, for this show I was stage left almost exactly parallel with the stage.  It wasn’t a great location for seeing the light show, but Junun doesn’t have one.  The main gripe for me was that the lighting pole was in the worst spot for me to see the front of the stage.

For my post from a few weeks ago, click here. (more…)

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