May 19, 2015: U2sday!

San Jose, CA
SAP Center

Amazing. Outstanding. Incredible. Stunning. I really don't have enough superlatives to describe last night's U2 show in San Jose. I've been a fan of the band for a long time, but it took me until 2005 before I finally was able to see them in person. After that epic night, I swore I'd never miss another U2 show when they came to town. I mean, I knew they were fantastic live before then, but experiencing it in person was so much more. So when this tour was announced, of course I was going to get tickets and go. After a concert not long before then my friend Emerson had mentioned to me that he'd never seen U2 live and that he wanted to cross them off his list, so I kept that in mind when keeping an eye out for the on-sale date. Naturally, Emerson was in China when the on-sale was announced. Fortunately he had enough access to email to say "yes, get me a ticket." So, with only a minor snafu of completely blanking on the day of sale, I managed to grab two tickets for the second of the two shows in San Jose. The tickets cost a bit more than I had planned to spend, but I didn't have a lot of concert plans for this year so I figured I could squeeze it out of the budget. After last night, I wish I could have squeezed the budget a bit more and gotten tickets to the Monday night show as well!

All day Tuesday I was listening to KFOG who were doing U2 "twin spins" at the top of the hour and hearing the DJs and others commenting on how good the show on Monday had been. Between that and listening to their new album, I was quite excited for the show. I really like the new material and think is one of their better collections of recent vintage. By the time I ducked out of work a bit early and got to San Jose to meet Emerson, I was in the right mood for a great show. We got to the arena a bit before the 7:30 stated start time, knowing full well that the show wasn't going to start at 7:30. Getting there early, though, allowed us to take in the stage set up. Our seats were slightly behind and to the left of the main stage. The stage had a catwalk that ran the full length of the arena to a smaller secondary stage at the opposite end. Above the catwalk was the video screen which was about as long as the catwalk. The weird thing, though, was that we could see through the screen to the other side of the arena -- how the heck was that going to work? I looked at the folks standing on the floor and flashed back to my 2005 experience inside the ellipse, but wasn't too wistful to be down on the floor -- I wanted to really take in the production which is much easier above the floor.

The mostly 40-ish crowd settled in and shortly after 8:00 the house lights went down, the music went up, and the crowd went wild. From our seats, we could see the band entering from behind the stage, so our section and the ones behind the stage were the first to get on our feet and cheer. The guys took the stage and kicked in to "The Miracle (of Joey Ramone)", the first single from Songs of Innocence. That then segued into "Electric Co." which got everyone very amped up (pun only slightly intended.) For the first few songs, the staging was simple -- just the band and lights, though with this giant bulb shaped light hanging from the rigging above Bono.

After the fourth song of the set ("I Will Follow" which got a huge response) Bono welcomed the crowd and explained how the new songs are about life when the band was growing up in Dublin as a way to go into a 3-song set of new tunes. This is when my mind got blown. A set of steps was lowered from the video screen and Bono started climbing them to a catwalk that ran between the video screen! While Bono was singing, there was animation on the screen that made it look like he was walking through the streets of Dublin. It was very cool. Eventually, he wound up going down steps at the opposite end of the main stage and on to the smaller secondary stage. This led to what was probably the most goose-bump raising moment of the show for me.

The band went into a slowed down version of "Sunday Bloody Sunday" which was followed by the new song "Raised by Wolves." I've always had a passing knowledge of Irish history, but in the last few years of doing research on my Irish ancestors, I've looked at it a bit more in detail (though not as much as I need and want to) and listening to those two songs back to back really hit me what living in late 20th century Ireland must have been like. It was a very powerful moment in the show. There was one more song before the mid-show "intermission," and it struck me just how well the old songs blended with the new ones and had a strong narrative. The way the whole production was put together for this part of the show -- song order, video animation, presentation, etc. -- made it really feel like the first act of a play with a solid story behind it. It was extremely well done.

The "intermission" was a single song by Johnny Cash done on the video screen in animation. The key thing to note is that the video screen was completely opaque and colored yellow. When the animation was done, a black line ran through the middle of the screen and the music started up again. The black line got bigger in places and lo there is the entire band inside the video screen playing "Invisible." Now, getting Bono, The Edge, and Adam Clayton inside with their instruments isn't that challenging. Having a drum kit for Larry Mullen, Jr. is a bit of different animal. I have no idea how they did it.

The second set had more known songs than new ones and completely rocked the house. A lot of this part of the show was on the secondary stage. During "The Sweetest Thing" Bono pulled a gal up on stage with him and had her shoot the whole song on her phone! Yay technology!

