February 22, 2010: Bombastic Bon Jovi

San Jose, CA
HP Pavilion

Guess concert season has officially begun... 2nd show in 7 days!

For someone who wasn't a huge Bon Jovi fan "back in the day", I sure have made up for lost time -- this has got to be the 5th or 6th time I've seen them in the last 10 years or so. They put on such a great show and really get the whole "arena rock" thing. Big. Bombastic.

So last night I headed out to San Jose to meet Leslie (woo hoo! my concert buddy is back in town!!! YAY!) and Emerson for a quick dinner before heading over to the arena for the show. We got to our seats in section 116 (pondering why we always wind up on the left side of the stage) which were right to the side of the stage. Pretty good. The opening act, Dashboard Confessional, hit the stage right at 7:30 -- just as we had finished getting settled in our seats. I know of Dashboard Confessional, but couldn't say I know any of their songs. That said, they were pretty entertaining and had a good opening 40 minute set. I may go pick up some of their stuff.

As we waited in anticipation of the show, the three women sitting in front of us turned around and warned "we might get a little nuts and will probably stand up all night." Works for me. While we waited I studied the stage -- a circle stage with a circle catwalk that brought to mind the U2 stage. Biggest difference between Bon Jovi stage and U2 stage... the seats inside the circle for U2 are General Admission and some of the least expensive tickets, Bon Jovi -- not so much. (We think they cost in the neighborhood of $500!)

But in the tradition of great bombast the band took the stage following an impressive video sequence on the big screens. They kicked off with "Blood on Blood" from New Jersey which was a nice change, then launched straight into "We Weren't Born to Follow" from the new CD. And here I had my second Bon Jovi as U2 moment (yeah, I know -- a little weird, stick with me.) The video screens for this song flashed images of various leaders and icons -- from Gandhi and JFK to Jimi Hendrix and Elvis. The whole "pioneer" leader set, and more socio-political types than rock pioneers. I know Jon Bon Jovi was particularly involved in President Obama's campaign, and there's a quasi-political theme to the song, but it's a little hard to put political consciousness and Bon Jovi together. Lingering bias from the '80s I guess.

The set list was a good mix of old and new (or perhaps old, recent, and new) and not having that life-long connection to the tunes I really enjoy some of the newer stuff that life-long fans aren't as enthusiastic about. I look at it this way -- these guys are in their late 40s/early 50s now, not their 20s, they're not going to have the same world view (hell, do YOU?) Throw in the difference between being rising/dominating stars in the '80s to an older/established band in 2010 and it's just a different vibe over all. I like the grown-up songs I guess. (Yes, I realize this is in contrast to the comments in the previous paragraph.)

So, the set included about half of the new album and it was intermixed well with older tunes. I've said it before, but Bon Jovi is one of the very few "classic" bands I've seen that really SELLS their new material. They go out and perform it with as much energy as the older stuff and EXPECT the crowd to sing along. There's just a cocky confidence about it.

The look of this show was pretty amazing as well. The video screens are REALLY sophisticated -- splitting, flipping, rotating. (Guess that's why there are $500 tickets! Those things can't be cheap!) And gave impressive images. The only weird bit I found was a screen that for most of the show sat behind and BELOW the stage -- I could see it from my seats above and to the side of the stage, but I have no idea how anyone on the floor or looking straight on at the stage could see it. Maybe it's supposed to be raised and couldn't for some reason, but seeing as there were seats behind the stage and that screen would have blocked those seats completely if it were raised, I don't think it was meant to go above the stage. A particularly excellent highlight was the lighting on "When We Were Beautiful" -- it looked like Jon was standing in a sunset. Simply gorgeous.

Other performance highlights included Richie taking the lead on "Homebound Train" and making it really bluesy -- just fabulous. That was followed by Jon coming out on the catwalk for the first time and just backed by David Bryan on keys performing a GREAT cover of the Leonard Cohen classic "Hallelujah". Absolutely beautiful. Shortly afterwards, Jon is joined by the rest of the band out on the catwalk for acoustic versions of "Something for the Pain" and "Someday I'll Be Saturday Night."

