In Person

[oneafroboy]

Okay, so I'm not exactly a mod, so I can't really make a thread for the discussion of tours. But if one of the mods like it, maybe we should have sticky where we can discuss musicians we're going to see or put up our experiences and thoughts about performances we've attended.

Anyway, I'll go first.  

On Monday, I am going to see... Simon&Garfunkel!!!  =D

They're coming to Baltimore and will be performing. I've heard that they have pretty good shows, with video clips, and pyrotechnics. And their shows supposedly can last about three hours. I've always liked S&G, and since this might be their last tour (since they're becoming Old Friends), I figured eighty-seven bucks was worth it. And my parents are paying for half, so yeah, it's expensive, but years from now I can say I saw S&G. Anyway, I'll let you know how it goes. I'm excited, at least.    

[dgp11776]

I'm going to the Alive Festival next week in Ohio.  All CCM, so most here probably don't care.

Artists I'll be seeing
Falling Up
Seven Places
Telecast
Paul Wright
Sanctus Real
Starfield
Day of Fire (simply because I like their name)
Shane Barnard & Shane Everett
Building 429 (to see if I can make fun of them)
Matthew West
downhere
David Crowder Band
Matt Redman
Paul Baloche
Chris Tomlin
The Elms
Big Daddy Weave
Paul Colman Trio
Casting Crowns
Rachael Lampa
Plus One
Jeremy Camp
Phil Keaggy Band
Kutless
Salvador
Pillar
Rebecca St. James
Stacie Orrico
Relient K
Mercy Me
Toby Mac
Audio Adrenaline
Steven Curtis Chapman

Artists I'll be skipping
Kids in The Way
Boogieman
Monk & Neagle
Riley Armstrong
Subseven
BarlowGirl
Staple
DJ Maj
Everyday Sunday
Bleach
Thousand Foot Krutch
Trevor Morgan
Sarah Kelly
The Swift
Ginny Owens
Warren Barfield
Across The Sky
KJ 52
John Rueben
 

[Escuchame]

I'm going to Hot 97's Summer Jam this Saturday.  Don't laugh.

It's basically a whole bunch of R&B cats, rappers, and pop-rappers.

Kanye West
Alicia Keys
Twista
Big Boi (of OutKast)
Lil Jon and the Ying Yang Twins
Ludacris
Chingy
Jadakiss
G-Unit
R.Kelly

Plus a whole bunch of unknowns and one-hit wonders.

Oh, and Talib Kweli this Monday... but I don't think I'll be going because my Bible study comes first.

Peace,
Andree

[cbluejays]

I'm going to Sonshine in July...


Like the think DPG is going to, it's a CCM event.

 

[dgp11776]

but I don't think I'll be going because my Bible study comes first.
 

Good man, Andree.

[oneafroboy]

The Simon & Garfunkel concert was really good.

They started out with a video clip of American events, especially of the '60s and '70s. America played in the background. They had occasional video clips throughout the performance.

They had a great backing band, with one guy who did electric guitar and cello, another piano/keyboards, someone the organ, bass, 12-string guitar, and two drummers/percussionists. And there were a couple of other guys, two, I think. They really added a lot. The arrangments were great.

They can both still sing! Yeah, I'd like to see if the good people of bands like Linkin Park will be able to still sing (or whatever they do) their songs in 50 years. I highly doubt it... Art Garfunkel's voice is still amazing. His high tenor floated, glided and soared through the air.

The songs were great. The audience loved it and S&G did two encores. A truly satisfying performance.

And if you're at all intrigued, invest in Bridge Over Troubled Waters. It has some of their best songs on there. (Though, if you weren't interested in an album, a best-of would suit ya just fine.)

[DvChWi]

This actually happened back on May 25th, but I got a chance to see The Shins.  They were playing at the Fillmore Auditorium in Denver, which is a mostly standing, small venue.  I got to stand right up near the front, about 7 feet back from the stage, which was cool.  There were two opening acts, one was lady called Azita who played the piano and sang songs with a small backing band.  I wasn't too impressed by her.  Next up were the Fiery Furnaces, a females front blues/garage rock type band.  The unique thing about their set was the fact that they played for about 45 minutes, without stopping at all.  No song breaks, no talking, no nothing.  Every song just flowed into the next for the entire time.  As far as the music itself goes, I was mildly interested in what I heard, but on the whole it was really to noisy to judge much from.

After The Fiery Furnaces left the stage, The Shins came on after a short break.  They set up with the guitar player at stage right, keyboards in the middle, and Mercer at stage left, all by himself.  The keyboard player introduced all of the songs and did all of the talking, while Mercer mearly sang.  The only words he said all night were "Thanks for coming."  Not much of a dynamic frontman, but the keyboard guy made up for it with his great sense of humor.  As for the actual music, they played almost all of their songs(not too hard in their case, I know), including some pre-Inverted World ones which I didn't know.  The did a very good job at translating much of their matrerial live, but I would have to say the many of the songs lost some of their "dreamy" quality that they have on the album.  They didn't play "Past and Pending,"(one of my faves) but they did play "New Slang" and "St. Simon," so that was good.  All in all, it was a very fun show, well worth my time and money.