The band headed back to the main stage for "Bullet The Blue Sky" which had a different talk/rap section than the original, but made it more contemporary. This was followed up by "Pride" which I managed to capture on my camera. (To be posted when I get some time to download it off my camera.)

As the set was winding down, Bono announced to the audience that they were going to add a song not on the prepared set list and then they launched into "Bad" to huge cheers and a huge sing along for the chorus. They closed off the main set with "With or Without You" which always gets a great response.

They changed the stage up a bit and added a bunch of white lights for the first song of the encore "City of Blinding Lights" during which Bono pulled a little boy who looked to be 8-9 years old to join him on stage for the song. The kid totally rocked out and made it so amazing. There was a hugely moving moment when Bono got down on one knee in front of the kid and sang "Can you see the beauty inside of me?/What happened to the beauty inside of me?" The kid was totally awestruck in the moment. It brought tears to my eyes -- just amazing.

The intro to "Where the Streets Have No Name" was a verse of Paul Simon's "Mother and Child Reunion" which is one of my favorites of his and worked so well. The night closed out with "One" which totally made my evening complete.

As we were leaving I asked Emerson "Okay, your first U2 show, what'd you think?" He said "I have to move every concert on my best concert list down a notch." That pretty well sums up the night. It was an incredible show.

Set List (courtesy of setlist.fm)

Set 1:
Intro
Beat on the Brat (Ramones) 

The Miracle (Of Joey Ramone)
The Electric Co.
Vertigo
I Will Follow
Iris (Hold Me Close)
Cedarwood Road
Song for Someone
Sunday Bloody Sunday
Raised by Wolves
Until the End of the World

-- Intermission --
(Johnny Cash animation on video screen)

Set 2:
Invisible
Even Better Than the Real Thing
Mysterious Ways
Desire
Sweetest Thing
Every Breaking Wave
Bullet the Blue Sky
The Hands that Built America intro
Pride (In the Name of Love)
Beautiful Day
Into the Mystic intro
Bad
With or Without You

Encore:
City of Blinding Lights
-- Mother and Child Reunion intro
Where the Streets Have No Name
One

August 14, 2014: And In The End, The Love You Take Is Equal To The Love You Make

San Francisco, CA
Candlestick Park

I'm not a huge fan of stadium shows. They're too big and even if you get a seat close to the stage, the stage is so high you're not really all that close. Seats on the lawn are looking at the backs of heads and the actual stadium seats are miles from the stage.

Candlestick Park is a decrepit dump. It's freezing cold with howling wind and located in the single most inconvenient location in San Francisco. Getting there is a nightmare. Getting home is worse. Why anyone thought it was a good idea to build a stadium on Candlestick Point back in 1958 is well beyond me.

But oh the memories....

Candlestick Park (and always Candlestick Park, any other name the place has held over the last 54 years was always irrelevant) was where Willie Mays, Willie McCovey, Orlando Cepeda, and Juan Marichal reigned supreme in the 1960s. John Brodie, Gene Washington, Jimmie Johnson and later Jim Plunkett and an aging O.J. Simpson brought football in the 1970s. Candlestick Park was home for Joe Montana, Dwight Clark, Ronnie Lott, Jerry Rice, Roger Craig, Steve Young, and oh so many more stars for those 1980s championship 49er teams. Will Clark, Robby Thompson, and Matt Williams brought good, exciting baseball back to Candlestick in the late 1980s and in 1993 the best player in the game signed with his hometown team -- Barry Bonds came to play at Candlestick Park.

The Rolling Stones played concerts at Candlestick Park. I can vividly remember them coming to town in the early 1980s and the hype and hoopla surrounding these 40 year old guys playing a rock concert.

And, of course, the Beatles played their final concert at Candlestick Park. All reports have always been it wasn't a very good concert, but it was always a point of pride for that lousy old dump off Highway 101. Now that the 49ers have followed the Giants and moved on to greener pastures, it was only fitting that the final event to be held at Candlestick Park be a concert by Paul McCartney.

Talk about this concert began sometime last year after Sir Paul appeared at the Outside Lands festival, and as soon as I heard there were plans in the works to try to get him to Candlestick for one last hurrah, I planned to be there. When the concert was finally announced earlier this year, I made sure I knew every which way to get tickets. This was a hard ticket to get and I was in a panic while trying to buy seats -- nothing would come up over and over and over again no matter what I tried. After what seemed like days of selecting tickets and hitting enter on Ticketmaster, I was finally able to snag two tickets in the lower reserved section. My cousin Eileen would be coming up from L.A. to join me for the show.