And, as always, there was the encore of "Wanted Dead or Alive" and "Livin' on a Prayer" -- they never fail.

Oh, and of course there were Jon's black leather pants. :-D

Set List:

Blood on Blood
We Weren't Born to Follow
You Give Love a Bad Name
Born to Be My Baby
Lost Highway
When We Were Beautiful
Superman Tonight
Keep the Faith
We Got It Goin' On
It's My Life
Homebound Train (Richie on vocals)
Hallelujah
Bed of Roses
Something for the Pain
Someday I'll Be Saturday Night
Work for the Working Man
Bad Medicine/Bad Case of Lovin' You
Who Says You Can't Go Home
Love's the Only Rule

Encore:
Thorn in My Side
Wanted Dead or Alive
Livin' on a Prayer

February 16, 2010: One Night, Two Piano Men

San Jose, CA
HP Pavilion

Sing us a song you're the Piano Man
Sing us a song tonight
Well, we're all in the mood for a melody
And you've got us feeling all right.

Is everyone singing along? As loud as you can? Good... Now to the report....

Way back in 2009 -- around March or so -- I bought a couple of tickets for the Elton John/Billy Joel concert in November. Veteran concert goer that I am, buying tickets seven months early is no big deal, but it DOES create excessive anticipation. So, naturally, you can imagine my disappointment when the show was postponed due to illness! Well damn!

So, here we are, nearly a year after buying the tickets and it's FINALLY time for the show. It occurred to me over the weekend that I hadn't heard any Billy Joel in a while, so I went to my iTunes and realized I hadn't loaded most of my Billy Joel CDs! OOPS. That mistake rectified, I bopped around the house listening to old friends.

Now, I've seen both Elton and Billy solo, but I couldn't remember the last time I'd seen either of them. My best guess was the LAST time they came through together about 10 years ago. That is far too long, but my memory of that show was not diminished by last night's show. Last night, as then, I wished the show could have lasted another 3 hours as they only skimmed the surface of a life time of hits.

And a life time of hits indeed it was. As we left the show, I said to Emerson and Cheryl "that just covered the first twenty years of my life!" And it was true! Nearly every song brought back a memory of some point in my life -- and not those vague general feeling types of memories, but a memory of a specific place, time, and/or event.

We got to the venue a little later than intended, but the line outside was long enough to assure us the show wouldn't start exactly on time. We made our way through the "Jesus freaks out in the street handing tickets out for God" (literally -- the usual crowd of people telling us we would burn in hell for going to a rock concert were handing out tickets to hell! We agreed we'd only take them if we could get front row seats!) and got inside and to our respective seats with relative ease.

In our seats, Emerson turns to me and says "where are the pianos?" Within a minute the pianos rise out from under the stage and the show kicks off with Billy and Elton entering for the opening set. The crowd goes nuts with the opening notes of "Your Song" on which our two piano men trade vocals. This is followed by "Just the Way You Are" which I don't think I've ever heard Billy perform before. Granted it's been a while since I've seen him, so I could be forgetting.

The opening set ends with the first flashback to my childhood. "My Life" -- the song that sent me on my way to perdition. Waaaay back in 1978 when that song came out and I was still very impressionable, my 5th grade CCD teacher, whom I adored, informed us that "My Life" was in violation of the Fifth Commandment (honor thy mother and father) and as such we shouldn't listen to it. This was my first encounter with such censorship and as this was coming from an adult I admired I was very much confused. You see, I REALLY LIKED the song. Would I go to hell for listening to it? Thus came my first act of rebellion -- I'd listen to it, but just not tell anyone! Now, 30-some years later, I still can't quite figure out how the Fifth Commandment got broken on that one. Sorry Mrs. St. John.

