Live music/concerts

[TSwizzle]

I’m not a huge fan of live music or concerts but I occasionally go to gigs or just happen to be at a venue when a band shows up. In my opinion the best gigs are often cover bands of which I’ve seen a few. I generally don’t enjoy the big venues although I saw U2 at the Rosebowl and they were brilliant as were the Black Eyed Peas. But I don’t think you can beat a small venue with a decent and enthusiastic band. What’s other people’s preferences? The low key gigs, stadium concert, three day festival?

 

[rousseau]

There's a small venue a few minute drive from our house that seats anywhere from fifty to a few hundred. It's a big enough venue, and our city is large enough to host acts there that are a) talented and b) who can't fill a stadium or arena. So we've caught a good number of very talented musicians from anywhere between 20 - 40 CDN, and even sat front row for some of them.

That's the weird thing about concerts, the acts who can fill stadiums aren't necessarily the most talented, creative, or interesting, they're usually acts with radio appeal and a wide following. People dish out huge amounts of money just to see these groups in person, while if you look hard enough there's better music to be found for less money, in more intimate venues.

 

[Tharmas]

Years and years ago my then wife and I, penniless students, managed to scrape together a long weekend in New York, staying at the YMCA on separate floors. Our one night out took us to a small club in the Village to hear Janis Joplin and Big Brother and the Holding Company, just as they were on the cusp of becoming famous. Within a couple of weeks their album was released and the rest is history. Obviously, I've never forgotten that night. I particularly remember Summertime, which they did kind of up tempo, unlike what came out on the album.

So yeah, smaller venues if possible.

 

[rousseau]

Years and years ago my then wife and I, penniless students, managed to scrape together a long weekend in New York, staying at the YMCA on separate floors. Our one night out took us to a small club in the Village to hear Janis Joplin and Big Brother and the Holding Company, just as they were on the cusp of becoming famous. Within a couple of weeks their album was released and the rest is history. Obviously, I've never forgotten that night. I particularly remember Summertime, which they did kind of up tempo, unlike what came out on the album.

So yeah, smaller venues if possible.

Was it the Vanguard? We were there in 2015 to see Stanley Cowell.

He performed this song on finger piano to close the set:

[YOUTUBE]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yjf7EKTGFPg[/YOUTUBE]

With a few 'Let's do this thang's thrown in. Hard to forget.

 

[Tharmas]

Years and years ago my then wife and I, penniless students, managed to scrape together a long weekend in New York, staying at the YMCA on separate floors. Our one night out took us to a small club in the Village to hear Janis Joplin and Big Brother and the Holding Company, just as they were on the cusp of becoming famous. Within a couple of weeks their album was released and the rest is history. Obviously, I've never forgotten that night. I particularly remember Summertime, which they did kind of up tempo, unlike what came out on the album.

So yeah, smaller venues if possible.

Was it the Vanguard? We were there in 2015 to see Stanley Cowell.

He performed this song on finger piano to close the set:

[YOUTUBE]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yjf7EKTGFPg[/YOUTUBE]

With a few 'Let's do this thang's thrown in. Hard to forget.

Very cool. No, it wasn't the Vanguard - I'd remember that - it was some little club stuck in a basement and the name escapes me.

 

[rousseau]

Years and years ago my then wife and I, penniless students, managed to scrape together a long weekend in New York, staying at the YMCA on separate floors. Our one night out took us to a small club in the Village to hear Janis Joplin and Big Brother and the Holding Company, just as they were on the cusp of becoming famous. Within a couple of weeks their album was released and the rest is history. Obviously, I've never forgotten that night. I particularly remember Summertime, which they did kind of up tempo, unlike what came out on the album.

So yeah, smaller venues if possible.

Was it the Vanguard? We were there in 2015 to see Stanley Cowell.

He performed this song on finger piano to close the set:

[YOUTUBE]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yjf7EKTGFPg[/YOUTUBE]

With a few 'Let's do this thang's thrown in. Hard to forget.

Very cool. No, it wasn't the Vanguard - I'd remember that - it was some little club stuck in a basement and the name escapes me.

The Vanguard is stuck in a basement, but assuming that's the predominant style of architecture in the area there were likely a few similar clubs around.

That show was definitely a stand out for me, I'd love to make it back to New York and see someone else there. On that note we've had Fred Hersch play the venue I mentioned above - the closest I've gotten to the Vanguard in Canada's London.

 

[Tharmas]

Saw the jazzman Pharaoh Sanders and his group in a small club in Vancouver. I always really liked Pharaoh but he never hit the big time. My party (there were about five of us) were the only ones there, so the band invited us back to the green room to chat and share some weed between sets. Can’t do that in a stadium! Then the place filled up for the second set but we still had our table in the front.

 

[rousseau]

Saw the jazzman Pharaoh Sanders and his group in a small club in Vancouver. I always really liked Pharaoh but he never hit the big time. My party (there were about five of us) were the only ones there, so the band invited us back to the green room to chat and share some weed between sets. Can’t do that in a stadium! Then the place filled up for the second set but we still had our table in the front.