The day of the show finally arrived and since Eileen was coming up, I had planned ahead and taken the week off. I picked Eileen up at the airport Thursday morning and after doing a quick hometown tour of Millbrae and dropping things off at my place, we were off to spend the afternoon in San Francisco before heading to the show. A yummy lunch was followed by a stroll down the Embarcadero through the throngs of tourists. Back to the car by 4:15 or so and over to Candlestick. Sure, the concert wasn't scheduled to start until 8:00, but the parking lots opened at 3:00 and the gates would open at 5:00. I'm no fool, I've spent a lifetime going to Candlestick and know it's best to get there early or you'll never get there on time.

We got to the parking lot around 4:45 and got out to the usual howling cold wind. The weather had been very pleasant with a slight breeze downtown. Not Candlestick Point. Popped the trunk and pulled out the sweatshirt and coat, grabbed the gloves just in case, and pulled my hair up. Now I'm ready for Candlestick!

The gates didn't open right on time at 5:00, so it was probably closer to 5:30 or so when we got in. A nice treat, everyone was handed a souvenir ticket as they entered. In these days of electronic and print at home tickets, that was a nice touch. (I had opted for the traditional ticket, so I have that souvenir too.) We found our seats easily through the early crowd and chatted there for a bit before heading off to check out the swag table and grab something to eat. We both picked up a t-shirt that listed only the Candlestick date on the back, but finding food was a trick. The concession stands were clearly not being operated by whoever ran them when the 49ers were still there, so there were lots and lots of options for wine and beer but trying to find a simple hot dog was a chore. Once we did find a vendor selling hot dogs, we had to wait a good 10 minutes for them to be ready!

Candlestick gradually filled up and I was pleasantly surprised to find that our seats were pretty well sheltered from the wind. It was howling like mad on the concourses, but where we were sitting (approximately behind the old third base visitors dugout) it was actually pretty nice. We were miles from the stage, which was set up in what had been the north endzone (home of "The Catch"), but the HUGE video screens would be fine for viewing.

The show didn't start until nearly 9:00 (which I had more or less expected despite the "promptly at 8:00" notifications I had been receiving) which was quite beneficial to those folks who were stuck in Candlestick traffic. I've seen Paul quite a few times by now, and this show was on par with all his previous performances. A mix of classic Beatles tunes, Wings hits, a few new songs that got polite applause, a few lesser known Wings tunes, and a couple of covers. As he so often does when in town, he played "San Francisco Bay Blues" which got a marvelous response.

The show was quite good and the audience enjoyed it quite clearly. There were many points when I could hear the 49,000 or so people singing along with those oh-so-familiar songs. A couple of personal highlights: "Ob-la-di, Ob-la-da" got people up on their feet dancing and singing along, "Here Today", Paul's tribute to John which always puts a tear in my eye, "The Long and Winding Road" reminded me of the first time I saw him in Berkeley in the early 1990s, and the fireworks show with "Live and Let Die" is always much more fun outdoors than inside.

But it was the songs you knew would be the cream of the crop that took the show. "Let It Be" with a galaxy of mobile phone "stars" throughout the stadium was amazing. "Hey Jude" and the massive sing-along chorus. And the simple mastery of "Yesterday" that always makes me think of just how young Paul was when he wrote this amazing tune.

Over two and a half hours later, the show was over. At 72, I gotta say that's pretty impressive. The show just flew by and it was sad to see it end. Eileen and I hustled back to the parking lot and were in the car by 12:00. Pushing through the traffic and pedestrians to get to the freeway, we managed to make it to 101 by 12:30 and home by 1:00.

Good ole Candlestick Park... you decrepit dump of ice cold, bone chilling wind. I'm not sorry to see you go. I will miss seeing the home of so many memories, but I will always have the memories. Glad I got to capture the last memory anyone will ever have of an event at Candlestick.