So, after we've started down the paved road to hell, Billy and his band left the stage and Elton took over for his set. Opening with "Funeral for a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding" was just to die for (uh, no pun intended!) The crowd was more sedate during Elton's set -- sitting more than standing, though frequently standing at the end of songs to applaud. Some songs, like "Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting," got people up and moving.

The lighting and effects were amazing while Elton played and compensated for his lack of interaction with the audience. Not that he wasn't putting on an amazing performance, but he seldom addressed the crowd and when he did is was in the form of brief references to the upcoming songs (e.g. "these next few songs are from Madman Across the Water.") Of course, less talking meant more singing. "Tiny Dancer" got a huge roar (and reminded me I need to replace my copy of Almost Famous), and "Daniel" put me in mind of my younger brother who was named Daniel after my father's older brother who was killed in a car accident at 21. That song completely takes me back to my childhood as it's the only Elton John album my parents owned because my father can so closely relate to that song -- I heard it a lot. As the set was drawing to a close, it dawned on me he hadn't played anything that had been released after 1980! Wow! That's when it hit me that I LITERALLY grew up listening to these two men. Of course, then Elton pulled out "I'm Still Standing" and brought us into the '80s.

Elton's set closed out with "Crocodile Rock" and the crowd was on their feet. The stage went dark briefly while Elton's piano went down, Billy's came up, and the bands swapped out. And now it was Billy Joel's turn to perform his counterpoint. Opening with "Prelude/Angry Young Man" was perfect! The crowd was more on it's feet for Billy than Elton -- which is probably to be expected as it's the difference between New York attitude and English refinement (for lack of a better term.)

Billy's set was less visually stimulating, but his personality shone through more and there was more interaction with the audience -- including a valiant attempt at the classic "Do You Know the Way to San Jose." Not an original maneuver by any means, but fun any way. Too bad most of the people in San Jose are from someplace else and kinda missed the joke.

Billy's set encompassed a wider timeline -- everything from the '70s to his last studio album in 1993 (yikes!) and included the album track "Zanzibar" from 52nd Street. But, once again, I got transported back to specific times and places. "It's Still Rock and Roll to Me" -- BAM. Summer 1980. I'm sitting outside on the lawn with a new friend from the neighborhood I've been living in for less than a year and we're singing along to the radio. "Only the Good Die Young" -- it's 1985, my 17th birthday party, and someone has given me Billy Joel's Greatest Hits I & II. My girlfriends and I immediately put it on the stereo and crank it up as loud as my mom would let us and sing along as only girls in their senior year of an all-girls Catholic high school can. One of the unifying moments in what was otherwise a very odd birthday for me since half of my friends weren't talking to the other half so I spent most of the party shuffling between people in different parts of the house. But we had Billy Joel and my disastrously memorable home made cake! (Trust me, all in all, it's a fond memory.)

"We Didn't Start the Fire" slapped me in the face when I realized it was over 20 years old. Has time really gone by that fast?

After Billy closed out his set, it was time for Elton and his band to return for the encore. Back and forth between the two again on classics "I Guess That's Why They Call It the Blues", "Uptown Girl", "The Bitch is Back", "You May Be Right", and "Bennie and the Jets."

Then the bands leave, and it's just two pianos.

"Candle in the Wind."

"Piano Man."

Can't get much better than that (though I will say the sold out audience was WOEFUL on the chorus -- it's always one of the best parts of "Piano Man" and the crowd wasn't quite as strong as I've heard in every other occurrence!)

Walked out with a smile on my face and again wishing the show could have gone on for another 3 hours so more of my favorites could have been heard. All in all a magical evening.