We got to the Vanguard early for our show and were sitting up close, too. Unfortunately we left before the second set as we were up early the next morning to line up for stand-by tickets to the Late Show with Jimmy Fallon.

I really need to do New York alone some day - five days at the Met, with a different jazz show every night.

 

[Ford]

I think it depends on the kind of music to a certain degree.

I've seen some great arena rock shows. Rush, Iron Maiden, ZZ Top, and others, and for those "larger than life" acts, an arena is the perfect size. A stadium is just too big, but a decent sized arena works great for that sort of thing. One of the best shows I've ever seen was Janet Jackson at an arena. I went in not being terribly interested (record company tickets) and left understanding why the Jackson family is rich and famous.

Another great venue is the outdoor pavilion. I saw Jimmy Buffet and a few other shows at this outdoor pavilion in the Detroit area called Pine Knob. There's a similar venue here in Phoenix where I've seen Fleetwood Mac, Van Halen, KISS, and others. It's halfway between an arena and a festival, and adds a party element to the show.

Speaking of festivals, I've been to a few! We have this one in Arizona called Country Thunder, and as I worked in country radio I went there at least a dozen times. It's a party with 100,000 people where a band just happens to be playing on stage. It's more of an "event" than a concert, and the entertainment comes as much from the people-watching as it does with the multiple acts over several days. My view is a bit skewed because I was usually "working" while there, but it's a helluva thing to see. Especially from the stage.

At the other end of the spectrum, there was this bar that has long since closed where we hosted some up-and-coming country acts. It held maybe a thousand people. For me it's a toss-up for the best show I saw there. 20 years ago it was Keith Urban, who only had one solo album under his belt, so he filled in his time with a set of acoustic classic rock tunes. He's more well known for being Nicole Kidman's husband and from American Idol, but the man can play. A few years on there was this young guy named Blake Shelton, who showed up with an acoustic guitar - no band - and had the crowd eating out of his hand inside of five minutes. I was standing off stage watching and thinking "this guy is going to be a huge star."

One of my favorite venues is a small "in the round" theater which is unfortunately located in a neighborhood that's become less savory over the years. Their tagline was "no seat more than 75 feet from the stage," and I saw Peter Frampton there. It had an intimate feel which worked really well.

 

[TSwizzle]

The cost of going to see a band in the LA area can be prohibitive. Fleetwood Mac we’re playing The Forum for several nights and I wanted to go but it was about $275 a ticket. Depeche Mode, Morrisey and Duran Duran all played The Hollywood Bowl recently but it was just way too expensive. We’ve got some great venues here but the big and even not so big acts charge a fortune. And I’m too old for The Troubadour etc. Troubadour is boarded up just now, pass it every day.

I did happen to see Smashmouth and they were ok but the singer’s voice started to go towards the end but it was fun being right at the front of the stage.

 

[ZiprHead]

Another great venue is the outdoor pavilion. I saw Jimmy Buffet and a few other shows at this outdoor pavilion in the Detroit area called Pine Knob. There's a similar venue here in Phoenix where I've seen Fleetwood Mac, Van Halen, KISS, and others. It's halfway between an arena and a festival, and adds a party element to the show.

Pine Knob is no longer Pine Knob. Now it's DTE Energy Music Theater.

 

[KeepTalking]

Of the hundreds (maybe thousands) of concerts I have seen over the decades, I have not been to a stadium concert. I had pit tickets for the Metallica/Guns & Roses stadium tour in the early '90s, but I gave them to a friend because I ended up moving from Texas to Florida a few weeks before the concert. He said that it was amazing, but I am sure part of that had to do with the free tickets (they weren't cheap for me, even back then).

I have been to plenty of arena and smaller venue concerts, including single day festivals like OzFest and the Mayhem Festival. Those are probably some of my favorites, as I have been able to get right up next to the stage for some of the second and third stage acts, which are often the bands I really wanted to see anyway. There are also a couple of 1000 seat venues in the area, where I have seen most of the concerts I have gone to. The closest of those to me is Pop's Nightclub, in Sauget, Illinois, a somewhat notorious venue in the St. Louis area. Sauget is a tiny township comprised mostly of chemical plants right next to East St. Louis. Trust me when I say that the Sauget police mostly police the two nightclubs, and two strip clubs in their town, all 4 of which are owned by members of the Sauget family. Anyway, my daughter used to date one of the bouncers at Pop's, and during that time period, he would sneak us in through a side door just before the main doors opened, so we could either get up next to the stage, or the prime balcony section. Pop's has always been one of my favorite places to see bands because it is so intimate. I saw Motorhead there just a year or two before Lemmy died, and they were so loud in that small space that I had to stand outside in the smokers area for the second half of their show because I couldn't stand it. I had even taken to wearing Etymotic ear plugs to concerts by then, and had them in, but it wasn't enough.