AC/DC Rocks!!

Went to see AC/DC concert this Wednesday. It was great!! The crowd was very energetic and the band was basically going all out non-stop for 2 hours. Angus Young was very impressive.

Unfortunately I had gotten tickets on the side of the stage. This was one show that should definitely be viewed front and center. They had a lot of props and theatrics that are best viewed from the front, including a train, the Rosie blow-up doll, cannons for "For Those About to Rock", a bell for "Hell's Bell", and more. In the first picture you can see the circular platform at the end of the catwalk where Angus performed part of his solo and the bell in the second picture. If they're ever in town again, I would be tempted to see them again.

Zakir Hussain Concert

I went to see a concert by Zakir Hussain and the Masters of Percussion at the Krannert Center on 4/30/08 with Alice. It was very interesting. It was classical Indian music, something I am not familiar with. Still, the level of skill comes through all the same. It is fascinating how he manipulates the tabla to create all of those sounds at all of those volumes and how FAST they can all drum.

Joan Jett and the Blackhearts + Cheap Trick

Nick and I went to the concert tonight featuring Joan Jett and the Blackhearts and Cheap Trick.

Joan Jett and the Blackhearts

She can still sing and play. The sound came through very clean and clear. And boy is she intimidating. She looked buff and like she could beat the crap out of most people :-p Although I reviewed the songs I had of her this morning, basically her greatest hits CD, most of them were still a bit unfamiliar. The crowd also seemed uncertain for a good bit of the show, but warmed up towards the end. I thought some of the songs from her new album "Sinner" were interesting. ^_^ I always knew her lyrics were provocative, but didn't realize how much... To me Joan Jett is one of those guilty pleasures. :-p

Cheap Trick

Cheap Trick rules. Nielsen went through 16 guitars and 21 necks for 16 songs. There was even a Rockford guitar, which was a yellow square with the album cover on it. Peterson had 1 bass. LOL :-D I definite agree w/ Nick in that the Assembly Hall's acoustics is screwy when the volume is turned up. The vocals were all too screechy. :-( One of the amps was also buzzing really loudly, and Robin Zander's mike wasn't working properly for the first 2-3 songs. Nielsen rolled w/ it and made fun and kept the show entertaining though. He also took digs at Kevin Cronin (REO Speedwagon), who apparently was on Don't Forget the Lyrics last night, and complained that his replacement guitar tuner sucked because he played for Bon Jovi. ^_^ His mike stand was filled w/ picks which he kept throwing out into the crowd. He even threw out handfuls of picks towards the end. All in all, a great show.

Oh, and Nick, despite what he said at the show, Rick Nielsen is from Rockford, IL, not Urbana. ^_~

Note to self...

When you get turned down for a relationship, Sting's song "If You Love Somebody Set Them Free" is not a good one to listen to. :-( T_T

失恋の時、Sting's 歌「If You Love Somebody Set Them Free」はとってもまずいです。

失戀的時候不應該聽 Sting 的歌，“If You Love Somebody Set Them Free。“

Rush Concert: 8/26/07

Nick and I went to watch Rush in concert by Indianapolis on Saturday, 8/26/07. It was an outdoor stadium and boy was I glad it rained last week, otherwise we would've been baking. It was basically out in the middle of nowhere, so we decided to drive back to the O'Charley we passed for dinner.

While we were eating at the bar at O'Charley, the couple next to us told a waiter that they were going to the concert. The waiter told us that the lawn seats are basically party areas, with people passing around Jose Cuervo and bad acoustics. This had Nick and me concerned a bit since we thought we had lawn seats and we were not looking forward to being around a bunch of drunks. It turned out that we did have pavilion seats, not the lawn. They were also performing pat down checks at the gate, so we don't see how anyone could sneak that much liquor in. Then again, the waiter was talking about his high school graduation... ^_^;;

It was a good concert. The light show was a bit distracting to me. There were a lot of interesting animations and graphics. Neil Peart was amazing. Geddy Lee's voice was not as annoying in concert; probably lower than it used to be. They played many songs from the new album "Snakes and Arrows," which was ok.

On the trip back, Nick decided to play all of the songs I had on my iPod that were NOT played at the concert. It lasted the whole 2 and a half hour drive back to UIUC. O_O And it was like, "Wait, what's this song? They didn't play it?" I guess with 19 studio albums Rush had a lot of songs to choose from. :-)

The Police in concert

月曜日、７／２／０７、に僕とニックが St. Louis へいって、Police のコンサートへ行った。とってもすごいでした。楽しかった。切符はちょっと高いけど、運転が長いけど、すばらしいコンサートだから、問題じゃない。僕達がT−シャツを買った。左側は僕達のシートから取ったの写真。

(Wow... this post really shows how limited my Japanese is. :-p Anyways...)