Set Lists:

Elton/Billy
-- Your Song
-- Just the Way You Are
-- Don't Let the Sun Go Down on Me
-- Ode to Joy (Beethoven's 9th)
-- My Life

Elton
-- Funeral For a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding
-- Saturday Night's Alright for Fighting
-- Levon
-- Madman Across the Water
-- Tiny Dancer
-- Goodbye Yellow Brick Road
-- Daniel
-- Rocket Man
-- Philadelphia Freedom
-- I'm Still Standing
-- Crocodile Rock

Billy
-- Prelude/Angry Young Man
-- Movin' Out (Anthony's Song)
-- Do You Know the Way to San Jose (sorta)
-- Allentown
-- Zanzibar
-- Don't Ask Me Why
-- She's Always a Woman
-- Scenes from an Italian Restaurant
-- River of Dreams
-- We Didn't Start the Fire
-- It's Still Rock and Roll to Me
-- Only the Good Die Young

Encore (Billy/Elton)
-- I Guess That's Why They Call it the Blues
-- Uptown Girl
-- The Bitch Is Back
-- You May Be Right
-- Bennie & the Jets

(bands sink into the stage)

-- Candle in the Wind
-- Piano Man

October 25, 2009: U2 on YouTube Live

Pasadena, CA
Rose Bowl

What a spectacle. Ultimately that's what I walked away with after last night's U2 show at the Rose Bowl attended by me, my cousin Eileen, her son Zach, and 95,997 of our closest friends! An amazingly over the top spectacle.

When U2 announced their tour at the beginning of the year, I shot off a note to the usual suspects to see who might be interested in going to a Bay Area gig and a few other out-of-area folks including my cousin who lives down in So Cal who promptly asked if I wanted to come down south and go to the show with her. I said sure, why not, I can do both shows. Well, good thing I decided to go for it as there was no Nor Cal date on the 2009 schedule (fortunately, one was just announced for 2010!)

So, six months or so pass from when the tickets were purchased and Saturday morning I hop in the car for the 400-mile (or so) drive down 101 to visit Eileen and see the show. I was making great time until I crossed the LA city limits. I hate LA and the traffic does nothing to endear the place to me. The last 50 or so miles took me over 90 minutes -- grrrr. But I arrived eventually and spent Saturday night visiting with family.

When I arrived Eileen told me she had been receiving frequent emails about the traffic and parking and the need to arrive early and so on and so on. She'd splurged on the premium parking and a good 4 hours before show time we hopped in the car to make the drive up to Pasadena. The drive was surprisingly easy and traffic free and we were wondering if we'd been suckers to buy the hype from the emails, but as we approached the Rose Bowl, we found that by following the directions given with the parking pass we had managed to avoid a HUGE line of cars heading in. Great! We were able to park very close to the stadium and the multitude of entry gates where we found people who'd obviously been there for hours having tailgate parties. The gates were due to open about 5, so we had about 45 minutes to kill and figure out where to go in. There were so many lines that it they all wound up merging into a huge clot which made navigating tough. Especially since we had her 11-year old son in tow.

While we were wandering around, we could hear a bit of the sound check for U2, which was fun, though I was surprised it was still going on that close to the gates opening. I suspect it was because of the YouTube webcast -- not just a sound check but a technical check. We checked out the little fair that was going on in the parking area, but it too was mobbed, so we decided to just go get in line for entry.

That was probably a good idea, even if it took about 45 minutes of waiting. I'm quite sure I've never been to a concert as big as this one -- the only time I can think of being in a crowd that big was when I went to the Super Bowl! (And I think this crowd was bigger!) By getting in shortly after the gates opened, we were able to grab some food and find our seats with little hassle. Thank goodness, since our seats were 69 rows up!

Now 69 rows up sounds like awful nosebleed seats (especially when there are only 77 rows to start with) but we were at the end of the stadium closest to the stage so they really weren't all that bad. The stage was incredible! Absolutely massive, with the now-familiar circular/elliptical stage with a catwalk that allowed some very lucky folks with General Admission tickets to be front and center. But it was also very open and there were very few obstructed views -- just the few places near the legs of the "space ship." And while the only way we could see any band members clearly was by looking at the huge video screens, being further away from the stage gave an AWESOME perspective on the whole thing. It was pretty amazing.