Set List (courtesy of setlist.fm)*

Eight Days a Week
Save Us
All My Loving
Listen to What the Man Said
Let Me Roll It
Paperback Writer
My Valentine
Nineteen Hundred and Eighty-Five
The Long and Winding Road
Maybe I'm Amazed
I've Just Seen a Face
San Francisco Bay Blues
We Can Work It Out
Another Day
And I Love Her
Blackbird
Here Today
New
Queenie Eye
Lady Madonna
All Together Now
Lovely Rita
Everybody Out There
Eleanor Rigby
Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!
Something
Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da
Band on the Run
Back in the USSR
Let It Be
Live and Let Die
Hey Jude

Encore 1:
Day Tripper
Hi, Hi, Hi
I Saw Her Standing There

Encore 2:
Yesterday
Long Tall Sally (last song played by the Beatles at Candlestick in '66)
Golden Slumbers
Carry That Weight
The End

*There was a bit of Jimi Hendrix's "Foxy Lady" played early on in the set I think between "Listen to What the Man Said" and "Let Me Roll It", but I'm not totally sure. That was followed by a nice tale of Jimi Hendrix playing songs from "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" two days after it was released and Jimi asking Eric Clapton to help him re-tune his guitar.

July 1, 2014: Killer Queen!

San Jose, CA
SAP Center

It's taken me a bit longer to put this together than I'd expected, so with out further ado.

Last Tuesday night I met up with Leslie, Todd, and Emerson to take in Queen + Adam Lambert in San Jose. All I can say is "Wow!" Totally amazing night. Before we get to that, however, a little back story. I was never a huge Queen fan "back in the day." They were a band that was more popular with friends' older siblings than me or most of my friends. I knew who they were and a handful of songs of course, but for the most part if anyone asked me about them my response would have been along the lines of "yeah, they're OK I guess" and then would have promptly forgotten about it. I really had no opinion one way or the other about them and, all things considered, I only really remember hearing "We Will Rock You/We Are the Champions" and "Another One Bites the Dust" on the radio when I was a kid. (I'm sure I heard other tunes, I just have no recollection of them at all.) So, clearly, I came very late to the Queen party. In fact, I'm pretty sure that it wasn't until I heard/saw the Freddie Mercury tribute concert in my early 20s that I really registered what an incredible band they were. Better late than never I suppose.

Now, add in to this mix that I have probably watched a grand total of 15 minutes of American Idol in my life. Reality television just isn't my thing and I'm not overly interested in talent shows any way. Since I don't live under a rock, I had heard of Adam Lambert and vaguely knew who he was, but beyond that he was on my radar about as much as Queen was when I was 10.

Still, when the tickets went on sale for this show I thought "hey, that could be loads of fun!" I'd seen Queen in 2006 when they had Paul Rodgers handling the lead singer duties and had been blown away by their show. Despite not knowing much about Adam Lambert, I did know enough to think he'd be a better fit for Queen than Paul Rodgers was. Boy was I ever right!

I'm going to start off by saying despite finding an appreciation for Queen 20-some years ago now, I'm still mostly a "Greatest Hits" fan. I knew most of the songs in the set, but there were a handful that I wasn't all that familiar with. None of that mattered at all.

The show kicked off about 8:15 with all kinds of pomp and flair and when Adam Lambert walked out in his shades, leather jacket, black t-shirt, and leather pants I leaned over to Emerson and said "he's channeling his inner George Michael!" (Seriously, he looked like '90s era George Michael.) He came out with tons of energy and flair and early on in the show I thought how great it was that Brian May and Roger Taylor let him just be himself while performing. They easily could have told him to reign things in -- they're the Rock and Roll Hall of Famers after all. One of my favorite over the top moments came during "Killer Queen" when Adam Lambert was lounging on a purple fainting chair fanning himself off.

As a singer and general performer, Adam Lambert was fabulous. He didn't have that compelling magnetism that made Freddie Mercury famous and is a sign of a strong front man. That's not to say he wasn't fantastic, but just that he didn't have that vibe/energy that had everyone following what he does. I think it's probably a combination of his age and relative lack of experience (compared to the rest of the guys on stage) and the fact that he's the "fill in guy" and it's not his own stuff he's performing. There's a difference between great entertainer and compelling performer that's a little hard to describe/define; it's one of those "I know it when I see it" kind of things. Adam is definitely in the former category.

When I saw Queen with Paul Rodgers, the show was quite good, but there were songs that Paul Rodgers couldn't (or didn't) sing because he doesn't have the range that Freddie did. Adam Lambert, on the other hand, covered the whole range magnificently. My favorite Queen songs are mostly the slower ballads -- Freddie's voice is so amazing on many of them -- and Adam nailed them.