This past Monday, 7/2/07, I went to St. Louis w/ Nick to see the Police. It was great. IT WAS AWESOME!! It was a lot of fun. The tickets were a bit expensive, and the drive was kind of long (we got back around 2AM), but since the concert was so great. it was worth it. Both Nick and I even succumbed to purchasing a T-shirt each. The pictures on the left are taken from our seats.

The concert covered all of their hits, but they definitely weren't just replaying them. Some of the new interpretations might not have gone over quite as well, but the songs were still recognizeable. They came out w/ "Message in A Bottle" and the place went nuts. After "Walking On The Moon", they then covered some of the, imo, lesser hits, which lost part of the crowd and made me realize that I'm not hard core enough of a Police fan. :-p I'm debating if I should remedy that... The section I was sitting in was disappointing, imo. The people in front of us got up for only the first and last song. :-( Meh, better view for me I guess, especially since they were "large" people. ^_~ I had a good frontal view and the screens gave good close ups plus effects. The crowd came back alive when "Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic" came on, all the way until "Invisible Sun". The show kind of swayed back and forth from the energetic songs to more virtuoso musical performances, I think. I definitely enjoyed both aspects.

When the trio exited the stage after "Can't Stand Losing You", Nick's comment was "Geez, I wonder what 2 songs are left?" (end sarcasm) They came back and proceeded w/ "Roxanne", and followed with another FOUR songs that were just pumped with energy. The crowd went wild for the whole time. It was almost like the break was for them to catch their breath and ready themselves for the final push. They are 50+ after all. XD

Andy Summers had some great guitar solos, and although he's no David Lee Roth, attempted the splits at the beginning and was hopping across the floor on one of the songs. Pretty good for a 65 year old. Sting played the front man, interacting with the crowd. There were times I almost wished his vocals were softer so I can better hear the intricacies of the instrumentals. There was an occasional display of bass skills (speaking of the bass, it looked like it was so old and banged up it was back from when the Police first started. You can see a picture here ) and the vocals were what you would expect of Sting. Stewart Copeland though I think stole the show. His energy, clambering back and forth between the sets, discarding used drumsticks (how many does he go through in a concert anways?! @_@) just screamed of a man really getting into it and enjoying the show. It looked like he almost stumbled off the stage bowing at the end.

All in all I really enjoyed the show. Despite my lack of rock show experiences I must say this must be close to as good as it gets.

The Headlights

This Wednesday I went to see the Headlights in concert at Mike n Molly with Joyce. Joyce frequently puts up lyrics to songs as away messages, and I always read other people's away messages, so I'm frequently poking fun at her because I don't listen to the music she does. Yes, I'm weird like that. :-p

Anyways, I remember the Headlights as one of Joyce's favorite bands, so I figured "why not?" But first I still did some research. Afterall, the last concert I went to w/ Ian turned out to be a dud for me. Well, hurray for iTunes!! (Although I find it funny that almost every band/record on iTunes has a 4-5 star review, because only fans would visit their bands on iTunes imo, LOL :-) The official blurb about them disturbed and confused me. "90's American noise pop," what's that? I suppose "indie pop" makes some sense to me (and doesn't surprise me) but still doesn't fill me w/ confidence. Being a 70's and 80's rock and JPOP/JROCK fan, I never understood indie rock or emo. But after taking a listen to the exerpts, I felt good enough about the sound to give them a try. Joyce and I agreed on "pop rock" as the more appropriate description.

The concert itself was pretty good. The acoustics weren't great (small mostly brick room) but the energy was good. I think that's what got me the most. The songs weren't feeling down and sorry for themselves. Even if the lyrics aren't happy-happy-sunshine, the beat, the rhythm, and the melodies flowed and moved you. Now that I think about it, very similar to Nene and 99 Luftballons or 99 Red Balloons. They had some problems getting the reverb to work right at first for one of the songs but laughed it off and tried again. I liked that while they tried different things, they're mostly brief interludes and the majority of their sound is a fairly rocking pop sound. Yes, I'm not a deep thinker/listener. :-p Even the bit with the accordian worked well imo.

I decided that I should support bands continuing to put out sound that I appreciate, so I went on to iTunes and picked up their album that night. The odd thing is, during the concert I felt that they lacked polish, which could have been partially due to the acoustics and live setting, but listening to their albums I felt the polish took away some of the pop energy I enjoyed at the concert and made them seem more "indie", if that made any sense.

Finally, check out the "TV" video, featuring settings of Champaign-Urbana!! LOL ^_^ (Yes, the Headlights originate from CU.)