The opening act was The Black Eyed Peas who the best I can say is I've heard of them, I think I know a song or two, but not really much more than that. They took the stage about 7:15 and opened with one of the songs I know, "Let's Get It Started in Here." Okay, nice opener. They were very energetic and enthusiastic, but really not my thing and with so much processing on all the vocals it was hard to know if they were really singing live. I'll assume they were, but almost everything was processed and altered. The crowd was generally responsive, but it wasn't until their encore that the crowd really got rocking. Slash joined them on stage and they did a great cover of "Sweet Child of Mine." The crowd went nuts when Slash walked out and even more so when he played those first few unforgettable notes. Fergie took the role of Axl in this mix and sounded quite good on it (one of the few unprocessed vocals of the night.)

Thus amped up, the crowd eagerly awaited the arrival of U2. Shortly before the band took the stage someone started talking to the crowd and welcoming us to the show. I said to my cousin "I'll bet that's Rocko," and tried to spot who was talking down on the stage just as the person said "I'm Rocko Reedy and I'm the stage manager..." Ah... the Journey/U2 connection continues. So, anyway, Rocko welcomes us to the show and tells us it will be shown on YouTube and that LA was picked because of how well everyone sings along and he wants us to sing along as loud as we can so the world can hear. Ok, not a problem....

A few minutes later "Space Oddity" by David Bowie is blaring through the stadium and everyone is on their feet cheering -- it's obviously the walk out music. Lights go down, and from our vantage point, Eileen and I can see the band walking out towards the stage. Larry takes the stage first and starts up on the drums. The rest of the band appears and they kick in to one of the new tunes from No Line on the Horizon which, though I own, I haven't listened to much so I don't recognize the tune or know the words. No worry, that's to be reasonably expected. It's followed by another new tune, and then one from one of the previous two albums. As you can probably tell by now, no set list. If you really want to know the set list and/or just see the show I saw it's available on YouTube (I may watch it later myself just to see what the world saw!)*

*The video is no longer available on U2's YouTube channel. Most likely because it is now available for purchase. I have the DVD and can't recall if they cut anything from the original show.

All in all the set list was very heavy on 21st century material versus older more familiar stuff, and when they played one of the new songs I actually know the words to, "I'll Go Crazy If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight" they totally changed the arrangement so I was completely confused. Also, I really could have done without "Unknown Caller" (seriously, Bono, were you making a tech support call for your computer when you wrote that crap?) I really liked their previous two albums, but No Line on the Horizon hasn't caught my ear. There are a few tunes I like, but all in all, not their best work in my opinion. Eileen was even more disenchanted with the set list than I was. With the heavy emphasis on newer material the whole "sing along loudly" direction was kind of peculiar. Not that the crowd didn't sing along on a lot of tunes, but the loudest sing alongs were on the older stuff (and the couple covers.)

That said, however, they did sound great and the production value of the show was beyond belief. I seriously can not describe what everything looked like, so I'll be uploading pictures soon and you can see for yourself (or as noted above, go to YouTube.)

The show ended around 11:15 and very few people had left early, so there were 96,000 people heading for the parking lots! YIKES! Not wanting to lose Zach in the crowd, we decided to stay in our seats for a bit and let the crowd thin out before heading to the car. We were in the car about 11:45 and out of the parking lot about 12:45. Ugh. However, it could have been much much worse -- there were HUGE lines of people waiting for shuttles to take them to the remote parking areas. God only knows what time those people got home as the lines were still huge when we pulled out of the lot and then they would have to do the same parking lot exit traffic mess we had!

We finally got home around 1:15 and just crashed. Poor Eileen had to get up early to get the kids off to school (hopefully Zach didn't fall asleep in class today!) and I was up about 8 so I could hit the road early and make the 6 hour drive home.

As always, a far too short visit with my cousin, but we're doing much better at seeing each other more often (third time in two years!) All in all a great weekend. Back to reality tomorrow and only one concert left on my 2009 schedule!

October 18, 2009: A Smooth Evening with Rob Thomas

San Jose, CA
Event Center

ARRRRRRRRGGGGHHH!!!!! I just spent 30 minutes writing up a note and it vanished!!! ARRRRGGGHH!!!! Okay, starting over....