Overall, the show was the kind of show you remember going to (or wanting to go to) as a teenager. Loud, fog machines, multi-colored lights, laser lights, a spinning disco ball. All of it. Just amazing production. There was even a dual drum solo featuring Rufus Taylor (presumably) Roger Taylor's son on one kit while Roger was on the other. I can't remember the last show I went to that had an honest-to-god drum solo. Later in the show Brian May had about a 5 minute guitar solo. Again, I can't remember the last time I saw a show with a solo like that. Probably the last time I saw Queen!

Brian May and Roger Taylor each took a turn on lead vocals. Brian did a lovely acoustic version of "Love of My Life" and Roger took on "These Are the Days of Our Lives." The latter was accompanied with video of the band in their hey day. I've loved that song from the moment I first discovered it and the older I get the more I appreciate it. Brought a bit of a tear to my eye.

The climax of the show, of course, was the finale. "Bohemian Rhapsody" is a bear of a song to sing and performing it live has got to be a huge challenge. It was handled beautifully. Adam Lambert started it, then it switched to Freddie's vocals on the video, and the multi-layered vocals were also the famed video. The song closed out with Adam back on vocals, but trading off the last few lines with Freddie. Adam totally nailed the song and it was AMAZING to watch. I shot some video on my phone and when I've gotten a chance to see if I can fix the orientation issues I'll upload it to my YouTube account and update this post. (Trying to find time to do that has already delayed this entry by 12 days!)

Of course the encore was the perfect ending to the show -- "We Will Rock You/We Are the Champions." It was all over much too quickly, but it was a fun and hugely entertaining night out. I hope they come back around again soon.

Set List (courtesy setlist.fm):

Now I'm Here
Stone Cold Crazy
Another One Bites the Dust
Fat Bottomed Girls
In the Lap of the Gods... Revisited
Seven Seas of Rhye
Killer Queen
Somebody to Love
I Want It All
Love of My Life
'39
These Are the Days of Our Lives
-- drum solo --
Under Pressure
Love Kills
Who Wants to Live Forever
-- guitar solo --
Tie Your Mother Down
Don't Stop Me Now
Radio Ga Ga
Crazy Little Thing Called Love
The Show Must Go On
Bohemian Rhapsody

Encore:
We Are the Champions
We Will Rock You

What the Heck Happened After 2010?

As I transferred the last few Rockin' Road Reports from my Facebook account to this blog, I realized I hadn't written a whole lot after 2010. One post each for 2011 and 2012 and none at all for 2013! What the heck happened?

Well, as should be apparent by the change from strictly Journey concerts with a few others tossed in to having more tales of other bands, I seriously cut back on my Journey shows. That was one factor. Another, larger factor, was the shift in how people interact online in 2014 (as I write this) and how people interacted online in the past. The Rockin' Road Report started on the Journey Digest mailing list and eventually would also appear on Back Talk, the message board for the official Journey website. Back Talk was shut down around 2008 and the Journey Digest, while technically still in existence, is rarely used these days. Now, keeping up with fellow Journey fans entails mostly communicating on Facebook. When I first joined Facebook in late 2008, one of the key features for interaction, was the "Notes" section. Over time, that section became less featured as new functions were added.

With the change in communication styles, I wrote fewer tales from the various concerts I attended. I know there were several I had planned to write up, but as I spend more time online via my iPad than my computer, I never got around to it. I also have been attending fewer concerts. I know 2013 was particularly quiet, and as I write this in February 2014, I have no concert tickets purchased as yet. There is a Journey show coming up in June (I think) that I plan to attend, but have had to wait to purchase as the ticket prices have gotten quite exorbitant since those early shows in 1998.

Taking a look at my calendar, here are all the shows I've been to since that last report from July, 2012.

October 2, 2012 -- Peter Gabriel (from the 4th row!)

November 30, 2012 -- Bruce Springsteen (epic as always, but a bit emotional for me as one of my favorite uncles had passed away earlier that day.)

April 25, 2013 -- Bon Jovi (with out Richie Sambora)

July 20, 2013 -- Goo Goo Dolls/Matchbox 20 (in Irvine)

July 21, 2013 -- Wallflowers/Counting Crows (also in Irvine -- girls weekend!)

September 16, 2013 -- Journey w/ Tower of Power (even wrote down a set list for an unwritten RRR!)

September 21, 2013 -- Gregg Rolie (from the 2nd row!)

October 26, 2013 -- Rick Springfield (woo hoo! girls night out!)

Most of those 2013 shows got iPhone pix uploaded to Facebook, but no real write ups. I'm hoping that I'll write more in 2014 and beyond now that I've got this alternate outlet for them. We'll see how I do. Might help if I buy tickets for that show in June...