[dgp11776]

Alive Festival Round-up

***** Performances
Audio Adrenaline - I've seen them live 4 times now, and I've loved every freaking minute of it.
Tobymac - My second time seeing his entourage.  The guy is a real rock star.
Salvador - 8 guys that can seriously play.  Fabulous.
Matthew West - I was the most surprised by him.  I thought he would be pretty good, but he was excellent.  His band is really good.
downhere - My second time seeing them.  They have a great live sound.  And, they sang "Protest to Praise" this time.

****1/2 Performances
David Crowder Band - Wow.  Didn't expect to enjoy them this much.  One of two bands there with a violin player.
Chris Tomlin - I've never not liked him.

**** Performances
Kutless - So sue me.  No sound problems, and they had a ton of energy.  I actually liked them a lot.
Pillar - see "Kutless."  They won a lot of points by playing "Sunday Bloody Sunday."
Rebecca St. James - Her set got interrupted by a thunderstorm.  I was pretty impressed by her show.
Relient K - They crack me up.  It was 47 degrees that night, so they came out to the "Chipmunk Christmas Song" and played "Deck the Halls" first.  And, they had two inflated snowmen up for the whole show.  
Mercy Me - After a 35-minute soundcheck, they sounded flawless.  Kudos for "Where the Streets Have No Name."
Steven Curtis Chapman - He proved once again that he is a beast on the guitar.  Loss of 1/2 star for not playing "The Change."

***1/2 Performances
Big Daddy Weave - Not bad at all.  Better than I expected.
Paul Colman - His new band spanks his old band to shame.
Casting Crowns - Not great, but pretty good.  Second band with a fiddle.
Stacie Orrico - She did well with her time, but didn't blow me away.

*** Performances
Starfield - Middle of the road.  Nothing too bad, but nothing terribly impressive, either.
Rachael Lampa - Fantastic voice, but that's about it.
Plus One - Well, they're better than they used to be.
Phil Keaggy Band - So he's a great guitarist.  He's also dreadfully boring.

**1/2 Performances
Seven Places - Now we start slipping.  Not the same band as on the CD, and it shows.
Paul Baloche - Booooring, booooring.

** Performances
Matt Redman - He needs Evanescence to "Wake him up."

*1/2 Performances
Jeremy Camp - What???  This was an absolute snoozefest.  I expected him to be somewhat of a rock performer, but, man.  Extra 1/4 star for showing off his pregnant wife.  Extra 1/4 star for her being much cuter than the last time I saw her.

*Performances
Building 429 - What did you expect?

Didn't see
Falling Up
Telecast (never showed up!)
Paul Wright
Sanctus Real
Day of Fire
Shane Barnard & Shane Everett
The Elms
Kids in The Way
Boogieman
Monk & Neagle
Riley Armstrong
Subseven
BarlowGirl
Staple
DJ Maj
Everyday Sunday
Bleach
Thousand Foot Krutch
Trevor Morgan
Sarah Kelly
The Swift
Ginny Owens
Warren Barfield
Across The Sky
KJ 52
John Rueben

Questions, comments, and ridicule welcome.
 

[Aaron]

These are the concerts I'll miss this summer because of my job at camp:

O.A.R. w/ Howie Day & Matt Nathanson

The Tragically Hip

Mae

Modern Troubadours, Abra Moore, Teitur, Vienna Teng, and Ben Arthur

Jet

I already missed P.O.D. and Blindside..but my buddy went and said P.O.D. wasn't that great while Blindside rocked

Incubus

Galactic

Josh Groban (laugh all you want)

 

[cbluejays]

Josh Groban (laugh all you want)

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA  



HAHAHAHAHAHAHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHE

whew...thanks for the laugh.



I'm going to Sonshine July 14-18.  There will be many bands performing...including LA Symphony.  

[Aaron]

Josh Groban (laugh all you want)

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA  



HAHAHAHAHAHAHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHEHE

whew...thanks for the laugh.



I'm going to Sonshine July 14-18.  There will be many bands performing...including LA Symphony.

no matter what, the dude can sing, and he is a Christian..but the main point is that he can sing and he doesn't overdo his voice.  Alot of those power singers strain and hurt themselves (Celine Dion, etc..) but Groban has excellent control

[dgp11776]

Aaron speaks the truth.

In CCM, I wish David Phelps would go a similar musical route on his solo CD's.  The guy's voice is beyond breathtaking.