My much delayed concert season has finally kicked in to full gear with the first of 3 shows in 8 days. It's taken forever to get here -- I bought many of these tickets months ago! Finally getting the payoff!

I've been a Matchbox Twenty fan since their first album and have loved all of Rob Thomas's solo work, so was really looking forward to this show. My friend Ana Marie is pretty much in the same boat and was going to go to the show with me Sunday night, but a family emergency forced her to cancel on me Sunday morning. Bummer.

So I made my way to San Jose on my own and arrived at the Event Center a little after 7:00 and the first act, Carolina Live, was already on stage. Not knowing who they were I took my time getting to my seat, but was VERY pleased when I finally worked my way down. Now, I had thought the seat would be pretty good being in the first row of the first fixed seat section, I just didn't realize HOW good. I was right off the floor and about 8 rows from the stage. Started kicking myself immediately for not bringing my camera! GRRR.

Carolina Live was fairly decent, but totally unfamiliar so I really have no opinion on their set. They were followed by One Republic who some folks in the audience seemed to know, but again totally lost on me. The only song they played that I knew was a cover of Tears For Fears' "Shout" -- which they butchered. The singer's voice was just too thin and he kept trying for notes out of his range. When he stayed in his range, he was OK. The most remarkable thing I noticed was their instrumentation. One guy switched between bass, guitar, and cello while a second pulled out a violin when not playing guitar. Don't see that in every rock band.

Between sets I chatted with the couple sitting next to me and wound up making a concert buddy in the woman. When Rob Thomas hit the stage around 9:00, she jumped up with me and we sang and danced around together most of the show. He opened with "Fire on the Mountain" from his new CD and followed up with two more new tracks before taking on older material. (Sorry, no pen, no paper, thus no set list. I'm out of practice!) The first third of the show was pretty rockin' and my new buddy and I were up dancing and singing along. Throughout the show I sent periodic texts and calls to Ana Marie so my actual concert buddy could get a little taste of the show. Somewhere around mid-show he played a tune he'd recorded during the Cradlesong sessions and said he regretted not putting it on the album. It was called "Sunday New York Blue" and he was right to regret leaving it off -- great song hope there's a downloadable version somewhere.

Now, this was the second time I've seen Rob solo and I've seen MB20 a few times and each time leading up to the show I'd wonder "will Carlos show up?" The first time I saw MB20 was shortly after "Smooth" was all over the radio and lo and behold Carlos DID show up... following an introduction that started with "We don't play 'Smooth' in our set..." *shrug* Got a good version of "All Along the Watchtower" instead. Okay, maybe at the solo show... well, I got "Smooth," right after an introduction that started "I invited Carlos but..." So I wasn't really holding my breath. Thought it would be possible, local show and all, but it's been 10 years since "Smooth" was all over the radio it's not as big a deal. Yeah, right.

So the main set ended and the band headed offstage and I kept my eyes on the side of the stage as I had a clear view of the techs on that side. Did a mental check list of songs not yet played and "Smooth" was among them. The band comes back on stage and launches in to "This Is How a Heart Breaks" and I catch a white hat out of the corner of my eye. I look over to the side of the stage and there's Carlos... with a guitar. I point him out to my new buddy and the crowd around me all starts looking over. I barely heard the introduction as I was wildly getting Ana Marie on the phone -- I'm sure she was deafened by the roar that came up from the crowd as Carlos Santana took the stage. There were maybe 4,000 people in the arena (possibly less as it was far from sold out) but the roar sounded like 20,000. They did a fairly slow tempoed version of "Smooth" before launching into a couple of covers -- Jimi Hendrix's "Voodoo Chile" (I think, I tend to get my Hendrix confused and I wasn't honestly listening to the lyrics at that point -- all about the guitars.) and Bill Withers' "Ain't No Sunshine." Amazing. Outstanding. Incredible. There really aren't enough superlatives to cover just what a mind blowing experience it was.

I REALLY wish I'd brought my camera....